Tannin
Senior Member
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2008
- Messages
- 209
- Location
- Huon Valley Tasmania
- Car Year
- 2007
- Car Model
- Forester
- Transmission
- Manual
It is not my caper to diss other vehicles, but seriously?
Earlier today I helped some people turn a caravan around. We live on a long, narrow cul-de-sac and bringing a van up here is not really a good idea. But these people needed to (for reasons not relevant to this thread) and when they got to the end, they had to turn around. The thing is, there isn't realy room to turn a caravan around in our little road, and the one place where you could almost do it is very steep. Anyway, I noticed them having a bit of a struggle so I strolled up and opened our front gate and invited them to drive into our place, where there is room to do a 3-point turn.
All of that was fine. The thing is, as he started to pull out up the hill towards our gate - not an especially steep hill - he lost traction. He had one front wheel on damp grass - good solid footing but a little bit slippery - and the other wheel on our gravel driveway. Left front spun. He tried a bit of this, a bit of that, rolled back a bit and tried again. Eventually we were able to guide him such that he had all 4 wheels on the driveway proper and he got up the hill, admitedly with difficulty and spinning a wheel much of the way.
I sort-of apologised to his wife, saying I'm that used to having four wheel drives all therse years that I didn't think of their Honda being 2WD.
"Oh no", she said, "it's an all-wheel-drive".
Strewth I've met pussycats which could pull harder up that little hill! Now very likely the chap driving it could have done something to help it grip - there is probably some electronic button gizmo you press when you want a bit of extra grip - and hadn't had a lot of experience, but strike me pink and put me to bed with a shovel, that was a staggeringly poor showing by a supposedly high-tech modern AWD. One wheel - count 'em one - on the damp grass and the whole shebang was immobile.
(For a while there I had visions of having to unhitch the caravan and tow it out with the Forester.)
Earlier today I helped some people turn a caravan around. We live on a long, narrow cul-de-sac and bringing a van up here is not really a good idea. But these people needed to (for reasons not relevant to this thread) and when they got to the end, they had to turn around. The thing is, there isn't realy room to turn a caravan around in our little road, and the one place where you could almost do it is very steep. Anyway, I noticed them having a bit of a struggle so I strolled up and opened our front gate and invited them to drive into our place, where there is room to do a 3-point turn.
All of that was fine. The thing is, as he started to pull out up the hill towards our gate - not an especially steep hill - he lost traction. He had one front wheel on damp grass - good solid footing but a little bit slippery - and the other wheel on our gravel driveway. Left front spun. He tried a bit of this, a bit of that, rolled back a bit and tried again. Eventually we were able to guide him such that he had all 4 wheels on the driveway proper and he got up the hill, admitedly with difficulty and spinning a wheel much of the way.
I sort-of apologised to his wife, saying I'm that used to having four wheel drives all therse years that I didn't think of their Honda being 2WD.
"Oh no", she said, "it's an all-wheel-drive".
Strewth I've met pussycats which could pull harder up that little hill! Now very likely the chap driving it could have done something to help it grip - there is probably some electronic button gizmo you press when you want a bit of extra grip - and hadn't had a lot of experience, but strike me pink and put me to bed with a shovel, that was a staggeringly poor showing by a supposedly high-tech modern AWD. One wheel - count 'em one - on the damp grass and the whole shebang was immobile.
(For a while there I had visions of having to unhitch the caravan and tow it out with the Forester.)
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