Most economical hunting vechicle

F

Frontier

Guest
I'd like to find out experiences, and opinions on which vechicle would be the cheapest to drive hunting and still function as a hunting vechicle. Gas seems to be the driving parameter because of it's price. A number of qualities should be mileage, power, back-road capabilites, towing, carrying capacity, reliablilty and any other you may think of.

A couple of vehicles I've been considering is the Toyota Rav-4 or the Honda CRV. I know it's not the full size 4x4 pickup were use to using, but the price of gas is making it difficult to drive, as the other posts have indicated.
 
I'd look at something with the Jeep name on it. Sorry, just cannot gut the idea of anything with a off shore label. At least Jeep still sounds american made anyway.
 
The Ford Excape Hybred.

I got mine 1 1/2 years ago, 30+mpg highway and in the city if you cruise at 25-30mph your running electric, I can pull my trailer with ATV plus all camping gear and still have power to pass on hills.

And...

when your out scouting or just checking out the roads in the unit as long as you are going under 30mph you are running electric...motor not running at all...

Anouther example is 2 weekends ago I ran from Ogden Utah to Flaggstaff AZ, distance was 534 miles each way, cost $32.00 to get there, cost $36.00 to get back home..so round it off lets say $70 to go there and back...I went to John D Rockafeller parkway last year on a hunt and drove everyday about??? 3 or 4 miles a day for a week and back to Ogden and my cost was under $100.

Pleasedear absolutly HATES ME...we pull into a gas station he has to fill up... and I put a gallon or two in..

has enough space for all my hunting gear and his for a weeks hunt with room to spare.and I have a rack on top to put a couple Elk racks....
 
HEY noc!!!

SO WHAT SIZE ENGINE IS IT???

HORSEPOWER RATING???

WHAT DO NEW BATTERIES COST???

HOW FAST WILL IT PULL PARLEYS???




THIS IS MY NEW GUN,YOU MAY NOT LIKE IT,YOU'LL LIKE IT A HELL OF A LOT LESS WHEN IT HITS ITS DESTINATION!!!
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THE ONLY bobcat THAT KNOWS ALOT OF YOU HAVE HAD THIS IMAGE IN YOUR PEA BRAIN BUT DUE TO POOR SHOOTING TACTICS I'M STILL KICKIN!!!
 
Toyota Ext-cab, 22RE motor, got 360,000 on it just blew the head gasket last week, but the best truck I've ever had, had Chevy?s dodge's and jeeps no comparison on reliability.......
 
Bobcat..

it's a 6 cylinder

about 180 I believe

No idea, Batteries is guaranteed for 100,000 miles

probably how ever fast I want to go but surely 65 - 70...I have never had to pull parleys, but those hills east of evengston Wy it slows down to 60ish when loaded with camp gear and trailer with ATV. Tach at about 5000rpm..Like Pleasedear I spend alot of time in the 3-corners area and this year thats where my LE Elk tag is...
 
"Anouther example is 2 weekends ago I ran from Ogden Utah to Flaggstaff AZ, distance was 534 miles each way, cost $32.00 to get there, cost $36.00 to get back home."

BS 70.00 bucks round trip. are you telling me you drove under 30 the whole way to AZ on I-15. You are going to have to explain this to me. Cause I am about to go out and get me a ford and I hate fords.


Archery is a year round commitment!!
 
There were a few places in AZ where I was getting 44mpg thru the Navajo reservation( long straight aways with slight rolling hills)...I would say average was 34-36mpg, at times it went down to 27mph pulling hills outside Page Az and Beaver Ut.

It only runs electric when going under 30 mph, like in the city or FS roads.so on the highway it is all gas engine running. those Excapes get great gas mileage.. mine is rated at 38 highway and 32 city.. the only thing that I know of that gets better gas mileage is the Toyota Prius (sp) and they get like 50mpg and I would bet that if I started off slow at stop lights in town I could go anywhere I wanted without the gas engine starting.. of course it starts at times to recharge the battery after you have been running for 10 - 15 min on electric.

