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Your Snowboard Vehicle.

383K views 2K replies 556 participants last post by  speedjason 
G
#1 ·
New to the forums. Currently have a BMW 330xi as my vehicle to get to the mountain. See where that's a problem? More than a couple inches on the road and I am screwed..


Looking for input on what vehicles you all drive to the mountain. I have about 12k to put into this. Maybe more.

Thanks for input--

-Alex
 
#1,161 ·
Coming from a professional driver with 22 years and almost 2 million miles of accident free driving semis pulling double trailers in the PNW and western Canada in every condition possible, I can unequivocally confirm that this generalization has a flip side. I have seen just as many if not more dumbasses in 4X4 pickups and big SUV's driving like idiots, crashing, closing the road and usually killing someone else in the process! When these people fuck up it usually is more spectacular and keeps your road closed for a much longer time.

It's the Indian, not the arrow. Skill and common sense trumps equipment every time. Having said that, I drive a pickup when not driving a semi and in deep unplowed snow it is a better tool for the job than a small car. The problem I see with the average pickup and SUV driver is they think they are invincible and overdrive their skill level and the actual capability of their vehicle.

On a plowed icy road, I actually think the small FWD car handles better than a large heavy pickup with a high center of gravity. It all comes down to the driver.

Which brings me to this shit storm with Snowklinger and Comeback. Comeback, we have had this conversation before in this thread a few years back. Your tone is always caustic and incendiary. You seem to start fights in almost every thread you become engaged in. Do us all a favor and think about how other people may react and tone it down. Not every post has to end with "you idiot" ( even when you don't write it, your tone still says it).

Snowklinger, don't react, respond. It's cool that you are so capable navigating your car on these shit roads but don't let someone who disagrees with you in a trollish manner allow you to loose your control and stoop to that same level in your responses. There are plenty of people who will agree with you that your car is just fine in the snow and plenty who will not. If it works for you that is all that is important. Personally up here because of the depth and density of our snow, combined with the fact ODOT is incompetent at plowing roads, I feel better in a heavy high clearance truck.

Keep it in perspective folks. Bottom line is we are talking about a chunk of steel and plastic with 4 wheels that gets you from point A to point B. The rude you are defending to the death is going to a pile of scrap metal in the junk yard soon and you will have long forgotten it. This thread has had a long run; it would be a shame to lock it down because folks can't act like adults and treat each other with some respect.

I have never understood the level of passion people have over car talk....:dunno:
lets go with that.
I ended my involvement in this little argument for good with my post about having the tow strap and telling NW boarder to have fun and drive safe.



snowolf, im glad you showed up. Im eagerly awaiting a response to that pm I sent you;)
 
#1,162 ·
Yep! Not ignoring you; just spent a week in the sun down in my home state of Arizona! Three days ago I was hiking in the desert in 95 degree weather; now I am dealing with 43 and rain....:thumbsdown:
haha i know. I put them together when I saw your picture thread with all of your shots of hiking through that canyon. That looked awesome! I honestly didn't know arizona was that beautiful looking either! Good time to go now though, when its not 1000000 degrees. Sucks you had to go back to 43 and rainy, not even good winter weather.
 
#1,163 ·
Stoked about your getting the goodies! Kachina Peaks Wilderness has intense terrain and if you time it right, the snow can be epic. Just be careful and follow good BC protocol as the San Fransisco Peaks are the real deal and produce devastating avalanches. That one down Abinaeu Canyon a decade ago was biblical in it's destruction!

Inner Basin out to Lockett Meadow is the shit for splitboarding. My short term goal though it to drop off the north side of Humphrey's into Abinaeu Canyon. Have to arrange sled support for that one though!
I was surprised at how sick the snow was, considering:

a) I never knew AZ had legit backcountry riding (or any kind of riding, really)
b) how bad a snow year it was for everyone out West

My buddy knew the area well, and after I pointed him to your posts, he came up with a plan. 2 days later, we were snow-shoeing up with our boards in tow... I don't know the area and it was my first time riding in AZ, but I think it was on the same mountain as Snow Bowl, but maybe a different side? Anyways, it was a nice half-day adventure and the ride down was EPIC. So much untouched snow, a little crusty on top, but surprisingly fluffy underneath. The tree run section of our ride down was siiiiick! The hike out wasn't even bad either.

Anyways, not to digress from the topic of the thread, but thanks again for the insight, we had a great time. :D
 
#1,168 ·
Came from a Civic DX to this the Rav4. The Civic was stolen, only reason I got car lol. Civic are okay for city driving but if you got lots of things to bring lots of things or just want to drive though anything but deep mud I highly recommend this car. It sits much taller and all round more comfortable.
 
#1,175 ·
The old Buick has been rear ended by some douche with no insurance. :sad:

Anyway, I've been looking at getting a 2006+ Infiniti M45 (AWD 3.5V6). Anyone have any experience with these cars? I had a 1999 Q45 years ago and I loved it, I've always wanted to get back in an Infiniti. Found a White 2006 Infiniti M35 3.5V6 AWD for $14,000~. has 47K on it, I love the RWD cars but with my addiction AWD is the practical way to go...


