Vehicle Recommendations for fishing

[DomR]

I’ve never had an easy modern vehicle to change a headlight on. Just too much stuff crammed in there.

My Jeep Renegade and my son's Scion XB are the two best vehicles that I've ever changed headlights in. Both have bulbs that just unclip and snap out.

FWIW I fished out of the XB for years before my son took (and killed it). Not a vehicle you could carry a ton of gear in if you had company nor would I ever try to sleep in it but it got great gas mileage and road like a charm.

I have slept in the Jeep but I'm 5' 8" so I can fit in tight spots. It holds enough gear for 2 and I get good highway mileage 25-27 mpg depending on traffic. It's the local stuff that kills the fuel mileage, sucks fuel on stops/starts to the tune of 21-23 mpg. Also wouldn't want to even tow a trailered pontoon with it.

 

[hooker-of-men]

I’ve never had an easy modern vehicle to change a headlight on. Just too much stuff crammed in there. First gen Chevy Colorado IIRC wasn’t bad. But that had a straight 5, narrow engine, mounted front to back and there was a decent amount of room on the sides to get around.

That gen of Outback you basically have to dismantle the wheel well. You don't go through the engine compartment. Then you have access to try to fit your entire arm through the typical 3 inch wide, sharp steel hole

 

[mt_flyfisher]

None of the bulbs in any of the 6 Outbacks we’ve owned have ever needed to be changed. That‘s a Pro.

A couple weeks ago I bought 2 new cabin air filters for our Outback’s at about $20 each and changed them myself. Easy-peasy! That’s another Pro. The dealer charges $64 per car for this.

At the same time, I took the engine air filters out, inspected, cleaned and reinstalled them, which was also very easy to do. I never asked the dealer what they charged for this.

(I also installed the floor mats in our Subaru‘s myself. 😊 When I bought my wife a new Honda a number of years back the dealer wanted to charge extra for installing the floor mats. Our Subaru dealer never charges extra for this. Another 👍 for Subaru’s.)

 

[Swattie87]

That gen of Outback you basically have to dismantle the wheel well. You don't go through the engine compartment. Then you have access to try to fit your entire arm through the typical 3 inch wide, sharp steel hole

Yeah, I did one on a Crosstrek once and the process was similar.

 

[6xAdams(Jones)]

That gen of Outback you basically have to dismantle the wheel well. You don't go through the engine compartment. Then you have access to try to fit your entire arm through the typical 3 inch wide, sharp steel hole

Kind of like our Traverse. Step one is turning the front wheels in the opposite direction from the side you're replacing the lamp.

 

[pcray1231]

Subaru cons. ^^^^the headlights, yeah. Changing em sucks. Newer ones are LED but insanely bright, so everyone thinks your high beaming them.

They're not exactly great at mpg, really closer to a mid size pickup than to the rest of the crossover crowd.

There's always a rattle.

True honest AWD means if you have an unfixable flat, you're buying 4 tires, not 1, as all have to be at similar tread depth

The value holding means you aint saving money by buying low mileage used. With factory incentives, it is literally cheaper to buy new than 1-2 years old with 10-40k miles. I was offered more for trade in after 1 year than I had paid, and didnt take it.

The wheel bearings seem to go at 150-200k miles reliably, 1 at a time, and they aint cheap so thats a painful period.

Exhaust heat shield rattles on every single Subaru ever made above 150k. lol.

 

[moon1284]

Tom -

It sounds like that Excursion has treated you pretty well over a long period of time. I don’t envy you when you have to fill that tank with diesel these days though. (I had several Super Duty diesel Ford trucks with 38 gal tanks in the past 20 years and am glad I’m not having to fill them up at today’s prices.). I also had a Ford Expedition in the late 1980‘s that I did a lot of fishing/camping in and it was great.

I camped/fished in a couple Ford F150’s that I owned in the past few years. (crew cabs, 4x4, off road, gas engine, 6 1/2’ bed, with cab high Leer truck caps). Those trucks suited my purposes well, but I’m shorter than you, and an 8’ bed (not available on an F150, crew cab) with a higher cap height would have been more ideal to sleep in.

