All-Terrain, For Real: 16 of the World's Most Capable Adventure Vehicles

Travel is one thing. Adventure is something else.

Humanity loves to roam, but only recently has it become easy to do so over long distances. Walking speed is about 3 mph, so, for most of history, getting from, say, Toledo in Spain to Syracuse in Italy was a virtually impossible, treacherous 1800-mile journey that would take months with no certainty of survival. Today, that’s a 4.5-hour plane trip that costs about $200. To get from Toledo, Ohio, to Syracuse, New York, takes about 13 hours and costs less than $100 by Greyhound bus. Almost everyone is certain to survive. As common as complaints about arduous travel experiences have become (“We had to wait 20 minutes for a gate to open, the idiots lost my bag, and a sandwich was $9.75!”), it’s really just travel.

Adventure is the leap beyond mere travel. Maybe it’s impossible to go where no one has gone before on Earth, but to get to places where only a few have been means crossing rugged terrain, surviving brutal elements, and beating a few new paths. Adventure takes effort, skill, risk, and tools. If adventure were easy, everyone would do it. It’s for the daring, the prepared, and, to our point, the well equipped.

So here are 16 of the best vehicles for going places where only the few would dare. Whether that’s across a glacier or through a mud bog, along a tight trail, or over several continents, the right tool should suit the job.

This content is part of Destination Adventure.

American Expedition Vehicles (AEV) earned its bones modifying Jeep Wranglers into even more capable rock crawlers or forest explorers. But there are some things a Wrangler can’t do that a full-size Ram truck can.

The Prospector line is AEV’s push to fortify the heavy-duty Ram 2500 and 3500 trucks so they can thrive under the most extreme conditions while looking, well, awesome even when they’re just fetching giant bags of dog food from Costco. That starts at the nose, where AEV fits a monstrous die-stamped steel bumper with cast iron tow loops extending down that also act as front skid bars. New shocks and springs work with control-arm drop brackets to raise the truck three or four inches, depending on the customer’s needs. The example seen here is up 4.0 inches and wears 40-inch-tall Goodyear Wrangler MT/Rs on AEV’s own 17-inch Katla wheels.

Those drop brackets maintain the stock steering angles despite the suspension lift, so driving the Prospector is still a civilized and comfortable experience. Whether powered by Ram’s 410-horsepower, 6.4-liter Hemi or the torque-rich 325-horsepower, 6.7-liter Cummins turbo-diesel inline-six, the Prospector feels ready to lug a house down to Chile, even if the truck is just cruising I-40 in Kansas City.

And, yes, they sell that drop-side aluminum bed, too.

Mercedes builds the Zetros 6x6 as a commercial vehicle that can do any job despite insane conditions. It’s the sort of truck you just don’t see often unless you happen to work in a copper mine or laying pipeline over the Urals, places where the huge ability of the Zetros chassis and drive system pays off in completed tasks and profits. But the Zetros doesn’t have to be a dump truck or mobile crane. It can also become a fantastic mobile hunting lodge.

This particular Zetros supercruiser was built for a pair of businessmen in Mongolia. It has been finished with an ordinary-looking aluminum box into which is stashed an opulent adventure base. Think of it as every dream every member of Ducks Unlimited has ever had, powered by a 7.2-liter turbocharged diesel inline-six that muscles out 959 lb-ft of peak torque. And all that power is distributed among all six wheels.

Designed and built by Hartmann in Alsfeld, Germany, and finished by RV interior specialist Hünerkopf, the Zetros's walls are thickly insulated against the heat of the Gobi desert or the cold of wherever it is that it gets really cold in Mongolia.

Of course, there’s a kitchen. Naturally, there’s a media center built around an Apple Mac Mini that links up via satellite. The bathroom’s marble floors are heated. And there’s a garage for a quad ATV dinghy.

It can go anywhere. And wherever it goes, it’s the nicest lodge in the neighborhood.

Sportsmobile is a venerated name in the world of adventure. Back in 1961, it started converting Volkswagen Microbuses into RV campers. For the past few decades, it has earned a formidable reputation for converting American full-size vans to four-wheel drive. There truly is something epic about a Ford Econoline jacked up for off-roading and ready to lug your possessions deep into the outback.

But the Econoline is history. Fortunately, there’s an alternative, the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, which comes from Mercedes already equipped with four-wheel drive. And it’s still kind of American-ish. Mercedes has announced that the next one will soon be built at a new plant in North Carolina.

Sportsmobile takes the basic Sprinter in either of its wheelbases (144 or 170 inches) and adds pretty much anything the customer can imagine. Besides a wide variety of floor plans for carrying equipment or as an RV, the Sportsmobile Sprinter is available with either a high or low roof and with options like a snorkel or a lifted suspension with oversize wheels and tires. You want lights? They’ll install so many LED light bars, you’ll burn retinas on low-flying birds.

