I ride more than I get out in my truck, but my life feels more incomplete without a 4x4. For the first few months of riding season I am 100% focused on riding and I ask myself the same question you just asked. Then I forget to plan a wheeling trip for a few weeks and my life feels crazy out of balance. It always takes me a week or two to realize what's missing: camping trips with my family. I don't know how else to describe it. As much as I love riding, it can never replace my need to get out and camp/wheel once a month. If I had to pick between my dirt bike and my truck, my truck would win hands down. Then again, my truck isn't exactly a crawler. It's way easier to load up the dirt bikes and head out for an afternoon than to load up the crawler and run to moab and back (though that's possible too).
I've learned to plan my 4x4 trips first, then fit in the rest of the weekends with dirt biking. Actually, riding every thursday night keeps the dirt bike itch scratched, and leaves me weekends to do other stuff. That's the balance I've found lately. Towards the end of the fall, I don't feel the urge to ride every week, I kinda have it out of my system for a while.
I also think I ride and 4x4 for different reasons. I do both to get out away from it all and see the scenes, but the riding is far more adrenaline, high-paced action. The 4x4 for me is more relaxing and overall therapudic. One could never replace the other, they're two entirely different activities for me, aside from the dirt roads and scenery.
It just depends on if I'm going for a relaxing adventurous weekend or an adrenaline-packed weekend. I don't get my adrenaline from crawling anymore, the stakes and costs are too high.
