TubaForum.net

A place to share what rides you’ve got to haul around your horns.



Both are mine. The van in the back is a Ford Transit Connect. It can haul many tubas if needed. The Subaru I “inherited” from my wife when we bought her a Honda Ridgeline (nicest vehicle we’ve ever owned). Knowing I have a kid about driving age, I decided to keep three cars available. The Forester is a manual and it’s lowered on coilovers. It can use the same suspension upgrades as a WRX of the same year. New short block and clutch.

I don’t picture the Ridgeline because I simply don’t drive it. Still good for hauling tubas though!

My Ford Fiesta ST. Looks small, but with the back seats down I can fit a good number of horns in there.

2016 chevy Impala. Tons of legroom, massive trunk, 33 MPG on the highway

I have hauled my horns around in lots of different vehicles. A VW Beetle, Wrangler, a Suzuki Samurai, a Honda Element, and my present ride is a Honda Pilot ive had for a few years. It's the largest... I'm looking at pathfinders now. Don't know if I'm going to trade or not....

My wife and I had a Pilot just like that one - gave us 200K trouble-free miles before we traded it on something bigger. One of the best vehicles I've ever had!

tuba hauler

Current:
Previous:

My phone is broken, so it'll be a bit until a photo... But nothing particularly special.

2009 BMW 528xi... Silver... There are tons just like it on the road. We bought it used as certified pre owned in 2014, and got a really good deal on it.

I think we're up to 82,000 miles now, so for an 11 year old car, that's nothing. Runs great, fun to drive. I always wanted one of these, and now I've had it for a good while. Not the biggest trunk, but it gets the job done!

2002 VW Passat Wagon

Most places where I play range from only about $110 per service to $175 per service.
Without listing my crappy old very reliable cars here, I always use the vehicle that is large enough (occasionally: “just“), and gets the best gas mileage.
“Very reliable“ hints at manual shift Toyota products and tried-and-true larger-engine GM products.

I was hoping to see a mid-90s Geo Prism!

I used to own a MkII VW Golf that was just about perfect. Efficient, roomy enough*, sturdy (up until it died with lots of miles). It was so good, it convinced me to continue buying VW products until the pain was too great. Since then, I’ve been shifting to Japanese vehicles with the exception of that Ford that was dirt cheap comparatively. It’s also about the size of those early Chrysler minivans, which were awesome for hauling gear and not being huge. Other “minivans” of today are pretty darn big (and too nice inside).

I’ll eventually buy something ridiculous as part of a midlife crisis, but that hasn’t happened yet.

*In that 1989 Golf, I once carried five people, a Mirafone 188 in a gig bag, a Yamaha sousaphone (no case), a trombone, and three trumpet gig bags to our job at the Tragic Kingdom with no worries. We were skinnier then.

matt g wrote: ↑Wed Aug 19, 2020 7:23 pm I was hoping to see a mid-90s Geo Prism!

I still have one...as an emergency car.
Everything works on it; I’m confident that I could jump in it and drive it to the Pacific coast with no issues.
It’s a 2003.
It has a tag, but no insurance. It’s possible to call and get a car insured within 36 hours of after beginning to use it on the highway.

https://ibb.co/PCzCgmZ
My 2017 Toyota Tundra with the Crewmax Cab. There's enough room on the back floorboard to hold a square dance. My Hagen fits nicely across the back seat and I can easily put two of them in the bed of the truck. I've got a toolcabinet back there also, so it takes the room of 1 Hagen.

tmz wrote: ↑Wed Aug 19, 2020 2:38 pm My wife and I had a Pilot just like that one - gave us 200K trouble-free miles before we traded it on something bigger. One of the best vehicles I've ever had!

we really like this one. My element was so good we bought a Pilot. It won out over an FJCRUISER, a HUMMER II, & a PATHFINDER. Wifey over ruled me... I wanted the pathfinder but she said it rode too much like a truck. I get to call the next one. I thinking about a pathfinder seriously.

Nihola cargo trike from Denmark, great for urban transport!

Snake Charmer wrote: ↑Mon Aug 24, 2020 3:51 am nihola klein.jpg
Nihola cargo trike from Denmark, great for urban transport!

Sweet cargo bike! Pinging @marccromme so that he can drop his bike here also...

My two are at the opposite end of the spectrum from Marc Cromme's green transport bike, which I love, by the way.

This is my 2013 Wrangler JK…


This is my 2003 Wrangler TJ…



My 6/4 CC and 6/4 F both fit in the back of the black 2013 with the rear seat removed. (And it has been removed, wrapped in plastic, and stored in a closet since about June of 2014.)

The older TJ is shorter and more narrow than the newer JK, so there is no room in the tiny bed for a tuba. However, the 345 and the Kurath both fit on the rear seat (individually!) and if I need both the BAT goes in the rear and the F goes up front with the bottom bow on the floor. This is not good, so I will take one of our threa beater Honda Accords if I need both horns, which (thankfully) is rare. The Mirafone 186 fits on the floor of the JK but won't fit in the TJ at all. If you lay it across the rear seat of the smaller jeep the bottom bow and the bell flare will contact the bare steel wheel wells. Bouncing around for two hours like that is bound to cause some bending in the bell's stack, so I won't even try this. It has never (and will never) go in either jeep. Again, Honda Accord FTW in such cases. Since the 186 is my go-to horn right now this means I take an Accord to work most days now.

Three Valves wrote: ↑Wed Aug 19, 2020 6:09 pm 2002 VW Passat Wagon

We've got a 2000 Passat wagon and a 2015 Golf Wagon. Good cars!

hrender wrote: ↑Mon Aug 24, 2020 9:57 am

Three Valves wrote: ↑Wed Aug 19, 2020 6:09 pm 2002 VW Passat Wagon

We've got a 2000 Passat wagon and a 2015 Golf Wagon. Good cars!

I've always wanted a diesel Jetta wagon or Passat wagon. My daughter had a 2002 Beetle (turbo gas), and although repairs were few, they were not easily done by me - and were costly at the dealer. Any thoughts or advice?

In our neck of the woods, I'm more likely to have a diesel pickup than anything else, and I would use it for lots of things. In fact, this is one of the few times I have ever been without a truck.

[/quote]

I've always wanted a diesel Jetta wagon or Passat wagon. My daughter had a 2002 Beetle (turbo gas), and although repairs were few, they were not easily done by me - and were costly at the dealer. Any thoughts or advice?

In our neck of the woods, I'm more likely to have a diesel pickup than anything else, and I would use it for lots of things. In fact, this is one of the few times I have ever been without a truck.
[/quote]

i made the mistake of selling my silverado... i hadn't used it much and thought i could do without it since we sold the camper... since, there's been a thousand things i could have used one for. i've been making do with a borrowed utility trailer, but i'm watching for one i think is worth the $. around here, they are much more expensive than i think they're worth...