Flex your chase rig!

[Jonathan Scrogham]

From what I saw, there wasn't a forum that was dedicated to sharing your chase vehicles. So here it is! Just show off your chase rig, laptops, probes, cameras, or anything else you use while chasing! As I am 14, obviously not old enough to drive and definitely not old enough to chase (Believe me, I have tried to convince my dad... and failed miserably) my dream chase rig is a 2020 Toyota 4runner TRD pro.

 

[Chase K]

Thanks for starting this forum! I'm excited to see some of these chasing vehicles. I am also 14 years old and still not old enough to drive. My dream vehicle would probably be something like Ryan Hall's storm seeker truck.

 

[Cameron E.]

I chase in a '99 4runner. The things badass. I wired in a CB radio. I've been chasing for 3 years now.

I believe in keeping stuff simple. I'm not into having a bagillion gadgets bolted on/in my truck lol. I've had success with just a phone/laptop/ and knowing how to read a storm's "body language."

As long as you've got that Skywarn sticker on there... everyone knows you mean business, am I right?

 

[Josh Hoover]

i chase in an '05 Honda Civic. Not the best chase vehicle, especially on gravel roads, but I can't afford anything better and I'm a firm believer in "drive it til it breaks." if I'm not able to take my car, usually due to maintenance being done on it on the wrong day, I'll borrow my dad's 2014 Dodge Caravan. other than that, I bring my phone for navigation, my cameras; a Canon EOS60D and a Canon Rebel XS (eventually I'll get something newer that can shoot video in 4k) , and also my laptop to edit my photos when i stop at a motel at the end of the night.

 

[Ethan Schisler]

I chase in a 2011 Ford Escape. No special mounts or anything (all that I had have been uninstalled due to non use of any laptop and I sold my Ipad Pro, again due to non-use)... Just the Gripper 115 XL with extension bar for my Sony A7SIII and 24-70mm F/2.8 GM II lens and my Iphone XS with radarscope.

No decals or anything special on the outside of my car, just the way I prefer it. Don't really like people bothering me (super introverted) while I'm chasing and I find driving an incognito vehicle helps. Really think unless you plan on driving through absolutely massive hail on purpose, you don't need much else to safely observe storms.

I use an array of cameras though while chasing which include Sony A7SIII (video), Sony A1 (video/photo/birds/wildlife/pretty much everything lol), Sony A9 II (birds and wildlife for when I'm not chasing) and an array of lenses including numerous primes but mostly for chasing my 24-70 F/2.8 II and 100-400mm GM. Probably will take my new 50mm F/1.2 GM and 35mm F/1.4 GM out next year as those are my 2 favorite prime lenses I own.

 

[Todd Lemery]

I usually chase in a Chevy Suburban. Often times there will be 5 people in the vehicle so the extra space is much appreciated. The exterior is coated with truck bed liner for the hail. The windows are on their own except for a security liner film on the inside of the windows.

 

[Drew Terril]

The vehicle that I generally chase in was bought more for non chasing reasons than chasing reasons. I usually chase in a 2015 Nissan Titan, but I bought it because I needed a full size truck for farm stuff, and to pull either my Camaro to the track or my Pathfinder to the off road park. Occasionally, I chase in an old 95 Pathfinder that's also my off road toy, but I have my better comms setup in the Titan. I'm blue collar, so buying anything solely for chasing isn't something that I can justify. I just adapt what I've needed for the rest of my life for my chasing.

 

[Gavin Nichols]

I have plans to buy (and maybe break ) a 04 Subaru WRX STI manual from one of my older friends who is selling it for 8k (cheap for a well-maintained STI) and the HP has been bumped up to 385 due to a assortment of aftermarket mods (turbo, ECS, Intercooler.) I will use it as my daily driver as well as for storm chasing. I wanted something fun, reliable, and adaptable to most road surfaces. I have plans to put some brighter headlights/brake lights, a cleverly placed sticker, Maybe even bump the power up even more.
Already have a budget camera setup ready: Canon EOS R10 (Photos) and a couple Gopro HERO 7s. (recording/streaming) and i plan on using a Modded Chromebook for a computer. No mount for it yet.

 

[Drew Terril]

I have plans to buy (and maybe break ) a 04 Subaru WRX STI manual from one of my older friends who is selling it for 8k (cheap for a well-maintained STI) and the HP has been bumped up to 385 due to a assortment of aftermarket mods (turbo, ECS, Intercooler.) I will use it as my daily driver as well as for storm chasing. I wanted something fun, reliable, and adaptable to most road surfaces. I have plans to put some brighter headlights/brake lights, a cleverly placed sticker, Maybe even bump the power up even more.
Already have a budget camera setup ready: Canon EOS R10 (Photos) and a couple Gopro HERO 7s. (recording/streaming) and i plan on using a Modded Chromebook for a computer. No mount for it yet.

