2004 Subaru Forester with new stern. It is a pretty tight fit. I have a couple suggestions;

1) remove the key hanger on the back of the head
2) remove the hatch opening roof trim piece. It just pops off and gives a bit more wiggle room. I figured this out after I took the picture.
3) I am pretty sure it would have been easier to load the game rear first (opposite from my picture). At least this proves it fits the dumb backwards way as well.
4) The biggest hurdle is squeezing past the middle rear seatbelt. You just have to fidget with the angle of approach and wiggle as needed. Once you get off the bottom of the hatch hump, it will have a little more clearance to move around.

20170611_153203 (resized).jpg
20170611_153230 (resized).jpg

Right. I meant to say the hump in the ceiling where the center belt retracts into is where this space is the tightest.

Not with the head on. The roof has a hump that comes down about an 1" too low. It is frustratingly close.

pasted_image (resized).png

Well, I should say that I didn't attempt based on the measurements. I am not sure if one could be "persuaded" to fit. I have an '11 Outback, '05 LegacyGT Wagon, and a '04 Forester. The Forester is the only of the three that makes the pinball hauling grade.

2018 Forester was very tight with a modern Stern. It was just touching the headliner. The bulge in the ceiling from the middle seatbelt and the bump in between the cargo floor and rear seats are the limiters. Only will go in front first. Head first will not work.

20181021_170615.jpg

Any experience with the a 2018 or 2019 Escape? It looks like 2017 will fit, but I don't know if the newer models are still ok. I am moving a STTNG from CA to WA and have a minivan rented, however weather looks to be a factor through OR, so am looking to switch to an SUV at the last minute. Thanks for any info.

Excellent, thanks for the information.

2018 Escape SE AWD hauled the STTNG from CA to WA with zero problems. There was plenty of height in the cargo area. The length was fine, but needed to rotate the game slightly so the trigger was not digging into the driver's back. The 1.5T motor was surprisingly spunky especially considering the game, some luggage, 2 humans and multiple mountain passes. The power and responsiveness was quite impressive. The gas mileage on the other hand was not great, clocking in at barely 26mpg for 11 1/2 hrs of FWY driving including plenty of miles with a brisk tail wind. My '18 Forester XT for example with a more potent 2.0T would get an expected 30-32mpg. Still, it looks to be a great compact pin hauler.

20190228_074635 (resized).jpg

20190227_095848 (resized).jpg

Use the "posts containing keyword" search box at the top of the page. A search on "pilot" returned a lot of good info.

Slugfest is an oddball cabinet. I didn't see anything listed for it. The head doesn't fold down, but part of the top does comes off. I was able to fit one (and two passengers!) in my 2005 Legacy GT wagon by loading on its side and the head off. The hatch opening is only 28" high, so can't fit any pinball games with the head on. It was super tight, but it did squeeze in with one of the back seats in the up position.

PXL_20211126_062228519 (resized).jpg

PXL_20211126_062303335 (resized).jpg

I hauled a High Speed in our 2018. It was tight, but it worked. I recommend a really thin piece of cardboard for the top of the game. I got a couple light scuffs on the headliner that my wife still reminds me about IIRC, it was coin box facing forward.

My suggestion would be a small enclosed trailer with a drop down rear ramp/door. Then pick your favorite vehicle that can tow 3500-5000#. This is my current solution. I think it is the most flexible and covers all of your requirements. I had been using a '18 Forester XT. It is limited in tow capability but could easily move a couple games at a time. I recently picked up a BMW X5 diesel as the new tow vehicle. It has what I found to be one of the highest tow ratings for a mid sized SUV (up to 7700) and gets great fuel economy. It fits a game by itself, and with my trailer (4x10 I think?) could theoretically haul 7-8 games packed up. What's better is that if only moving one or two, they can be loaded legs on.

PXL_20211110_213327757 (resized).jpg

Thanks! It's an older Haulmark The only two issues I have run into is that the ceiling height is about 1" too short to transport my arcade cabinets upright. The second is that this trailer seems to have the axles back further than I would like. This means I have to watch for going over the tongue weight. Here are four games comfortably packed for the NWPAS a couple years back.

20180616_135001 (resized).jpg

2017 BMW X5 ok for Sterns. There is about 1/2" clearance once the game starts to ride up the back of the rear seats. It probably would have more clearance loading the other way, but I didn't try.

DSC09131 (resized).jpg

It was a no go for the System11 however. The pictures are from my second attempt flipping the game around to coin door first which was actually worse. It was pretty close to making it with coin door last. It's possible it could have just squeaked through in that orientation if I had used thinner padding between the head and the rails (was using a moving blanket). I didn't think of this until I had already taken it back out spun it around. Also, probably would have been ok to detach the head from the hinge and slid it down a few inches. I stopped futzing with it and loaded it in the trailer instead.

