I concur on the ham radio license. The rugged radios are borderline, if at all, legal. The tech license is easy to get, there are free apps and websites to help you "study" (aka memorize the questions). Some old timers get all bent out of shape over that, but it's hard these days to get anyone really interested what with smart phones and high speed internet most places.
GMRS in a dash mount unit with an external antenna can get some good distance and would serve your needs though, I think some of the more expensive ones can even act as repeaters for handheld units. Midland makes some nice ones that I've thought about adding to my arsenal. They do deals every now and then over on expeditionportal.com's forum since they are a supporting vendor on there.
But compared to a good dashmount 2 meter ham radio pushing 50+ watts out of a 5/8 or 1/4 wavelength antenna on your roof, GMRS looks like a toy. You can get new ones for a couple hundred, or for the same price a nicer used one. Even some of the old ones from the 80's are plenty. I have an old Icom IC-228H from the late 80's that has served me well. I bought it for $70 or so off Ebay about ten years ago and it puts out up to 45 watts.
My current rig that will be going into my Alpha (if I can ever find time to get the wiring to the rear done) is a Icom IC-706MKII. It is a multiband radio covering from 440mhz and 2 meter (146mhz) through the HF bands including 6 meters down to 160 meters with up to 100 watts. You'll want a General license though to take better advantage of the HF bands. I have my Extra so I have full access to all the ham radio bands and power levels.
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