I've got a 4x4 truck for the really bad days, but I prefer driving a car for my daily commutes and to the mountain if it's not a total shit show out there. Since it doesn't snow in CO anymore I guess I don't have to worry about that.

Thanks!
 
#1,176 ·
My wife's 2010 Nissan Rogue SL AWD is our go-to snow vehicle. It just has the stock tires on it, but it's gotten us through some pretty tough conditions. At Solitude last year, we had an epic storm day and people were getting stuck in the parking lot. I turned the Rogue on, shifted down to L, and drove out like I was driving to the Prom. It's cheap and the Nissan OEM all weather floor mats are awesome for snow.

It's also a heck of a lot better in the snow than my rear wheel drive BMW 335. Going up into Little Cottonwood in a storm in that thing would be suicide. :eek:hmy:
 
#1,181 ·
Some recent pics from the beginning of this winter

Out playing, wheeling in the snow











Got a little cocky comming down from the hill last weekend, went to climb this steep and slick trail and got royally stuck when my truck slid back sideways right off the trail and was tipping bad in the soft stuff. Thank god for the jeep driving by that I was able to wave down! :bowdown:



 
#1,182 · (Edited)
2005 Yellow 350Z. I didn't snowboard at the time when I bought it. It takes immense amounts of force to wedge one snowboard into that car. It goes over my head from the "trunk" to straight over my head/shifter. Here is an old picture before I took apart the front.

Here's an old picture from a day of parking garage drifting. It looks a bit different now, but it is what it is.
 
#1,186 ·
2013 Genesis Coupe 2.0T, not the best choice as a snowboarding vehicle but I should be fine with these winter tires. As a GT car its great with so at least my 2-hour commute to the hill is more bearable, plus it has buttwarmers lol. Wanted a WRX before but couldn't justify the high cost of a used one here in Toronto =S

 
#1,187 ·
I have a few..
land rover discovery: unreliable gas hog 12mpg, awesome in the snow
audi a4 1.8t quattro: with 4 studded tires unstoppable, good mileage 25mpg, unreliable
chicks dig these euro cars!!

dodge 2500 4x4 diesel: whats snow?,17mpg, does not warm up quik and stinks up the parking lot bad.. only ******* girls look twice. I leave it hooked up to the boat.

being a master auto tech for the last 21yrs i have some suggestions:
subaru.. you cannot kill em, amazing in the snow, cheap, lots of room
toyota/lexus are the best cars built in the world for reliability etc..
honda/acura are also very good
if you are going to invest lots of cash into a car you might think twice b4 u get the look at me euro car. Or have deep pockets for endless repairs.
 
#1,195 ·
i dont know if id say that. most performance parts (mods) are much higher quality then oem. you get what you pay for though. cheap parts = unreliable.

certain year subarus had alot of problems with head gaskets. i THINK it was 2002-2008 models (around those years). theyve also had alot of problems with there automatic transmissions (some models).

i was about to buy a 2001 audi a4 quattro 1.8t 5-speed. its an awesome car for winter/summer driving. unfortunately i broke my hand and had to have surgery and ive been off work for over 3 months and had to support myself with my car money :(. there not super reliable but if you stay on top of maintenance and can do repairs yourself there not much more expensive then your average car.
 
#1,200 ·
Now you need a real Dodge to get to the mountain!!!

View attachment 9327

View attachment 9328

These were at a hotel I was at in Wichita one Spring. There are used to chase tornadoes and get hit by baseball size hail. I think it can bounce of a few snow banks and still get to the resort.
lol not sure how piratical that would be, but I like it. What is up with that PCV Pipe??
 
#1,201 ·
I get my cars broken. Sometimes get lucky and its a japanese car. But usually its a eurogarbagecan. Yes the subie 2.5 had head gasket issues and leak oil like an old ford truck. i made a lot of money fixing them but they could withstand severe overheats, very poor maintenance and still run like new for 300k miles easy. never even consider american cars as viable transportation and they r ugly yard art.
 
#1,202 ·
My 97 Subaru Outback with the EJ25D :D I changed the headgaskets year before last it really started overheating, it got so bad it would overheat almost all the time when I AC was on.. SO I pulled the motor myself and did the headgaskets, since I was off from work for a week and I already had all my parts why not? The best was was people walking down the street came up to me saying they were impressed which was kinda odd at first, maybe it was because the motor was still on the engine lift? Anyways got the new replacement gaskets from the dealer and had the heats resurfaced and now I'm a few hundred away from 250,000.

And this past summer I ended up dropping a lower mileage Forester transmission in because of an issue with 5th gear and it was just cheaper to get that then rebuild, took a drive up to NH and picked one up for $300 and had that installed in about 4 hours pretty easy stuff, next year I'm repainting and doing some other minor work.

I do miss my 03 Forester XS but I had to get rid of it :(
 
#1,205 ·
Our mountain starts at city level so I'm just driving a Nissan Tida with studded winter tyres however next year we are thinking of upgrading to a Subaru XV crossover (in orange of course). I love the Subraru's and always hire them in NZ for the long climbs up to the resorts.
Has anyone driven the new XV's?
 
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