Here’s a picture of my 2012 F150. I also had a 2018 F150 similar to that one that I sold just over a year ago.

View attachment 1641234648

I had planed on getting another comparable Ford F150, and had one on a factory order for nearly a year (from the end of 2022 to the Fall 2023) when there were chip shortages and vehicles weren’t being produced. So, I ended up canceling the order for the truck and buying a new Subaru Outback Wilderness - a BIG change after years of owning full sized trucks.

The Subaru is a great fishing vehicle, but it’s not the best camping vehicle. I’m able to sleep in it, but there’s not a lot of extra space for my fishing gear, cooler, etc. I have a roof rack for it (got a Thule roof top storage box, but never used it and then sold it), also have an ARB canopy/awning for it, and it gets about 27 mpg, etc.

In the past couple months, I’ve been thinking of getting something in between truck size and Subaru Outback size, which would be better for my camping and fishing purposes. So, I presently have orders for a 2024 Land Cruiser and a 2024 Lexus GX 550 0vertrail. I don’t know whether either of these recently introduced vehicles have actually begun to be shipped to US dealers yet, so it might be a year until I’d be able to get one or the other. (I really prefer the Lexus over the Toyota, and plan to buy one, and cancel the order for the other.)

Here’s a picture of the Lexus Overtrail.

View attachment 1641234649
The Land Cruiser only comes in a hybrid, and will get something over 20 mpg, and with just 2 rows of seats, it might suit your purposes. The Lexus on the other hand has a V6 turbo charged engine that requires premium grade gas, and will probably not get 20 mpg overall.

Out of curiosity when did you put your deposits down and when was your estimated allocation date? In December I was told 9 most for gx...

 

[caddisflyer]

I love my Ford Escape. I have a trailer hitch on it to pull a small trailer with my rafts. Great gas mileage, good clearance, the all wheel drive works very well. And it really has some get up and go when needed to merge on a highway etc. Plus my 9 ft rods fit inside. I have close to 200,000 on it and all I ever replaced were brakes and tires. Just keep oil changed and it goes.

 

[hooker-of-men]

Subaru cons. ^^^^the headlights, yeah. Changing em sucks. Newer ones are LED but insanely bright, so everyone thinks your high beaming them.

They're not exactly great at mpg, really closer to a mid size pickup than to the rest of the crossover crowd.

There's always a rattle.

True honest AWD means if you have an unfixable flat, you're buying 4 tires, not 1, as all have to be at similar tread depth

The value holding means you aint saving money by buying low mileage used. With factory incentives, it is literally cheaper to buy new than 1-2 years old with 10-40k miles. I was offered more for trade in after 1 year than I had paid, and didnt take it.

The wheel bearings seem to go at 150-200k miles reliably, 1 at a time, and they aint cheap so thats a painful period.

Exhaust heat shield rattles on every single Subaru ever made above 150k. lol.

Ha! The rattles are real!

 

[blitzinstripes]

I'm still running the wheels off of my 2007 expedition 5.4 Triton. But she's definitely NOT fuel efficient. Getting about 13 mpg around town maybe 16-17 highway on a good day. That being said, she's been good to me. Hasn't got me stuck yet. I'm 6'1" and I've spent some nights in the back. Better for solo if you have coolers and gear in there but my 6'4" son has doubled with me a few times. She's approaching 220k miles and still going pretty strong. I run Mobil1 full synthetic in her as well as some additives to keep her pumper in good shape. Probably due for a tranny flush this spring, though.

PS: big upside to the Exp is I can leave my 10' nymph rod fully rigged up as I move between locations. She'll fit just inside the hatch with the rod tip lying up against the passenger side sun visor. 😎

 

[Troutmeister]

I've got a 2019 F150 w the 2.7 Ecoboost. Has a fiberglass cap on the back so plenty of room for sleeping and gas mileage is great compared to older trucks. Get a little over 20 daily driving and around 22 highway. 4WD also so not too worried about parking in mud or snow.

