An off-road vehicle, sometimes referred to as an overland or adventure vehicle, is considered to be any type of

vehicle A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), wat ...

which is capable of

driving Driving is the controlled operation and movement of a vehicle, including cars, motorcycles, trucks, buses, and bicycles. Permission to drive on public highways is granted based on a set of conditions being met and drivers are required to foll ...

on and off

paved Pavement may refer to: * Pavement (architecture), an outdoor floor or superficial surface covering * Road surface, the durable surfacing of roads and walkways ** Asphalt concrete, a common form of road surface * Sidewalk or pavement, a walkway alo ...

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classifi ...

surface. It is generally characterized by having large

tires A tire (American English) or tyre (British English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a Rim (wheel), wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide Traction (engineering), t ...

with deep, open treads, a flexible suspension, or even

caterpillar tracks Continuous track is a system of vehicle propulsion used in tracked vehicles, running on a continuous band of treads or track plates driven by two or more wheels. The large surface area of the tracks distributes the weight of the vehicle b ...

. Other vehicles that do not travel on public streets or highways are generally termed off-highway vehicles, including tractors,

forklift A forklift (also called lift truck, jitney, hi-lo, fork truck, fork hoist, and forklift truck) is a powered industrial truck used to lift and move materials over short distances. The forklift was developed in the early 20th century by various c ...

s, cranes,

backhoe A backhoe—also called rear actor or back actor—is a type of excavating equipment, or digger, consisting of a digging bucket on the end of a two-part articulated arm. It is typically mounted on the back of a tractor or front loader, the latt ...

bulldozer A bulldozer or dozer (also called a crawler) is a large, motorized machine equipped with a metal blade to the front for pushing material: soil, sand, snow, rubble, or rock during construction work. It travels most commonly on continuous track ...

s, and

golf cart A golf cart (alternatively known as a golf buggy or golf car) is a small motorized vehicle designed originally to carry two golfers and their golf clubs around a golf course with less effort than walking. Over time, variants were introduced ...

s. Off-road vehicles have an enthusiastic following because of their versatility. Several types of motorsports involve racing off-road vehicles. The most common use of these vehicles is for

sightseeing Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

in areas distant from the pavement. The use of higher clearance and higher traction vehicles enables access on trails and

forest road Forest tracks or forest roads are roads or tracks intended to carry motorised vehicles or horse-drawn wagons being used mainly or exclusively for forestry purposes, such as conservation or logging. Forest tracks may be open to ramblers or mount ...

s that have rough and low traction surfaces. Off-road vehicles can typically

ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

through deeper waters (i.e., rivers or floodwaters) than on-road vehicles can.

History

One of the first modified off-road vehicles was the

Kégresse track A Kégresse track is a kind of rubber or canvas continuous track which uses a flexible belt rather than interlocking metal segments. It can be fitted to a conventional car or truck to turn it into a half-track, suitable for use over rough or soft ...

, a conversion undertaken first by

Adolphe Kégresse Adolphe Kégresse (1879, Héricourt, Haute-Saône - 1943) was a French military engineer who invented the half-track and dual clutch transmission. Born at Héricourt, and educated in Montbéliard, he moved in 1905 to Saint Petersburg, Russia to ...

, who designed the original while working for

Czar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the ter ...

Nicholas II of Russia between 1906 and 1916. The system uses a

caterpillar track Continuous track is a system of vehicle propulsion used in tracked vehicles, running on a continuous band of treads or track plates driven by two or more wheels. The large surface area of the tracks distributes the weight of the vehicle b ...

with a flexible belt rather than interlocking metal segments. It can be fitted to a conventional car or truck to turn it into a

half-track A half-track is a civilian or military vehicle with regular wheels at the front for steering and continuous tracks at the back to propel the vehicle and carry most of the load. The purpose of this combination is to produce a vehicle with the cro ...

suitable for use over rough or soft ground. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Kégresse returned to his native France where the system was used on

Citroën Citroën () is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired ...

cars between 1921 and 1937 for off-road and

military vehicle A military vehicle is any vehicle for land-based military transport and activity, including combat vehicles; both specifically designed for, or significantly used by military and armed forces. Most military vehicles require off-road capabili ...

s. The

company sponsored several overland expeditions with their vehicles crossing North Africa and Central Asia. A huge wheeled vehicle designed from

1937 Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Febr ...

