🚀 go-pugleaf

nmoberg <nmoberg@hotmail.com> wrote:

>You can be the worlds best driver and end up in a rollover in
>anything. SUVs just make the probability much higher.

What we ignore - and what used to be plackarded all over the vehicle -
when "SUV's" were simply unupholstered trucks is that the vehicle
drives differently than a car! I am on my third 4WD vehicle. The last
vehicle (a 1999 Suburban) never had the decals near the visors warning
of a higher center of gravity and different driving techniques.

The typical driver transitioning from a car to a larger vehicle is
vastly unaware of this.

Still, I have been involved in low speed incidents (turning at an
intersection) where I've been turned into. I rather like having my
truck (I call my "SUV" a truck, because that's what it is) intact and
having Public Works have to pick up the front end of the other vehicle
with a broom and shovel.

My contention, base on 17 years of owning and operating full-size
Chevy Blazers and a Suburban is that they are stable if you recognize
it is a different animal than a "wide track" GT. I do think that
ersatz 4WD vehicles (my work vehicle is a marked Jeep Cherokee and I
don't consider that to be in the same category as an old Blazer or
Bronco - personally I think it offers less protection against lateral
passenger compartment intrusion and dread driving code in it) have,
IMO, less protection than the fuselage of a Cessna.

I remember a National Lampoon issue from my childhood where certain
vehicle design prototypes were rejected. One was a driver in a
lighthouse on wheels <snicker>. It was prone to flipping over. Small
wonder.

Bottom line: if you take a Neon chassis and try to make it into an SUV
by increasing its CG, you will get something completely unpredictable.

Steve