How do you transport your gear? Car/truck/C-130?

[calicant]

Thus far we stuffed two people's worth of scuba gear in the small trunk of a Mercedes SL550. Not a good scubamobile at all. Soon taking delivery of a 2002 Nissan Pathfinder which is 4x4 and costs less than our FLX Extreme dry-suits.

 

[Atom]

I have an Audi A4 Avant station wagon. It's AWD and has a low profile to the wind, and is a reasonably good snow car.

Argh!!! There are no good snow cars, there are good snow tires!

Well... if you have to park in poorly maintained streets (Mtl basically) good clearance and AWD will help, but in proper winter towns, winter tires are all you need.


I have a Santa Fe,I can gear up and launch 2 divers in doubles 130 from it without using the back seat (so the scooters should fit when we get them). A pickup is still a better dive vehicule but mine does the job nicely (except if you have to drive a long way to your dive site).

 

[tac747]

Monterey is 3 to 3 1/2 hours away so if its just me meeting people then I take my Daughters fit. If its me and 4 other people doing the carpool thing I take my dodge 1500 quad cab 4X4 and if we are staying more than a couple days I hook up my 18' camp trailor which has a seperate 120 cubic foot lockable cargo area in the back.

 

[j yaeger]

remember,inside a santa fe,it is warm.
outside,in a pick-up,it is cold.

rather have stuff in a santa fe/scubaru than outside in the cold!
just a note to everyone who keeps their gear "just right"
untill transport to site

have fun
yaeg
PS
blue mt lake is still open for ice dives,for those who missed the last quals.
...friggin' still winter,in the mts.!!!!!!
have fun
yaeg

 

[Kiwi303]

During my training, I had a Isuzu Bighorn (NZ and etc RHD Japan markets, Trooper in LHD EU/US markets) 4x4 which had a rear only slightly less capacitous than a Suburban SUV. Most guys piled into the dive clubs van which towed a trailer loaded with kit, but I prefered to drive myself, I've made trips with a tonne of kit in the back for the whole class, like 500Kg of lead weights, 10 dive bags, etc, etc...

These days I drive a van, Nissan Serena, 2 litre RWD petrol with even MORE capacity, but fuel economy suffers if it gets loaded down. I doubt I will ever run out of haulage space with my choice of cars. even my little MGF 2 seater convertible i had for a while would fit a dive bag and 2 tanks in the boot. 2 bags would be problematic

 

[Hoomi]

We have a 2002 Nissan 4WD Pathfinder. Before we got that a little over a year ago, we were taking my 2000 Toyota Tacoma 2WD down to the remote beach in Mexico. With the truck, we had plenty of room for dive and camping gear, though we rarely had to haul tanks (our LDS sets up on the beach during the months of May and October, with a compressor and stacks of tanks).

The Nissan has a bit less carrying capacity inside, so we have a soft cargo carrier for the roof rack, that we pack lightweight, bulky stuff in like the tent, tarp, sleeping bags, etc.

One reason we went to the Pathfinder was that the last time we took the Tacoma down there, was shortly after the hurricane that did so much damage to the San Carlos area. The beach we go to is about 20 miles north of San Carlos, and requires driving down 15 miles of primitive, unpaved roads. After the hurricane, some of the "roads" were nothing more than tire ruts down a dry stream bed. The Tacoma made it okay, but it was sketchy in a couple of places, and we decided we weren't going to do that again without 4WD. Especially with the beach being pea-gravel, having 4WD means we can actually drive farther onto the beach, instead of having to park farther back and schlepping the gear to where we want to camp.

The C-130 would be nice, except for the fuel costs, and figuring out where the heck to land it. Maybe an old PBY like Cousteau used to have? Just land on the Sea of Cortez, taxi a bit closer to shore, and have transportation and accomodations all in one. Be pretty cool for a day trip down to other dive sites farther away than can be reached by the dive shop's zodiaks, too. Of course, if I could afford that, I would probably be going to nicer spots with hotel accomodations, no bad roads, and I'd be able to afford to fly there commercially, anyway.

 

[koozemani]

There's plenty of room for all our gear in the gf's Honda crv. If things get tight, I simply strap her to the roof rack.

 

[Searcaigh]

O

The C-130 would be nice, except for the fuel costs, and figuring out where the heck to land it. Maybe an old PBY like Cousteau used to have? Just land on the Sea of Cortez, taxi a bit closer to shore, and have transportation and accomodations all in one. Be pretty cool for a day trip down to other dive sites farther away than can be reached by the dive shop's zodiaks, too. Of course, if I could afford that, I would probably be going to nicer spots with hotel accomodations, no bad roads, and I'd be able to afford to fly there commercially, anyway.

I had forgotten about Cousteau's Catalina, I always wanted to fly in one of these for some obscure reason.

If you want one

Solomon Islands, Business; PBY/CATALINA,

There are two wrecks of Catalinas that you can dive on, one is on Cumbrae island opposite Largs in Scotland, and the other is in the northern Red Sea on the Saudi side

 

[OdinFo]

We are ussually three divers duing two tank dives.
We are coldwater divers! meaning drysuit!

And here is a pic of my car loaded =/

 

[Gmsg]

Only been diving a year, and a frequent dive site often has very tight parking quarters, so really enjoy taking the Mini convertible (I can almost turn it around in place). Makes the drive to and from the dive site almost as fun as the dive!