1939 This year also marks the start of the Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Third Reich *** Jews are forbidden to ...

under the direction of Thomas Poulter called

Antarctic Snow Cruiser The Antarctic Snow Cruiser was a vehicle designed from 1937 to 1939 under the direction of Thomas Poulter, intended to facilitate transport in Antarctica during the United States Antarctic Service Expedition (1939–41). The Snow Cruiser was ...

was intended to facilitate transport in the

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

. While having several innovative features, it generally failed to operate as hoped under the difficult conditions, and was eventually abandoned in

. After World War II, a huge surplus of light off-road vehicles like the Jeep and heavier lorries were available on the automobile market. The Jeeps in particular were popular with buyers who used them as

utility vehicle A utility vehicle is a vehicle, generally motorized, that is designed to carry out a specific task with more efficacy than a passenger vehicle. It sometimes refers to a small truck with low sides. Types of utility vehicles Military light u ...

s. This was also the start of off-roading as a hobby. The wartime Jeeps soon wore out, though, and the Jeep company started to produce civilian derivatives, closely followed by similar vehicles from

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Land Rover and Japanese Toyota, Datsun/ Nissan,

Suzuki is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Minami-ku, Hamamatsu, Japan. Suzuki manufactures automobiles, motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), outboard marine engines, wheelchairs and a variety of other small internal c ...

, and Mitsubishi. These were all alike: small, compact, four-wheel-drive vehicles with at most a small hardtop to protect the occupants from the elements. From the 1960s and onward, more comfortable vehicles were produced. For several years, they were popular with rural buyers due to their off-road and load-lugging capabilities. The U.S.

Jeep Wagoneer The Jeep Wagoneer is a sport utility vehicle (SUV) nameplate of Jeep vehicles, with several models marketed for the 1963 through 1993 model years and again since the 2022 model year. Various versions of the Wagoneer were manufactured in the US ...

and the

Ford Bronco The Ford Bronco is a model line of sport utility vehicles manufactured and marketed by Ford. The first SUV model developed by the company, five generations of the Bronco were sold from the 1966 to 1996 model years. A sixth generation of the mo ...

, the British Range Rover, and the station wagon-bodied

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

Toyota Land Cruiser The (also sometimes spelled as LandCruiser) is a series of four-wheel drive vehicles produced by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota. It is Toyota's longest running series of models. , the sales of the Land Cruiser totalled more than ...

Nissan Patrol The is a series of full-size SUVs manufactured by Nissan in Japan and sold throughout the world. The Patrol has been available as either a short-wheelbase (SWB) three-door or a long-wheelbase (LWB) five-door chassis since 1951. The LWB versio ...

, and Suzuki Lj's series were all essentially just station wagon bodies on

light truck Light truck or light-duty truck is a US classification for vehicles with a gross vehicle weight up to and a payload capacity up to 4,000 pounds (1,815 kg). Similar goods vehicle classes in the European Union, Canada, Australia, and New Zeal ...

frames with four-wheel-drive drivetrains. Later, during the

1990s File:1990s decade montage.png, From top left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope orbits the Earth after it was launched in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War; ...

, manufacturers started to add even more luxuries to bring those off-road vehicles on par with regular cars. This eventually evolved into what we call the

SUV A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive. There is no commonly agreed-upon definiti ...

today. It also evolved into the newer

crossover vehicle A crossover, crossover SUV, or crossover utility vehicle (CUV) is a type of automobile with an increased ride height that is built on unibody chassis construction shared with passenger cars, as opposed to traditional sport utility vehicles (S ...

