Visiting Las Vegas - rent 4wd vehicle?

[+creekstompers]

Hi,

 

We are heading out west in November. We have been out there many times in our "pre-geocaching" lifetime - doing Valley of Fire, Red Rocks, other places on foot and exploring the outlying areas as much as we could just being curious nature lovers.

 

We are looking at the caches in the area - and some harder terrain caches really mean that you need a "high profile 4wd vehicle" ....... so the question is this. Is there ANY company that would rent you a 4wd vehicle and how do you approach them if they do?

 

We really want to get some Earthcaches in the Valley of Fire area - Death Valley area - Grand Canyon area but are worried that we need a rugged vehicle for roads and the ones we like. At home - I drive a full size super crew 4wd F-150 truck - and can handle just about anything.

 

Advice from the folks out west?

 

Thanks!

Kathy (1/2 of creekstompers)

[+Shuckymomo]

I can't really help you on the 4x4 thing, but there are a few cachers you might want to contact in the LV area. I lived there for a few months and met a few.

 

AHOLLYS

MooseMob

MillerDude

mojave_rattler

 

Holly can point you to some others, too. Who knows? They might be able to help you find a vehicle...

 

Keith

 

I just contacted Holly about this thread...

 

 

Hi,

 

We are heading out west in November. We have been out there many times in our "pre-geocaching" lifetime - doing Valley of Fire, Red Rocks, other places on foot and exploring the outlying areas as much as we could just being curious nature lovers.

 

We are looking at the caches in the area - and some harder terrain caches really mean that you need a "high profile 4wd vehicle" ....... so the question is this. Is there ANY company that would rent you a 4wd vehicle and how do you approach them if they do?

 

We really want to get some Earthcaches in the Valley of Fire area - Death Valley area - Grand Canyon area but are worried that we need a rugged vehicle for roads and the ones we like. At home - I drive a full size super crew 4wd F-150 truck - and can handle just about anything.

 

Advice from the folks out west?

 

Thanks!

Kathy (1/2 of creekstompers)

Edited September 4, 2010 by Shuckymomo

[+Moose Mob]

Keep in mind that when folks say "4 wheel drive" that the majority of these can be reached by any vehicle with a little extra clearance. Most any SUV will suffice. Driver's skill level and experience will be major contributors to success, ego will contribute to failure.

[+creekstompers]

Just wanted to reply to everyone who posted or may see this. We altered our plans - and did the ET Highway and a few caches in the Las Vegas metro area. We also drove to AZ, UT and Death Valley, CA! It was a GREAT vacation bagging over 1,100 caches. Woo Hoo!

 

Hertz had a great rate on the SUV's which all in that class have higher ground clearance, 4x4 or AWD. We had a Chevy Traverse that did fine with the AWD in the SNOW on the ET Highway. But I never found a Jeep Wrangler or anything else more rugged to take on some serious off roading.

 

Moose Mob - we got one of your wooden nickles!

 

Thanks everyone! We love the West. But stuck in the Midwest. Hopefully not for too much longer!!!

[+n0k1a]

A friend just pointed this thread out to me...about three weeks too late. My experience might help someone else, so I'll throw my two cents in.

 

I found out I was going to a trade show in Las Vegas in November, and made a multi-state caching expedition out of it. I too wanted to rent a 4x4 to do some desert caching. I found a luxury vehicle rental outfit in LV with Wranglers, but they were very expensive. Someone else pointed me to a web site which compares various rental places, and it pointed me to Fox Rent-A-Car. I got a very nice 2010 2-door Wrangler for what I thought was a very good deal. They offered unlimited mileage, and their list of 8 or 9 allowed states included all of the 6 that I planned to hit...perfect! I ended up spending twice as much on gas as I did on the rental...but what an adventure it was!

 

OK, it just hit me. I thought the username of one of the contributors on this thread sounded really familiar. When I started looking at the caching map around LV, I panned over into CA. A small group of caches with nothing else nearby drew me in, and one of them in particular caught my eye, and really sparked the whole 'rent a 4x4' idea. It was GC289KE, Secret Entrance To Satan's Lair, placed by Moose Mob along with several other cachers. The quest for that cache was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had!

 

I loved it so much out there, I can't wait to go back!

[+creekstompers]

A friend just pointed this thread out to me...about three weeks too late. My experience might help someone else, so I'll throw my two cents in.

