Ok, I'll bite on this one. Depending on where I'm fishing I either take my 62 Willy's pickup or my 91 Cherokee. If I'm in my Willys I'm going to some unknown place that is very hard to get to ie.. mud holes very bad dirt roads and or snow. Also it has to be somewhat close as the Willys isn't a big hwy or freeway runner (its top speed is about 45). I have no problem fitting a couple of tubes inflated or my pontoon along with the rest of my gear. Down side is that I can't leave it unattended when hauling my gear as it has no locks what so ever.
My regular fishing coach is my Cherokee. I can strap my 9ft pontoon on top, with everything ells inside locked up and out of sight. Fits 2 inflated tubes inside with no problem. Their is plenty of room to place my flyrods inside with out breaking them down. This ride sees allot of marginal to bad roads and eats them up. It also is more than willing to eat up pavement to reach those far away fishing holes. I put a 2inch lift on it by adding a leaf in the rear and switching to a heavy duty front coil spring and re-arching both front and rear leaf springs. I've also installed a roof rack with a utility basket that I usually take off for hauling my pontoon. I have many times stacked two pontoons on top with no problem but I would be scared to go long distances with two of them on top. I also have two bike racks for when I'm riding and fishing as I was doing allot of that before I bought the pontoon boat. I'm planning on buying a flat bed trailer so I can carry more pontoons for shuttling purposes. Well that's my quarters worth, looking forward to hearing other configurations on this. Kent Dowd (KC) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kent Lufkin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, December 03, 2001 1:52 PM Subject: Fishing vehicles? > Over the years, we've discussed just about every kind of fishing gear > or strategy imaginable. But it struck me the other day that there's > still one indispensable piece of gear that every one of us uses: the > vehicle that gets us where we fish. > > I assume that for most of us, our fishing vehicle is also our daily > driver that spends most of its time making trips to the store or > commuting. For some of us in a multi-car household, a second vehicle > may be much more appropriate for fishing. A very few of us may > actually have a rig dedicated just for fishing, refined over years of > use. > > To get the ball rolling, here's my own 2� on the subject: > > I've always owned a pickup. In fact I can only remember a couple > years when I didn't have one. My current ride is a 1998 Ford Ranger > XLT extra cab 4x4 with a 4.0 liter V-6 and an automatic. Wish I'd got > it with the small, half-sized doors to get behind the front seats. > However, a retractable cover keeps things out of sight back there. > > The bed will hold a couple float tubes fully inflated or my 9 foot > pontoon boat (I haven't tried stacking two pontoon boats back there > yet.) There's plenty of room left over for gear bags, coolers, oars > or rod tubes. Plus, the bed doubles as a place to sit and wader up > without rocks that can tear up my neoprene wader feet. > > But having a pickup does pose some limitations. Leaving stuff in the > back is an open invitation to theft if you leave it there even > briefly. And relatively light weight stuff needs to be tied down to > keep it from becoming airborne at highway speeds. > > My truck's bed isn't long enough that I can stretch out in it to > sleep, and I'd need some sort of canopy to stay dry in the rain. The > space behind the seats doesn't hold very much gear (long rod tubes > are an especially tight fit) and it's a real pain to get to. Finally, > if I owned a boat and trailer, my rig is probably much too puny for > serious towing. > > But for the most part, it works well for the kind of fishing I do. > The 4wd and high ground clearance are a real plus on marginal roads. > > I'd sure like to hear how other subscribers have adapted their > vehicles for their own fishing style. > > Kent Lufkin >
