Outfit your vehicle for adventure!
What is recommended before you start exploring off pavement?
Skid Plate
Busting your oil pan, transmission or differential is not only expensive, it can leave you stranded in the middle of no where. Protect yourself and your investment by spending a few hundred dollars on skid plates.
Here are popular skid plate manufacturer's:
Terrain appropriate tires
Outfit your vehicle with terrain appropriate tires. A "severe snow rated all-terrain" tire makes a good all-around tire choice. You may need to downsize your vehicles wheel to open up more all-terrain tire selection. Here's a link to the tire size calculator. This will help you source out what tires you need.
Full-Size spare Tire
Blowing out a tire on a trail is a very REAL possibility, and the little donut spare isn't made to handle rougher terrain. You safest bet is to run a full size spare tire!
Finding a place to mount a full size spare can be a little challenging. In my old 2015 Subaru Forester XT, I built a wooden frame to raise the cargo floor (pictured). This allowed a full size spare to fit. A popular option is to place a full size spare on top of a cargo basket but the only problem is it will greatly increase wind drag and will drop MPG's, we are talking anywhere between 4-9 MPG. You can always carry one in your trunk area, place one in a roof cargo carrier, or purchase a rear hitch tire carrier. JUST, DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT A FULL SIZE SPARE.
Full-time Trans temp monitor
(Mostly applicable to single speed AWD vehicles)
Most vehicles will not have a temperature reading for transmission temperature, and if you don't know over heating has occurred, you won't know to pull over to let the transmission cool down. This can lead to compromised transmission fluid (24or a damaged transmission.
LIFT KITS
A high clearance 4x4 trail starts at 8 inches of ground clearance. This is where minimum clearance becomes a commodity. The more you have, the better you're off...