Real-World Differences Between Sprinter 170 and 170 Extended

[SouthwestSkies]

Hi All,

We are interested in a van conversion of a Sprinter 4X4. We will mainly use the van to boondock, and our primary goal is to be in nature. However, we are real foodies and anytime we are traveling through an area with a notable restaurant/food place, we will be sure to check it out (so we would be parking in busier areas). I wish we could make it work in a 144, but that's not feasible for us. I would appreciate feedback on what real-world differences, interior space aside, a 170 vs 170 extended would present. Would we see a marked difference in forest service roads we could go on (or how far back we could get) between the two sizes? Both are large vehicles, but the extra 15" on the extended concerns me given our desire to boondock and be as isolated as possible. I'd love to hear from those with either and how well their 170/170 ext or 170/170 ext 4X4 does on forest service/logging roads and the like. Are most available and accessible to you with these vehicles?

Of lesser concern, but I'd still like to know, is there a parking difference between the two? Are there going to be spots where a 170 would make it but a 170 extended wouldn't or are they both so large that a space that would fit one would fit either so it's not a consideration?

Thanks so much. I greatly appreciate being able to learn from your experiences.

 

[sprint2freedom]

I live and travel full time in a 170EXT, and regularly drive on BLM and forest land. It's hard to answer your question because the quality of the typical forest road varies greatly from region to region.. in some places they are actually paved and frequently wide enough for two cars to pass, in others they are extremely rocky and steep, and some have narrow sections where you'd find it difficult to turn around in an ordinary car. I've taken my home on roads at both of those extremes, but exercise much more caution (getting out and walking any questionable segments first) and do more research (e.g. checking aerial imagery) in the latter case. The visual difference between a good road and a bad road are sometimes subtle.. things like deep ruts might only be a pixel or two at the resolution of imagery available, but you can learn to discern with practice. The worst combos are when the road is bad but also hosts a popular destination and thus a lot of 2-way traffic, or when the road is bad and there is also bad weather.

Any size vehicle requires exercising good judgment. You need to be a better, more attentive, more cautious driver when in a larger vehicle. Because Sprinters are "cool", drivers of smaller vehicles will often expect you to be able to stop on a dime or maneuver or accelerate like a car- don't take the bait.

I did all my initial planning around a 170 floorplan and when the perfect van materialized during my search it was a 170EXT instead. I was also concerned about the extra length, as the 170 feels rather massive compared to a typical car or SUV. However, I'm happy with my decision. The extra interior space really contributes to quality of life, however it does add some extra weight and that's something you need to take seriously from day one of a 170EXT build, especially on a 2500 chassis. Be particularly cognizant of any weight you place behind the rear axle- I for one wouldn't recommend a hitch mounted carrier on an 170ext unless you are obsessively tracking your weight (which you should do anyway).

IMO, the #1 limiting factor is vehicle-specific driving skill, but that's within your control. It takes practice to get used to maneuvering something so big in a truly tight space, to not scratch on low branches or accidentally reverse into a boulder or tree branch when making a 3 point turn on a forest road while other drivers are impatiently waiting on you. It's still easier, IMO, than driving a rectangular box like a motorhome. It is less wide and has a better turning radius. But you need to get used to using the side mirrors for everything. The rear view mirror is useless, and a rear camera is mainly useful for parallel parking. Practice, practice, practice.

The #2 factor is the departure angle. While driving on dirt roads I keep a close eye out for any dips, ruts or washouts running across the road, and try to drive over these diagonally whenever possible. When driving straight into a deep washout, the underside of the trailer hitch will scrape once the rear wheels have dropped down into the rut. This will be even worse when the van is fully loaded and the back end sits a little lower. Certain roads have been off limits due to this, but it's pretty infrequent and usually there are other disqualifying factors (tire popping rocks, narrow 1-lane cliff-edge roads, etc). If you want to take your Sprinter rock crawling on "jeep" roads, don't get a 170 or a 170ext (imo, don't get any Sprinter).

