Equinox Clearance

[MilesandSmiles]

My wife and I are shopping for an AWD dinghy under 4000 lbs curb weight to tow behind our 2004 Southwind 37A. Ideally we'd like a small SUV that can seat five adults.

So far we've looked at the Jeep Compass & Wrangler, and the Chevy Equinox. The Compass is great except that the back seat can only fit two people in comfort. The Wrangler is cool, but gets terrible mileage.

The Equinox looks like a nice car except that the front bumper has a piece of plastic on it that's only 6.9" clearance from the ground! That's not much space between you and a rutted dirt road somewhere on BLM land!

So, two questions:
1) Any Equinox drivers have any experiences to share regarding clearance - good or bad? Any easy mods?

2) What other vehicles would you suggest we look at?

I'd prefer new or "factory certified" 2015 or newer.

[Heisenberg]

"a rutted dirt road somewhere on BLM land"

Sounds like Jeep people. I have both. My Wrangler has given me 21 and 22 MPG on the highway at times. It is worth it because of where it can go. My Winnebago gets between 6 and 7 MPG it makes the Wrangler feel like a mileage master.

[Lwiddis]

"a rutted dirt road somewhere on BLM land"

These are my kind of people.

[lryrob9301]

Doubt you'd be interested in a Toyota 4 Runner Trail Edition base model. It has 9.5" of ground clearance, will seat 5, automatic trans with manual shift neutral transfer case ( 1st in decades from Toyota), but it has a curb weight of 4800 lbs. They are hard to find, expensive, and Toyota does not certify them for dingy towing for legal reasons. However they are fully 4 down towable.