JoshW,
Countrymech's advice is , IMHO spot on. He's there and according to his posts, for many years.
My suggestion is to wait 'til you get there and determine what your needs are. My observations are that if you are 'in town', what you have is adequate. AWD or 4x4 is certainly a preference for winter travel. Especially if your vehicles are paid for, drag'em out to WY to keep your total cost of making the move down and put the vehicle money into property. Just a thought. That's my strategy and should work ok, especially since I can wrench on them to keep them RELIABLE.
My experience on gravel roads in the midwest is that you need an all terrain tire, 4x4 and ground clearance to negotiate the ruts and after rain mud holes. The same applies to the gravel roads I have traversed in Wy, MT, AZ, UT, ID, OR, and others west of the Mississippi. Please note that mud is different in most areas out West and is not to be triffled with. Experience it once and you will see. Common sense applies.
However, the difference is I usually carry TWO spares AND the green gooey stuff, a patch kit and irons. Around here, I am close to getting a flat fixed so one spare is adequate. Out there, NO. From my friends in MT, flats happen on a regular basis, especially if you live on a gravel road. One friend says it is usually a screw or fence staple that does the deed, as they probably fall off of rancher's flat bed pickups...
More on tires. Gravel roads anywhere chew them up and spit them out, especially street tires of the B rated variety. If you decide on property that has considerable gravel road travel in and out of, tires will wear out a lot faster. Find out what the locals use and consider that. Gravel tends to round off the square edges of the tread blocks and generally beat them up. Much travel on gravel roads and you will quickly understand the need for the larger mud/gravel 'flaps'.
Even with all of the 'disadvantages' of gravel roads, I would rather travel gravel roads than
pay taxes to have them paved/chip n sealed AND pay to maintain the asphalt. It also keeps a lot of tourist traffic out. Big city folks are generally 'afraid' of gravel roads.
Our rural county paved/chip n sealed a bunch of old gravel roads over the last 10-20yrs and are now facing a $$ crunch to keep them up. Now, they want to
raise taxes to pay for it. Stupid government listening to people whine about all the dust and gravel doing it's business on vehicles and houses (close to the road). It's a fall out of the environuts forcing the elimination of oiling (used oil) the gravel once or twice a year to abate dust.
Arrrrgggggggggh.