Just be careful with that transmission. The later 6 speeds were stronger, but the 5 speeds have a very similar reputation to the T5 5 speeds that GM and Ford used back in the 80s and 90s. That much power can easily break that transmission, let alone more. I would stay away from any hard shifting/launching. They're just not super strong. Long term motor reliability with that much boost isn't the greatest either, and the fuel mileage will definitely be poor.

I would also recommend being able to do your own work if you're going to own something like that. Given the layout, those aren't easy to work on, and having to pay a shop to do any work will get expensive quickly. Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against Subaru (although for 8k I can get into a similar era 4Runner that will be WAY more rugged and probably get about the same fuel mileage as a heavily modded STI), but I definitely prefer to stick with the naturally aspirated models. I've actually been considering a 6 speed Forester or Crosstrek for my next purchase.

 

[Jack R. Jester]

From what I saw, there wasn't a forum that was dedicated to sharing your chase vehicles. So here it is! Just show off your chase rig, laptops, probes, cameras, or anything else you use while chasing! As I am 14, obviously not old enough to drive and definitely not old enough to chase (Believe me, I have tried to convince my dad... and failed miserably) my dream chase rig is a 2020 Toyota 4runner TRD pro.

I'm still running my '98 Suburban K1500 since I'm kind of a stickler for old cars.

I started out similarly to you trying to convince my parents to take me Storm Chasing, the only difference is that in some random act of madness, mother actually said yes. Its not like we ever saw much though.

That didn't happen until I actually got my license and bought my first car.

This year is going to be the first real year where hopefully all the pieces will fall in place for me to properly chase.
(Obviously not a real picture.)
Any sort of 4Runner would be a great chase vehicle since Toyotas are so reliable. Having a reliable vehicle is probably one of the most important things you need to have if you want to chase; you don't want to find yourself stuck hundreds if not thousands of miles from home with a broken vehicle (I've learned that lesson the hard way). Luckily I grew up working on cars, so there aren't many problems that'll curtail my chasing activities. That's why I tend to take vehicles with over 300,000 miles cross country, up Pikes Peak, and of course storm chasing.

Good luck.

 

[John Archer]

2013 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland
Icom 5100

 

[TonyB]

These are my 2 vehicles and chase in both of them but for totally different scenarios. They are a 1996 Silverado K1500 with a long 8 ft bed and a 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk.



The truck is the work horse that I'm not afraid to take a bit of hail on and push into the heart of things. I've spent a ton on fixing it up and is highly reliable with its simple 5.7l small block and a newly built transmission. I really only have room for 1 other person to ride so this is usually my chasecation option. It's got a full mattress and tons of camping, recreation, and chasing equipment so makes long trips a breeze, quite comfy, and down days quite fun. The camper shell is super cheap and can take a beating and the windshield is quite primitive and easy/cheap to replace, so tend to push this one.

The Jeep is a fire breathing bat outta hell and is powered by a Hellcat engine producing over 700 HP and clocking a 3.1 0-60 time. It also handles great in the rain, and feels safer to drive than the old truck in downpours and hydroplane situations. I'm much less inclined to core or RFD punch in this thing since it's a much more expensive vehicle to maintain and fix up. This is used for shorter trips <3 days and when I want to take more than 1 person out on a random weekend chase nearby. I try my best to keep it out of hail by keeping escape options open, viewing from a further vantage point and getting into position faster. Obviously that is the idea, but things change rapidly sometimes. This thing is an absolute blast to drive out in the more empty western chasing areas (CO, WY, NM, SD, etc) where there are long stretches of totally empty highway to punch it on. It makes those areas far more interesting as it can get kinda boring sometimes. I can also make great time getting anywhere and it takes some of the stress out of get there-itis and allows me to chase slightly faster storms. Further east and it's a bit less fun because it's more developed, with more traffic, and less sight line so it can tend to be an exercise in patience in order to drive safely.

I love both of these vehicles for different reasons and don't really have any plans to change them anytime soon.

 

[Jack R. Jester]

These are my 2 vehicles and chase in both of them but for totally different scenarios. They are a 1996 Silverado K1500 with a long 8 ft bed and a 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk.