#3 is probably height rather than length. I carry a pair of loppers and use them often but in some cases it'd just be too much work to clear an entire road of low branches. I leave those areas for the tent campers with Subarus.

Parking in cities is not really an issue unless you frequently want to visit dense urban cores where there are 18 foot long metered spaces and parking garages. We just park a block or two further away and walk. I regularly back the 170ext into a normal sized parking spot and hang the rear section over grass, but this too takes a lot of practice to master in one go. Grocery stores are usually easy as they have pull-thru parking where you can take two spots.

There's very little practical difference between parking a 170 and a 170ext out in the forest. I've never once found a spot to be too small and thought "I'd fit in this if I had the regular 170 instead".

As for 4x4, I generally subscribe to the adage about getting stuck further out.. I carry traction boards and would recommend the same. If you live in a place with truly bad forest roads and harsh winter weather, you'll already know to ignore me and get the 4x4. For everyone else, avoid those places in those seasons. Driver skill, awareness, and knowledge of the vehicle's limitations are most important things.

Another pro for the 170ext: more roof area for solar panels or a 2nd fan.

 

[SouthwestSkies]

We just park a block or two further away and walk.

Thank you so much for your very thoughtful and helpful reply. It's great to hear that you've been able to travel extensively on BLM land with your 170 Ext. All your suggestions are very helpful (it never occurred to me that aerial imaging or learning to read it could give clues as to the condition of a service road.)

I have seen many people on boards talking about parking a little farther away in the larger Sprinters. Would you mind elaborating on that as I don't understand where they are being parked? Are you finding a parking lot where you could leave your van or a residential area? As the 170 does not fit in a metered parking spot, have you ever taken up two and paid for two meters (don't know if that's legal, but it would be great if it were)?

 

[sprint2freedom]

Glad you found it helpful. I should add that aerial imagery is more useful in arid regions or if taken in the winter if trees have shed their leaves. That can be hit or miss and if it's taken in the wrong season you may find it useful to check multiple sources (Google Maps, Google Earth, Bing, etc).

A parking example: many people when visiting small mountain towns will park right along the main street with all the shops and attractions, so they only have to walk 100ft to the restaurant of their choosing. What we do in the van is drive around the neighboring blocks, which are often residential with either time limited street parking or no restrictions at all. There's frequently a space where we can squeeze in, unless we're somewhere extremely popular and then we'll just go further out and walk. The US as a society is very walking averse and that can be to your benefit.

We overwhelmingly use street parking when exploring a city on foot. Parking lots are usually 1) for the purpose of patronizing a business, or 2) privately owned and collecting fees for their owners (and thus densely laid out, leaving no extra space for you to hang over). In general, I don't like the risk of parking my van somewhere and walking off the property- it could be towed at great expense and hassle to me. That kind of thing also reflects poorly on the traveling community and results in new rules and enforcement.

I do remember one time in Boise, ID where we parked in a privately owned paid lot- there was only one space in the whole lot where we could hang over low shrubbery without obstructing the sidewalk and it happened to be available. Another time, we parked on the ground floor of a parking garage in an expensive urban area which had an especially high clearance (10'8"?), squeezing the van into a normal sized spot in a corner with some extra space behind it. But again, it takes good eyes, good luck, finesse, and maneuvering skill to pull this off and in most cases we'll just choose the easy option of walking a block or two.

The two meters thing has come up once or twice but we've never done it. It's easier to just walk a little more, and frequently possible.

I suggesting daily driving your van for a while after purchasing, to gain experience maneuvering it on familiar turf before you set out to travel.

One point for the 4x4 is that as I understand it there's some additional ground clearance gained which may help alleviate the departure angle problem at the cost of more frequent issues with overhead clearance. A major negative is the hit to fuel economy.. my van is heavy and still hits 20 mpg when we do a lot of highway miles.

