Fourwheeling is many things to many people. I honestly dont like the Beer analogy, for obvious reasons.

For me it is about spending days or weeks in the wilderness facing the challenge of getting your vehicle through impossible places while enjoying the finest scenery in the world, visiting historical sites, enjoying solitude and camping, commarodery, ect. Its like backpacking, with your car. I am doing 700 miles of trail in the Arizona Strip next month, in a week. How long would that take backpacking? Will even drive to the bottom of the Grand Canyon!

STarting out you are best learning with a club, that would save you damage and aggravation. Simply install rock sliders, and upgrade the skid plates eventually and you can have fun on some level. Not all wheeling gets damage. Scratches buff out. I have already beat the heack out of our 05, but you cannot tell without looking underneath. If you do wheel, start off with easy trails, learn from others and see if you like it. If you do, slowly build your rig over the years and try harder and harder trails. Many of the most rewarding trails happen to be the hardest. BUT, there are many fine trails that are easy as well.