, where utility and off-road capability was sacrificed for better on-road handling and luxury.

Technical

To be able to drive off the pavement,

off-road vehicles An off-road vehicle, sometimes referred to as an overland or adventure vehicle, is considered to be any type of vehicle which is capable of driving on and off paved or gravel surface. It is generally characterized by having large tires with d ...

need several characteristics: They need to have a low ground pressure, so as not to sink into soft ground, they need

ground clearance Ride height or ground clearance is the amount of space between the base of an automobile tire and the lowest point of the automobile (typically the axle); or, more properly, to the shortest distance between a flat, level surface, and the lowest p ...

to not get hung up on obstacles, and they need to keep their

wheels A wheel is a circular component that is intended to rotate on an axle bearing. The wheel is one of the key components of the wheel and axle which is one of the six simple machines. Wheels, in conjunction with axles, allow heavy objects to be ...

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

s on the ground so as not to lose traction. Wheeled vehicles accomplish this by having a suitable balance of large or additional tires combined with tall and flexible suspension. Tracked vehicles accomplish this by having wide tracks and a flexible suspension on the road wheels. ГТ-СМ at Vankorskoe oilfield

The choice of wheels versus tracks is one of cost and suitability. A tracked drivetrain is more expensive to produce and maintain. Wheeled drivetrains are cheaper and give a higher top speed. The tracked drivetrain has greater off-road capability.

Tires A tire (American English) or tyre (British English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a Rim (wheel), wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide Traction (engineering), t ...

play a significant role for any off-road vehicle equipped with wheels, as they ensure optimal traction required to keep it moving. The

off-road tire Off-road tires (Off-road tyre) are a category of vehicle tires that use deep tread to provide more traction on unpaved surfaces such as loose dirt, mud, sand, or gravel. Compared to ice or snow tires, they lack studs but contain deeper and wider ...

tread types vary depending on the terrain type. The most common types of off-road tires are A/T (stands for "All Terrain") and M/T (stands for "Mud Terrain"). While the A/T tires perform excellently on the sand, they are barely usable in the mud. There are also unique Sand Blaster and

Mud bogging Mud bogging (also known as mud racing, mud running, mud drags, or mudding) is a form of off-road motorsport popular in Canada and the United States in which the goal is to drive a vehicle through a pit of mud or a track of a set length. Winners ...

tires used for the most challenging terrains such as dirt, sand and even water to maintain traction at extreme angles and high speeds (off-road motorsport). Most off-road vehicles are fitted with especially low gearing. This allows the operator to make the most of the

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gene ...

's available power while moving slowly through challenging terrain. An internal combustion engine coupled to a standard

gearbox Propulsion transmission is the mode of transmitting and controlling propulsion power of a machine. The term ''transmission'' properly refers to the whole drivetrain, including clutch, gearbox, prop shaft (for rear-wheel drive vehicles), differ ...

often has an output speed too high. The vehicle often has one of two things, either a very low ("granny") first gear (like the all-wheel drive Volkswagen Transporter versions) or an additional gearbox in line with the first, called a

reduction drive A reduction drive is a mechanical device to shift rotational speed. A planetary reduction drive is a small scale version using ball bearings in an epicyclic arrangement instead of toothed gears. Reduction drives are used in engines of all kinds ...

. Some vehicles, like the Bv206 in the picture on the right, also have torque converters to further reduce the gearing. Many wheeled off-road vehicles provide power to all wheels to keep traction on slippery surfaces. For a typical four-wheel vehicle this is known as four-wheel drive. Vehicles designed for use both on and off-road may be designed to be switched between two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive so that the vehicle uses fewer driven wheels when driven on the road.