 

[T town]

Here in Seattle they have done away with delineated street parking spots. There are a couple kiosks on a block and you pay to get a timed ticket you stick to the inside of your curb window. Park wherever you can find length, walk a few feet to the kiosk, pay for as much time as you need, go back and stick it. No lines on the street or anything. Many people will stick the parking sticker back on the meter if there is time left and another person may use it for a half hour or whatever is left. You don’t put your license on the sticker receipt. So as long as you can find a gap long enough you can park there.
Maybe other cities are moving to this.

 

[RVBarry]

As the 170 does not fit in a metered parking spot, have you ever taken up two and paid for two meters (don't know if that's legal, but it would be great if it were)?

Hi, at least some cities in California allow this.
Laguna Beach does, but during weekday business hours at the PD you can also request a 72-hour RV permit that let's you park anywhere parking is allowed, and all night, and meters are free. San Diego and some other cities offer similar permits.

Note that finding two adjacent metered spaces may be difficult, so the recommendation is often neighborhood parking and walking.

 

[SouthwestSkies]

The US as a society is very walking averse and that can be to your benefit.

So funny you wrote this because my husband rightfully laments that whenever he is driving and parks the car, our son and I always complain he could have picked a closer spot ?. But in a Sprinter whose purpose will be camping and hiking, I will happily walk!

Everyone's responses also give me hope when we go to busier places, parking will not be an issue. I will add Seattle and Laguna Beach to places to visit! Thanks!

 

[Oldfartt]

What "Sprint2freedom said" I have fitted all terrain tires to my "Extended" which raises the ground clearance by an inch and helps with traction off road.
Cheers
Ross

 

[elemental]

I have a regular Sprinter 170" wheelbase (not the extended body). What sprint2freedom said about driving is a key point, and the bits about parking are also important.

Parking: At 22'9" my van doesn't fit in standard parking spaces, but so far I've been able to work around that in both my suburban community and in metro Seattle and Portland. Many lots have enough open spaces (further from the destination) that I can find back to back empty spaces, let the front stick out a bit (no more than a foot) and let the back overhang the line but still leave room for an ordinary car to fit in the space behind. In others I can find a sidewalk or shrubbery area behind a space that I can overhang; I even managed to do this in downtown Portland in a pay lot. What bears careful attention in these situations is that the lane leading to the space is wide enough to get back out if people park tight on both sides of the van; some pay lots have narrow lanes AND narrow spaces that could be accessible when the lot isn't full but not provide enough maneuvering room if the lot fills up and I need to leave before everyone else. If so I avoid the lot. Curbside parking is most comfortable when I'm at an end of the block and know no one can park too tight to the front or back. I've parked in marked curbside spaces and fit within the lines, but that's because I'm using up all the maneuvering room with the vehicle.

This can make some destinations/timing difficult: last Christmas we wanted to go shopping/sightseeing at Pike Place Market and get two tuba players and a euphonium player to Tuba Christmas, maximizing time shopping before the concert. The good news is that we could all go in the van, along with the instruments. But I had to take a hit here, dropping everyone else off in both locations and then roving for parking, which meant I didn't get much shopping time and I walked about 3/4 mile (10 to 15 minutes) after finding a (free) spot on the street north of Pike Place Market.

Driving: On normal suburban/rural roads/neighborhoods, driving isn't an issue. My wife, who has absolutely no big vehicle experience, is comfortable driving our van in these conditions. She won't parallel park it, but she doesn't like doing that in a regular car, either. On the highway, having Blind Spot Assist is extremely helpful especially if you drive on crowded multi-lane roads. If you are someone who likes to change lanes a lot in dense commute-time traffic (Seattle I-5 and I-405 for example), you may find it better to have more lane consistency.

