SWISS WAY UP

I always find it a bit curious when people build swampers out of 2WD vans; I shouldn’t because I put together a Bay Window pickup with chunky off-road treads a few years ago and it was pretty capable, but there’s something about the front-wheel-drive platform of the Transporter that seems a little less capable in an off-road scenario than a rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive vehicle.

I get that it’s usually down to budget constraints and that many of the people building these vans do it just for the look. Most people, in the UK especially, don’t have clear access to off-grid places to go with a van, as much as we all might love the idea of it. It’s a wildly different story in the USA, for example, where this look kind of originated. Having had the pleasure of getting truly off-grid and