Ones that I have had personal experience with:
Trailblazer. Plenty of space, somewhat compact on the outside, brilliant Atlas engine. Available 2wd, awd, and 4wd with a "real" truck-ish platform. Front engine, rear drive, perimeter frame. Came with two wheelbase options; the short wheelbase and the ugly-as-berkeley wheelbase.
Ford Flex. Those things are like a Tardis. Bigger on the inside. Available AWD. Not a ton of ground clearance, but probably easy to add if needed.
AWD Astro van. These are great, but getting long in the tooth, and they hold their value. Not a good bang-for-buck idea. Bulletproof 4.3L V6, overkill 4L60E trans, viscous coupled Tcase (not the strongest, but fine for the application)
The 4-runner is fine. They do carry the toyota tax and aren't as big inside as you would probably like. Space/dollar/rust ratios might be a little off.
eastsideTim said:
yupididit said:
Isn't there a clean LS swapped Frontier in the classifieds for $10,000?
If I was planning the trip for just a few months from now, that'd be really tempting. Same with your Excursion, even though it is way more massive than I'd need.
Both the Excursion and Suburban can fit a Queen size mattress in the back. Both have rear AC too lol.
Consider a Gen I Dodge Durango. Its comfortable, plenty of sleeping room, durable drive line, no fancy breakable features, easy to source parts if you do break something, more than up to task for light offroading, and cheap to buy. Spend $2k, beat the hell out of it for a couple thousand miles, and you still have a $2k vehicle.
It does like to drink gas, but what MPG does a hotel room get?
In reply to greenwoodjw :
The first time I went to Rallycross Nats (900mi trip), my co driver insisted on towing. I used a Durango.
spiteful, cramped POS. It had no legroom, no headroom, no arm room, and it was generally a pain. And the trans slipped if you let it kick down by itself, which may have just been specific to the example.
Thank God 99% of these rusted to oblivion within six or seven years.
At our house we have an Excursion, a Suburban and a late-model 4runner (don't ask). There is NO WAY I would pick the 4runner if sleeping inside the vehicle was even a possibility. I'm pretty sure my old Volvo 740 wagon had more interior room than a 4runner.
In reply to SEADave :
A buddy of mine built a V8 4runner out as a pretty high end overland build. As soon as he wasn't single, it was too small, and it was tight even then. I spent a little time in it and it was much, much smaller inside than I expected. He's got a Tundra for family overlanding now.
I would strongly consider an AWD van of some sort. Way more room inside for a given footprint outside.
My Express van is AWD, and not something I would consider small on the outside, but good lord it could fit an orgy inside. Conversion vans often go cheap. Their resale value tends to tank... except Astro/Safari. Still, if you could find an applicable AWD Astro conversion van, you already have the bed.
Quit screwing around with SUVs and find an AWD Astro. Add A/T tires and go have fun. Lot's of room.
Or buy this, cuz I want to see you post road trip pictures......
(1) Marketplace - 2000 Chevrolet Suburban | Facebook
My son-in -law has a newer TrailBlazer that has never given him a moments problem. Well he did lose a hubcap but he admits he was rushed when he changed the tire on the freeway.
But for a former Ford guy he gushes about his Trailblazer. He's had it 4 years now. About 100,000 on top of the 130,000 it had when he bought it and it's still the one the family use when they go on trips due to the room for 5 . ( Their new Kia SUV carries only 4 and leaves little extra room for family stuff).
Plus it gets slightly better fuel mileage than the Kia. ( about 27mpg )
It still looks nice
In reply to frenchyd :
He got the good one. I like they way they drive, but it seems like every six months they need about $2000 in repairs.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Mine was trouble free until I blew the transmission 11 years after I bought it. But that might have been plowing through 4 feet of snow when the roads weren't plowed. I kinda got stuck and rocked it out, later that year it started acting up.
I love my V8 4runner but will pile on as one of your primary requirements is a place for a 6'er to sleep. Maybe if you pull the rear seat and sleep diagonal, but not comfy.
+1 Suburban.
I own a Tundra. Have turned wrenches on the Armada. Have also previously owned a Silverado. The Chevys are a o much easier to fix yourself. I would not want to turn wrenches on the others.
Which ever Prius is the big one, the V I think? And lift it.
