I am considering parting with my seven year old, (100,000 kms plus), Jeep Cherokee diesel and am looking at possible replacements that provide adequate room for all my astro gear and can tow my camper trailer easily.
The new vehicle will ideally need to have room for simultaneous transport of a 16" GSO dob (broken down into sections), a NEQ6Pro, and my long 127mm iStar refractor (1500mm focal length), as well as all the other stuff that seems to need to go to a dark site: battery box, laptop, finders, guidescope, camera gear, etc etc... and just maybe the 16" dob could be replaced with an 18-20" dob later this year.
Any suggestions? I am open to a new vehicle, and it would be nice to retain some 4WD capability (but I probably won't be doing Cape York again in this one). Some gear can go in the camper, like generator, battery box, and other less fragile items.
I see all sort of vehicles being used, and I guess one option is to sell the camper and upgrade to a small caravan with more room but I am leary of putting scopes into a caravan due to their rather basic suspension and lack of security tiedowns inside. I know people use small (and not so small) motor homes but that's probably outside my budget unless I go for a second hand one, and it would need to be my primary transport as well and not just a scope trolley.
Help me out with some ideas?