The ONLY thing I dont like about it is that when stopped the A/C turns off.. I got stuck in 5pm SLC traffic on the way home from that trip and spent the next 2 hours going the 4 miles between N salt lake and Bountiful.. but guess what? I was running electric because I never got over 10mph...I roasted but I was not burning any gas.
If everyone had one that has to drive in that rush hour traffic of salt lake there wouldn't be any pollution in the air AND think of the gas that would be saved while idling...
The Ogden PD bought 3 of them for patrol vehicles...because when they are stopped they are not burning gas idling at crime scenes or in traffic..The only thing that they dont like is it is not a pursuit vehicle... but they have Chargers for chasing people on the highway...
 
Nochawk, you've diffinitly have my interest. My first vehicle I owned after being married was a Ford PU, never bought another Ford since, so never even considered a Ford. How are the seats inside to sit in, what kind of maintenance costs have you had? Where did you get yours, I've looked on the internet and all the dealers say they are out of stock.
 
NO AC under 10MPH? Sorry, but that just turned me off of it for sure. My car has AC problems and I can't wait to get rid of it! I gotta have AC.

Couple of years ago rode with a buddy in his old Subaru to a football game, it was near 100 but his AC didn't work and the passenger window didn't roll down. Thought I was going to die!


UTROY
Proverbs 21:19 (why I hunt!)
 
Frontier..

Buckets up frount and that 60/40 seat in the back..It dosnt lay down flat but about a 50-60 degree angle, The frount seats will lay down almost 80 degrees but they hit the back seat so there not flat either...what Im saying is you can not sleep in it unless you like a incline..

So far all I have had maintance wise is the oil changes and I change the air filter after last year's hunting season.

I got mine at Westland Ford in Ogden, but the dealership out in Layton has them also...

I wouldnt doubt that they are out of stock everywheres, there are great...

now you cant haul your camp trailer with one but if you tent camp its great..you could probably haul a 2 ATV trailer or and enclosed trailer... just think along the line of what a Ford Ranger/Chevy S-10/ Toyota Tacoma with a 6 cylinder.. Last year up in John D Rockefeller we saw a Tacoma that had a camp trailer hooked to it, so I guess if you can find one of those smaller ones you could haul it... maybe a Jumping Jack or a pop up...
 
Interesting post; I just purchased 2 vehicles for my business. One is a 2000 Nissan Xterra and a 2001 Ford Escape (gas). They get 19 and 24 MPG respectively.

I love the hybrid concept. However, do the math and make sure the extra cash you are shelling out for the hybrid purchase price will pay for itself in fuel savings.

I am going to be converting my Xterra to Natural Gas. Natural Gas up here is about 1/6 the cost of regular unleaded. Therefore, my 19 MPG will equate to about 114 MPG (if I was paying regular unleaded).

The only problem I see is more frequent fill ups. Long out of state hunting trips will not have Natural Gas in most, if not all, these areas. However, I can still use it for all of my local driving.

I will justify driving my diesel for the savings I accrue throughout the year on my other vehicle.
 
>Interesting post; I just purchased 2
>vehicles for my business.
>One is a 2000 Nissan
>Xterra and a 2001 Ford
>Escape (gas). They get
>19 and 24 MPG respectively.
>
>
>I love the hybrid concept. However,
>do the math and make
>sure the extra cash you
>are shelling out for the
>hybrid purchase price will pay
>for itself in fuel savings.
>
>
>I am going to be converting
>my Xterra to Natural Gas.
> Natural Gas up here
>is about 1/6 the cost
>of regular unleaded. Therefore,
>my 19 MPG will equate
>to about 114 MPG (if
>I was paying regular unleaded).
>
>
>The only problem I see is
>more frequent fill ups.
>Long out of state hunting
>trips will not have Natural
>Gas in most, if not
>all, these areas. However,
>I can still use it
>for all of my local
>driving.
>
>I will justify driving my diesel
>for the savings I accrue
>throughout the year on my
>other vehicle.



what about carrying extra Natural Gas for the back woods, can you just bring an extra 5gals and swap tanks or is it harder then that?...
 
This does sound like maybe having the best of both worlds again, cheap fuel and a full size pickup converted to CNG. How tough is it to convert a vehicle to CNG and the cost? I live in Eastern Idaho and did some checking and there doesn't seem to be any place to fill up with CNG. I did notice that a person can buy a CNG home station from fuelmaker corporation for about $3500 and connect it into my home natural gas supply, no gas tax either! Looked like not a bad way to go.
 