View attachment 23501

The truck is the work horse that I'm not afraid to take a bit of hail on and push into the heart of things. I've spent a ton on fixing it up and is highly reliable with its simple 5.7l small block and a newly built transmission. I really only have room for 1 other person to ride so this is usually my chasecation option. It's got a full mattress and tons of camping, recreation, and chasing equipment so makes long trips a breeze, quite comfy, and down days quite fun. The camper shell is super cheap and can take a beating and the windshield is quite primitive and easy/cheap to replace, so tend to push this one.

The Jeep is a fire breathing bat outta hell and is powered by a 6.2l supercharged V8 producing well over 700 HP and clocking a 3.1 0-60 time. I'm much less inclined to core or RFD punch in this thing since it's a much more expensive vehicle to maintain and fix up. This is used for shorter trips <3 days and try my best to keep it out of hail. I try keeping escape options open, viewing from a further vantage point and getting into position faster. Obviously that is the idea, but things change rapidly sometimes. This thing is an absolute blast to drive out in the more empty western chasing areas (CO, WY, NM, SD, etc) where there are long stretches of totally empty highway to punch it on. It makes those areas far more interesting and fun to be in as it can get kinda boring sometimes and allows me to make great time. Further east and it's a bit less fun because it's more developed, with more traffic, and less sight line so it can tend to be an exercise in patience.

I love both of these vehicles for different reasons and don't really have any plans to change them anytime soon.

I love the Silverado, those things will go forever as long as you take care of the transmissions (I've learned that the hard way). I got a buddy back in Illinois with a 97 K1500 (basically the same setup as yours) with 680,000 on it (Original engine, second Transmission).

Anyways, I hope it doesn't get too beat up by hail this year.

 

[TonyB]

I love the Silverado, those things will go forever as long as you take care of the transmissions (I've learned that the hard way). I got a buddy back in Illinois with a 97 K1500 (basically the same setup as yours) with 680,000 on it (Original engine, second Transmission).

Anyways, I hope it doesn't get too beat up by hail this year.

Yeah, that's the plan. It's got ~300k miles, but intend to keep it going a long time. I bought it ~15k miles ago and tranny blew out shortly after buying it, so got it rebuilt, but to a much higher torque spec so should be extra reliable since I'm still running stock hp from the engine. Engine is as clean as a small block gets and recently had internals worked on and gaskets replaced. Transfer case is wonky right now so gonna get that along with the differentials serviced. Should be as reliable as a vehicle can get.

She's a borderline classic at this point though so would feel bad about getting her all hailed up. Might truck bed liner spray it, but would ruin the nice original color

 

[Mark Gressman Jr]

@TonyB - As someone who owns 2012 SRT8 Challenger, and was saving up to buy a Hellcat Redeye before Dodge decided to cancel the hemis this year.... I would absolutely NOT take the Trackhawk, lol. That would be a sin to tear that up! The way things are going with the electric armageddon, that'll probably be a collector car in 10 years, lol.

I'm having the same problem now, as I own a 2013 Dodge Avenger too.... don't wanna beat up the SRT, but I don't think the Avenger is reliable enough to drive from Jersey, lol.

 

[Jack R. Jester]

Yeah, that's the plan. It's got ~300k miles, but intend to keep it going a long time. I bought it ~15k miles ago and tranny blew out shortly after buying it, so got it rebuilt, but to a much higher torque spec so should be extra reliable since I'm still running stock hp from the engine. Engine is as clean as a small block gets and recently had internals worked on and gaskets replaced. Transfer case is wonky right now so gonna get that along with the differentials serviced. Should be as reliable as a vehicle can get.

She's a borderline classic at this point though so would feel bad about getting her all hailed up. Might truck bed liner spray it, but would ruin the nice original color

I agree with @Mark Gressman Jr, that thing is worth way too much money to get hailed on.

The K1500 is just the right amount of badass to take chasing, and if it gets hailed on, bring it to me (I'm a body guy) I'll PDR the dents out (Please don't have the whole truck bedlined, I can't stand when people do that).

I hope you get the TCase worked out in time for storm season.

I noticed the Colorado plate, I'm currently located in Denver, and I know a guy in Englewood who will go through your Tcase for a good deal if you are interested (He rebuilt the Trans in my Suburban).

 

[Jack R. Jester]

Yeah, that's the plan. It's got ~300k miles, but intend to keep it going a long time. I bought it ~15k miles ago and tranny blew out shortly after buying it, so got it rebuilt, but to a much higher torque spec so should be extra reliable since I'm still running stock hp from the engine. Engine is as clean as a small block gets and recently had internals worked on and gaskets replaced. Transfer case is wonky right now so gonna get that along with the differentials serviced. Should be as reliable as a vehicle can get.