Criticism of off-road vehicles

Safety

SUVs are built with higher

for

off-road Off-roading is the activity of driving or riding in a vehicle on unpaved surfaces such as sand, gravel, riverbeds, mud, snow, rocks, and other natural terrain. Types of off-roading range in intensity, from leisure drives with unmodified vehicl ...

use and thus have a higher

centre of gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force may ...

, therefore increasing the risk of rollover. When an SUV turns, the vehicle's mass resists the turn and carries the weight forward, thus allowing the traction from the tires to create a lateral

centripetal force A centripetal force (from Latin ''centrum'', "center" and ''petere'', "to seek") is a force that makes a body follow a curved path. Its direction is always orthogonal to the motion of the body and towards the fixed point of the instantaneous ...

as the vehicle continues through the turn. The conflict between the top weight of the SUV's desire to go straight while the friction of the

tire A tire (American English) or tyre (British English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide traction on the surface over which t ...

s on the road cause the bottom of the vehicle to move away and out from under the vehicle during a turn. SUVs are more likely to be in rollover

accident An accident is an unintended, normally unwanted event that was not directly caused by humans. The term ''accident'' implies that nobody should be blamed, but the event may have been caused by unrecognized or unaddressed risks. Most researcher ...

s than

passenger cars A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as t ...

. According to a study conducted in the United States, SUVs have twice the fatality rate of cars and have nearly triple the fatality rate in rollover accidents. Of vehicles in the United States,

s (including

s) represent 36 percent of all registered vehicles. They are involved in about half of the fatal two-vehicle crashes with passenger cars, and 80 percent of these fatalities are to occupants of the passenger cars.

Environment

In the United States, the number of ORV users since 1972 has climbed sevenfold—from five million to 36 million in 2000. Government policies that protect wilderness but also allow recreational ORV use have been the subject of some debate within the United States and other countries. All trail and off-trail activities impact natural vegetation and wildlife, which can lead to erosion, invasive species, habitat loss, and ultimately

species loss Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

decreasing an ecosystem's ability to maintain

homeostasis In biology, homeostasis (British also homoeostasis) (/hɒmɪə(ʊ)ˈsteɪsɪs/) is the state of steady internal, physical, and chemical conditions maintained by living systems. This is the condition of optimal functioning for the organism and i ...

. ORV's cause greater stress to the environment than

foot traffic A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, whether walking or running. In modern times, the term usually refers to someone walking on a road or pavement, but this was not the case historically. The meaning of pedestrian is displayed with t ...

alone, and ORV operators who attempt to test their vehicles against natural obstacles can do significantly more damage than those who follow legal trails. Illegal use of off-road vehicles has been identified as a serious land management problem ranked with dumping

garbage Garbage, trash, rubbish, or refuse is waste material that is discarded by humans, usually due to a perceived lack of utility. The term generally does not encompass bodily waste products, purely liquid or gaseous wastes, or toxic waste produc ...

and other forms of vandalism. Many user organizations, such as

Tread Lightly! Tread Lightly! is a nonprofit organization based in Centerville, Utah, whose mission is to promote responsible recreation through stewardship, education and communication. It was started as a campaign to address impacts from off road vehicles b ...

and the Sierra Club, publish and encourage appropriate

trail ethics Trail ethics define appropriate ranges of behavior for hikers on a public trail. It is similar to both environmental ethics and human rights in that it deals with the shared interaction of humans and nature. There are multiple agencies and group ...

. ORVs have also been criticized for producing more pollution in areas that might normally have none. In addition to

noise pollution Noise pollution, also known as environmental noise or sound pollution, is the propagation of noise with ranging impacts on the activity of human or animal life, most of them are harmful to a degree. The source of outdoor noise worldwide is mai ...

that can cause hearing impairment and stress in wildlife, according to the

U.S. Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...

