Thread: perentie 4x4 vs 6x6

Not familiar with both, but I am a little familiar now with the 6x6's as I've been pawing over one all weekend hassling the owner about almost every detail.

The 6x6 is a lot wider, taller and heavier, and I found with my short drive off road that it would be limited I tight terrain. It also has the turning circle of the QEII...

Power wise, the turboed Isuzu is well suited to the final gearing and it gets along fine - a bit slow off the mark, but adequate for what it is. It will do 100 without issues all day, but hearing protection would be required. I would think this would be the same in the 4x4 as well though.

On road and off road manners are very good, and the brakes work great. For me personally, I would love one, and I'll be saving up for one - absolutely no doubt in my mind now, although it will be close to the end of the auctions before I think I may be able to land one.

I think the owner said the fuel economy was around 18 to 20LPH. Could be wrong though, but that's not too bad for dragging around the 3.5 tonnes it weighs as it sits...

That's only half the story though - I'm sure someone will pitch in some info on the 4x4's.

I bought a 110 FFR, so I can comment on that.

Fuel consumption around Adelaide city with one longish trip from Adelaide to Victor Harbor and back, (a mix of hills, flat country, tight corners and long staights) saw it return just over 10L/100Km. I was pretty happy with that. We only drove at 90Km/h though, so I'd expect it to drop if you fang along at 100 or 110.

It would do 110, but the noise level (from wind/canvas shake) was not the best.

HTH
David

I have spent many hours in both.........would take the 6x6 every chance I could, well it was nearly a given I had the 6x6 as it had all my tools and spare parts.

To me a rag top 110 is the pits....sure it's got the Isuzu which apparently will never die and sure the 4 speed is tough but no power steering, drum brakes, canvass flapping, lack of vision for those that cannot drive with out mirrors, noisey...........I cannot remember how many l/100km, the suspension is well set up for no load or maybe a few hundreds kg.......load em up they need stiffer rears springs...I avoided driving them as much as I could.

The 6x6, 20L/100km is what we used to burn, this was at GVM or slightly over. When Ours was tweaked, had the muffler removed and only running one air filter it was very drivable but than the the fun police came along and made us return it to stock. You soon get used to driving them in tight conditions.......I had no real problems following 110's and could negotiate surburn car parks alright. Mine would sit on 110 on the flat all day but it squashed any chance of conversation.....seriously it's quite load, I used to pull a set of headphone one once over 80km/hr. I think the suspension works quite well, once again I could follow the 110's everywhere and drive the local beach with tyres at psi. It will be interesting to see what happens to the intermediate tyres once they are in civvies hands. At GVM we used to destroy intermediate tyres I.e. half the life of the other four tyres. Overall you have to drive them pretty hard to keep up with traffic....I just drove them hard all the time. The wide can is great, we pulled the middle seat and had a drop In console with stereo and UHF. I had a GMV which meant only one spare.......when traveling up the hi-way we used to winch up two spares, yep just looked like a 100 series cruiser with a spare hanging at diff height, we would offload once in exercise area. Most of the 6x6 have two additional spares on the roof. Due to the weight have a winch was handy......which would overload the clutch thingy in the winch drive, we quite often had to engage the transfer case to take a bit of load off the winch so it would engage.

Overall I'm a fan of the 6x6 but doubt I would buy one.

If I had dollars to throw around I would buy 202045 as it was looked after pretty good while i had it, it never really let us down, the one and only time was when the dumb arse greaser forgot to refill the intermediate diff with oil after a service.

Originally Posted by Mick91

Basically i hear that the 4s are able to maintain a higher cruising speed than that of the 6s. And i was wondering how the 4x4 compares to a 6x6 offroad.
And of course was wondering what the fuel consumption of the 2 are like.

I can't dispute that the 4x4 could maintain a higher cruising speed, but respond that the 6x6 would have better cruising comfort. The lower gearing means that it holds torque better and has little need to change down a gear on hills. The ride and handling really are surprising for a leaf sprung, load-carrying vehicle and would very easily compare to my other 4wd wagon. Coming back from Corowa, I didn't want to stop when I arrived home. I could have kept going to Cairns. Cruise speed was about 100Km/h, but I do admit I had earplugs in. I would look into an intercom like those used on touring bikes where you can feed in FM/CD/MP3/UHF inputs while talking to your passenger.





Off road, I've found no limitations beside the physical size of the vehicle. The turning circle is wide, but you do get power steering (which I would definately fit to a 4x4). The articulation of the rear axles could be much better, but a diff-lock or two in the back would overcome that.


I had the opportunity to drive a 4x4 at Corowa and found the suspension to be much harsher and jarring over ruts and potholes than the supple 6x6 suspension. Even when moving, the 4x4 steering was much harder than the 6x6 power steering.


On paper, a comparison between the 4x4 and 6x6 is useful. The approach (45 deg) and departure (33 deg) angles on both is identical, and although the 6x6 has a longer wheelbase, the ramp over angle on both is also the same at 133 deg. This would back up Weeds' experience in being able to take a 6x6 anywhere a 4x4 went. The significant difference between the 2 is the track, with the 4x4 being 1500mm F+R, and the 6x6 being 1700mm. This not only greatly improves side slope stability, but means you're following wheel tracks (and ruts) of vehicles like 100/200 Series Land Cruisers and GU Patrols. It's this wider track and overall length that affects the turning circle. It's handy if you want to tow a camper trailer or van designed for a late model 4wd wagon, but not so good if you like a No5 trailer!


And one final point. A 4x4 can be driven on a regular car licence, but the 6x6 requires at least a Light Rigid truck licence in all states.

I think the key point is that the 4x4 is the same size as a conventional four wheel drive - the 6x6 is a medium sized truck (and needs a truck licence to drive in at least some states). Which is the best is simply a matter of what you want to do with it.

John

i believe you can downgrade the GVM to 4500kg to avoid a truck licence and the higher rego

And you can convert one to a camper
These dont need a heavy licence either.

Hey Guys, thanks for the info, i really appreciate it.

I really really like the 6x6 but I've done some working out and i am probably financially better off getting the 4x4. Im only an apprentice at the moment and i guess beggars cant be choosers. I was looking at the current crop on grays at Minto, however ill probably wait till the next crop. although still weighing up my options between FFR or the cargo(i'd like having the tail gate lol) are there any other worthy variants that might pop up?