Whats the best Vehicle for an extreme survival situation....?

If you had to choose a vehicle that you would/could buy or get your hands on what would you want?

What vehicle does anyone here think would be the best type that would give you the most advantage in a survival type scenario?

Would it be a Land Rover, truck, tractor, tank, excavator, Hummer, Land Cruiser?

Personally I think a Unimog may well be one of the top contenders:

www2.mercedes-benz.co.uk...

You would have excellent off road capabilities, good on road speed excellent carrying and towing capacity as well as PTO and hydraulic lines to power things like generators.

Just a hypothetical question would be interested to see what others personal choices would be.

MR

This is a great thread, as I am in the process of purchasing a new vehicle.

I know that I don't want a Ford, GM, and/or Chrysler.

Part of me wants a fuel-efficient, 4-door compact...but would also like a larger SUV. Of course, gas prices worry me.

I'm interested to hear others' ideas about a good vehicle to own in the event of a natural disaster or terrorist threat.

reply to post by Marlborough Red


i would say a mitsubishi Montero would be good in that case , or if you want it cheap and ultra reliable , then i suggest you purchase the UAZ-469 , also known as UAZ hunter

None of those will be of any use if there is no fuel to power them...ya?



Best vehicle...simple....it is alive and is very faithful and wont run out of gas or need gas and can get its fuel from just grazing...

..a HORSE.



Cheers!!!!

Probably depends on your location. In my neck of the woods the Toyota LandCruiser is a pretty nice choice. If I were surviving Sit-X in Kansas, I would want a Corvette.

Originally posted by RFBurns
None of those will be of any use if there is no fuel to power them...ya?

Agreed, but for the sake of this thread lets just assume you can still find/get fuel to power a vehicle.

MR

For starters, I would convert the vehicle over to a fuel source that is not dependant on oil or gasoline. Brown's gas or hydrogen would be the choice.

Second, it would need to be a vehicle that not only can be reliable, but not filled with a bunch of unecessary garbage like DVD players, sunroof, power windows, fancy leather seats, and other useless gadgets that most here are going to find in their vehicles of choice.


My choice would be a very simple, highly reliable off road ATV. Small, easily converted over to hydrogen and Brown's gas, and can get you in more places than a majority of vehicles of choice by posts so far.


But not only would I have the ATV, I would still have the choice of proven mobility that has a history of being reliable and dependable for thousands of years....the horse.


Cheers!!!!

[edit on 23-11-2008 by RFBurns]

I guess it would depend on whether you planned to bug out or stay put. For staying put, I want an old beater pick-up, a dirt bike and an ATV.

Hey! We're set! Except for the horse.

Originally posted by Marlborough Red

Personally I think a Unimog may well be one of the top contenders:

Can we buy new Mogs in the US?

I thought we had to wait until they were 15-20 years old before import. For low-speed slogging, an older Mog would be a good choice if you had spares. Maybe a totaled parts truck. Plus, if you have a diesel, you could always run it on waste oil.

Someone else mentioned Toyotas. Just about any 4WD offering from them would be my top choice *if* you have fuel. If you could get a 4WD Toyota diesel from Central or South America past customs, that would be excellent. But you would encounter the spares problem again.....

It is not difficult to round up wild horse and tame them. And they are very usefull for when the mechanical vehicle breaks down and there are no spare parts to fix it. Plus the horse can always reproduce itself and you got plenty of spares for future use. Try that with any mechanical vehicle!


If the extreme survival situation were to last a long time, eventually those mechanical wants and wish vehicles will be completely useless, due to either mechanical break down or no fuel, heck even a flat tire stops you dead in your tracks.

But the horse...now there is something that will be around for a very, very long time...and doesnt get flats, feeds itself, is a great companion and can even be watchful of your camp and warn you, unlike the mechanical vehicle even with an alarm system...heh..what good is an alarm in a humm-vee good for in such a situation!! But the horse..now that fella can deliver a good kick and buck to any threat when needed.

And the horse can even go in places that the ATV cannot. Now that's mobility!!


Still I wouldnt mind having the ATV around, maybe even just as a conversation piece for those boaring evenings around the campfire with the family...talk about old times and the way things used to be that got us into the mess we would be in.


Cheers!!!!

I think people are underestimating the power of the Corvette!!!

haha. All kidding aside, it DOES depend on a few things. Your intentions and your surroundings. An offroad a-kicker won't be too useful in Kansas. However, a very powerful sports-car will get you from one side of the state to the other in very short order if need be.
When and if stuff hits the fan, small communities are going to replace everything we see today. Most likely they will be spread out also. Unless you have reliable communications set up between the communities, you will need runners to get word out of potential enemy troop movements.

You will need something FAST in the plains areas. And something that kicks serious butt in places like where I'm at, the Ozark Mountains.
www.4x4offroads.com...

The picture of the landcruiser is for my area... This one is for Kansas. cache.jalopnik.com...

[edit on 23-11-2008 by Jay-in-AR]

Well I got the speed part coverd...an 86 Camaro outfitted with a 400 4blt big block rammed with a supercharger and two Edelbrock 1450's.


Ill get across Texas at 190+ just fine. :p



Cheers!!!!

Feet, than horse, than offroad bicycle. Forget about car.

Years and years ago you used to be able to get a jeep with a pto and 3 point hitch.

The farmer could work his field with it, unhook whatever attachment and drive it into town.

I'm not sure if you can still get them that way or not - but it would be a pretty handy vehicle to have.

2009 Toyota Land Cruiser with 5.7L V8 4x4 and GPS
Grand Total: $72,000

GPS? Why would you want one of those. All that would do is allow big brother to find you easily and track you.

GPS systems dont just receive a signal, they also transmit back up to the bird, a serial number. This makes it easy for the GPS system to know what kind of tracking data to return to your GPS unit so you get your position and no one elses.


Hmm...guess no one thought of that before huh.


Use a compass and a map...those do not send any return signals.


Cheers!!!!

Jeep Wrangler with off-road tires. Only problem is there won't be any easy access to any gasoline. You could access it but it won't be easy!

Toyota 4x4 pickup 4cyl with a Camper shell, Bike Rack on top. I'm on my second one and I absolutely love the vehicle. I'll never own anything but a toyota 4x4 pickup. I would take my rig over my wife's landrover Discovery any day. Don't get me wrong the LandRover has the Reputation as the survival vehicle and is a true beast when it comes to climbing but the gas mileage on that thing is awful.

The Undertaker

I'd recommend a Volvo 240 wagon.

Ideally?

A sail boat. Think about it.