Couple broad choices, both pickups, for road clearance and flexibility: 1. Small chassis compact PU with a cab-height canopy. Racks on the canopy or one on the cab, one on the canopy. Gives you a ton of storage for the wet and gnarly stuff, separate from the passenger compartment. Get a cab plus or similar for smallish jump seats when you need to do a short shuttle, or for the behind-the-seat storage of dry/precious gear. Downside: crowded cab. 2. Midsize chassis PU (Dodge Dakota, for example) with full-size four-door passenger compartment (aka Crew Cab, Quad Cab, etc.), open bed with two pair of Yakima supports for dual racks over the bed. Not much protected storage in the bed (a truck box can alleviate that somewhat), but a ton of room inside the cab for gear and/or passengers. Three with all the gear needed for a week- to two-week-long paddletrip can ride comfortably in a rig like this. The over-the-bed racks double for hauling lumber, etc., more functionally than racks on the cab, and do not mar the vehicle's roof. Downside: gas consumption about 30% greater than with choice 1. I did choice 1 for 10+ years, and have just switched to choice 2 for grandkid transport reasons, but in the end I think I will like choice 2 better. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue May 24 2005 - 10:13:44 PDT
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