Yeah, going against the grain is cool, but sometimes it just requires too much dough. But like the old saying goes, anything is possible if you throw enough money at it. The necessities of a desert basher or prerunner would be torquey and reliable power with a good gear ratio, strong and improved travel suspension, safety precautions (cage, bumpers, harnesses, etc.), extended fuel capabilities, among so many other things.
Basically imagine taking your truck offroad in the beat heat and smashing on it all day. Would you trust it to make it through it? How about drive home? LOL The desert can be pretty harsh and offroading takes quite a toll on your chassis, you need to take all of that into account. One of the key things though is having a long and wide enough wheel base. With the crawlers, you usually have a super short and narrow wheelbase for crawling through those tiny parts, kinda the opposite of what's needed for going fast and just "handling" the terrain you drive over.
