Re: What is a good SUV that I could make very good at four wheeling for 8-10K? (jrhaze)
Here's my $.02:
I have owned and heavily modified a '72 Bronco, and a '93 Cherokee (XJ). From all that has been discussed, I'll stick to the question he rasied regarding a comparison between the '94 4-Runner and Cherokee.
With the Cherokee, you have the advantages of a great motor (4.0 6 cyl), solid front axle, and a pretty good auto tranny (if that's what you get, and I would HIGHLY recommend it!). The down side is that the Cherokee uses a unibody costruction, so there is no frame. This = possible structural integrity trouble over time. That's after a lot of flexy off roading, but it does happen. The door hinges tend to crack and separate from the uni-body too. The other downer is that the front axle is not the strongest to ever leave the Dana-Spicer factory. I upgraded mine with stronger shafts and never had any trouble. Adding manually locking front hubs is an expensive affair as well (manual hubs are much stronger and facilitate fully disconnecting the front end when not in use. Newer Jeep vehicles have the front end permanantly engaged at the hubs, even when the transfer case is in 2 HI). The really great part about theses vehicles is that they can be had very inexpensively right now (Ok, that's relative, but you get the idea). Parts are cheap, and unless you go taller than 4" or so, lifts are not too expensive, and not too difficult to install. Get above 4" of lift, and it does get complicated and expensive, not to mention hard to maintain good street manners. You're talking re-attatching the control arms further down the "fram" rails, and changing the control arm mounts on the front axle.
With 4", you can run 32x11.50's on stock (7") rims with no rubbing (well, very minimal rubbing).
The 4-Runner: My experience with these is limited, but I do know this: They are bulletproof like all Toyotas, and hold their value very well! There is no back seat room, but decent cargo space. The V-6 is gutless beyond all imagination, in sharp contrast to the 4.0L in the Cherokee. Stick an auto tranny bhind the Toyota V-6, and you're going nowhere fast. Thses trucks do however have a ladder frame construction, and can take a lot of abuse. Lifting them is expensive, and continually demanding, as is lifting ANY IFS equipped vehicle. It does not matter how high the lift is, it's trouble. Alignment is almost impossible to maintain, and IFS will never equal the articulative qualities of a solid front / solid rear layout (is articulative a word?).
Hope this helps! Here's the site that the current owner of my Jeep put up. He has added a few items since he bought it a couple of years ago, but it gives you the idea of what I was in to at the time.
http://xjzone.designermeat.com/
Sorry about any speeeling airors!
[Modified by sleddog, 6:26 AM 4-11-2002]