UTV Planet Magazine has an excellent story and vid on their in house Defender Expedition build (here), its a must read if you're into these types of rigs.
After a discussion on the ULCV my attention turned to necessary improvements I see coming soon. If you check out the story I linked then you can get a good idea of all the parts used to build the CAN-AM Defender. I think something like them will be necessary to maximize the performance of the ULCV in rough terrain. What do I see coming for our Paratroopers, Marines, and Special Ops personnel that will be operating these vehicles?
1. Lift kits. Out the box these are capable vehicles but load them down and you're gonna be bottoming out constantly. A two or three inch lift will be necessary to maximize off road performance in rugged terrain.
2. 4x4 body armor. Unless the military doesn't care about repairs and/or body damage to these vehicles then body armor is gonna be essential. Thankfully the state of the art doesn't add too much weight but will keep this rigs from being dented to hell.
3. ATV cargo racks/baskets. These vehicles can take some weird angles on slopes and keep going. You're gonna need racks or baskets so gear can be tied down or else you're gonna have to slow your movements to a crawl to keep gear from getting tossed.
4. Trailers. I don't know why this isn't already being done especially since the Marine Corps is looking at them as load carriers for infantry in austere locations. This one is gonna be tricky because you're gonna want it to do nothing to lessen the mobility of the ULCV, have max load carrying capability while at the same time making sure that if it somehow flips it doesn't end up tossing its tow.
All in all I like the ULCV concept for low intensity combat. We just have to make sure that we don't sabotage the effort because we went too cheap to make/buy the needed add-ons to make it work.
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