Automakers catering to outdoor enthusiasts
Leave it to the Japanese to leap ahead of American auto companies even in the field of producing functional vehicles for outdoors enthusiasts.
Consider our shortcomings. The Chevrolet Avalanche truck, for instance, takes a decent stab at making room for an outdoorsman’s storage needs in several ways, but the opening to the storage space is so small that it’s difficult to get long items, like gun cases and fly rod tubes, in and out.
Honda, however, seems to be the first to catch on to the concept that outdoors types need space for stuff, and not just in the bed of a pickup. The new Honda half-ton Ridgeline pickup has an enormous cargo well under the rear half of its five-foot bed, a fabulous place to lock away expensive guns and fishing tackle and other gear.
Honda has given the industry a glimpse of how a boat-builder’s savvy can translate into using space efficiently in a pickup.
The well has drains, which allow it to be used as a huge cooler. Or it can be washed out with a hose after hauling five big salmon on ice. This truck also has a two-way tailgate (opening down or sideways and cargo lights built into the sides of the pickup bed, making it easy to find stuff at night.
SUV enthusiasts should check out the four-wheel version of the Honda Element, the back of which can be washed out with a hose. It has a neat storage well/ice chest under the rear deck. The back area has a surprising amount of room for outdoors gear, and the rear seats can be folded up out of the way to provide even more space.
Those rear seats also fold flat to create a second level of storage, but Honda missed the boat. While the back of the front seat lies almost flat, it’s not quite flat enough to make a comfortable bed. Had Honda given a little more thought, it could have marketed the Element as a bare-bones camper with rudimentary, built-in full-length berths, like the cockpit seats that convert to berths on small boats.
Companies are cropping up across the country to remodel rigs for the specific needs of sportsmen.
Truck and utility vehicle conversions are big business in Texas, a hotbed for legal motorized hunting on vast tracks of leased land.
Texans are fond of “top-drive” conversions for their pickups and Suburbans. Invented in South Texas, they allow hunters the vehicle to be driven from the roof so hunters who drive through a sea of low brush have the elevation to see beyond the road.
These so-called trolling rigs serve double duty as mobile hunting blinds in rare states such as Texas, where hunting from a vehicle is allowed. Check them out at www.extremehuntingtrucks.com.
For a mere $70,000, another Texas company, Addison’s Absolute Sporting, can remodel that inferior Hummer hogging your garage with a new suspension system that allows the Hummer to be driven at high speeds on rough roads.
There’s also an oversized moon roof over the backseat passenger compartment with a bass boat-style swivel seat that allows a hunter to sit about chest-high through the opening, with sandbags on the parked vehicle’s roof for a shooting rest.
More practical sportsmen are investing in utility vehicles and saving their expensive pickup trucks and SUVs from off-road scratches and abuse.
For under $10,000, you can get a reasonably equipped utility vehicle such as a Kawasaki Mule, Polaris Ranger, John Deere Gator, etc. These are workhorses that will go virtually anywhere and transport a considerable payload.
Their soft tires provide a comfortable ride and are easier on roads after a rain.