With obvious caveats for lemons, I have owned a crapload of GM vehicles and they have all been darn near perfect. The problems they tend to have are small, cheap, and simple to fix - a sensor, or a switch. GM gives the unfortunate impression of cheap junk because of the quality of materials they use for interior bits, and the poor fit/finish, but really... they're quite good vehicles for the most part. The only exception I found was a Caddy SRX my mother had for a while. It was junk, but it also had very little GM DNA in it. Most of the issues with GMs are wee little gremlins that seem to happen once in a while. Dad's K2500 had a gremlin for about a week where every time you turned on the key, it started playing Disc 1 in the CD changer regardless of what you had been playing before. He disconnected the battery overnight and it went away.
Oddly enough, when you google 4L60E, you will find a lot of web results that call it the best automatic transmission every created. I don't know that I would go that far, but it is pretty darned good if you treat it right. The one in the Impala SS went about 150k trouble-free, then after I sold it to you, you drove it to FL, we thrashed the snot out of it at the challenge, and you drove it home with no transmission issues. Mom had one in a trailblazer that we relatively frequently towed 2500 lbs with and she traded it in with 140k. Plenty of V6 Astros, trucks, and Atlas out there with well over 300k on them. Don't shy away from a GM because of a 4L60E. Change the fluid/filter every 60k. An added help is to program it to default to highest line pressure for quicker, firmer shifts. If you're really worried about it, do some valve body mods with a good shift kit. If you're REALLY worried about it, swap the internals for a 4L65 or 4L70 and you'll actually have the same torque capacity as a 4L80E.
They are also one of the least expensive to rebuild. If you're looking for a good, reliable vehicle, I wouldn't hesitate to grab a GM RWD platform and take it cross country.
The 4L60E in Kandy Van has almost 100k and I didn't think twice about hitching up a 3500 lb boat and smashing the pedal in OD for a 500 mile trip.
Thread resurrection time. I've actually started looking around a bit, and once Omicron settles down, might actually buy something. I figure it'd be nice to have as a rallycross tow vehicle, and a 2023 Epic Road Trip vehicle.
A GTM400 Tahoe popped up about 100 miles south, but I don't feel like traveling right now. I am wondering if 2000s Sequoias have a big enough cargo area to sleep in, although I'd probably need to travel south to find one without a rusted frame. The Trailblazer/Envoy twins in EXT format (sorry Curtis) are going up on my list right now, as there seem to be quite a bit of them around me in general, so if I miss out on one, there'll be another along shortly. Is rust a major concern on them? Even though they were built around the same time as the GMT800 trucks, I see far fewer of them with significant body rust. Haven't taken the effort to crawl under any of them to take a closer look, though.
We owned a 2003 Trailblazer 2WD for 15 years thru Chicago salty winters. The body was rust free as I kept it clean but the frame and suspension was heavily rusted. 15 years, right? I loved/hated that vehicle.
Our friend owned an EXT V8 (not an SS) and it got awful gas mileage.
In reply to Datsun310Guy :
So, usual GM rust underneath, hidden by a body that was reasonably well rustproofed?
In reply to eastsideTim :
Actually worse because that was a unique platform the parts side from GM is drying up fast.
I'd stick with the hoe or yukon personally
Get a suburban. Same gas mileage as a Tahoe. Much more space.
Oh they rust. And some of the ways they are put together is downright spiteful, like the power steering lines or the rear A/C lines.
Bummer, I really want the smallest off-road capable vehicle I can comfortably stretch out in to sleep without removing the front passenger seat, and was hoping they'd fit the bill. Any trip I go on won't be just in the middle of nowhere. National parks are a little crowded nowadays, so something that's not too bad to park is also a goal.
I've driven our Suburban from the middle of nowhere to downtown Boston. It has a decent turning radious and isn't horrible to park.
Don't get me wrong, I think the Trailblazer is a very nice driving vehicle, and if I had to have a mid-large SUV it'd probably be one of those. I'd just grit my teeth and bear it when it came time to repair anything.
Oh yeah! The rearend has a magneisum centersection that sometimes breaks free from the tubes, or wallows out the bores that the bearings press into. Not sure why GM wanted to save twenty pounds in the most expensive way possible.
I've done all the things you describe and more in a Sienna minivan, and I really don't think there's a better tool for the job. With appropriate tires they will get you into any reasonable light offroad stuff you desire, and your time on the highway and in your living quarters will be SO much nicer than the SUV's.
