bug-out vehicles

M

mr_dove

Joined
Apr 12, 2004
Messages
90
I recently saw some pictures of a concept vehicle called the Jeep: Rescue. My first thought was, "that's one bad a$$" looking SUV. My second thought was that it would make a great bug-out vehicle (under certain circumstances).

What do you think the ideal bug-out transportation would be?

Most of our knee jerk reactions would be the biggest, baddest SUV we could think of but 4WD won't help us if the whole city is packing the streets trying to get out.

Hoofing it is slow but you don't have to work about traffic. Mountain bikes are also good. Much faster than walking but not as fast as driving.

Perhaps the best compromise would be either a dirt-bike or some kind of quad with cargo carrying capacity. They would have the capability of getting you out of snarled traffic quickly and still be able to get you through tough terrain in the forest.

Any thoughts? I have no real world experience here.
 
Being a NYC resident, and living only a few blocks from the WTC at the time, I must say that chances are, if you need to bug out, you won't be able to do it by vehicle. Roads get closed off or clogged by pedestrians. Motorcycles are a little better, but expect to have to hoof it out.
 
I'd be set with my daily driver, a '97 Wrangler. I have the entire (yet small) trunk full of bug out gear. It's small and nimble, and handles tight spots well. To make it more "ultimate" a winch and some extra cargo space would be cool, maybe a roof rack.
 
Personally...

I dont think I'd buy a big SUV with a V8 for bugging out. I'm a hot rodder... I'm a gear head, and have gasoline in my veins...

If I want to go long distances, I either want saddle bag gas tanks under a truck bed... or I want an efficient engine.

I put my vote in for an Izuzu diesel, or other import. Rather then looking at what we drive now, we should really look at what the missionaries in areas without roads drive... look at what the guys down in the jungles drive...

You dont want:

Something that will get stuck (A fake SUV, something that will snap axles, tierods etc)
Something that gets horrible gas milage (Hummer... great for some stuff, long distance bugging out its not!)
Something that doesnt fit in (Not a bomb on the outward view...)
Something that doesnt have ground clearance, cant hop a curb...

The other things to think about, are how complex the vehicle is! Anyone can limp a lawn tractor back to a shed... Not everyone can limp a high tech fully loaded power everything SUV back to a shop.

I'd say no power brakes, or power steering. With something light enough these arent a problem... having either leak is a problem. ESPECIALLY if your going off road and you havent setup the power steering in a "Leak proof" manner.

The other thing is parts availability... if you cant get parts, and cant store parts on hand... then you have a short term solution. Spark plugs, wires, caps, rotors, carbs, fuel pumps, water pumps... oil, fluids... all of the above are needed on gasoline motors. A diesel will run as long as the fuel pump works and you can get it turned over... (if it has compression... and a the motor its self is in working order...)

The ultimate urban bug out vehicle... A Fiat 500! Air cooled engine, no power anything, a basic lawn tractor with a car body. That is if your in europe where you can get parts for the said beastie! For the USA, I dont think you could beat a honda.

Put some time thinking about fuel storage, and the fact that a diesel will run on number 1 or 2 heating oil. :D
 
For the mountain bike you might want to carry a tube patch kit... or a can of green slime.

The problem with bikes is the fact they are easy to lift... literally!

:eek:
 
for me it is a four wheel drive tractor, will go about 15 mph and haul a trailer full of stuff, sips fuel, now it is not the fastest vehicle, but it will definately go where other vehicles wont, carries a front end loader to clear the road, will pull a 10 ft trailer full of fuel and goods, and carry us a long way on stored and scavenged fuel. will give me much better than a gallon an hour on the fuel consumption, with the ammount of storage i have, i could get a long way befor needing to refuel. not exactly a terminator type vehicle but it does not really require much in the way of maintnenece just change the oil.

alex
 
Nothing special here. An 11 year old Nissan 4X2 pickup with a shell, 5spd and 4 cyl. It gets around 340 miles per tank and with the additional 10 gallons we carry with us, it extends our range to 570 miles or so. We carry extra parts and fluids, as well as the needed tools.
 
Toyota pickup with my mtn bike stashed in the bed. If worse comes to worse that gives me two transport options. My mtn bike has front & rear racks with panniers. I'm planning on getting a set of airfree tires for it.
Gene :D
 
I hear those air free tires are the way to go. We'd like to get a couple of Mtn. bikes with air free tires and capabilities of carrying our packs. I keep my eye on the local bike shops for a couple of good used ones with all the goodies.
 