 

I found out I was going to a trade show in Las Vegas in November, and made a multi-state caching expedition out of it. I too wanted to rent a 4x4 to do some desert caching. I found a luxury vehicle rental outfit in LV with Wranglers, but they were very expensive. Someone else pointed me to a web site which compares various rental places, and it pointed me to Fox Rent-A-Car. I got a very nice 2010 2-door Wrangler for what I thought was a very good deal. They offered unlimited mileage, and their list of 8 or 9 allowed states included all of the 6 that I planned to hit...perfect! I ended up spending twice as much on gas as I did on the rental...but what an adventure it was!

 

OK, it just hit me. I thought the username of one of the contributors on this thread sounded really familiar. When I started looking at the caching map around LV, I panned over into CA. A small group of caches with nothing else nearby drew me in, and one of them in particular caught my eye, and really sparked the whole 'rent a 4x4' idea. It was GC289KE, Secret Entrance To Satan's Lair, placed by Moose Mob along with several other cachers. The quest for that cache was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had!

 

I loved it so much out there, I can't wait to go back!

 

Thanks for the feedback because I knew that Fox had the Wranglers but read such bad reviews about that company online! We decided to play it safe and get a car from a "major" company. But glad to hear you had a good experience with them!

[+n0k1a]

Thanks for the feedback because I knew that Fox had the Wranglers but read such bad reviews about that company online! We decided to play it safe and get a car from a "major" company. But glad to hear you had a good experience with them!

Wow, that's surprising to hear. I never heard of them before that site pointed me to them; didn't even find them in multiple searches I did for such rentals. I was just pleased at finding a place which had what I was looking for, and didn't even think of looking for reviews.

 

I really can't think of anything to complain about even if I try. Waiting for the shuttle buses and waiting in line for a few minutes to pick it up are hardly reasons to complain about them. Some of the people in line in front of me had a problem, but it's because they were trying to do something which was clearly against the policies on their web site. Heck, I put over 2000 miles on it in about a week, and it was pretty dusty when I took it back, and they didn't say a word!

 

I've experienced that more than once with reviews. Some of the best products I've ever used have gotten bad reviews, and some total junk gets good reviews, so I take most of them with a grain of salt. An excellent example is one of my best GPS devices, which happens to be a phone as well: the Nokia E71. It only gets 3.5 stars in the GC reviews, but it's easily a 5 star device to me. Do you have any links to the bad Fox reviews? I'm curious what was said now. I would use them again in a heartbeat, and recommend them to anyone, based on my experience so far. If anything, I would complain that they didn't advertise more so I could have found them more easily.

[+tomfuller & Quill]

Thanks for the feedback because I knew that Fox had the Wranglers but read such bad reviews about that company online! We decided to play it safe and get a car from a "major" company. But glad to hear you had a good experience with them!

Wow, that's surprising to hear. I never heard of them before that site pointed me to them; didn't even find them in multiple searches I did for such rentals. I was just pleased at finding a place which had what I was looking for, and didn't even think of looking for reviews.

 

I really can't think of anything to complain about even if I try. Waiting for the shuttle buses and waiting in line for a few minutes to pick it up are hardly reasons to complain about them. Some of the people in line in front of me had a problem, but it's because they were trying to do something which was clearly against the policies on their web site. Heck, I put over 2000 miles on it in about a week, and it was pretty dusty when I took it back, and they didn't say a word!

 

I've experienced that more than once with reviews. Some of the best products I've ever used have gotten bad reviews, and some total junk gets good reviews, so I take most of them with a grain of salt. An excellent example is one of my best GPS devices, which happens to be a phone as well: the Nokia E71. It only gets 3.5 stars in the GC reviews, but it's easily a 5 star device to me. Do you have any links to the bad Fox reviews? I'm curious what was said now. I would use them again in a heartbeat, and recommend them to anyone, based on my experience so far. If anything, I would complain that they didn't advertise more so I could have found them more easily.

I have rented from Fox in Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. The first time (Las Vegas) I had reserved an economy car. They had rented the last one an hour before I got there so I had to "settle" for a Wrangler. It drove a bit strange on the Interstate. After driving for more than 100 miles I found that 1 tire was at 20PSI and the others were at 35PSI (correct). The car that I rented at SLC had slightly less than a half tank of gas when I rented it when they told me it was full. It also had 90PSI in one tire which I would not have noticed except for the tire pressure indicator on the dash. The indicator did not go off even after getting the pressure back down to 35PSI.

I now think that the other rental companies are better at maintaining their vehicles.

I'm headed for Red Rock soon in a rental car (not Fox). There are plenty of quality caches there that do not require 4WD.