Should You Take the Hyundai Palisade Off-Road?

The Hyundai Palisade isn’t ideal for off-roading, but its third-row seating and luxury interior make it a comfortable ride.
Written by Mary Alice Morris
Reviewed by Jessica Barrett
The Hyundai Palisade is ostensibly a mid-size crossover SUV, but it’s enormous—barely lagging behind the behemoth Kia Telluride. With seating for up to eight people and as much as 86 cubic feet of cargo space when the back seats are folded down, the Palisade can seem quite palace-like. 
And, unsurprisingly for something marketed as a luxury family vehicle, it’s probably not the best suited for off-roading adventures. It has the look of a rough and rugged SUV, but in truth, the Palisade has a unibody construction similar to sedans, and its unimpressive ground clearance won’t help you tackle any trails.

Can the Hyundai Palisade go off-road?

The Hyundai Palisade can go off-road in the same sense that any other car can go off-road—sure, you can get it off the road. But then what
The Hyundai Palisade was really not made for off-roading. However, its powerful engine and moderate wheelbase could take you down some very casual trails and country roads. Just make sure to avoid any big dips and steep climbs, and watch for stumps and rocks. Essentially, it’s recommended for highway and street driving, and perhaps the occasional soft-roading, but not rugged off-roading.
With a starting MSRP of $31,975, you’ll want to make sure the Hyundai Palisade is suitable for what you want from your vehicle before you settle on buying.
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Ground clearance

The
Hyundai Palisade’s ground clearance
is 7.9 inches. To give some perspective, that’s about two inches higher than the
Toyota Prius
, and about four inches shorter than the
Jeep Gladiator Mojave
Ground clearance measures the distance between the lowest part of a vehicle’s chassis and the ground underneath it. Basically, it tells us how much space is available for objects to safely pass underneath the bottom of your car. The Palisade’s 7.9 inches is moderately high for street driving, but it’s a little too low for off-roading. 
An ideal off-roading vehicle will have a ground clearance that’s between 8.8 and 10.8 inches. That gives it enough room to clear small obstacles while also maintaining the vehicle’s stability.

Torque

Measuring
torque
is like measuring how much gusto your car’s engine produces. More precisely, it indicates the amount of rotational force that your engine can make. 
When you’re off-roading, it’s not just the amount of torque that matters, but how much torque you can produce in a lower gear. High torque at a low rpm delivers the slow and steady crawling power that it takes to climb out of rough terrain and uneven landscapes. 
A good low-end torque for off-roading should see a peak between 2,000 and 4,000 rpm. However, the Palisade only meets half of the requirement. It produces a decent amount of torque—262 lb-ft—but it’s at a higher rpm of 5,200. 

Tires

The Palisade comes with P245/60TR18 all-season tires. These are somewhat low-profile, especially for off-roading. You could replace them with all-terrain tires, but those tend to wear out a little quicker and can be more costly. 
If you’re not going to take your Palisade off-road routinely, you probably don’t need all-terrain tires.

Drivetrain

Off-roaders like to see one of two drivetrain types in their vehicles. They either want all-wheel drive (AWD), which can find superior traction to crawl through sand, rocks, and soil. Or, they want rear-wheel drive (RWD), which provides great control and power transfer to your wheels. 
Unfortunately, the Palisade has neither. It’s a front-wheel-drive (FWD) vehicle. Having FWD isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and it doesn’t make off-roading totally impossible. But it does seriously limit the kind of terrain you can handle. If one of your front wheels approaches a rut and ends up uneven to the other front wheel, you’re stuck. 
MORE: Hyundai AWD cars

Angles

Another spec that off-road enthusiasts look for is the vehicle’s angle capabilities. This is specifically in regard to your car’s approach angle and departure angle
  • Approach angle is the maximum incline that a car can drive up without having interference on the underside
  • Departure angle is the maximum decline that a car can drive downward without scraping the underside.
Basically, the higher your approach and departure angles are, the steeper the inclines and dips you can tackle. For instance, the
Jeep Wrangler Rubicon
has an approach angle of 47.4 degrees, and a departure angle of 40.4 degrees. That means it can climb and descend some seriously steep surfaces.
Not so with the Palisade. The Hyundai Palisade’s approach angle is 18.5 degrees and the departure angle is 21.2 degrees.
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Off-road rating: In a pinch

Below is a guide outlining
Jerry’s
DIRT off-road rating system. We used this super-technical standardized assessment to evaluate the Hyundai Palisade:
Rating
Meaning
Description
D
Don’t Try It
Vehicles better suited to highway conditions
I
In a Pinch
Vehicles that can handle off-road conditions in certain circumstances
R
Rough and Ready
Vehicles designed for casual off-roading
T
Trail Boss
True off-road vehicles capable of tackling a range of terrain
Bottom line: The Palisade gets an I rating. It’s big, it’s bulky, and its ground clearance is higher than that of many other cars. But it’s really not high enough for off-roading, and it’s an FWD vehicle with poor approach and departure angles. You’ll be safer sticking to well-beaten paths and trails rather than remote off-road explorations. 

The best off-road alternatives to the Hyundai Palisade

If you’re not entirely sure that you want a Hyundai Palisade, here are a couple of alternatives to consider:
Alternative
Model
Price
Description
Best affordable alternative
2020 Kia Telluride
$31,890
The Kia Telluride has a slightly higher ground clearance but lower approach and departure angles than the Palisade, due to its lengthier wheelbase. Like the Palisade, it features a 291-hp, 3.8-L V6 engine.
Best family alternative
2021 Toyota Highlander
$35,085
The Toyota Highlander’s off-road specs like ground clearance and angles are comparable to the Palisade’s. It offers a little more horsepower, 295 to be exact, with its 3.5-L V6 engine.
MORE: The 10 best SUVs for towing
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How to find affordable car insurance for off-road vehicles

Before you pick out your perfect off-road vehicle, you need to know one hard truth: Often, car insurance is more expensive for off-road-ready vehicles. However, you can still find ways to save, no matter what kind of car you drive, if you use
Jerry
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