Non-standard neighborhoods can present some challenges... my father-in-law lives high up in the hills in Marin County (California) in the back of an old neighborhood with one-lane roads (that people park on the sides of) (no city planner would ever permit this neighborhood to be built today). His house is stuck on a steep hillside, and his driveway is just angled off of the road uphill from the house. I've been there before with a minivan towing a small pop-up, and the only way we got turned around was by unhooking and manually spinning the trailer. The first day I was there with the van I had to leave early in the morning, and the only way out was to back over about a half mile down around tight turns, avoiding the vehicles parked (mostly) just off the road on both sides, to a four-way intersection at which I could turn around. Not for the faint of heart, but if you can drive forward up it then you can (theoretically) always reverse down it, right? Luckily his next door neighbor has a wide parking pad right on the road and was amenable to moving a few vehicles around so that we could use his driveway to turn around for the rest of our visit.

My own driveway is a bit of a challenge - so much so that I borrowed a van from the dealer before I bought mine to see if I could get it up and down my driveway. The road I'm on is a hill, and my driveway comes off the road at about 90 degrees and angles up from there, then has a 90 degree turn about half-way up, all steep uphill. To enter my driveway without scraping requires a certain orientation; my trailer hitch is about 1" from the road at best; it scrapes if I'm a bit off (an EXT would *not* make it). At the 90 degree turn halfway up my driveway the inside rear wheel tends to lose traction unless I position the van carefully and I drive slowly; my wife has smoked the tire here pulling up the driveway, thinking more power was better and being mildly panicked about rolling backwards. I don't think the van can back all the way up the driveway (around the turn); haven't tried it but the weight transfer isn't favorable - even my 4Runner requires judicious/careful throttle control and momentum management to do so without spinning wheels. I can only turn the van around at the top of my driveway (3-wide, 2-deep parking pad in front of garage) if there aren't any other vehicles there. I have no problems backing down as long as we haven't had snow/ice build up on the driveway; if we have it is not safe. Even with anti-lock brakes the van becomes a toboggan with weight transfer making the front wheels almost useless for braking/turning backing down a steep hill. I don't want to go off the 90 degree turn and land on my neighbor's house. I backed down it once, slowly, under these conditions and had a point where I slide about five feet with no control; I have chains now just in case this becomes absolutely necessary. Fortunately our coastal location means we rarely see snow or ice in the driveway, and it doesn't last long when we do.

To put this in perspective... my brother has a 43' Class A RV with dual rear axles... I can go just about anywhere compared to him, and he isn't going to be visiting and parking at my house, ever...

As far as rooftop real estate... I have two MaxxAire fans on my 170 non-EXT, and have measured/verified I can fit 4 100 watt solar panels between them (waiting for my wife to retire before I buy the panels and mount them).

 

[SouthwestSkies]

I have a regular Sprinter 170" wheelbase (not the extended body). What sprint2freedom said about driving is a key point, and the bits about parking are also important.

Parking: At 22'9" my van doesn't fit in standard parking spaces, but so far I've been able to work around that in both my suburban community and in metro Seattle and Portland. Many lots have enough open spaces (further from the destination) that I can find back to back empty spaces, let the front stick out a bit (no more than a foot) and let the back overhang the line but still leave room for an ordinary car to fit in the space behind. In others I can find a sidewalk or shrubbery area behind a space that I can overhang; I even managed to do this in downtown Portland in a pay lot. What bears careful attention in these situations is that the lane leading to the space is wide enough to get back out if people park tight on both sides of the van; some pay lots have narrow lanes AND narrow spaces that could be accessible when the lot isn't full but not provide enough maneuvering room if the lot fills up and I need to leave before everyone else. If so I avoid the lot. Curbside parking is most comfortable when I'm at an end of the block and know no one can park too tight to the front or back. I've parked in marked curbside spaces and fit within the lines, but that's because I'm using up all the maneuvering room with the vehicle.

This can make some destinations/timing difficult: last Christmas we wanted to go shopping/sightseeing at Pike Place Market and get two tuba players and a euphonium player to Tuba Christmas, maximizing time shopping before the concert. The good news is that we could all go in the van, along with the instruments. But I had to take a hit here, dropping everyone else off in both locations and then roving for parking, which meant I didn't get much shopping time and I walked about 3/4 mile (10 to 15 minutes) after finding a (free) spot on the street north of Pike Place Market.

