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If you're talking about collapse such as happened in Bosnia for several years, no police or any order whatsoever, most everyone driving will probably be shot up as soon as they drove into view.

So my sincere answer would be no on-road motor vehicles whatsoever. This idea of driving around during chaos is I'm afraid pretty unrealistic. When it goes sour, you're gonna see a whole lot of different people who used to seem normal and now behave like Charlie Manson. Or worse.

Perhaps a quiet off-road motorcycle, a mountain bike, something that will get you away from the cities without getting hosed in the first five minutes. Something that will work without roads. Small and quiet.
 
One of the things that's fundamental to mobility is being able to unstick yourself. No matter how capable your offroad vehicle is, sticks happen.
stuckjeep01.jpg

What isn't really conveyed in this picture is the fact that it's about 120F outside... what you see behind me is the Salton Sea. Which if you value your offroad vehicle you will stay well away from, I unfortunately was not as cautious and had to drag my vehicle out with a high-lift jack ORK. I now have an electric winch that fits the receiver jack on the back, and I put in a receiver on the front as well. In this case, I got really lucky and was able to tie on to that big concrete pile you can see on the right. Land anchors are also very important!

Anyways, as far as the concern about "cross country travel being impossible...." I think that's likely going to be true after a while, mostly because there will be no fuel, much less the dangers of actually traveling. The limitation to this, is if you're traveling in enough force to give would-be bandits reason for pause and caution. At the same time, a vehicle can be very useful even for short trips... like moving that giant pile of firewood back to camp, or an animal you killed and are preparing to eat.

Will travel otherwise be dangerous? Probably quite dangerous, ever traveled in a third world country? The idea of a "road" or a "bridge" becomes little more than a suggestion. Sometimes the bridge takes the form of some guy with a raft made of scrap lumber and 55gal drums with a windlass to get you across... oh and don't forget to tip him.
 
If you're talking about collapse such as happened in Bosnia for several years, no police or any order whatsoever, most everyone driving will probably be shot up as soon as they drove into view.

So my sincere answer would be no on-road motor vehicles whatsoever. This idea of driving around during chaos is I'm afraid pretty unrealistic. When it goes sour, you're gonna see a whole lot of different people who used to seem normal and now behave like Charlie Manson. Or worse.

Perhaps a quiet off-road motorcycle, a mountain bike, something that will get you away from the cities without getting hosed in the first five minutes. Something that will work without roads. Small and quiet.

Just talking the drive home in the first hours of an "event" be it natural or man-made, but forced to go a "roundabout" way like over grassy medians, small ditches, through fields to avoid stalled/panicked traffic.
Then if need be to get my family out of town or away from the situation. If needed able to travel a wooded trail or some snow or far enough to figure out my next move!

As we all know (or maybe not), you can be prepped to the gills with a massive 4x4, weapons, food, ammo, shelter etc. and all it takes is one snag and you're no better off than the guy who didn't prep at all.
That and lack of money is why I limit my preps.

My vehicle at the moment the weakest link and an AWD suv with low miles is what I feel will give me a chance to get through the first days.
 
Not an SUV. However hear me out.

Toyota yaris. Pre 2010.

5-6" ground clearance. FWD with a short drivetrain is just as good as 4x4.

40-50 miles to the gallon.

400-500 mile range. 10 gallon tank with 2 gallon reserve.

Basic. I repeat basic car. Timing chain lasts 200+ thousand. Auto trans fluid 100k. Radiator fluid 100k. Oil every 5k maybe more in a pinch. Exactly 4 qts too.

Used for rally racing outside us. Skid plates available.

With the right tires this car can make it just about anywhere.

Removing the rear seat make for tons of room.

Remove the passenger seat as well and you can make a makeshift sleeping quarters.

Only downsides are:

Electronic ecus.

Drive by wire.

Other than that it's a daily driver you can drive all day everyday.

Then if anything happens. This little bubblegum will get you were you want to go.