, old-style two-stroke engines (no longer a component of new off-road vehicles, although some are still in use) "emit about 20 to 33 percent of the consumed fuel through the exhaust" and "discharge from two-stroke snowmobile engines can lead to indirect pollutant deposition into the top layer of snow and subsequently into the associated surface and ground water." In 2002, the United States Environmental Protection Agency adopted emissions standards for

all-terrain vehicle An all-terrain vehicle (ATV), also known as a light utility vehicle (LUV), a quad bike, or simply a quad, as defined by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI); is a vehicle that travels on low-pressure tires, with a seat that is strad ...

s that "when fully implemented in 2012... are expected to prevent the release of more than two million tons of

air pollution Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different type ...

each year—the equivalent of removing the pollution from more than 32 million cars every year." File:Motorcycle-Forest-Damage.jpg, Negative environmental effects caused by motorcycles to a portion of the Los Padres National Forest File:Orv-damage.jpg, Negative environmental effects that occurred when off-road vehicle drivers left the posted trail in

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (, '' AN-zə bə-RAY-goh'') is a California State Park located within the Colorado Desert of southern California, United States. The park takes its name from 18th century Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza and ...

Common off-road vehicles

Common commercial off-road vehicles include four-wheel-drive pickup trucks like the

Ford F-Series The Ford F-Series is a series of light-duty trucks marketed and manufactured by Ford since the 1948 model year. Slotted above the Ford Ranger in the Ford truck model range, the F-Series is marketed as a range of full-sized pickup trucks. ...

Chevrolet C/K C/K is a series of trucks that was manufactured by General Motors from the 1960 to 2002 model years. Marketed by both the Chevrolet and GMC divisions, the C/K series encompassed a wide range of vehicles. While most commonly associated with picku ...

Dodge Ram The Ram pickup (marketed as the Dodge Ram until 2010) is a full-size pickup truck manufactured by Stellantis North America (formerly Chrysler Group LLC and FCA US LLC) and marketed from 2010 onwards under the Ram Trucks brand. The current fif ...

, and Toyota Tacoma. A number of military vehicles have also seen civilian use, including the Jeep CJ and the

AM General AM General is an American heavy vehicle and contract automotive manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana. It is best known for the civilian Hummer and the military Humvee that are assembled in Mishawaka, Indiana. For a relatively brief period, 1 ...

Hummer. Some, like the early Land Rovers, were adapted to military use from civilian specifications. Specialized commonly available off-road vehicles include

Utility terrain vehicle A side-by-side vehicle (SxS or SSV), is an off-road vehicle with a minimum of two seats positioned side-by-side and enclosed within a roll cage structure. They have a minimum of four wheels (or continuous tracks) and are operated by foot controls ...

s (UTVs),

All-terrain vehicle An all-terrain vehicle (ATV), also known as a light utility vehicle (LUV), a quad bike, or simply a quad, as defined by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI); is a vehicle that travels on low-pressure tires, with a seat that is strad ...

s (ATVs),

dirt bike The six main types of motorcycles are generally recognized as ''standard'', ''cruiser'', ''touring'', ''sports'', ''off-road'', and ''dual-purpose''. ''Sport touring'' is sometimes recognized as a seventh category or integrated with the ''touring' ...

s, dune buggies, rock crawlers, and

sandrail A sandrail, also called a sand rail, rail, or sand car, is a lightweight off-road motor vehicle specifically built for traveling in sandy terrain. Similar in some respects and often mistakenly referred to as a dune buggy or sand car, a sandrail ...

s. File:Offroad Jeep 05760 2.jpg, Jeep CJ in action File:Offroadvehicle.JPG, Heavily modified Chevrolet Blazer typical of the United States hobbyist off-roading scene File:Sandrail.JPG, Sandrail at Silver Lake Sand Dunes File:Superjeep,_Reykjavik,_Iceland.jpg, A "Super Jeep", Reykjavik, Iceland

All-terrain vehicle

Off-road motorcycle

There are various types of off-road motorcycles, also known as dirt bikes, specially designed for off-road events. Compared to road-going motorcycles, off-road machines are simpler and lighter, having long

suspension travel Suspension is the system of tires, tire air, springs, shock absorbers and linkages that connects a vehicle to its wheels and allows relative motion between the two. Suspension systems must support both road holding/ handling and ride q ...

