So, as a resident of Berkeley I am clearly obliged to pour scorn upon car ownership and not own a car (I don't really pour scorn, it's just that car ownership is expensive!). However I'm going to be renting a ski cabin for 2 months in Tahoe with some friends, and I had thought that I'd be able to just drive up with them and pay my share of gas and wear/tear. However my friend now has bought a car which is much too small to be of use, and so only he and one other (his gf) can go up in it with their skis. Leaving me high and dry.
There are however a variety of possible solutions...
1) Easiest in terms of arrangement, I'm a zipcar member. Zipcar rents a Subaru CRV for $80 a day including gas and insurance. However, can you fit a pair of skis inside a CRV with the back seats folded down (my skis are about ~68 inches) I'd just rent it for the weekends
2) Rent a truck? Trucks are cheap to rent, and perhaps rental companies sometimes have the 4by4 version. I might just rent it for the whole two months. However, is there a good way to put skis in the back of a flatbed truck without them all bouncing around. Rental companies usually don't like you messing with their cars by putting racks and stuff on! Although, maybe a single pair of skis actually just fits into a truck in the back of the cab (in a F150 style thing with the two rows of seats)
3) Rent an SUV? It's super expensive!
4) Rent a normal car and put on tire chains? Do rental companies mind you using tire chains? I wouldn't want to get landed with some huge fee.
edit - By the way, I'm open to other suggestions. If there is some super bay area company who does long car rentals I won't have heard of then do let me know, or even just an idea. The only thing I don't want to do is take the ski bus. We aren't right on the slopes, or right by the bus stop, so it doesn't quite solve my problem.
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wrap your skis in a blanket and put a bungee cable around that and you should be good to hit the slopes
4x4 is ideal as you know as are chains. (make sure you know how to apply your chains before you get going)
Really a pair of skis will fit in any 4 door sedan if the back seat folds down. Thats how I've rolled many times before I got my roof box. And my skis are a lot longer.
Also, just so I know how jealous to be, Squaw, Kirkwood, Northstar, Heavenly, or Alpine Meadows?
That's highway robbery. Just go to a regular car rental place and they will give you a full sized SUV for half that, but you'll have to pay for your own gas.
Edit: hooooly shit, car rentals are expensive. I rented a car just a few years ago and it was like $25 a day. What the hell happened?
Option 2, rent a Subaru Outback. Seriously, this car will maximize your driving-to-skiing experience. It's not as oversized and gas-guzzling as an SUV either, so get it in 4x4 and you're good.
these are my 2 suggestions that other people may not suggest.
Yeah, when I started looking I thought 80 a day would be super expensive too, but it turns out for an SUV thats actually not bad. Thats why I was thinking about trucks, they are much cheaper to rent. Oh, and I've got a pass up at Squaw, booked it back in April when it was super cheap (and my friend had a bigger car...)
And I've been looking at a variety of vehicles, does anyone have any experience in being allowed to put snow chains on a rental car, I guess they don't forbid it? I'm thinking it might actually be cheaper to rent something normal and just get some chains, like people say, since it looks like it may be just me (and maybe one other) provided the back seats fold down my seats should fit in.
It actually seems that a truck is the cheapest vehicle of all almost though! And surely it's high ground clearance and big wheel arches will make it easy to get the chains on.
edit - on and I remeasured my skis, they're 70 inches
I know my skiis fit in my friends' Yaris with the seat folded down, so you shouldn't have a problem as long as you can do that
Chains on a rental car may be touchy, it'll depend on the car probably; on a lot of smaller cars chains technically void warranties (it voids the ABS warranty on my Mazda3), but people certainly do it anyway, so I'm sure you could if you drive safely with them
also booo Squaw (I'm probably going back to Kirkwood this year)
Does anyone have any experience with asking rental companies to put all weather tires on something before renting it? I mean, they must be capable, if you rented a car in Minnesota or something in January you wouldn't get out of the lot without them!
When I rented one a couple years back, it came with all-weather tires by default (which were sufficient to get through without chains); you won't get something specifically with snow tires, but I think all-weather is usually fine for the checkpoints (at least, it was the one time I did it)
What car does your friend have? Unless it's a two-seater sports car there's very few cars that couldn't it three people and some skis in some fashion.
any car will work. make sure either you or the car has tire chains. if its storming and the car is not full time 4x4 you will need to put chains on in Tahoe. make sure you know how to put them on correctly.
Where is the cabin?
though honestly i think the only reason they put chain restrictions for the most part is to get people to slow down since they drive retardedly fast in snow and crash. i have only driven twice where i thought chains were critical, but i learned to drive in the north east