I guess a Gen 1 Discovery since I have one, or maybe an old style range rover.

Trooper wouldn't be a bad choice - strong axles (rear actually is even bigger than Monty), comparable engine, similar interior space although I think little less refined, setter flex upfront. I almost end up with new one in 98 but after checking what my insurance rate would be for under 25 driver, decided against it.
G-wagon is nice but that driveshaft u-joint are not replaceable so if you need one get whole new shaft at mi meager $2k or something like that.

You'd have to have one helluva reverse gear to make that thing go forward at speed... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />

That is how I learned about the odd angles they are built at, I replace the joints in them.

The top wheel doesn't drive (or even touch) the two that are on the ground. All 12 wheels are driven and when it encounters a boulder or a fallen tree or something, then the whole tri-wheel arrangement rotates on it's central axis and acts like 1 really big sort of triangularly shaped wheel. Crazy! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I'm with you on the quality of build between the 2 cars. The pajero beeing 4 years older and 9 years older in design is a far better built car. The GC feels all plasticy and reeks of poor build qualty like most US cars from that time but that damn V8 just makes me feel so f*****g good every time. Also the Paj is getting old and has a lot of miles on it and nothing big gone wrong yet so I'm leaving it up to her next owner to deal with that.
The budget for the GC will be around $8000 for mods exluding lockers. Future specs are:

D30 High pinion with trusses
Ford 8.8 rear
4.88 gears
NP 242 and a second 242 for crawler
Fenderflares with new side plastic on the doors
Rear axle shift around 14cm
Suspension lift as needed (around 12cm)
Front and rear hitches
and all the standard stuff that one would need.

I'll post a pic when its done, hopefuly this summer.



This one has a standard 35" mod and looks so sweet.

With such large tires, why such weak axles? I guess in snow it does not matter?

Now that I think of the original question of this thread, a Suzuki Vitara or Grand Vitara if that is what they are called.
To me they look to be a nice size rig if coming from a SWB with good build quality. Still can get a manual gearbox and decent support for driveline bits.