All the Sportsmobile Sprinters come with Mercedes’ most powerful drivetrain. That’s a 3.0-liter BlueTec turbo-diesel V-6 rated at 188 horsepower and 325 lb-ft of torque, backed by a five-speed automatic transmission.

Most of the planet is water. The remainder is called “land,” but it isn’t always dry. That’s where the Argo 8x8 XTD comes in handy. It’s an amphibian-a frog you can drive. It’s got eight wheels and is built to get through all those places where water and land mix together to form swamps, bogs, mud holes, and other goo. You know, the sorts of places that are filled with things that can eat you.

Although it would be lousy for commuting and a real pain to drive across the country, the Argo is exactly right for finding those spots few people have the intestinal fortitude to explore. It can carry four people on what passes for land, or two across water, and it’s powered by a 1.0-liter three-cylinder Kohler Lombardini diesel engine. That engine only makes 24 horsepower, but the 1750-pound ATD can still lug 1340 pounds of payload. A two-speed steering transmission gets that modest power to the ground, and it maxes out at a stunning 17 mph.

If the eight wheels don’t offer enough traction, tracks can be fitted to turn the Argo into something like a very small tank.

Ford’s first F-150 Raptor hit back in 2010 and instantly became an icon. With thick fenders, oversize wheels, and an aggressive stance, it landed in the collective consciousness like an off-road superstar. In some place, pulling up in a Raptor pickup is more impressive than showing up in a Ferrari. And on the right dust-covered sawtooth road, the four-wheel-drive Raptor will be faster than any Ferrari, too.

The Raptor is entering its second generation. It's based on the latest aluminum-bodied version of Ford’s F-150. But Ford hasn’t screwed with the Raptor formula. Well, not much.

Under the swollen front fenders, monstrous aluminum control arms allow long wheel travel with road irregularities, damped by Fox Racing 3.0-inch internal-bypass shocks. There are still leaf springs in back, but they’re also on long Fox Racing shocks that allow more vertical wheel motion than in the first Raptor. The 35-inch-tall BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A K02 tires on 17-inch bead-lock wheels should survive off-road abuse while retaining on-road civility.

Besides the aluminum body, the biggest change to the Raptor is its adoption of a 450-horsepower version of the twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6. And it’s paired with Ford’s new 10-speed automatic transmission, which also features a manual shifting mode. The 6.2-liter V-8 is gone, but the truck should be quicker by a significant margin.

The first Raptor wasn’t built to gingerly pick its way along trails but to blast across a desert or thump down a fire road. There’s little reason to expect that to change with this new Raptor.

An airplane is still the ultimate way to go searching for adventure. And the new Hondajet may be one of the most versatile airplanes ever to go searching the world for something spectacular.

As a light business jet, the Hondajet is comfortable for up to four people in the cabin. Four may not be enough for your huge entourage, but the plane’s small size means it can land on a short 3000-foot runway and take off in as little as 4000 feet. That gives it access to a far greater number of obscure airports than larger aircraft. So leave some of your posse behind.

For its class, the Hondajet is also quick. It can cruise at about 420 knots-more than 480 mph-way up at 43,000 feet, over a range of 1180 nautical miles. And, thanks to its over-wing engine placement, it’s rather quiet, too. Really, there isn’t a car, truck, or boat on Earth that gives you the kind of cachet you command by being able to say: “That’s my jet.”

The Honda Aircraft Company asks about $4.5 million for a new Hondajet. If you buy one, you’ll need a pilot. But if you can afford it, what’s stopping you?

Jonathan Ward’s Icon has established his company, Icon, as one of the world’s foremost purveyors of hyper-detailed, super-burnished exaggerations of classic four-by-fours. He started with the Toyota Land Cruiser and moved on to little beasties like the first Ford Bronco. But he’ll build almost anything a customer wants. And among the latest projects out of his Chatsworth shop is this reimagined and re-engineered 1969 Chevrolet K5 Blazer.

There’s practically nothing that Ward and his crew don't touch when building one of his Reformers. In the case of this K5, that means starting with a sweet original truck, stripping it down to bare metal, and rebuilding it piece by piece. Unlike many of Ward’s creations, this one retains the stock frame but reworks the suspension and the four-wheel-drive system. The biggest mechanical improvement is the adoption of GM’s E-Rod version of the 430-horsepower, 6.2-liter LS3 V-8. It’s a vastly superior and more efficient engine than anything CMG was installing in the Blazer originally. It’s paired with GM’s 4L80-E four-speed automatic transmission.

