man, I have a feeling that you live in an ideal world, not the one I live in...

Probably, you have a house (mansion ?) in the woods, and you can comfortably drive out your Isuzu from your garage directly to the trail. May be, you cut trees for living, or you hunt deers/bears/hippos/elephants for living. When you need to go to the store then you use your Honda Civic.

I am jealous. My world is much less perfect:

- I live far from any trail. To get to a trail, I have to drive many many many long miles on freeways.

- I have more than 1 member in the family, and I need more than one general-purpose vehicle in the family. Well, I can justify a +1 dedicated expedition-oriented vehicle in the family, for recreation, but I cannot justify having also a dedicated trail-only rig, taking into account the long distance from any available trail.

- I go to the trails not alone. If I go to a trail, usually I take my wife or a friend. I have to care about their comfort/safety during the drive.

So, to sum the above statements, my Isuzu can be a recreational expedition vehicle, but in no way I can transform it into a trail-only rig. This is unrealistic. Modifing my Rodeo, I have to preserve it's drivability and safety, mostly.

When I read about SASes, welded diffs and others tricks on this board, I feel like I read some fairy stories about others planets. I wish I could live on such a planet.

One can try to drive from Northern California to Arizona/Utah/etc on a SAS, with a welded diff, with tube doors, having a family in the cabin, to understand my statement...