So, school goes on. I've got another year an a half of this before I stumble out of here with a degree. Anyway, after ditching my 2008 Focus for a '96 Tahoe and 350 Honda, I'm pretty happy with the truck/motorcycle combination. In the summer time I get 50+ mpg average, and over the winter I never, ever have to worry about whether or not I can get there.
However, I'm planning on selling the Tahoe later this year, keeping only the motorcycle over the summer, and buying another truck before winter shows back up.
The Tahoe is great right now. This time of year we are building snow statues for our winter carnival, and we use pickups trucks to haul snow. While the Tahoe isn't useful for that, our snow supply comes from unplowed fields, parking lots, and drainage ditches. What we use the Tahoe for is pulling the trucks out when they are stuck, which happens semi often. Most times I'm wheeling a 2001 Silverado with a 4.8 and older A/Ts (We call her Irene- it's an Air Force joke) that is merely adequate in 2' of heavy snow. But when it gets stuck I just drop the Tahoe in 4 lo and it tugs the Silverado out without any real issue at all. The Tahoe is heavy enough and has good enough tires (pretty new Destination A/Ts) that it handle the same 1.5"-2" of snow without any drama. Just stick it in drive, don't spin the wheels or act like an idiot and it'll crawl anywhere you want it to go.
So, the challenge- next year I want a pickup truck. I don't want a wicked mudding/wheeling rig, but I want something that I can crawl through things with without drama- Irene takes a heavy foot and lots of wheelspin to get it into the same things that the Tahoe rolls through.
Basic Requirements
- Needs to be built on the relatively cheap
- Engine needs to be reliable and torquey enough to tow and haul decent loads on and off the road
- Preferably a stick shift
- Stock suspension needs to be at least competent or easily retrofitted to a beefier setup- I'd like to be able to put 33" tires on it without needing to worry about serious geometry issues
- Needs to be OK on the highway- it's 8 hours driving home and I want to see better than 15 mpg on the road
- Has to have an extended cab
Main focus
- Snow/cold weather capability- I'll probably be adding a heavy steel plate in the bed to add weight- sandbags get in the way of hauling things
- Vehicle recovery- as it is I end up helping one person a day on average right now. I'd like to add a winch so I can get myself out/not have to manually pull out other vehicles.
- Winter commuting- there are some serious hills in this town and the roads are covered in snow and ice for at three months out of the year
The most taxing thing it'll be doing is moving snow. For 6-8 hours at a time we make repeated trips about 1/2 mile up a 400' hill, into 2' of snow, pack the bed with snow- right around 600-800 lbs, and make the return trip, where we again drive through 1-2 feet on snow at the build site. A good crew can do this in about 15 minutes, and we'll haul 15-25 loads a day.
Ideas?
However, I'm planning on selling the Tahoe later this year, keeping only the motorcycle over the summer, and buying another truck before winter shows back up.
The Tahoe is great right now. This time of year we are building snow statues for our winter carnival, and we use pickups trucks to haul snow. While the Tahoe isn't useful for that, our snow supply comes from unplowed fields, parking lots, and drainage ditches. What we use the Tahoe for is pulling the trucks out when they are stuck, which happens semi often. Most times I'm wheeling a 2001 Silverado with a 4.8 and older A/Ts (We call her Irene- it's an Air Force joke) that is merely adequate in 2' of heavy snow. But when it gets stuck I just drop the Tahoe in 4 lo and it tugs the Silverado out without any real issue at all. The Tahoe is heavy enough and has good enough tires (pretty new Destination A/Ts) that it handle the same 1.5"-2" of snow without any drama. Just stick it in drive, don't spin the wheels or act like an idiot and it'll crawl anywhere you want it to go.
So, the challenge- next year I want a pickup truck. I don't want a wicked mudding/wheeling rig, but I want something that I can crawl through things with without drama- Irene takes a heavy foot and lots of wheelspin to get it into the same things that the Tahoe rolls through.
Basic Requirements
- Needs to be built on the relatively cheap
- Engine needs to be reliable and torquey enough to tow and haul decent loads on and off the road
- Preferably a stick shift
- Stock suspension needs to be at least competent or easily retrofitted to a beefier setup- I'd like to be able to put 33" tires on it without needing to worry about serious geometry issues
- Needs to be OK on the highway- it's 8 hours driving home and I want to see better than 15 mpg on the road
- Has to have an extended cab
Main focus
- Snow/cold weather capability- I'll probably be adding a heavy steel plate in the bed to add weight- sandbags get in the way of hauling things
- Vehicle recovery- as it is I end up helping one person a day on average right now. I'd like to add a winch so I can get myself out/not have to manually pull out other vehicles.
- Winter commuting- there are some serious hills in this town and the roads are covered in snow and ice for at three months out of the year
The most taxing thing it'll be doing is moving snow. For 6-8 hours at a time we make repeated trips about 1/2 mile up a 400' hill, into 2' of snow, pack the bed with snow- right around 600-800 lbs, and make the return trip, where we again drive through 1-2 feet on snow at the build site. A good crew can do this in about 15 minutes, and we'll haul 15-25 loads a day.
Ideas?
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