, high ground clearance, and rugged construction with little bodywork and no fairings for less damage in spills. Wheels (usually 21" front, 18" rear) have

knobby tires Off-road tires (Off-road tyre) are a category of vehicle tires that use deep tread to provide more traction on unpaved surfaces such as loose dirt, mud, sand, or gravel. Compared to ice or snow tires, they lack studs but contain deeper and wider ...

, often clamped to the rim with a

rim lock A rim lock is a locking device that attaches to the surface of a door. It is the oldest type of lock used in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is of a basic design using (usually) a single lever and a sliding bolt. Wards can be used for addi ...

Commercial, military and less common off-road vehicles

European militaries and utilities have used Land Rover Defenders,

Haflinger The Haflinger, also known as the Avelignese, is a breed of horse developed in Austria and northern Italy (namely Hafling in South Tyrol region) during the late 19th century. Haflinger horses are relatively small, are always chestnut with flaxe ...

s, Pinzgauers,

Volvo L3314 The Volvo Laplander L3314 is a range of military vehicles produced by Volvo. In the early 1950s Volvo received an order to develop a new utility vehicle for the Swedish Army. A pre-run series of 90 vehicles, named the L2304, was delivered betw ...

, and Mercedes-Benz Unimogs for all-terrain transportation. The

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

UMM Alter is less common. The military market for off-road vehicles used to be large, but, since the fall of the Iron Curtain in the 1990s, it has dried up to some extent. The U.S. jeeps, developed during World War II, coined the word many people use for any type of light off-road vehicle. In the U.S., the Jeeps' successor from the mid 1980s was the AM General

HMMWV The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV; colloquial: Humvee) is a family of light, four-wheel drive, military trucks and utility vehicles produced by AM General. It has largely supplanted the roles previously performed by the o ...

series. The Red Army used the GAZ-61 and GAZ-64 during World War II. The Eastern Bloc used the GAZ-69 and

UAZ-469 The UAZ-469 is an off-road military light utility vehicle manufactured by UAZ. It was used by Soviet and other Warsaw Pact armed forces, as well as paramilitary units in Eastern Bloc countries. In the Soviet Union, it also saw widespread service ...

in similar roles. File:Mercedes Benz Unimog Turkey exhibition side.JPG, Unimog at

IDEF IDEF, initially an abbreviation of ICAM Definition and renamed in 1999 as Integration Definition,IEEE Standard for Functional Modeling Language—Syntax and Semantics for IDEF0, Software Engineering Standards Committee of the IEEE Computer Soci ...

'07 Arms Fair File:Wojsko Polskie Irak DA-SD-05-12334.JPEG, Two Polish Honkers in Iraq File:VolvoL3314N.jpg,

N File:Mahindra.jpg,

Mahindra and Mahindra Mahindra & Mahindra Limited (M&M) is an Indian multinational automotive manufacturing corporation headquartered in Mumbai. It was established in 1945 as Mahindra & Mohammed and later renamed as Mahindra & Mahindra. Part of the Mahindra Group, ...

Classic used by the Indian Army File:ELORV.jpg, Soldiers from the

101st Airborne Division The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) ("Screaming Eagles") is a light infantry division of the United States Army that specializes in air assault operations. It can plan, coordinate, and execute multiple battalion-size air assault operati ...

test prototype off-road vehicles File:MarshBuggy1928.jpg, Experimental marsh buggy, 1928, stuck in mud File:Bus crossing river (3).jpg, Off-road bus in Iceland

History

Technical

Criticism of off-road vehicles

Safety

Environment

Common off-road vehicles

All-terrain vehicle

Off-road motorcycle

Commercial, military and less common off-road vehicles

See also

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links