3 Different Types of Off-Road Builds
December 4, 2020
Here are three common types of off-road build and exactly how you can achieve them yourself!
Table of Contents
1. Soft-Roader
A soft-roader is a unibody vehicle with upgraded wheels and tires and sometimes a lift. This type of class is built by the off-road enthusiast who also enjoys the adventure of getting off-road and exploring. They don’t mind a few off-road challenges and obstacles here and there, but in most cases, will avoid the more difficult terrain as they are similar to the stock class where they still use their soft-roader for a daily driver.
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An example would be our friend, one of our workers 328d BMW sedan, who had recently just installed a two-inch lift in his BMW and slapped on a set of Method Race Wheels wrapped with a Toyo Open Country AT3 so that he can hit the Northern dirt trails of Wisconsin. The soft-roader classes are adventurists and off-road enthusiasts with-out the need to run a more modified rig.
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2. Overlander
This Overlanding class consists of vehicles that mainly have some sort of mild suspension lift from Icon Vehicle Dynamics, TeraFlex, Falcon, ReadyLift, JKS, or many more that are listed on our site and will either have a leveling kit, two-inch, or three-inch suspension lift and is designed to carry heavier loads, but rarely is this overland build lifted more than a few inches to keep the vehicle more stable both on the trail and road.
They’re designed to have a stable, lower center of gravity as overlanders will tend to use their rigs as daily drivers, or for traveling the countryside, or even the world for that matter, and need their vehicle to be stable and responsive at highway speeds as well.
Plus, in most circumstances, Overlanders won’t purposely drive their rigs into places that have extreme obstacles and underbody ground clearance doesn’t need to be as much as a rock-crawler for example. Most overland builds will also get up-fitted with aftermarket recovery bumpers, winches, underbody armor, and skid plates to help minimize damage should they find themselves having to traverse over those technical areas.
In many cases, these builds will have an upgraded aftermarket wheel so that it is stronger and designed to hold up to more abuse, like a Method MR701 that also features bead-grip technology to keep the bead seated on the wheel while aired down.
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3. The Budget Builder
The budget build is for the hobbyist that wants the best bang for their buck with their build. You can get just as much function out of a budget build as you can with an expensive build. You may need to sacrifice some of the customization and the more extreme performance modifications but you can definitely have a great build.
Building an off-roading rig is expensive and even with a budget build, it will still cost you a little bit. However, this is a really smart way to get into off-roading safely and cost-effectively. If you are new to the off-roading game or you just like to save money then this is the build for you! For this build, we recommend the Vision Soft 8, Rough Country Suspension, and Atturo Tires.
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