WY/ID trailheads & vehicle clearence needed

[Mary R]

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Hey pals,

Not sure if this is really the right forum… but I mostly consider my car “gear” for backpacking. Anyway, I’m planning on moving out to Boise in a month or so. I need to purchase a car beforehand and am trying to determine what kind of car to buy.

Obviously better MPG has its benefits, but I’m hoping to do a lot of backpacking up in the Sawtooths and Winds. I’ve had issues before in CO getting up to the trailheads and can only assume these lower-trafficed places are even less kind to small vehicles, so I’m considering purchasing a small truck.

Does anyone have any experience with getting out to these areas? Do I really need something with that high of clearance? Or should I just buy a Prius like the hippie gods intended?

Thanks!

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[DGoggins]

I’m in Boise…so I can tell you about roads around here (though I do want to do a winds trip soon).

So, I have a toyota tundra. I’ll take any road to a trailhead, and there are some bad ones. Same thing with my other stomping ground, down in southern utah, where trails can get real bad too.

There are plenty of trailheads that a prius can get to. But…not everything. Like, there are some roads on west mountain up near cascade that are very rough…I was worried about the truck. Or like…in the sawtooths, most major trailheads are fine, but there are sections that turn into nightmares. Like…if you want to take the upper trailhead to hell roaring lake….thats a rough road. But…you could just start at the lower trailhead and just hike a few more miles. Or….there is a trailhead at yellow belly lake (north of pettit lake). The first trailhead is no problem for a prius. But…the road does continue to a second trailhead that is pretty bad, but cuts out…1.5 miles or something.

Basically….I think you can get to a lot of locations in a prius…but…not everywhere. There are roads that are very rough, but there are still plenty of roads that are maintained.

[Ben C]

I have only been to the Big Sandy and Green River Lakes trailheads of the Winds.  A Prius is fine for each.

[Joel B]

1960’s VW. Bus is best bus pricey these days. Beetle is common and cheap and tough as nails. They are smog exempt and easy to understand and repair yourself.

Don’t believe me? Google some Baja 1000 class 11 cars and see what a 99% stock beetle can do.

[Brad P]

Just don’t take much gear or people in a VW bus up any mountain unless you have a lot of time and are prepared for honking and other drivers telling you that you’re, uh, number 1 in their hearts.

[jimmyjam]

<p style=”padding-left: 30px;”>Get a Jeep.</p>

[Jim C]

Consider your balance between commuting and backpacking. If your schedule is dominated by former, and you want a Prius (we won’t judge!), get a Prius and rent when you need higher clearance. The finances may come out in the favor of renting.

 

[Lester Moore]

If you can only have one vehicle, how about a Subaru wagon? Multiple friends with subarus seem to love theirs (mostly). Seems like a good compromise between 4WD and traditional 2WD, and clearance is even more important than 4WD in many cases. Things may have changed, but 10 yrs ago it seemed like 90% of mountain town locals in CO (places like Crested Butte) were either driving a Toyota Tacoma or a Subaru wagon. I totally love our Tacoma, but would not want to commute with it due to gas mileage (the Prius is ideal for this).

[Jenny A]

Mary, I have never owned anything but a truck or Toyota 4Runner, so I might not be the best judge of what cars are capable of, but I would never head out to remote trailheads in my husband’s Prius!  It can barely clear the bump in the driveway, does not do ruts, and packs mud behind the wheels on wet dirt roads.  But it gets amazing gas mileage.  I have made some forays into the Winds (mostly east side), and the Prius would not have made it into some of the trailheads.

As was mentioned, a Subaru of some kind, like an Outback, comes to mind:  decent clearance for a car, decent gas milieage, and probably won’t strand you in some remote corner.  I have seen them in some places that were impressive.

I love Toyota 4Runners, which for me are the perfect blend of reliability (very important to me), 4WD capability and clearance, versatility, and functionality.  Too bad they have morphed into the expensive, feature-laden behemoths they have become, but they are still off-road worthy out the gate and reasonably priced if you drive one for 15-20 years.

