I agree with your whole post mostly, but I have a different perspective on IFS. There are a few comments slamming IFS in this thread; I’m quoting yours as it was the first but it’s not my intent to single you out. While I totally agree that IFS is not as robust as a solid axle, that is only one (incredibly important) dimension to consider with vehicle choice, and I’d argue that IFS is a better choice for most overlanders in North America.
Very, very few people can have a dedicated rig just for overlanding, and even those that do will see a ton of pavement miles for every dirt mile they travel, let alone really tough trails. So for a rig that’s going to be a daily driver or used primarily for North American overlanding where the tracks are usually based of unimproved roads/trails, and not major rock crawling and obstacles to get to the back of beyond, IFS is actually better. IFS is more comfortable, it’s easy to pack spare parts for, and in many applications has a better front ground clearance potential as there isn’t a front diff hanging down. Having spent a lot of time at the wheel of solid axle and IFS vehicles, I also find IFS to be far less tiring to drive. Solid axles needed a lot more micro adjustments cruising down highways (at least my Jeep did, as did my family’s Jeep when I was younger). There are plenty of advantages in the "car like" behaviour of an IFS vehicle during the daily chores that we all need to do too.
If you are doing really tough off road than solid axles are better, but many see advice shying them away from IFS as being totally unsuitable, and that scares them away from perfectly acceptable and capable overland rigs — like the Silverado! Both solid and IFS has compromises, and like most stuff it depends on the application.
As a more general comment on full sized rigs — they are very much an American phenomenon, yet they’ve recently been gaining a lot of popularity with Australian ranchers. I don’t think there are in-roads in Africa at this time but that may come in the future as economies shift. Most of what we consider to be ‘good overlanding rigs’ are good because they have a ton of use cases, and a ton of aftermarket support, but they all started in the same place — some dude already had a land cruiser station wagon, or a jeep, or a Hilux, and one day decided to go for a bit of an adventure. He has a grand time and tells his buddies a fish story, so the next time they bring their station wagon, Jeep, etc. and they have an adventure together. When they get back they decide a new bumper or rack would let them have even better adventures, and the aftermarket is born. Then the rest of us hear of their adventures, and a whole host of people say “The land cruiser station wagon/Jeep/hilux is what you need to overland because that’s how those guys did it”. Thank god those original guys didn’t get told that before deciding to have an adventure, otherwise they’d still be using their 4x4 station wagon as....a station wagon!
In 10 years, if the full size market continues to grow in Australia and Overlnding continues to grow in America, I think we will see a surge of people using full size trucks in overlanding applications, because people will be building the vehicle they already own — a vehicle they likely bought with their daily needs in mind, not just overlanding — and they will be building them up and taking them overlanding.
Personally I’m with MidOh. If you want to go down every possible trail, get a motorbike and a gym membership (because you will be working HARD with some bikes on some trails!). For everyone else, there will always be trails that your rig isn’t suitable for. It’s all about compromise.