If you want proof google yaris world. Look for the crashy thread.
 
I've gone over a similar Idea ^^^^ myself. My focus climbed a steep rocky hill once and I've had it on bad trails/snow etc. Ground clearance is bad though. I dented my tranny resov. cover and ripped my exhaust heat shield one day pretty bad. Easy fixes but it could have been worse. If I'm getting something different with more clearance it might as well be awd too.
 
I really liked my 90 Mitsu Montero V-6 4-door. I converted it for a hella long road trip (4500 miles). I had an elevated bed w/food and camp stores underneath, along w/ a 15HP outboard. My large roof rack held 4 jerry cans, the fuel tank for my Bombard, Bombard, pioneer tools, screen tent and a large trunk.
The 2 door Montero is even better in tight spots and comes w/ a 4 banger, very well built
 
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Not an SUV. However hear me out.

Toyota yaris. Pre 2010.

5-6" ground clearance. FWD with a short drivetrain is just as good as 4x4.

40-50 miles to the gallon.

400-500 mile range. 10 gallon tank with 2 gallon reserve.

Basic. I repeat basic car. Timing chain lasts 200+ thousand. Auto trans fluid 100k. Radiator fluid 100k. Oil every 5k maybe more in a pinch. Exactly 4 qts too.

I think people don't really consider how much ground clearance is enough, at the same time, they also don't consider how much is too much. Your BOV is going to be loaded down with everything (hopefully even a collapsing vinyl kitchen sink) which may take that 5-6" clearance and turn it into 2-3" probably less. When you build a rally car, the first thing you do is go in and tear out all the weight, that means seats, windows, the whole interior, door panels, as much of the sheet metal as you can, and then you rebuild what you took out with a tube frame, you bump up and stiffen the suspension, and then you go to work on the rest of the car.

On the one hand, I definitely think there is some validity to this approach, however, at the same time there are many practical things that are being overlooked her. The classic Hot-Rodder "rule of thumb": for every 100lbs you lose 10HP. So bolting on skid plates, and stuffing the car full of gas, weapons, food, and family you're going to run out of HP pretty quick without some performance intervention. At the same time, that 50MPG is going to go away. If you're plan consists of "grab backpack, grab rifle, throw on tactical vest, load handgun, get in car and drive as fast as possible to BOL" I think your plan is perfect. For everyone else, or for those who need to either cross, or bypass some crappy areas, I'm not sure this is as great. I don't know how well a yaris drives over looters, but I know how well my jeep drives over coyotes.
 
I think people don't really consider how much ground clearance is enough, at the same time, they also don't consider how much is too much. Your BOV is going to be loaded down with everything (hopefully even a collapsing vinyl kitchen sink) which may take that 5-6" clearance and turn it into 2-3" probably less. When you build a rally car, the first thing you do is go in and tear out all the weight, that means seats, windows, the whole interior, door panels, as much of the sheet metal as you can, and then you rebuild what you took out with a tube frame, you bump up and stiffen the suspension, and then you go to work on the rest of the car.

On the one hand, I definitely think there is some validity to this approach, however, at the same time there are many practical things that are being overlooked her. The classic Hot-Rodder "rule of thumb": for every 100lbs you lose 10HP. So bolting on skid plates, and stuffing the car full of gas, weapons, food, and family you're going to run out of HP pretty quick without some performance intervention. At the same time, that 50MPG is going to go away. If you're plan consists of "grab backpack, grab rifle, throw on tactical vest, load handgun, get in car and drive as fast as possible to BOL" I think your plan is perfect. For everyone else, or for those who need to either cross, or bypass some crappy areas, I'm not sure this is as great. I don't know how well a yaris drives over looters, but I know how well my jeep drives over coyotes.

I'll have to grab a pic off my computer when I get on it next. It's of my old honda fit. We loaded the thing to the roof with camping gear one year. It surely lowered the car dramatically, however I still maintained 30-40 MPG all the way to the coast from Reno NV. It wasn't the fastest trip, but it wasn't the slowest either.