DSC09138 (resized).jpgDSC09137 (resized).jpg

UPDATE: I was able to fit the System11. More info here; https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vehicles-that-a-pinball-machine-fits-in/page/40#post-6954670

I gave it another go with High Speed in my X5 and I am happy to say I got it to work without disconnecting the head. In my failed attempt I had used a thick moving blanket between the head and cabinet and thought it might be possible to make it fit with something thinner. I used a piece of cardboard this time and that did the trick. I had about an inch and half clearance. I use a cut sheet of thin hardboard to help slide over the transition to the not quite flat rear seats. Yay for the X5!

PXL_20220528_191154887 (resized).jpg

PXL_20220528_191320157.MP (resized).jpg

2017 X5 transporting games to/from NWPAS...

I didn't take a picture, but (not surprisingly) can add WMS cabinet (MMr) to the list of games that fit inside the X5. For towing I comfortably fit 6 games in the 5x10 trailer. It looks about 6" short for fitting 8. It *might* work if I pulled a couple backboxes off, but I wasn't that desperate. The 35d is a champ. Yeah, it turned out to be a bad time to pick up a diesel...but man it tows nice. On a flat open road just cruising between 40-50mph it still gets 30+ mpg once up to speed. Full trip with hills and lights it was right about 20mpg.

IMG_1065 (resized).JPG

PXL_20220601_041814456 (resized).jpg

Tape measures can only tell you so much and if this is a deal breaker for the purchase, best to be sure. If it were me, I would take a test drive home and (carefully!) try to fit a game. If you love the car otherwise, sliding the back box down the cabinet is not that big of a deal unless you are moving games every week.

I have towed pins with my 2018 Forester XT.
Observations I can share:
1). Use an OBD app and watch your fluid temperatures. On a 150 mile fwy only trip, I was concerned with AT/CVT temps I saw. That was towing two pins in a10' enclosed trailer in 60deg rainy weather. From that experience, I planned on adding an additional AT cooler before I bought a more capable towing vehicle.
2). The ratio Subaru chose for reverse is ridiculously tall. With anything over 1000 lbs and an incline, the CVT just wants to slip. In a couple cases it flat refused to move. This was also in X mode, were I found the tightening of the diffs, lowered ratios and softened throttle response worked fantastic for forward direction. But for some inexplicable reason doesn't affect reverse. Keep in mind the XT has the "high torque" CVT, so one would it expect it to perform better under high demand situations.
3). I hauled a max of 4 pins in my trailer for a short 15 mile run. Again the transmission was clearly unhappy with any starts and any hills. I found it best to use S# mode where it locks the CVT into 8 pre defined ratios and used the paddle shifters to manage things. Even then, it didn't feel great.

I wanted the FXT to be the perfect pin hauler. Hopefully the new models have improvements to the transmission behavior but I would suggest keeping a close eye on it.

Is the reason because the game can't make it over the transition to the back of the rear seats?

Any pics? That's with coin door first? Did you try it the other way around?

That's too bad the X5 has also dropped off the list. Games fit in the previous generations.

Ah! Good correction for future X5 (and X3) owners.

Same gen as yours;

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vehicles-that-a-pinball-machine-fits-in/page/19#post-4647760

I have never transported a JPP game, so I am not sure. I think the key is going to be using as thin of protection under the head as possible.

Yep. My '17 X5 is now an experience pin mover. Pro tip for other X5 owners (and probably other SUV models as well?); there is a way to transform the cargo area to a nearly flat floor for that takes about 5 min and no tools. Side note, this won't work with the comfort (adjustable) rear seat option.

Basic steps are;

1) Remove rear seat headrests
2) Grab under the rear bottom cushion and pull straight up to pop out the retainers. There is one on each side.
3) Rotate the rear cushion up against the back of the front seats. It's a little tricky with the middle seatbelt, but if you gently pull slack as you go, there is plenty of length for when you get to the next step. I like to use some spare cardboard between the rear cushion and the front seats/center console and other pieces between the bottom of the cushion and the top the rear seats.
4) Fold the rear seats down as normal.

It makes it that much easier to slide a game in and out without that additional angled ledge. To make even easier to slide and to protect the car even more, I like to use a sheet of thin masonite cut to fit between the cargo mounting rails.

Normal seat down position;
PXL_20221029_222829755 (resized).jpg

After moving bottom cushion;
PXL_20221029_222403929 (resized).jpg
PXL_20221029_222348401 (resized).jpg

Best thing is to search the thread first. This seems the most relevant https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vehicles-that-a-pinball-machine-fits-in/page/39#post-6874364

Not sure if anything changed from 21 to 23.

Yeah, that's disappointing. I just assumed the Ascent was always going to be plenty big enough. Bummer. At least it can tow a decent amount...for a Subaru anyway.

rear-measurements-1024x768 (resized).jpg