 

[mt_flyfisher]

Out of curiosity when did you put your deposits down and when was your estimated allocation date? In December I was told 9 most for gx...

I put my deposit down on January 27 at the Bobby Rahal Lexus dealership in Lancaster.

Their GM told me at that time that I was the 70+ customer of theirs who had placed an order for the GX550, but he didn’t tell me (nor did I ask) an estimated allocation date. I also don’t know if that 70 number was for all 3 of the Rahal dealerships (including Mechanicsburg and Lewistown) or just the Lancaster dealership. I believe he told me that just 6% or so of their customer orders were for the Overtrail and Overtrail+ models though, but I don’t know how that might effect when I could expect to see one. In any case, I’m not holding my breath waiting for it.

 

[mt_flyfisher]

Subaru cons. ^^^^the headlights, yeah. Changing em sucks. Newer ones are LED but insanely bright, so everyone thinks your high beaming them.

They're not exactly great at mpg, really closer to a mid size pickup than to the rest of the crossover crowd.

There's always a rattle.

True honest AWD means if you have an unfixable flat, you're buying 4 tires, not 1, as all have to be at similar tread depth

The value holding means you aint saving money by buying low mileage used. With factory incentives, it is literally cheaper to buy new than 1-2 years old with 10-40k miles. I was offered more for trade in after 1 year than I had paid, and didnt take it.

The wheel bearings seem to go at 150-200k miles reliably, 1 at a time, and they aint cheap so thats a painful period.

Exhaust heat shield rattles on every single Subaru ever made above 150k. lol.

I said I’m only going to say positive things about Subarus from now until I sell or trade the 2 that my wife and I have now, 😃 so I have to comment on a couple of your points.

1. The LED headlights on newer Subarus are bright, as you say, but are no different from most or all other newer cars and trucks LED headlights these days. I don’t know if it’s the LED headlights or the fact that Subarus sit lower to the ground than many pickup trucks do, but I’m nearly blinded by oncoming pickup truck headlights nearly every day.

2. My wife and I have had 6 Subaru Outback’s in the past 7 or maybe 8 years, all of which have averaged between 25-30 mpg. I’ve never gotten much over 20 mpg on my Ford F150 pickups.

3. The ONLY rattle I’ve ever heard on any of our Subarus has been when my wife leaves an empty can of coke in the door cup holder. 😊

4. My wife has had 2 unrepairable flat ties on her Subarus in the past, when her cars’ mileage was under 30,000 miles (I remember one flat she got about 2 years ago when her car only had 10,000 miles on it), and we only replaced the one bad tire both times. It might be important to change all 4 tires if they have significant wear, but I don’t think it’s necessary to do that otherwise.

5. Today is the the BEST market for buying a new Subaru, compared to buying a good, low mileage, 1-2 year old used one, that I’ve seen in the past 7-8 years. However you decide whether it is cheaper to buy a new one than a 1-2 year old used one. Here are some comparisons:

A new 2024 Subaru Outback Wilderness with an MSRP of about $44,000, can be purchased today for about $41,000, and financed for 48 months at 1.9%. That’s the best incentive and discount that I’ve seen in the past 7-8 years.

A 1-2 year old Subaru 0utback Wilderness with less than 15,000 miles, in like new condition, with $2,000 of added options (not included with the 2024 Outback price) can be purchased today for between $33,000-$35,000.

 

[dryflyguy]

Still hard to beat a pickup with a cap IMO

 

[krayfish2]

Aren't Subaru's notorious for blowing head gaskets?

 

[mt_flyfisher]

One of the best outfitted pickup trucks for camping that I’ve ever seen or heard of is one that is owned by a an older guy who lives in Washington State. I’ve never met him, but I’ve seen and read his posts over the past half dozen years on a couple west coast fly fishing websites that I’m a member of. Coincidentally, I just saw that he just offered this truck for sale.

FS - Ives's Crusin Casa-any interest in this?