Driving: On normal suburban/rural roads/neighborhoods, driving isn't an issue. My wife, who has absolutely no big vehicle experience, is comfortable driving our van in these conditions. She won't parallel park it, but she doesn't like doing that in a regular car, either. On the highway, having Blind Spot Assist is extremely helpful especially if you drive on crowded multi-lane roads. If you are someone who likes to change lanes a lot in dense commute-time traffic (Seattle I-5 and I-405 for example), you may find it better to have more lane consistency.

Non-standard neighborhoods can present some challenges... my father-in-law lives high up in the hills in Marin County (California) in the back of an old neighborhood with one-lane roads (that people park on the sides of) (no city planner would ever permit this neighborhood to be built today). His house is stuck on a steep hillside, and his driveway is just angled off of the road uphill from the house. I've been there before with a minivan towing a small pop-up, and the only way we got turned around was by unhooking and manually spinning the trailer. The first day I was there with the van I had to leave early in the morning, and the only way out was to back over about a half mile down around tight turns, avoiding the vehicles parked (mostly) just off the road on both sides, to a four-way intersection at which I could turn around. Not for the faint of heart, but if you can drive forward up it then you can (theoretically) always reverse down it, right? Luckily his next door neighbor has a wide parking pad right on the road and was amenable to moving a few vehicles around so that we could use his driveway to turn around for the rest of our visit.

My own driveway is a bit of a challenge - so much so that I borrowed a van from the dealer before I bought mine to see if I could get it up and down my driveway. The road I'm on is a hill, and my driveway comes off the road at about 90 degrees and angles up from there, then has a 90 degree turn about half-way up, all steep uphill. To enter my driveway without scraping requires a certain orientation; my trailer hitch is about 1" from the road at best; it scrapes if I'm a bit off (an EXT would *not* make it). At the 90 degree turn halfway up my driveway the inside rear wheel tends to lose traction unless I position the van carefully and I drive slowly; my wife has smoked the tire here pulling up the driveway, thinking more power was better and being mildly panicked about rolling backwards. I don't think the van can back all the way up the driveway (around the turn); haven't tried it but the weight transfer isn't favorable - even my 4Runner requires judicious/careful throttle control and momentum management to do so without spinning wheels. I can only turn the van around at the top of my driveway (3-wide, 2-deep parking pad in front of garage) if there aren't any other vehicles there. I have no problems backing down as long as we haven't had snow/ice build up on the driveway; if we have it is not safe. Even with anti-lock brakes the van becomes a toboggan with weight transfer making the front wheels almost useless for braking/turning backing down a steep hill. I don't want to go off the 90 degree turn and land on my neighbor's house. I backed down it once, slowly, under these conditions and had a point where I slide about five feet with no control; I have chains now just in case this becomes absolutely necessary. Fortunately our coastal location means we rarely see snow or ice in the driveway, and it doesn't last long when we do.

To put this in perspective... my brother has a 43' Class A RV with dual rear axles... I can go just about anywhere compared to him, and he isn't going to be visiting and parking at my house, ever...

As far as rooftop real estate... I have two MaxxAire fans on my 170 non-EXT, and have measured/verified I can fit 4 100 watt solar panels between them (waiting for my wife to retire before I buy the panels and mount them).

Thank you for the great info. Your family driveways are not for the faint of heart! Sounds like you deserve a badge of courage for navigating them . Thanks also for the warning on narrow lanes in a parking lot. I am 99% sure that is going to save us from getting stuck in a parking lot at some point.

 

[HarryN]

It is worth to look carefully at the payload difference between a 170 and a 170 ext.

The extra steel adds to the vehicle weight but doesn't change the totals.

In some ways, the ext is like a cargo helicopter. Lots of volume but not all that much weight capacity.

