Bragging rights! BX1500D vs. Ford Excursion

[slowzuki]

Good point about the licence, up here there is no highway driving component to the licence test. They are more concerned about parallel parking than skid control and threshold braking.
Ken

 

[KubotaSteve]

I wouldn't blame the vehicle. Normally it is the driver. Everytime there is a snow you see more 4X4's in the ditches than anything else. I have a AWD V-8 Explorer and have never had a bit of trouble nor does it feel like it will flip. Of course I don't get out on the road in the snow unless it is an absolute emergency. Stay home and play in the snow on the 'bota. People want a SUV for looks and want to drive them like a sports car. Can't have the best of both worlds!!!
Out where I live the roads don't get plowed as often as they should and you need the additional ground clearance or risk tearing up the undercarriage or getting stuck. My motto in the snow is "Don't be in a big to hurry to go nowhere!!!"

 

[DaveInColorado]

A while ago I witnessed a Jeep Cherokee on the highway pulling a U-Haul trailer that was attached to a bumper-mounted trailer ball. The trailer had yanked off the bumper and the safety chains were working fine - gradually beating the back of the Cherokee to a pulp with the trailer while the driver tried to get it all over to the side of the road. I wonder if people also put a U-Haul on a bumper-mounted ball on the Ford. A loaded U-Haul trailer is really heavy!

 

[DaveInColorado]

Funny that you mention it and I know I expose myself to even further ridicule when I admit that No, Both block heaters work great! The "caught flat-footed" part of the original message also included the fact that I almost never plug them in! With synthetic oil, the Excursion starts instantly even down to Zero degrees except for the one 10-below instance when I had ice in the fuel filter. I also had a nearly empty fuel tank - another No-No for cold weather.

 

[DaveInColorado]

And another thing - my only 4wd vehicle is the Kubota! I even live in Colorado and still feel that if you really need 4WD you shouldn't be driving! When we had 3 feet of snow in our neighborhood last year I was still the first one to make it out. 4WD is a good tool for getting yourself stuck further away from civilization than you should have been in the first place. Believe it or not, if I ever take my kids skiing (nearly never) I take one of my front-wheel drive Honda's anyway. It is So Much Easier to put chains on a FWD vehicle than on a RWD vehicle. Chains are always required when the roads are bad in the mountains. I hate laying down in the slush under a dripping vehicle trying to get that last little rubber doohickey connected. I would bet that I could do both wheels in less than a minute when driving a Honda Accord.

 

[frank_f15]

excellent post! was comming home from my daughters last night, a bit of snow, the wet type, and the road was pretty greasy, just backed off the gas and drove a little slower, but a bunh of fools decided thay could do ok stayed in the passing lane and kept the pedal down, especially a bunch of 4wd vehicles, well at least one of them ended up with smashed up pretty vehicle, by the way i think i beat him home. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[RobertN]

4x4's are great! For going wheelin... On the street they don't gain you much. They gain you some, but not lots, except higher initail cost, pricey tires, bad gas mileage, another axle and transfer case to maintain...

They will help you with traction and getting you going. But, 4x4 does not help you stop! That's where the SUV's in the ditch come from... They are holding the road better, so they go faster. Try to slow down or stop though, and around they go.

I have a 4x4, have been in one my whole 40 years. Mostly Jeeps growing up, and then pickups for work. The Rubicon trail is fun! Taking a canoe on the truck to a backwoods lake is fun too. Took the kids to the snow last wekend; that was fun. Use it around work sometimes, when conditions are icky muddy yuck.

 

[Rick Jay]

DaveInColorado,

Nice pic...I think /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif. I have "Ford Blue" running through my veins since I bought my first car (1971 Mustang) and "Kubota Orange" mixed in with the "blue" since 2000.

When I look at the pic, I'm cheering for the Kubota but it hurts me when I see the disabled Ford.

I guess it could be worse...if your tractor was a color other than orange. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Glad to hear the fix was so simple.

~Rick

 

[narcnh]

Next time you see an SUV in a ditch, check out the tires. I'll bet they are all-season radials. I think that many drivers of SUVs don't bother to put snow tires on, thinking that the 4WD is all they need. I have studded snows on my 4WD F-150 and find them essential up here.

This morning we had about an inch of new snow. On the way to work I'm on the Interstate for about 20 miles (two exits). On that stretch saw three vehicles off the road: a sedan that had hit the guard rail (with new vehicle temp plates), an SUV that was facing the wrong way in the grass median, and a pickup that had flipped and/or rolled into the ditch in the median. That one was ugly, and judging by the mess around the cab the driver didn't walk away. No one is immune to screwing up, stupidity knows no ethnic, social or economic boundaries, and I put a seatbelt on my dog, when he comes in to work with me.

Last rant - ever rent a u-haul truck? There are NO requirements and they tell you NOTHING about driving a truck. I've driven a few mid-sized delivery trucks, and when I moved up here from Jersey I rented a 26-footer. I asked the u-haul guy if I needed anything special to rent it (like a truck license). He said I needed a valid driver's license and a valid credit card. It is scary how many of those trucks are on the road every day, driven by people, who have never driven a truck before in their lives.

Now I will get off of my soap box.