I think I am going to let the Casa go and find a nice van, even a mini-van, that is easier for me to get in and out of. Getting in and out of the back of the truck is becoming increasingly difficult for someone that finds himself sneaking up on 90! The Casa is a 2014 Ram 4WD regular cab with an...

pnwflyfishing.com

Ive (his name) from Ione, WA has posted many times about this truck on those forums. He calls that truck his Crusin’ Casa. I’m not sure if you can search for those posts without being a member, but here’s a link to one of them.

https://www.washingtonflyfishing.co...v2-0-ready-for-occupancy.148566/#post-1491903

If anybody on here is interested in perhaps buying his truck, I would consider flying to Washington State and driving it back to PA for you (if it’s possible to do that, transferring the title to you, etc.) and I’d pay all of transportation expenses to and from WA.

 

[laszlo]

I put my deposit down on January 27 at the Bobby Rahal Lexus dealership in Lancaster.

Their GM told me at that time that I was the 70+ customer of theirs who had placed an order for the GX550, but he didn’t tell me (nor did I ask) an estimated allocation date. I also don’t know if that 70 number was for all 3 of the Rahal dealerships (including Mechanicsburg and Lewistown) or just the Lancaster dealership. I believe he told me that just 6% or so of their customer orders were for the Overtrail and Overtrail+ models though, but I don’t know how that might effect when I could expect to see one. I’m not holding my breath waiting for it.

Hopefully there will be a slue of 2018-2022 GX's available after the new generation comes out, A used GX will be my next vehicle.

 

[DomR]

I put my deposit down on January 27 at the Bobby Rahal Lexus dealership in Lancaster.

One of the few Indy car drivers that I consistently rooted against. When him and Unser Jr were teammates it was great cause I could get all my hate out in one spot!

 

[troutopotomous]

Aren't Subaru's notorious for blowing head gaskets?

Anything after about 2006 model year is much less likely, and by 2010 and beyond its about as common as most makes and models. They did have an oil consumption issue in the first few years of the FB engines in Outbacks and Foresters related to bad rings, but that mostly went away after a few years. Something to watch for if you consider any used 2011+ Forester or 2013+ Outback. Shouldn't be an issue after about 2015 I think.

 

[laszlo]

I said I’m only going to say positive things about Subarus from now until I sell or trade the 2 that my wife and I have now, 😃 so I have to comment on a couple of your points.

1. The LED headlights on newer Subarus are bright, as you say, but are no different from most or all other newer cars and trucks LED headlights these days. I don’t know if it’s the LED headlights or the fact that Subarus sit lower to the ground than many pickup trucks do, but I’m nearly blinded by oncoming pickup truck headlights nearly every day.

2. My wife and I have had 6 Subaru Outback’s in the past 7 or maybe 8 years, all of which have averaged between 25-30 mpg. I’ve never gotten much over 20 mpg on my Ford F150 pickups.

3. The ONLY rattle I’ve ever heard on any of our Subarus has been when my wife leaves an empty can of coke in the door cup holder. 😊

4. My wife has had 2 unrepairable flat ties on her Subarus in the past, when her cars’ mileage was under 30,000 miles (I remember one flat she got about 2 years ago when her car only had 10,000 miles on it), and we only replaced the one bad tire both times. It might be important to change all 4 tires if they have significant wear, but I don’t think it’s necessary to do that otherwise.

5. Today is the the BEST market for buying a new Subaru, compared to buying a good, low mileage, 1-2 year old used one, that I’ve seen in the past 7-8 years. However you decide whether it is cheaper to buy a new one than a 1-2 year old used one. Here are some comparisons:

A new 2024 Subaru Outback Wilderness with an MSRP of about $44,000, can be purchased today for about $41,000, and financed for 48 months at 1.9%. That’s the best incentive and discount that I’ve seen in the past 7-8 years.

A 1-2 year old Subaru 0utback Wilderness with less than 15,000 miles, in like new condition, with $2,000 of added options (not included with the 2024 Outback price) can be purchased today for between $33,000-$35,000.

View attachment 1641234719

What kind of garage floor is that?