The Ultimate Ski Vehicle

[Bluebird Day]

Harvey44 wrote:
I bet you can probably squeeze 18-20 mpg out of it if you drive it gently.

I get somewhere around 22-24mpgs on HWY and 15 around town. My Suburban (a common ski car out here) gets 12 mpg on HWY. Plus for hill climbing power, nothing beats a deisel. \/

 

[cweinman]

Personally, I find any full size extend or crew cab pickup with either a cap or tonneau to be exactly the right vehicle for the job. You can throw your crap in the back and not have to worry about it making a mess of anything (wet, who cares, dirty, who cares, etc.) and still have room for 4 to 5 people comfortably (especilaly with a crew cab). Sealed back makes road salt not an issue, and no need for ski racks to even carry 4 to 6 sets of skis/boards.

Throw some snow tires on and make it not brand new so you don't worry about beating on it to take it even a bit further.

-Craig

That's the way I'm going. I have a 2005 2500HD Duramax with Crew Cab and long bed with 42,000 miles on it and I am going to put an A.R.E. MX cap on it. It will replace my '03 Suburban 2500 that just turned 100K and is going up for sale. The cap also has screened tilt out side and back windows and a Yakima rack for my box on top.

A.R.E. makes great stuff, that's what our tonneau is; we actually bought our tonneau to replace a fold a cover that blew all of its water tight gaskets out right after the warranty on it expired. We were between cap or tonneau and ultimately went tonneau to save the few hundred dollars, plus we didn't want to sacrifice rear visibility with a cap and liked the look of the tonneau a lot more (our truck is a Chevy sportside and they look really odd with caps on them).

The truck was great in upstate New York due to being invincible in lake effect snow, but I'm enjoying it even more now out in Arizona since we're also into hiking in a big way, and trailhead access can be nothing short of diabolical at times (try 30 to 40 mile rough, one lane, partially flooded roads for instance). Personally, I wouldn't want to drive a Honda CRV or a Subaru Forester through that (and it appears Admin doesn't either in Utah!).

For the record, I love the updates to the Land Rover LR4, but have been scared to death of Land Rover reliability for awhile. I refuse to buy any GM vehicles on principle now though, and I don't like Ford or Toyota trucks much, so my options are quickly diminishing once we need to replace our Chevy.

 

[Geoff]

I'm of a somewhat different point of view. I'm thinking gasoline is going to spike to $6.00/gallon in a currency collapse. An Audi A3 TDi with good snow tires would be a good option on the east coast.

 

[icelanticskier]

I'm of a somewhat different point of view. I'm thinking gasoline is going to spike to $6.00/gallon in a currency collapse. An Audi A3 TDi with good snow tires would be a good option on the east coast.

gas goes to 6 bux a gallon and i'll be buying a surfboard carrier for my bike and a good winter suit. gotta draw the line somewhere. surf is gonna be sick for much of this coming week.

rog

 

[Bluebird Day]

I'm of a somewhat different point of view. I'm thinking gasoline is going to spike to $6.00/gallon in a currency collapse. An Audi A3 TDi with good snow tires would be a good option on the east coast.[/quote]

The Audi A3 TDI looks like a great car and will probably give you 25-30 mpg. I had a 2004 Audi Allroad (2.7 BiTurbo). It was a very fun car to drive and with the adjustable lift suspension, it was a snow machine. But man!!! That car ate tires and gas!! Sold it and I will probably be looking at the A3 TDI Avant in the spring or a used Mercedes CDI 4-matic Wagon.

 

[EMSC]

new candidate for ultimate ski vehicle... Not only to the runs but up them as well...