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I haven't seen or been in one off road, but I did have one as a rental nearly a decade ago. I was impressed at how nice it rode on the street, but that's kind of irrelevant.The FJC is built on the “global Prado chassis”, same as the 5th gen 4Runner and Lexus GX(Prado). Although it has the same chassis, I’m not a fan of them off-road. The short wheelbase, combined with the limited suspension travel and top heavy body, make them pretty sketchy off-road. If you’ve ever been out ‘wheeling with one, you’ve seen what I’m talking about. They always seem to have a tire off the ground. The balance is terrible. With the 4Runner being available, I’m not sure how they ever sold any FJC’s. The 4Runner has a better wheelbase, more utility, more room, better balance, and far less blind spots. The 4Runner wheelbase is only 5-6 inches longer, but it seems to make a lot of difference.
That’s just my experience though.
To have a balanced suspension, you would typically have the same suspension setup in the front and rear. With IFS, the live rear axle can flex pretty good, but the front doesn’t- this leads to some pretty odd weight transfer situations on the trail.I haven't seen or been in one off road, but I did have one as a rental nearly a decade ago. I was impressed at how nice it rode on the street, but that's kind of irrelevant.
When you say the balance is terrible, do you mean they have poor weight distribution, or something else?
What do you mean by that?Tho at the end of the day it would be hard to get over the IFS.
Just mean that no matter what you do - short of swapping in a solid axle - you're still dealing with IFS and its inherent qualities.What do you mean by that?