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There's something cruelly satisfying about the solid, spine-compressing sound that accompanies the gravity-aided marriage of stone and undercarriage. That's doubly true when the racket's coming from someone else's brand-new $29,000 SUV. Call me masochistic. Yes, I may be trying to shove torso-sized lumps of sandstone through the floorboard of the 2014 Nissan Xterra in my quest to scramble up a dry creek bed, but engineers stuffed a line of hefty skid plates between the truck's vitals and fools like myself. This is going to be a good day.

Despite what those ads on TV may lead you to believe, there are only a handful of SUVs on sale right now that are capable of pounding over inhospitable terrain with any reliability. Rigs like the Toyota 4Runner and Nissan Xterra are the last of a once proud breed of crawlers.

Mid-sized, body-on-frame SUVs with solid rear axles and independent front suspensions were once standard operating procedure for most manufacturers, but the advent of the crossover has seen both buyers and builders scramble away from the design. The Xterra is one of the last holdouts in this segment, which is why I found myself doing my damnedest to put a rock through the SUV's oil pan one cool morning.

Like any machine with the hint of a personality, the Xterra has a devoted following. Each year, the XterraNation.org descends on Windrock OHV Park and its 75,000 acres of off-road bliss just outside of Oliver Springs, Tennessee for the National Xterra Meet. They come from as far as Louisiana and Florida in rigs that range from bone-stock to four-link monsters teetering on axles robbed from a four-wheel drive F-350. You know you're in a different class when the lift is measured in feet.

Ask them why they drive an Xterra, and most will simply respond with an accusatory, "What else would I drive, a Jeep?"

Like Linux, the Windows phone, and Battlestar Gallactica, the Xterra is the third mutt in a two-dog fight, and owners take a certain amount of twisted, against-the-grain pride in running something without a Jeep or Toyota badge on the hood. Naturally, I love this.

Picking my way through the ridges and valleys that make up Trail #22, I can understand the affliction. Nissan built the Xterra just for this sort of slow, deliberate off-roading, and the truck's relatively short wheelbase, solid approach and departure angles and decent break-over make for a happy little billy goat. Of course, I'm piloting a top-of-the-line PRO-4X, complete with the ultimately unnecessary luxury package. While I could do without the leather seats and premium audio, the trim does offer a spate of off-road goodies, including Bilstein dampers and a selectable locking rear differential. Those last bits are worth every last copper penny.

Even through fairly challenging inclines, slick rocks and loose dirt, the locking rear differential makes four-wheel drive all but unnecessary. Flip the switch on the center stack, pick your line well and the truck will do the rest. There's a decent amount of articulation built into the suspension, which helps the Xterra keep its feet planted. At least, most of the time. I will cop to having had the truck in at least one teeter-totter situation, wherein both the front left and rear right tires were touching nothing but open air, but the locker simply pulled the truck through the obstacle without any drama.

After carefully working down Trail #26, I turned around to head back up, following a modestly modified early model with a slight lift, oversized tires and plenty of body protection. Watching the driver have to work to get his rig to saddle up an abrupt rock step, I was certain I was going to have to reverse the 2014 and find another way back to the trailhead, but the combination of four-low and that rear locker made easy work of the same obstacle. The Xterra simply did what it was built to do, without any drama.

PRO-4X trim comes with BF Goodrich Rugged Terrain tires as standard equipment, and while the rubber is certainly happier on road than off, airing down to around 22 psi delivers a tire that's both competent and compliant. In the dry, the tires offer up an impressive amount of grip over loose dirt and gravel scrambles both up and down the mountain. Throw a little water on the rocks, however, and tires lose their luster a bit.

But there are larger issues at play than simply the shoes on the 2014 Xterra's feet. Prepping the machine for any real off-road duty is an exercise in disassembly. In order to obtain maximum approach, departure and break over, the factory step bars and mud flaps have to be removed before hitting the trail.

This wouldn't be a huge issue if Nissan's engineers had designed the pieces to be removed quickly or without the use of special tools. They didn't, and as a result, you very nearly need to remove the rear wheels in order to get the bits off of the SUV. That's not exactly a convenient job at the trailhead. Owners who do any regular off-roading pull the pieces and leave them off, and Nissan knows this. That doesn't mean the company's changing the design anytime soon. After all, more owners want to keep mud off of their vehicle's flanks than maximize their departure angle.

The company hasn't released pricing for the 2014 Xterra PRO-4X just yet, but expect the MSRP to come in just a bit more expensive than the 2013 model's $29,440. That will net you the same 261-horsepower 4.0-liter V6 and your choice of a five-speed automatic or a six-speed manual gearbox. Optioning up a comparable 4Runner will cost quite a bit more, up to $37,155 for Trail trim, and the Toyota simply feels bigger and heavier than its Nissan rival off road. Given the Xterra's relatively compact size, reasonable price tag, and impressive capability, it's a solid pick off the beaten path.


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