Writing a setting where people have access to modern technology from the greater world, but the people of this land haven't really developed yet; there isn't a rail or road network connecting the various settlements. This has me wondering if ATVs or other land vehicles would be more effective and cost effective at moving cargo over uneven, unpaved terrain. Would an aspiring merchant family be better off sticking to beasts of burden until the highway gets built? To be clear this is an earth setting with human inhabitants.
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4$\begingroup$ Remember there's a strict policy of one question per post ^^. I know you can be unsure on what to pick and this creates many questions, but this will only add noise in the answers if you take them all at once. You could ask either the horse vs ATVs battle or (probably better) focus only on the specificities of ATVs as transport on difficult lands. It's your call :). $\endgroup$– Tortliena - inactiveCommented Sep 2, 2023 at 8:14
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2$\begingroup$ Also, a few things to note : horses and ATVs have different "maintenance" and "building" costs. This can play a huge role in your settlers's choice. Moreover, as far as I can read, nothing prevents using both of them and use each of their strength as needed :). $\endgroup$– Tortliena - inactiveCommented Sep 2, 2023 at 8:19
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1$\begingroup$ And finally, the game Death Stranding's gameplay is solely about transporting goods in hard to navigate lands, so it has made good thoughts on these issues. There are motorbike which almost act like ATVs, perhaps they can serve as a source of inspiration? $\endgroup$– Tortliena - inactiveCommented Sep 2, 2023 at 8:28
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1$\begingroup$ A related question is Would ATV Cavalry be as effective as horse cavalry? For the record, there are places a horse can go an ATV can't go and places where an ATV would be superior. Horses can eat off the land but can succumb to disease while ATVs require the transport of fuel and can break down. In short, one isn't better than the other, they're both tools each with pros and cons. The only difference is circumstantial, which would make the question Too Story-Based (a literal reason to close). $\endgroup$– JBHCommented Sep 2, 2023 at 23:29
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1$\begingroup$ Is there a reason to not build all the settlements on waterways and use boats? The savings of using water transport compared to land transport are so great that people fought wars over who would get the privilege of sailing an extra fifteen thousand kilometers around Africa instead of transporting goods about 250km from the Mediteranean to the Gulf of Suez, and that's with a road. $\endgroup$– g sCommented Sep 3, 2023 at 3:08
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2 Answers
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ATVs will not help your situation. ATVs are designed with a number of features that make them less than ideal cargo haulers. They tend to have poor suspension and their steering relies on the rider shifting their weight, so if hauling any significant amount of cargo, they'll tend to bounce and slide around. They're also not that powerful - they can go fast, but mainly by virtue of light weight, and their performance would suffer tremendously with any appreciable amount of cargo. They're also rather dangerous.
There is an offroad vehicle that might meet your specifications... well, there was. The overland train was a concept cooked up by the US Army in the 50s to haul military cargo over inhospitable terrain (especially in the Arctic). Huge tires, high ground clearance, and independent turbine-electric engines for each car made it capable of covering pretty much any kind of surface you could ask for. But by 1960 it was obsolete; heavy-lift helicopters did the same job but faster and better.
Why did the overland train disappear? After all, there are tons of inhospitable places where lots of cargo is moved that don't want to pay Army rates for helicopters. Some are serviced by railways but far from all. Australia, for instance, has vast amounts of Outback covered in gigantic cattle stations with little rail coverage and tremendous transport needs (and you don't know transport needs until someone's asked you to haul 100 head of cattle 300 km across the desert).
So what do they use? Road trains, large vehicles essentially built out of normal semis and tractor-trailers temporarily connected together. As the name implies, these need roads, but they don't need to be great roads. Simple asphalt or packed dirt does fine, as the linked page's images can attest. If Australian ranchers, who haul more cargo over rough terrain than just about anybody else on earth, find it easier to build roads than to maintain offroad trains, you can be sure that your settlements will find the same. They don't need a sixteen-lane Autobahn where they can drive 100 kph in air-conditioned comfort, they just need something broad and flat enough to handle freight at better than a walking pace.
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1$\begingroup$ I don’t think these work very well. The overland train requires fairly flat terrain without much vegetation and the road train is for roads. From the question we would assume a variety of landmasses with little road and train network, so most is done through rough terrain. Trees, hills, some deserts and flat terrain, mountains. $\endgroup$– DemiganCommented Sep 2, 2023 at 9:02
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$\begingroup$ An ATV can still haul far more than a horse can, Cargo ATV's are also a thing $\endgroup$– JohnCommented Sep 2, 2023 at 20:54
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$\begingroup$ @John Yes and no. Your average ATV is 30-50 horsepower, which suggests far greater cargo capacity, but they're also lightweight and their steering stinks. On a flat open road I have no argument with your statement. But the rougher the terrain, the less all that HP matters and the more a brain and four legs do. $\endgroup$– JBHCommented Sep 2, 2023 at 23:34
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$\begingroup$ @JBH there a large variety of ATV, some have very good steering and suspension, and the rougher the terrain the less a horse can also carry, can horses go places ATV cannot , yes, but for most of the places humans live ATV are far superior. $\endgroup$– JohnCommented Sep 3, 2023 at 1:08
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$\begingroup$ @John Unless I've misread the question, the OP isn't asking about where humans live. In fact, real Life cannot be an overriding limitation on any question unless specifically requested. The wide variety of ATVs might be irrelevant if fuel is hard to come by and store. It's tough to claim ATVs are far better than animals when there are no maintained roads and a horse can eat almost anywhere. Just a point. $\endgroup$– JBHCommented Sep 3, 2023 at 3:36
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ATV are far better than animals
first cargo designed ATV's are a thing commonly used by rural farmers. Non-recreational ATV's are often called UTV's Utility Task Vehicles. UTV's that can carry a ton or more is common, this is without a trailer, no horse can come close even oxen would have a hard time matching it without a something with wheels to pull. On anything but the roughest ground a UTV can out preform animals, but no one is taking trade routes through the roughest ground, humans take the easiest path available. People only travel through rugged roadless mountains to get to very remote locations which are not places good for trade, and no matter what you used you could not transport much. For the vast majority of terrains a UTV is far better, there is a reason we use machines and not animals today.
Machines vs animals But the single biggest advantage is ATV's are machines. Machines don't get tired, if the break you can replace parts, and an can of gas takes up far far less space than the food and water needed for a an animal.
Trucks If they have ATV's they have trucks, and trucks can carry even more. A bunch of trucks far out preforms animals, the only reason we don't use them much today is they can't compete with trains and ships. There is pretty much a smooth transition from light truck to heavy ATV's the only difference is largely semantic.
Roads Also not having highways is not the same as not having roads, roads are ancient tech. The oldest paved road that still has the original surface is almost 5000 years old, and dirt roads predate farming. People are not moving large amounts of cargo without roads, horses and oxen can only carry large amounts by pulling wagons/carts which also need roads. For some historical comparison, when trucks first became popular most roads in the US were just dirt roads.
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$\begingroup$ UTVs look awesome. I'll probably go with that. Probably doesn't make too much of a difference, but to clarify the point on roads, even the beast of burden were relatively recent introductions. Most of the people re-domesticated feral horses, so even the wheel might not have had that much use until recently. It's true the animal caravans would have left paths, though $\endgroup$– CoquíCommented Sep 2, 2023 at 22:49
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$\begingroup$ @Coquí people walking create paths, the oldest known constructed roads predate the domestication of horses, and the oldest paved roads are from the same time as the domestication of horses. $\endgroup$– JohnCommented Sep 3, 2023 at 1:05