[Steofan M]

Subaru AWD is the best for any road condition. They have great clearance, low center of gravity. I’ve pulled a few pickups out of ditches with my 5-speed manual Subaru Baja.

[Bruce Tolley]

As a proud Toyota owner I have to say that any Suburu will have better gas mileage than a 4WD. If I recall correctly, the Forrester has an inch or two more clearance than an Outback.  I have driven my 4Runner to many trailheads on very bad Forest Service and BLM roads and tracks with stream crossings only to park next to an Outback.

[Mary R]

Thanks for the insights y’all. I actually work from home and try to bike when the weather is cooperative–I heard Boise was nice for biking, so I’m hoping to keep that going. MPG daily driver stuff isn’t too much of a concern for me, but I don’t want to waste all that fuel/$$ if it isn’t necessary.

I’ll check out Suburus, since it sounds like that would work out for what I need. My brother is really pushing me to buy a Tacoma–so that might also be in the cards.

Thanks again!

 

[Erica R]

It is important to me that I have a vehicle I can sleep in. This helps immensely when getting to/arriving at remote trail heads. High clearance for sure. 4wd… nice to have, but expect a 15% reduction in mpg.

[David Hartley]

Another vote for a 4Runner.  Mine is 12 years old with 140K miles and just getting started.  They last forever and the true 4WD will get you out of almost anything.  They hold their value though, so even the used ones can cost some $$ – worth it if you drive them until they die (which is never …).  Relatively inexpensive to maintain as well.

As far as Wind River trail-heads – as others have said, in dry weather a Prius will be mostly fine.  The WRR parking lots are full of small cars of various types.  However, in late season after a few days of rain and snow the Big Sandy TH can be an adventure, with some pretty big mud wallows.

[Roger Caffin]

4WD Toyota Landcruiser, short-wheel-base, diesel, 8 ton winch on front. Parked where we could be sure of getting out.

May not be available in USA though.

Cheers

[DGoggins]

Land cruisers are available in the US….but…are like a Cadillac Escalade/Land Rover Range Rover. So….base MSRP $84,000, without diesel, without a winch.

This thread has gotten me thinking I might even trade in my 2011 Tundra (which only has 37,000 miles) for a subaru outback. My 5.7L V8 gets 13/17mpg city/hwy…. a 2.5L subaru gets 25/32, or a 3.6L gets 20/27. Its just….I don’t hardly ever use my trucks bed, and I never haul (like a boat), so its just way more engine than I need.

The tundra has a higher stated ground clearance (like…10.5″), but the rear differential is only like 8.7″ ground clearance. The subaru has a 8.7″ ground clearance, measured from its lowest point, the rear exhaust. So….the stated tundra’s ground clearance really isn’t apples/apples comparison.

I think I would prefer AWD vs the 4 wheel drive of the tundra….that I have to switch in and out of. I’m not positive of the disadvantages that AWD has over 4WD.

Masculinity wise…it would be a downgrade…though…I don’t necessarily care what other people think.

[Roger Caffin]

Ah – different from Oz. Here they tend to be the default outback vehicle. Apparently Oz is a major export market for the LC. Any outback town can service an LC.

AWD vs 4WD – you can’t judge by that. You need to look at the vehicle first. Modern LCs are AWD – or perhaps they would be better described as ‘Constant 4WD’. I can tell you that the steering is very different!

Cheers

[Eric Osburn]

I’d pickup a 4runner or Tacoma. Super reliable, capable and built strong. I like Subarus but if gas mileage isn’t a factor I’d go Toyota without thinking twice.

[Roger Caffin]

It was not meant to snow this trip – but it did. Rather unseasonal. But that is actually quite common here.

Sue does not really care what the car cost. She DOES care about being stuck in the middle of the river. Funny about that.

Cheers

[Ian]

I have a third gen Tundra and it’s a fantastic truck.   With that being said, the only reason I have it is because we have a boat and travel trailer and I needed something that could tow them.

