Suzuki Lj, Series Landrover, fj40 Design Principles??

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Hi guys, My mate says that Lj's were Designed for Farm use and rual bush tracks, and exploring, NOT RECREATIONAL 4WDING????
[ he has owns lj's for 30 years. he has owned heaps of them.

He said the suzuki sierra/samurai was Designed for Recreational 4wding that we all do now??

Can anyone please explain??? :)

The same reasons must apply for Landrovers too???:confused:

[Robmacca]

Don't know as to what they were designed for buy as a Offroad 4WD they are very good. I know a few guys that have them & compete in them & do very well.
Only problem is its takes u all day to drive aanywhere in them. Top speed is about 80 on flat ground.

[JDNSW]

The Suzuki LJ, Series Landrover and FJ40 were all more or less direct copies of the Willys Jeep, itself a close copy of a prototype Bantam built to meet a 1940 US Army specification.

The first to appear, the Landrover, was changed from the Jeep to make it easier to produce in Rover's situation (as were the Toyota and Suzuki), but also specifically for agricultural use. The Toyota, (originally called the Toyota Jeep until Willys threatened to sue) was closer to the Willys design, but specially designed for police work. The Suzuki, the last of the three to appear, was aimed at the market already covered by Rover and Toyota, but trying to return closer to the original Jeep concept, as Toyota and Rover had by then increased in size and power.

There was very little market for recreational 4wds until about 1970, what there was being largely filled by second hand work vehicles. However from about then, this market expanded (with Rangerover one of the first), and sales of specially designed recreational 4wds overtook utility vehicles by about 1980, leading to modification of utility vehicles for comfort, performance and frills. In the last twenty years the utility 4wd has been largely replaced in the recreational role by new designs (e.g. Discovery, wrangler, Vitara), which are only sometimes styled to resemble the earlier utility vehicles, and the utility role has largely been taken over by 4wd modifications of 2wd utility vehicles, the much larger production numbers making them much cheaper to buy, and general vehicle durability having increased enough to make this acceptable.

Hope this helps.

John

[schuy1]

Back when the Series ,1948, Tojo's, '50'sand the Suzi LJ's ,'70's ( in that order!) were concieved "recreational" 4bying were unknown. It was all work and they were designed around performing a wide range of tasks in the field of farming, exploration, mining etc. they were basic " get your ass and gear into impossible terrain and out again" vehicles.
It was possible that the guys doing this work then found it was sorta fun doing it and so the spin off s started. :) The roads, even the main raods were not suited to speed so that cruising aspect was not needed, It was only later when the tar sections grew to be longer than the dirt sections that faster 4wds were expected and so the evolution started!
Cheers Scott

PS dang it! nearly forgot the JEEP that preceded all the above!

[schuy1]

Ahh John beat me! And with a much more comprehensive deal! :)

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Cheers guys:)

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That makes sense guys. thanks a lot!!!:)

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