3 SUVs With More Ground Clearance Than A Jeep Wrangler

Think of off-road vehicles, and there is a high chance that you'd blurt out Jeep Wrangler. The Wrangler traces its lineage to the Jeep Willys. With lineage comes capability, stemming from decades of experience in tackling the rough stuff. But what makes it so capable off-road? Many factors determine an SUV's off-road capability, like approach and departure angle, wheel size, engine low-speed performance, and more. However, arguably the most important factor for off-roading is ground clearance. Just ask these best off-roaders of all time. 

Ground clearance is the distance between the ground and the lowest point of your vehicle. It ensures that your car's underbody will be safe from obstacles you'd encounter on the trails, like rocks, deep ruts, and even fallen logs. With low ground clearance, chances are your vehicle could get beached, or you could end up damaging the engine sump, suspension components, or even rupture your fuel tank. Ground clearance lays the foundation for your approach, departure, and breakover angles.

Jeep understands this, so even the most basic Wranglers offer up to 9.7 inches of ground clearance. Jeep has different Wrangler models, and the hardcore ones have higher ground clearance, up to 10.8 inches. You can go even higher, up to 12.9 inches, with the optional factory Xtreme Recon package, which adds a suspension lift, tuned shock absorbers, and 35-inch all-terrain wheels. To keep things interesting, let's consider the Jeep Wrangler with the highest ground clearance you can spec, i.e., 12.9 inches. There are a few SUVs that have higher ground clearance than the tallest factory Wrangler. Let's check them out.

The Bronco Raptor is a big jump up from the base Bronco, even in terms of ground clearance. The base Bronco has 8.4 inches of ground clearance (8.3 inches for the two-door variant). The big jump comes courtesy of Ford's high-performance off-road stability suspension (HOSS 4.0) package, which includes Fox semi-active dampers, with over 13 inches of wheel travel and 37-inch tires. This helps give the Bronco Raptor immense off-roading cred, including a 47.2 degree approach angle, 30.8 degree breakover angle, and 40.5 degree departure angle, as well as over three feet of water fording ability.

Other factors that make the Bronco capable off-road are a wider track, skid plates to protect the underbody, seven terrain modes, and a powerful 3.0-liter EcoBoost V6 engine that puts out 418 horsepower and 440 pound-feet of torque via a 10-speed automatic transmission. This capability comes at a cost, though. The Bronco Raptor is priced at $79,995 onwards, almost twice the price of the base Bronco.

The Rivian isn't the only EV on this list. In fact, electric SUVs offer the highest ground clearance. The Rivian R1S is one of those rare electric SUVs that you can actually take offroading, and most of it boils down to its massive 14.7 inches of maximum ground clearance, which helps give it an impressive 35.8 degrees of approach and 34.4 degrees of departure angle. This high ground clearance can be credited to its air suspension setup, which offers a wide range of ride height adjustment, increasing ground clearance from 8.7 inches to 14.7 inches, depending on the trim level. The large 22-inch wheels help, too.

The R1S is available in a few different configurations. While it has a standard dual motor AWD setup, the top variants come with either a three-motor or a four-motor AWD setup, with the latter having one motor powering each wheel. The quad-motor variant not only pushes the combined output to 1,025 horsepower and 1,198 pound-feet of torque, but it also ensures you are never lacking for performance in the rough bits. 

In fact, Rivian cars' off-road capabilities are a bigger story than their horsepower outputs. Part of what allows these Rivians to perform so well off-road is the ability to tune inputs such as wheel slip, torque balance, and throttle pedal response. It also gets the Tank Turn feature, which allows you to turn the vehicle 360 degrees in one place. Starting prices for the Rivian R1S range from $76,990 to $125,990. Not bad for an electric SUV with tons of power and three-row seating.

The second electric SUV in this list is the Hummer EV, the electric equivalent of the mighty HUMVEE. While its size does put it in the top tier of the definitive truck heirarchy, the Hummer EV is more capable than you think. Like the Rivian, the Hummer EV also has air suspension that, coupled with its 22-inch wheels (on higher models), offers a standard 10.2 inches of ground clearance, which, with extract mode, can go up to 16 inches. With maximum ride height, it has a water wading depth of close to three feet, an approach angle of 49.6 degrees, a departure angle of 49.0 degrees (45.6 with spare tire), and a breakover angle of 34.4 degrees. The high ground clearance also gives it the ability to climb up an 18-inch wall.

Besides this, the Hummer EV gets four-wheel steering, which enables the Crabwalk feature wherein the SUV can drive sideways with all four wheels pointing in one direction, King Crab mode, which has the rear wheels turn twice as much as the front wheels to get out of tight spots, and even electronic locking front and rear differentials. The Hummer EV comes with either two or three electric motor powertrain options, with the latter delivering a combined 830 horsepower and 11,500 pound-feet of torque. Prices for the 2026 Hummer EV start at $96,600.