She's a borderline classic at this point though so would feel bad about getting her all hailed up. Might truck bed liner spray it, but would ruin the nice original color

I agree with @Mark Gressman Jr, that thing is worth way too much money to get hailed on.

The K1500 is just the right amount of badass to take chasing, and if it gets hailed on, bring it to me (I'm a body guy) I'll PDR the dents out (Please don't have the whole truck bedlined, I can't stand when people do that).

I hope you get the TCase worked out in time for storm season.

I noticed the Colorado plate, I'm currently located in Denver, and I know a guy in Englewood who will go through your Tcase for a good deal (He rebuilt the Trans in my Suburban).

 

[TonyB]

@TonyB - As someone who owns 2012 SRT8 Challenger, and was saving up to buy a Hellcat Redeye before Dodge decided to cancel the hemis this year.... I would absolutely NOT take the Trackhawk, lol. That would be a sin to tear that up! The way things are going with the electric armageddon, that'll probably be a collector car in 10 years, lol.

I'm having the same problem now, as I own a 2013 Dodge Avenger too.... don't wanna beat up the SRT, but I don't think the Avenger is reliable enough to drive from Jersey, lol.

Ha, totally get where you are coming from, but its just soo much fun to drive! I'm realize it'll be a collector car in the future so am doing my best to maintain it. But it was also high mileage when I got it, and I've put a ton more on (currently at ~105k miles). I bought the high mileage one cause I knew I wanted to drive it everywhere and not worry about mileage depreciation.

I keep her far away from the path of the heavy hailers though, and am willing to pay to fix minor hail damage. But yeah, probably not the most wise thing to take chasing but it's too hard to resist sometimes when you are staring down 700 miles of rural empty highway to get into position.

 

[TonyB]

I agree with @Mark Gressman Jr, that thing is worth way too much money to get hailed on.

The K1500 is just the right amount of badass to take chasing, and if it gets hailed on, bring it to me (I'm a body guy) I'll PDR the dents out (Please don't have the whole truck bedlined, I can't stand when people do that).

I hope you get the TCase worked out in time for storm season.

I noticed the Colorado plate, I'm currently located in Denver, and I know a guy in Englewood who will go through your Tcase for a good deal (He rebuilt the Trans in my Suburban).View attachment 23503

We probably use the same guy, haha. Guy in Englewood named John rebuilt my transmission on this thing and plan to have him look at the tcase next week.

Will also hit you up for any PDR work I need done on either. I try my best to keep the Hawk out of hail, but she's got a few little dents from a storm near Holyoke last summer. Not very noticeable so gonna wait till after this season to fix her up.

 

[KevinCobbOHIO]

My setup for my yearly week long chasecation

 

[Drew Terril]

My setup for my yearly week long chasecation

Is that an old Rat Shack scanner that I spy over there? Looks like the ones that GRE built for RS back in the mid 2000s. I have a PSR-500 and PSR-600 myself. The 500 I've had since 2008. Buddy of mine had a Rat Shack Pro-96 back then too, and my PSR-500 replaced my old Pro-94 that became obsolete when they rebanded the 800MHz systems

 

[KevinCobbOHIO]

Is that an old Rat Shack scanner that I spy over there? Looks like the ones that GRE built for RS back in the mid 2000s. I have a PSR-500 and PSR-600 myself. The 500 I've had since 2008. Buddy of mine had a Rat Shack Pro-96 back then too, and my PSR-500 replaced my old Pro-94 that became obsolete when they rebanded the 800MHz systems

Yeah with me being a very basic novice of storm chasing I was looking for ways to hear communications without trying to get a ham licence. I had plugged in all the weather frequencies I could find online and scanned while I was chasing to hopefully hear info. Wasn't real successful. I need to befriend a partner who is more storm savvy to chase with

 

[John Archer]

Ride height up and down
Down for going fast
Up for climbing over stuff

MFJ 1432 dual band antenna (best range of any antenna I have used)

 

[Roger Brown]

Yeah with me being a very basic novice of storm chasing I was looking for ways to hear communications without trying to get a ham licence. I had plugged in all the weather frequencies I could find online and scanned while I was chasing to hopefully hear info. Wasn't real successful. I need to befriend a partner who is more storm savvy to chase with

There are only 7 different NOAA weather frequencies, and they should be easy to receive with an external antenna. You could also try monitoring 146.550 MHz, it's used as a simplex calling freq. by many chasers.

 

[Todd Lemery]

I’m flexing someone else’s chase vehicle I saw in Caney Kansas yesterday, a couple of minutes before a hail core raked the area. Kudos to whoever came up with this idea. It’s a pretty unique and funny chase vehicle.