> How tough is it
>to convert a vehicle to
>CNG and the cost?

$1200 for the kit minus bottles. Easy to install... like REALLY easy. Bottles are the expensive part. I'm trying to find a cheaper source of bottles but an 11 gallon bottle runs $2800 and people probably want 2.

More info: www.mycngkit.com

PS: station CNG is subsidized, home CNG is slightly more expensive (only by a dime), but its something to concider when looking into the home refueling stations. Those home stations also require an expensive rebuilt of the pump every 3000 hours.


-DallanC
 
>what about carrying extra Natural Gas
>for the back woods, can
>you just bring an extra
>5gals and swap tanks or
>is it harder then that?...

CNG conversion kit vehicles are "duel fuel" meaning you run out of CNG you flip a switch and you are back to running normal gasoline so no big deal if you run out of CNG out in the middle of no-where as long as you have gasoline in your tank.


-DallanC
 
LAST EDITED ON Jun-02-08 AT 06:15PM (MST)[p]Nochawk.....I think you are full of BS!!!! There is NO WAY that you drove all the way to Flagstaff on $32 in gas??????? That means that you would have had to get like 60mpg!!! There is NO WAY that you did that! I make that drive OFTEN and I am sorry, but unless you did it back when gas was $1.50, then you are a little off on your calculations!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you got 36 MPG like you said, then I figure it cost you about $55 to $60 each way.........but I am just a dumb hick, maybe my math is off!!!
 
"what about carrying extra Natural Gas for the back woods, can you just bring an extra 5gals and swap tanks or is it harder then that?..."

It could be done I guess. However, space and room for these tanks can be an issue. Also, with the spike in gas prices, everyone wants to buy them. I paid $375 for mine. On E-bay they are going for $1500.

My friend has been running his converted neon for almost a year. He went from Northern Utah to Vegas and back for around $20. Whats nice, is that if you run out of CNG, you can always flip a switch back to natural gas.

I am usually a skeptic on things like this. However, after seeing my friend do it, I am a believer.
 
I have not done much research on the home stations. However, I will probably end up doing it eventually. The only draw back is they fuel on a much lower PSI. Therefore, it takes all night (I believe) to fill up. However, with proper planning, it wouldn't be much of a problem.

I will keep anybody updated (thats interested) on how the conversion goes.
 
I think woodruffhunter has the best idea.. but I have heard that burning CNG dries out all the rubber seals/gaskets in the engine or somthing like that??? Anyone else heard of this?

Years ago my grandpaw had his truck running on CNG and had about a 30 gallon tank in the bed...Seems that it was not awful expensive to run and it pulled hay trailers just fine...
 
FishlakeElkhunter,

your right, I missed my fill-up in Flaggstaff...

Farr west gas 3.69
Flaggstaff gas 3.79
Panguitch gas 4.09

540x2=1040 miles at 36mpg =30 so if we figure 30 gallons of gas at 3.79 we get $113.70 round trip

05/19/08 CHECK CRD PURCHASE 05/16 CHEVRON 00073836 PANGUITCH UT 486830XXXXXX2208 139840001602778 ?MCC=5542 124002971DA $42.00

FLAGSTAFF AZ 486830XXXXXX2208 137840003738818 ?MCC=5542 124002971DA $34.00


05/15/08 POS PURCHASE - EXXONMOBIL POS EXXONMOBILFARR WES UT 2208 $37.00
 
Nochawk.....No worries.....That is just what I figured....maybe I am not as dumb as I thought. I was just doing some rough math in my puny little brain....Didnt think you would pull out actual credit card receipts! LOL

Either way......pretty good for that trip. Bad thing is, is that when gas hits $6 a gallon there isn't any car that is going to be very affordable to drive!

I think I am going to but a little Vespa scooter and start hunting and scouting on that thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Not too sure about the seals nochawk. However, I will say that it burns much cleaner. My friend checked his oil at about 4k miles and the oil was still as clear as the day he added. Also, his mpg went from 31 mpg on regular gas, to 36 mpg on natural gas. However, I believe that the avereage is usually about 1 mpg gained.

Check out this website:

http://www.cngmotors.com/
 

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