I once owned a Nissan Pathfinder and my folks owned a 4Runner.  For overlanding type stuff where you may want to drive over technical terrain, those SUVs are a better size than my Tundra.   One huge disadvantage is that their gas mileage is as bad as my truck but with much reduced towing capabilities.  Only you can say which of those two, towing capability or more nimble size, are the most important to you.

For my purposes, I use 4WD as a means to get back home.   If I have to rely on it to get to my destination, then I’m also having someone following in another vehicle who also has 4WD and enough recovery gear between the two of us to pull each other out.   In other words, never as I don’t want to put my vehicle in that situation where I’m stuck hours from civilation.   I know of one person who paid over $600 to get her Tacoma winched out and the location wasn’t all that remote compared to some trailheads you’ll go to in Idaho.

If I didn’t have to tow anything and for the average forestry road, I think the RAV4 is close to perfect as a trail vehicle.   My wife has one and she has much better traction in snow with all season tires than I do in the Tundra with All Terrain tires.

Her gas mileage is much better than a Tundra or Tacoma.   I drove it to the GGG in Cali this year and got 24 mpg on my worst tank and 31 mpg on my best.   At 6’3”, I camped in the back of it a few times with the rear seats folded down although I’m too tall to camp with anyone else in the back.

Doug tricked out his RAV4 for camping so there are ways to take it to another level, but I found just folding down the seats was all I needed for any single backpacking trip.   If I was going to go on an extended road trip, I’d follow Doug’s lead.

[Roger Caffin]

That’s not bad consumption.

The shorty does between 21 and 24 mpg on the freeway. If you take it over 100 kph the consumption goes up a bit. Mind you, the shorty is never ’empty’: it always has some recovery gear in it.

The Toyota Prado does 28 – 30 mpg on the freeway. It usually carries less gear. But it is very comfortable.

Both cars use more fuel of course when you are in Low Ratio!

Cheers

 

[Ian]

I drove for a General in Germany and one of his assigned GOVs was a Landcruiser.   He also had a HMMV so the Landcruiser never left the aslphault, which was a real shame, but I suspect 90% of the Landcruisers here in the US will never navigate anything more technical than a Starbucks drive through.

It seems silly but one thing I really like about the full length Landcruiser and first gen 4Runner is the tailgate.   For times when you want to cook something quick on the side of the road or need a chair, they’re really handy.   I *think* some of the  Landcruisers came with barn doors like your shorty instead of a tailgate, but I’ve only been a round a few of them and they aren’t super common compared to Sequoias and 4Runners.

I’ve never seen the shorty before here in the US and I can’t recall ever seeing a Toyota with a diesel.   That’s a really slick looking rig.   Do you have a stock locking differential?

[DGoggins]

Hmm, looks like a Toyota Rav 4 and subaru outback are very similar to each other. Just looking at the specs though…it looks like the outback has several inches higher of ground clearance..though…honestly, I will probably look at both, bring a tape measure, and really see what is going on underneath the car and compare with my tundra. Each manufacturer measures things differently.

[Ian]

I’m not sure you could go wrong with either one.   Mazda has one that’s a similar size to the RAV4 (Mazda 5?).   I couldn’t tell you anything about its trail worthiness but it was a lot nicer on the inside and offered nicer features like USB jacks in the rear seat mid armrest.

Toyota may not have the fanciest cars when you’re looking at their entry trim packages but they have been some of the most reliable vehicles we’ve ever owned.

[Roger Caffin]

Mine has what you call ‘barn doors’. See posting 794 above. That is standard in Oz.
Diesel – a LOT of diesel LCs in Oz. A LOT.

Locking diff – there are two sorts. One sort locks the front tail shaft to the rear tail shaft through the central gearbox, to share power. We have that on the Prado. It is normally disengaged.

The other sort locks the pumpkin (the diff at the front or rear). The ARB Air-locker is a very popular version of this, and was developed in Oz. I have not bothered to put one on the shorty as the winch is more powerful and versatile. The winch gets other cars out of ditches as well (been there …)

Cheers

[Author]

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