 

[Cheyenne]

And IIRC the towing capacity of the Extended is half that of the non-extended (just in case you ever want to tow). That is 5,000 lb versus 2,500 lb.

And so will the hitch tongue weight be halved if you want to use hitch carriers, etc.

Keith.

 

[SouthwestSkies]

It is worth to look carefully at the payload difference between a 170 and a 170 ext.

The extra steel adds to the vehicle weight but doesn't change the totals.

In some ways, the ext is like a cargo helicopter. Lots of volume but not all that much weight capacity.

The 170 Regular actually has 77 pounds more payload than the 170 ext which surprised me. We will be having someone do the conversion (post-
Covid), and I will see how all the systems fit. With flares on the 170 and sleeping sideways, I can get almost the same stuff inside that I want in terms of kitchen length, bathroom length, dinette. There would be less overhead storage, but we will not be fulltimers so I'm not sure we would need that extra storage anyway. The underbed storage, cargo as you mentioned, will be important to us. We want to be able to fit two collapsible bikes, two SUP boards (deflated), and then various camp furniture etc.

 

[elemental]

Thank you for the great info. Your family driveways are not for the faint of heart! Sounds like you deserve a badge of courage for navigating them . Thanks also for the warning on narrow lanes in a parking lot. I am 99% sure that is going to save us from getting stuck in a parking lot at some point.

I drove a city bus in college; best fun I ever had was participating in a bus rodeo (

). I managed the half-tennis ball dual-wheel obstacle, all the cones, etc, but blew it on the high-speed decreasing clearance with a minimum distance stop at the end. I still remember the sound of the barrels ticking off the front right fender as I got to the tight part of the "V".

I suspect that the 170" EXT will have some mild tail swing; in exceptionally tight spots you would have to pay attention to the outside of the turn as well as the inside (e.g. you park right next to a wall and have to turn sharply away as you leave). Unlike big RVs/travel trailers like are shown here (https://rvtipoftheday.com/general-tips/safety/rv-tail-swing-spatial-awareness/) I don't think you would have problem except in the tightest of situations.

 

[SouthwestSkies]

I drove a city bus in college; best fun I ever had was participating in a bus rodeo (

). I managed the half-tennis ball dual-wheel obstacle, all the cones, etc, but blew it on the high-speed decreasing clearance with a minimum distance stop at the end. I still remember the sound of the barrels ticking off the front right fender as I got to the tight part of the "V".

I suspect that the 170" EXT will have some mild tail swing; in exceptionally tight spots you would have to pay attention to the outside of the turn as well as the inside (e.g. you park right next to a wall and have to turn sharply away as you leave). Unlike big RVs/travel trailers like are shown here (https://rvtipoftheday.com/general-tips/safety/rv-tail-swing-spatial-awareness/) I don't think you would have problem except in the tightest of situations.

Wow, who knew bus rodeos existed? So impressive! My husband and I will need to go to bus rodeo summer camp before we take our Sprinter on the road ?.

 

[kcshoots]

A lot of good input you received here, so I'll add/reinforce a couple of points. I have owned a 144" and now own a 170" (regular not extended). The 144" was about 19.5 feet long while the regular 170 is about 22.8 feet in length; normal parking spaces are typically 20.0 feet long. I regularly park my 170 in typical parking spaces without issue. The longer 170" wheelbase does require a little more careful or skilled driving or more space/extra open spaces to pull into a parking space, and it will stick out slightly at the rear and/or front of the parking space. Ways around this are to back in over a curb/landscaped area to have the rear hang over that unused area so the front doesn't extend past the parking space length. The other trick is let each hang over slightly still enabling the space in front of the van to be used and hardly a noticeable hang over into the driving "road" between the spaces. With an extended length, you'll likely need to take up two spaces in length to park, or park in a longer parallel space.

