I'm sure the topic is hot, and has been beat to death, but my 04.5 cummins ram is under the knife w/ engine issues, and I'm wondering if it might be time to get something new.

I live in South Dakota, enjoy hunting, camping, fishing, etc-- I've been a Jeep guy in the past, and this truck is the nicest I've ever owned. Buuuuut, I'm looking for more.

Most of my driving is to and from work, then weekends to all corners of the northwest-- wyoming, montana, etc-- and I'll probably end up moving to Alaska in the next few years (Air Force.. gotta love it).

I don't do "a lot" of highway driving, but when I do, It will be 6000 miles in 2 weeks to visit family in DC, NY, Texas, Boston, FLa... and if it's wintetime, I can't take the Harley.

I'm considering the idea of a 96-2000 H1 wagon, so I can outfit it for mild offroad (that's what I said about my jeep and it became a rock crawler.....), but drop of the hat highway machine capable.

Any experience in the matter? I'd love to hear opinions and experiences.

For reference, I'm in Aircraft maintenance, so the normal day to day operations of maintenance don't really bother me, besides having to park in the middle of BFN to fix something unexpected during one of my cross-country jaunts.

and I tow my harley rarely.... about 3k lbs at most.

Thanks y'all.

 

Towing a Harley would be no issue. I have two H1s and drive them daily. Love driving them and as long as you stay on top of the maintenance they have not been an issue for me as daily drivers. Driving 6000 miles in two weeks in an H1 is a lot. Your normal highway speed is about 60-65 mph in one. Also the service intervals are about 6000 miles. I do a lot of hunting and camping and one thing I like about the H1s is they have a ton of room inside for gear. If you have a roof rack you can carry far more gear than you can use. I have had Jeeps in the past also. Loved my Jeeps but one of the big downsides was I couldn't carry all of my gear. Try to load a couple of buddies and all their gear in a Jeep for a 3-5 day hunt and you know what I mean. Goodyear GSA tires are about the best for onroad driving and they are ok for off road. The Goodyear MTR tire is a real good off road tire but just ok on road. I have the GSA tire on the 1997 for everyday driving and the MTR tire on the 2006 for other applications. Being mechanically adept makes H1 ownership a lot easier and cheaper. Sounds like you have that part covered. The H1 will fulfill all of your requirements. It may not be the cheapest or most cost effective way to do that but it is unquestionably the most fun way to do it.