Has anyone seen Deep Impact? Remember the scene towards the end of the movie where EVERYONE is trying to escape the blast zone of the meteor and traffic is stopped for as far as the eye can see?

That's the kind of scenario I imagine. It won't be just you bugging out when the time comes. It will be EVERYONE!! You think rush hour is bad.

I imagine that ALL roads will be effectively closed because of the heavy traffic. This becomes even worse in the cities where 4WD won't help you. There will likely be plenty of other people doing their best to "off-road" to safety. They'll get stuck and block your intended path.

A smaller vehicle can take sidewalks, drive between cars, and avoid the calamity of the "super rush hour".

although its probably likely that our government wouldn't warn us even if they knew of an impending attack like a nuclear strike on a city for that same reason. They'd rather have us die calmly than get flustered and panicked trying to escape.
 
Just brainstorming here, but I think perhaps a good dual-purpose motorcycle like a BMW F650 or KTM Duke might be a good way to go. Go a LONG way on a little bit of gas, fits through tight spots and can go off-road. Once you get out of the cities, you'll still have the highway infrastructure (mostly), so even a bigger bike like the BMW RxxxxGS series might work for ya. My '89 could hold 9 gallons of gas, but the modern ones with smaller tanks get correspondingly better mileage, so range is similar.

Disadvantages to a motorcycle are that you can't carry nearly as much stuff, and you can't sleep in it. If you have a couple of people, perhaps a bike for scouting and such, and a car/truck/jeep for cargo/sleeping?
 
PWork said:
The most reliable transportation is located below your waist.

Paul
Click to expand...

Though the possibility of injury must be considered and prepared for.

At best, injury can greatly slow you down, at worst will make walking impossible. A vehicle allows easy transportation even when you or another party member are injured. With some sort of vehicle with 3 or more wheels, you could conceivably still easily travel great distances with the use of only half your limbs (you could even press the accelerator with a cane if you had to). Even a motorcycle (or dirt-bike or moped) could be driven with minimal use of the legs.


Vehicles also afford much greater cargo capacity than a backpack, though caching could reduce this problem. Now that I think about it, some sort of bike would be ideal for getting to a cached larger vehicle outside the city, allowing much of the gridlock to be bypassed.
 
The only problem I see with having a vehicle that'd keep you moving while everybody else is stuck and panicing is that you'd soon become a very accessible target.
 
Speaking of the mass exodus idea...

That might make it worthwhile to those of us on the edge of citys... to take the smallest country roads to either the highest elevation in the area (Flood) Or the straightest shot to away from here.

I'm looking into picking up some topographical maps to see where the high spots are around here... But I dont want to be in an urban setting during anything big! :eek:
 
FoxholeAtheist said:
Just brainstorming here, but I think perhaps a good dual-purpose motorcycle like a BMW F650 or KTM Duke might be a good way to go. Go a LONG way on a little bit of gas, fits through tight spots and can go off-road. Once you get out of the cities, you'll still have the highway infrastructure (mostly), so even a bigger bike like the BMW RxxxxGS series might work for ya. My '89 could hold 9 gallons of gas, but the modern ones with smaller tanks get correspondingly better mileage, so range is similar.

Disadvantages to a motorcycle are that you can't carry nearly as much stuff, and you can't sleep in it. If you have a couple of people, perhaps a bike for scouting and such, and a car/truck/jeep for cargo/sleeping?
Click to expand...

I wonder if a 50cc - 125cc wouldnt do it... alot more of a fuel sipper :D
 
Hmm, seems a lot of this discussion sounds focused on single person travel.

I want to be sure both my wife and I get to safety. ALso want to be able to have provisions of sorts.

I've thought about a couple vehicles, maybe one at each compass point, garaged or stored at a family members place.

Smaller less cargo capable vehicle(s) could be used to get to that perimeter, then improved transport/provisions from there.
 
Helicopter, if you can keep one in your backyard for quick escape... Reliability and range are some issues though.

Phil
 
For the whole family : King Cab Dodge Ram with V12 Cummins Turbo Diesel :D

For me alone : In order --> mountain bike, feet, knees, belly...

Cheers,

David
 
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