Simple solution.........Throw some sand bags in the back. No more light
rear end. Grew up driving 2wd Chevy trucks. My Dad didn't believe there
was any need for a 4WD truck. I'll take a RWD anything with a little weight
in the rear and good snow tires over a FrontWD of any sort. That's just my
preference though.....
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "Curt Raymond" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Diesel List" <mercedes@okiebenz.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2007 10:12 AM
Subject: Re: [MBZ] what are your odds?
In any kind of bad weather a pickup truck is about the WORST vehicle to
have.
The pickups of today are especially bad. Big engines, light rear ends and
bad gas mileage.
But wait you say, how could bad gas mileage make pickup trucks more
dangerous? I know this one because I've been there. Bad gas mileage gets
worse in four wheel drive so some pickup truck drivers will try to get
away without being in four wheel drive in conditions where they really
should be using it.
A pickup truck in slippery conditions in 2wd is downright dangerous,
especially an automatic transmission truck, especially an overpowered
automatic transmissioned truck (which is like 90% of pickups being made
today).
Don't get me wrong I love having a v8 in my Dodge Dakota but having taken
on a guardrail while traveling sideways at 60mph up Rt 95 at the tail end
of a snowstorm I've learned to be vary wary...
We were going up a fairly small hill, anybody who's driven 95 in southern
Maine knows its made up of mostly gently rolling hills. The snow had quit
an hour or so before and the roads were mostly clear so I'd shifted into
2wd to save some gas. I was young and dumb.
I was going a bit faster than was prudent (young and dumb) even though the
back end of the truck had kicked out a bit a couple times before.
So finally the back end kicked out so bad I couldn't get it back. The big
problem was that I was used to driving a manual transmission which doesn't
shift by itself. On those hills the auto would shift and the increase
torque would send us skittering. I've since learned to manually take it
out of overdrive in those conditions. Oh and I drive slower now too and
gas mileage be dammed I keep it in 4wd.
Anyway my story ends pretty well, we slid down the crown of the road into
the guardrail which was fortunately covered in snow. Bounced off, slid 180
degrees and came to a stop without getting hit by traffic. The bumper was
dented up and some plastic trim damaged but still intact. I've left it
that way as a reminder...
Note that at this point I'd been driving for 6 years and had logged
probably 90,000 miles, much of it in the snow. The problem was that I was
inexperienced with that vehicle and fueled with a bit of remaining young
man testosterone invincibility... I'd bought the Dakota myself with my own
money...
-Curt
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 19:14:43 -0400
From: "Werner Fehlauer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [MBZ] what are your odds?
To: "Mercedes Discussion List" <mercedes@okiebenz.com>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=iso-8859-1;
reply-type=original
There will always be some risk in any activity, driving, flying, or
just
sitting at home. But the danger on our highways could really be
reduced
substantially IF we required drivers to actually LEARN how to drive,
and not
issue licenses out of cracker jack boxes.
It takes about 2 years in Europe to get a driver's license, and you can
lose
it for a long time and pay heavy fines if you are caught doing
something
stupid.
Here in the USA, in some states we have 16 and 17 year olds (given BMWs
and
Caddy SUVs by indulgent parents) on the road legally after passing a
very
minimal written test, and they may or may not even have to pass a
driving
test. And that test is usually more about parking than knowing how to
safely drive at legal speeds. One has to wonder if the parents realize
that
they are seriously jeopardizing their children's lives by turning them
loose
without proper training and in too much of a car?
That spinning 3/4 ton truck was probably either driven carelessly or by
a
driver that was never taught how to keep from "losing it". Its wrong
to
pre-judge without knowing the facts, but IMO, 9 times out of 10, the
driver
in the skid did something wrong.
Werner
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