As for rough road driving, I've not had the rear of my regular 170" drag on very steep gullies or angle changes on hills even though I have crossed over many, but that would be much more likely on an extended with its long rear overhang. Mine is a 4x4 and the extra height does provide quite a bit of clearance under the van body. Already a regularly 170 has a center of rear axle to rear bumper length of 64" (and a front of 40"), so an extended likely adds 1-2 feet to this rear length all of which is past the rear wheel, which means even more careful angling when crossing steep ditches and other obstacles, and likely dragging the rear, which likely would have little impact other than superficial scratches under the van (spare tire, bumper...).

So my thoughts are that the worst aspects of the longer extended model are parking in a single normal space will be less likely or more impactful to others, and challenging to maneuver in and out of that parking space, and when crossing steep angle changes (paved or unpaved) likely dragging. Really think about how these might impact or impair your use and if you can, test drive one of each and take a tape measure and measure the differences in that rear overhang to determine if seems workable or not.

 

[SouthwestSkies]

A lot of good input you received here, so I'll add/reinforce a couple of points. I have owned a 144" and now own a 170" (regular not extended). The 144" was about 19.5 feet long while the regular 170 is about 22.8 feet in length; normal parking spaces are typically 20.0 feet long. I regularly park my 170 in typical parking spaces without issue. The longer 170" wheelbase does require a little more careful or skilled driving or more space/extra open spaces to pull into a parking space, and it will stick out slightly at the rear and/or front of the parking space. Ways around this are to back in over a curb/landscaped area to have the rear hang over that unused area so the front doesn't extend past the parking space length. The other trick is let each hang over slightly still enabling the space in front of the van to be used and hardly a noticeable hang over into the driving "road" between the spaces. With an extended length, you'll likely need to take up two spaces in length to park, or park in a longer parallel space.

As for rough road driving, I've not had the rear of my regular 170" drag on very steep gullies or angle changes on hills even though I have crossed over many, but that would be much more likely on an extended with its long rear overhang. Mine is a 4x4 and the extra height does provide quite a bit of clearance under the van body. Already a regularly 170 has a center of rear axle to rear bumper length of 64" (and a front of 40"), so an extended likely adds 1-2 feet to this rear length all of which is past the rear wheel, which means even more careful angling when crossing steep ditches and other obstacles, and likely dragging the rear, which likely would have little impact other than superficial scratches under the van (spare tire, bumper...).

So my thoughts are that the worst aspects of the longer extended model are parking in a single normal space will be less likely or more impactful to others, and challenging to maneuver in and out of that parking space, and when crossing steep angle changes (paved or unpaved) likely dragging. Really think about how these might impact or impair your use and if you can, test drive one of each and take a tape measure and measure the differences in that rear overhang to determine if seems workable or not.

Good to know that the single space in a bind can be fudged in a 170. If we can get what we consider essential into a 170 4X4, we will go with that. Good to know from everyone's great responses that with either size we will be able to get around in busier areas and more importantly get around BLM land. Thank you!

 

[elemental]

Here is what a 170" wheelbase (non-EXT) looks like in the Costco Mount Vernon parking lot -


And this is what it looks like in a very tight Portland city pay lot -

 

[SouthwestSkies]

Here is what a 170" wheelbase (non-EXT) looks like in the Costco Mount Vernon parking lot -
View attachment 146684View attachment 146685View attachment 146686

And this is what it looks like in a very tight Portland city pay lot -
View attachment 146690View attachment 146687

This is very helpful, thank you. Have you ever gotten a ticket in the Portland city lot for overhanging onto a sidewalk (or sticking out too much on either end)?

 

[sprint2freedom]

It is worth to look carefully at the payload difference between a 170 and a 170 ext.

The extra steel adds to the vehicle weight but doesn't change the totals.

In some ways, the ext is like a cargo helicopter. Lots of volume but not all that much weight capacity.

This analogy is appropriate. However, it worked out favorably in my build. We're tall people and wanted a nice wide aisle as well as an airy, open feel at head and torso level. Those things require interior volume rather than payload. Someone looking to haul a lot of heavy toys would be best served with a 3500.