Author Topic: how often do people use their 4x4 jeep toads  (Read 7505 times)

Rod Tomlinson

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how often do people use their 4x4 jeep toads
« on: April 26, 2015, 02:45:07 PM »
How often do motorhome owners really use their 4x4 toad. We recently purchased a 1996 Beaver Monterey 36'. We found a 2004 Saturn Vee that has been used as a tow car and is already equipped with a breaking system and the tow plates. I know there are cases where 4 x 4's have come in handy, but the additional expense etc. All comments will be appreciated.

John Hennessey

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Re: how often do people use their 4x4 jeep toads
« Reply #1 on: April 26, 2015, 03:34:07 PM »
We use ours a lot. There are so many really great jeep trails. We either go by ourselves or most 55+ parks have jeep and ATVS clubs where we all go trail riding together. We also use it to get back to archelogical sites that an ordinary car can't go. We love ours and wouldn't go back to the restrictions of a regular car.
John & Linda Hennessey
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Dick Simonis

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Re: how often do people use their 4x4 jeep toads
« Reply #2 on: April 26, 2015, 04:03:06 PM »
We use ours off road periodically....probably just enough to justify having the 4WD.  Most often it's to roam around and visit out-of-the way ghost towns.  Still, I'm a died in the wool Jeep guy and will always have the 4WD if, for no other reason, just in case.
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Peter and Connie Bradish

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Re: how often do people use their 4x4 jeep toads
« Reply #3 on: April 26, 2015, 04:42:17 PM »
We have a Jeep Liberty 4WD. We use the 4WD occasionally off road.
Mostly we just really like the Jeep as our run around vehicle.
And we like the ability to go off road when we need to. Not only do we go off road for fun just wandering around but we do genealogy research where we go on many dirt roads to cemeteries and old farm locations.
The Jeep 4WD gives us the option to be able to go basically anywhere.
We bought our Jeep new in 2002 and still have it. We have had few mechanical problems with the Jeep.
We now have 109,000 driven miles and about 150,000 towed miles.
So we positively recommend a 4WD Jeep.

Harvey Ziegler

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Re: how often do people use their 4x4 jeep toads
« Reply #4 on: April 26, 2015, 04:50:16 PM »
We ususally go on at least one off road adventure each week with our Jeep when we are in the South Western states for the winter. We tow a 2010 Jeep Wrangler Rubican
Harvey & Marilyn Ziegler
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Joel Ashley

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Re: how often do people use their 4x4 jeep toads
« Reply #5 on: April 26, 2015, 08:39:30 PM »
Before I bought that era of VUE I'd want a hecuvadeal;  being based on a European car (Opel?), the parts maintenance could be spendy, especially given Saturns aren't built anymore.  On the other hand, Saturns made pretty decent toads by most accounts, and your base tow equipment is included with the deal.

As to 4X4, like most other commenters here we wouldn't travel without ours.  With our old '84 Pace Arrow we towed an '82 Toyota SR5 4X4 pickup with which few geographics presented boundaries.  As a flyfisherman that enjoys hunting high country small stream Brookies, as well as High Desert Bows and Browns, and trevassing Canadian prairies and Rockies, I need the wheels to do it.  It also gets me to back woods cemeteries for research and interest, crosses small creeks and bouldered tracks, and navigates logging roads to ghost towns, etc.

Our Beaver tows our Ford Explorer 4X4, "Pearl", that we've had since new in '97.  Not as high off the ground as the pickup was, Pearl still pretty much gets us around anywhere.  It has a relatively rare air ride system that automatically raises an inch when the engine is started and lowers when stopped (for ease of ingress/egress when parked), raises another inch in 4WD high and another again in 4WD low.  Still not as much clearance as the little pickup had though.  Yet it proffers a half-way decent ride around town and freeways on pavement.

The little VUE may give better mileage numbers than some others, so that's a consideration for you to check out.  At one point we'd thought about a Ford Escape 4X4 Hybrid, but it was smaller than Pearl whose interior is roomier.  You don't have to go Jeep to go off road, and some models can have a stark ride on the road (IMHO), but a significant number of BAC members tow them and love them.

Joel
« Last Edit: April 26, 2015, 08:41:54 PM by Joel Ashley »
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Gerald Farris

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Re: how often do people use their 4x4 jeep toads
« Reply #6 on: April 27, 2015, 06:44:05 PM »
I originally towed a Saturn with my first Beaver. However, my last two tow cars have been Jeep Grand Cherokees with full time 4x4. The Saturn towed nice and it was a little easier to tow since it weighed less than 1/2 as much as the Jeeps. I use the off road capability of the jeep on occasion, but it is not mandatory to have in a tow car. My next tow car will probably be another Jeep GC, because I like the luxury and capability of the vehicle, and I am willing to pay the cost in purchase price and fuel mileage to drive one. 

If money is a big concern, the Saturn will get much better fuel economy than a 4x4, and you are saving the $1,000+ that will be required to set-up another car to tow. In all the Saturn will probably be a more economical choice, and you will not be restricted from 99% of the typical RV lifestyle.     

Gerald

Dan Murphy

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Re: how often do people use their 4x4 jeep toads
« Reply #7 on: April 27, 2015, 09:49:39 PM »
We have towed for 3 yrs now and we have never had a need for 4 wheel drive yet.We winter in Fl and we have taken a long trip out west and our little Ford Cmax has gotten us  everywhere we needed to go and got 42 mpg. while doing it!
We towed a Saturn LS sedan the first year and it was very easy to tow and like you I bought it ready to tow. It was just too hard to get in and out of the low sedan.The Cmax is much easier to access. I would tow a Saturn Vue in a split second. It should be easy to tow AND easy to get in and out. This my 2 cents worth.