Although every Icon project superficially resembles some old piece of hardware, it’s the details that make them stand out. Like ventilation pieces swiped from aircraft, modern LED lighting and gauges, and seats covered in hides from cows that apparently volunteered for the duty. Naturally, the prices are astronomical, but great adventures should never be done on the cheap.

Sometimes, the only recourse an adventurer has is to take matters into his own hands and build the right piece of equipment from scratch. Hence, the Russian SHERP.

It was designed by Aleksey Garagashyan-listed on this vehicle’s website as a “renowned technologist." But the most interesting trick about the SHERP is its enormous tires. They’re 63 inches tall and run at low pressure so they can mold themselves around obstacles. Or, if run at higher pressures, they can provide enough flotation for the SHERP to paddle across bodies of water. The SHERP itself is actually quite small, only 133.9 inches long, or about 10 inches shorter than the wheelbase of a Chevrolet Silverado crew-cab pickup. It’s almost 18 inches shorter than a Mini Cooper Hardtop.

Weighing in at just over 2800 pounds, the SHERP is powered by a 44-horsepower, 1.5-liter turbo-diesel four-cylinder churning a five-speed manual transmission. The welded tube frame seems rugged, but there’s so much tire that occupants have to enter and exit the SHERP through the front. Top speed is a lackadaisical 44 mph, but that probably seems pretty fast on something so, well, purposeful.

If you want a SHERP-straight out of St. Petersburg, and not the one in Florida-you’ll need about $50,000. More than a spirit of adventure, this one demands a sense of humor.

The abilities that make a vehicle ready to fight a war often translate well into peacetime adventure-seeking. There’s no guarantee that Oshkosh’s latest Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) will ever be a hit with civilians in the way that Jeep and Hummer have been, but surely some of its engineering will eventually make the transition. The JLTV is the replacement for the military Humvee, and that, in turn, makes it a lineal successor to the original World War II Jeep.

At the core of the JLTV’s abilities is Oshkosh’s “TAK-4i” intelligent independent suspension. Built of massive cast pieces, it has been used on other Oshkosh military vehicles, offers up to 20 inches of wheel travel, and can be raised or lowered to suit conditions. That’s enough, says Oshkosh, to increase speeds over virtually any terrain by up to 70 percent over Humvee specification. Details about the suspension are not public knowledge. At least not yet. Apparently, though, this particular system doesn’t use coil springs.

Power for the JLTV comes from GM’s familiar 6.6-liter turbo-diesel V-8, the engine marketed as the Duramax in large GM pickups. The contract for the first 17,000 JLTVs was awarded in 2015, with deliveries scheduled to start in 2018. Initially, there will be two models, a four-seater and a two-seat version, and either can be fitted with various support bodies. Armored to protect against roadside explosive devices and other attacks, it’s supposed to be more reliable and safer than current Humvees.

Let’s see how long before Arnold Schwarzenegger gets one.

There’s a loner kind of glamour about adventuring on a motorcycle. Bike riders are rebels out to explore the world on their own terms: no attachments and unmoored from conventional responsibilities. But a bike built for long road trips is often useless where there is no road. Meanwhile, off-road bikes can be intolerably uncomfortable on long hauls. So here’s KTM’s 1290 Super Adventure to bridge that chasm.

The Super Adventure is no twerpy enduro bike fitted with some saddlebags to make it into a tourer. A massive 1.3-liter V-twin engine produces a thundering 160 horsepower that it channels through a six-speed transmission. And all that power is managed using electronic traction control, stability control, and “motor slip regulation” systems. They add a level of dynamic comfort that’s almost mind-boggling. Select the right ride mode, and the Super Adventure can handle anything from street cruises to on-track road courses to a few hundred miles of off-road, all-terrain cruising. This is technology that makes the long-held dream of a do-anything, go-anywhere motorcycle a reality.

This is the way to explore the planet on two wheels: riding a vehicle that can handle any adventure thrown at it. Of course, it’s not cheap-more than $20,000 to start-but there has never before been anything with this mix of ability, comfort, and power.

Wandering is severely underrated as a travel plan. Having no particular place to go and plenty of time to get wherever is almost guaranteed to produce an unexpected adventure. The EarthCruiser EXP and FX are slick wandering machines for just that kind of eventuality.

The EarthCruiser EXP is essentially a house bolted atop the chassis of a Fuso FG 4x4 medium-duty truck powered by a 161-horsepower, 3.0-liter turbo four. It's not a big house-only about 92 square feet-but the Fuso has a lightweight fiberglass structure that grows 24 inches taller when it’s time to set up camp. That means the truck retains a relatively low profile on the highway. That’s good for aerodynamics and that, in turn, is good for fuel economy. If driven conservatively, EarthCruiser claims, driving range can be up to 1000 miles between fill-ups.