The Yaris has good torque though. We have loaded one down before pretty well on the same trip up north to Florence from Reno. It lost 2" in the rear. However it still maintained 35-45 MPG. The yaris definitely felt more sluggish than the fit did. But we still made good timing.

I imagine as would you beef up the rear of a truck or SUV for carrying weight, you could beef up the yaris as well. It wouldn't be too hard either. Stiffer springs, shocks, and roll bar. Add larger tires to the mix and you may loose wheel well clearance but you'll add ground clearance.

The guy in the crashy thread on yaris world uses ATV tires on his. He also modified it to accept a snow plow. It can't go anywhere over 25-30 MPH. However it would provably get you anywhere you want it to.

Crash thread:

http://www.yarisworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21614
 
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First question. How much stuff you buggin out with? Volume and weight??
Second, how far and where are you going?
Third, Off road?? Not around here. Blm or Forest Service roads only. To steep and or brush to thick. Most of western Oregon.
Eastern Oregon, off road yes, 8 ply tires, skid plates and self recovery equipment.
 
Wife got involved, result being a brand $panking new Subaru Outback with the ( a lot of people hate it) CVT tranny. I like it so far but haven't gotten it too dirty yet.
Not a serious off-roader but better than my focus I'm sure!
 
Wife got involved, result being a brand $panking new Subaru Outback with the ( a lot of people hate it) CVT tranny. I like it so far but haven't gotten it too dirty yet.
Not a serious off-roader but better than my focus I'm sure!

Oh god, you bought the official pace-car of the northwest. Don't forget to put a "life is good", a "wag more bark less" and "coexist" sticker on the back, it'll make it more obvious to SAR what car the bodies belong to.

Please note, I'm not ragging on you and your wife specifically... more the people who are normally found driving those vehicles. It seems more often than not subaru's sales pitch has embued them with the idea that the vehicle is capable of handling anything in a novice's hands, and then when they find themselves in that situation (3" of snow on carnation-fall city road) that maybe they're in over their head.
 
I know, I'm about as opposite from the typical Subaru owner as it gets. I maybe need to get a big fat NRA sticker or some other conservative flag waving slogan affixed to it just to irritate people.
I don't want to risk retaliation from these pseudo hippies in my neighborhood though. Plus I like to keep my car exterior plain and blend into the crowd as much as possible.
 
I know, I'm about as opposite from the typical Subaru owner as it gets. I maybe need to get a big fat NRA sticker or some other conservative flag waving slogan affixed to it just to irritate people.
I don't want to risk retaliation from these pseudo hippies in my neighborhood though. Plus I like to keep my car exterior plain and blend into the crowd as much as possible.

Best not to advertise.
 
my 97 4wd expedition, can't sell it (nobody wants it), still runs like a champ with 205k on it. Only cost me 2k 4 years and 60k miles ago. can toss in a bunch o stuff after I throw out the third row seat. Great brakes, good tires, just gotta pry a Prius or two out of the grill and I'm good to go!

a few more years and I'm eligable for collector plates?
 
I have an 89, a 90, and a 91 jeep cherokee... the 89 falls off (no smog) next year, and both the 90 and the 91 have one more year of smogging. Depending on what county you're in you may not have to deal with smog check, have to check the WA-DOL website.

As far as decorating the back end... may as well make it look like all the others. I think when you have a jeep that's old, with paint coming off (and other mismatched paint going back on) and antennas, high lift jacks and fuel cans all over it you tend to get a pass on having all the NRA stickers. Also, the push bumper helps.
 
Where is everyone going to "bug out" to anyway ? All the gas will be gone in a couple day and if you're lucky you'll have enough to drive 300 miles from home before your arse is stranded on the side of the road. Guess we could all go east and eat jack rabbits or kangaroo rats with the coyotes.

So Bend?
 

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