The FX model has a fixed roof; in compensation, it's built a bit taller. Thanks to seatbelts in the dinette set, this model can accommodate two passengers in addition to up to three in the cab.

Both EarthCruisers feature kitchens, showers, and large windows to keep things feeling light and airy. There’s even a double bed and a diesel-fired water heater. Electricity comes from solar panels built into the roof. And, naturally, the EarthCruisers can be customized extensively. They’re not the sort of things that you’ll see clogging up RV parks-although you may stumble across one in some obscure wilderness.

EarthCruiser started building vehicles in Australia and now builds them in Bend, Oregon. In U.S. dollars, prices start at about $175,000.

Dodge’s WC series of 3/4-ton four-wheel-drive trucks were the workhorses of America’s military during World War II. Rugged, simple, and easy to fix, the WC trucks were used as everything from ambulances and tow trucks to maintenance tool haulers. Maybe WCs weren’t as beloved as the Jeep, but the troops knew their value as tools. The original, now legendary 1945 Dodge Power Wagon was the military WC repurposed for civilian life.

The name returns on the 2017 Ram Power Wagon, which is based on the current Ram 2500 3/4-ton four-by-four pickup. It's muscled up with big 33-inch-tall Goodyear all-terrain tires, stout Bilstein shock absorbers, electronically lockable front and rear axles, and an electronically disconnecting front sway bar to increase wheel articulation when the going gets particularly hairy.

If the additional wheel movement isn’t enough, there’s also a standard 12,000-pound-capacity Warn winch in the nose. It's strong enough to pull the Ram straight up a cliff if necessary. Although, come on: the 410-horsepower, 6.4-liter Hemi V-8 in the nose is enough to overwhelm almost any unreasonable obstacle.

Reincarnated, redesigned, and redecorated, the Power Wagon returns to the Ram lineup this fall.

Sand defines the Middle East in much the same way that ice is the inescapable reality of the Arctic or water is the main feature of the Pacific Ocean. The Zarooq SandRacer is a product of the United Arab Emirates, so, of course, the point of its existence is overcoming sand.

Details about the SandRacer are, well, indeterminate. The company claims there’s a 3.5-liter V-6 mounted in the center of this beast but is not quite forthcoming on the origin of that engine. Zarooq asserts that it makes between 304 and 500 horsepower, depending on the state of tune. Take your best guess. Our guess is that it’s a Toyota unit with turbochargers bolted on at the highest spec. Or maybe it’s a Nissan. Mercedes? Ford?

The two-seat SandRacer will ride on a specially built off-road, rear-wheel-drive chassis, atop a 12.4-inch suspension, says the manufacturer. Beyond that, the air conditioning system is going to totally rock-“rock” meaning to get very cold.

Ever try to explore a forest trail using a Honda Accord? The Accord is a fine family sedan, yet it’s only so-so for off-road expeditions. Honda offers this alternative for those of us looking to venture far, far off our commutes: the Pioneer 1000.

The Pioneer 1000 is a side-by-side, the mutated evolution of what started as a three-wheel all-terrain vehicle (ATV). Honda pioneered (so to speak) the three-wheel ATV when it introduced the seven-horsepower ATC 90 (for All Terrain Cycle) back in 1970. With fold-down handlebars so it could fit into the back of a station wagon and bulbous tires in lieu of an actual suspension, the ATC 90 was a sensation at its introduction. But over time, the limitations of straddle-ridden three-wheelers-inherent instability, inability to accommodate passengers, little load carrying-led to four-wheelers' becoming the norm. And side-by-side seating maximizes ability.

The Pioneer 1000 uses a 77-horsepower liquid-cooled two-cylinder, 1.0-liter engine and a six-speed dual-clutch, dual-range automatic transmission to power all four wheels. The 1000-5, with its flip-up seat, can seat up to five. A Pioneer 1000 is robust enough to haul up to 1000 pounds or tow a full ton. And the long-travel suspension allows venturing-at least crawling-over amazingly rugged terrain.

The Pioneer 1000 is priced starting at $13,999. And it can go anywhere you want it to, except for roads that require license plates.

The problem with big trucks is that there are a lot of small places where they can’t go. The problem with small trucks is that they aren’t big enough to carry everything an adventurer needs. Then there’s the just-right truck-maneuverable enough to get around unexpected obstacles or through everyday traffic, but capable enough to sustain itself for weeks. That’s how the Global Expedition Vehicles’ Turtle makes sense.