November 10, 2006

Dubs on Your Tow Vehicle? Read This First.

This weekend the Wakeboard Report Crew went out and test drove an eye-catching 2002 Chevrolet Tahoe in Gunmetal Grey. Sounds pretty standard so far, right? Well this particular sled was rolling on a set of deuce-deuce's! So we pulled into the dealership where it was being displayed, and The Wakeboard Report Crew's wife dropped me us off and went to do her grocery shopping across the street. But as she circled around, she caught a glimpse of the wheels and stopped to laugh. "Oh God. So thats why you wanted to test drive this one huh? I see." Does she not know that 22's make a person instantly famous? Add tinted windows to the picture and the owner probably heads up a multinational firm of some important kind.

I just finished up a 1700 mile road trip in a Chevrolet Tahoe and was astounded at the vehicle's performance. So I began plotting to get back into one as soon as possible, and after several flyby's I decided that this 22's-equipped Tahoe needed further exploration in the form of a long test drive and 8 bone-shattering car salesmen handshakes.

The Chevrolet Tahoe is a truck that essentially drives itself - with little wandering and fade. For a vehicle based on a pickup truck platform, it rides very nicely, and with a tight turning radius makes slow towing maneuvers quite a bit easier. On my recent road trip, I found that in just about all road conditions the Tahoe was remarkably easy to pilot. But almost instantly I was surprised at how squirrelly this truck drove with 22's equipped. It wanted to dart off in every direction, sometimes without much warning; making the need to babysit it a matter of life or death. I could not even loosen my grip on the steering wheel long enough to safely lower the volume on the stereo, and decide if that dash chatter sounded more like a rattle snake or a dental visit. I got the impression that the vehicle spent its life on the roads of Boston, slamming from pothole to pothole on its very cool but very impractical low profile wheels. This wasn't a case of simple cab shake - the dashboard sounded like someone had emptied a pocketful of change into it.

Attach a boat, and I can imagine big trouble. I advise against equipping your tow vehicle with low profile & oversize wheel setups, particularly wide ones. Towing is difficult enough without the added feeling of instability and unpredictability found in driving a vehicle with such an extremely non-stock wheel configuration. I am usually an advocate for customization, but here is one type of customization that actually isn't appropriate for many people who spend time towing: huge, flat, wide wheels. It changes the handling of a vehicle with a long wheelbase like that of the Tahoe, drastically.

Ludacris was wrong. You can lose with 22's. Control, primarily.

Posted by erik at 05:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 26, 2006

Nissan and Toyota Delay the Release of their Large(r) Trucks

Every once in awhile, Wakeboard Report covers news from the auto industry, because we're interested in the vehilces that are capable of towing big wake boats. Autoblog.com reports today that the much anticipated full size vehicles that Nissan and Toyota respectively were planning to bring to market in the next fiscal year, will be delayed. Citing trouble repurposing existing frames and other structural components, the companies don't expect to release their full size trucks until 2009. Ouch - that is a long time to wait for a pretty promising set offerings. And by "full size" we're talking "gigantic" for most people. These delayed vehicles are intended to compete with the Ford F250 and Chevrolet 2500. The kind of trucks that if I had an unlimited budget, I'd need.

The phrase "it tows so well you don't even know it's back there" gets overused. I have towed in lots of different vehicles - some handle the task more admirably than others. Some extremely capable vehilces like the Ford F150 tow well but let's be clear; you'll still know it is back there. Something less capable, like the Jeep Wrangler for instance, tows an inboard tournament boat so poorly, you'd swear the weight was actually in front of you! I have never had the opportunity to tow a long distance with something as capable as an F250, but I'll bet that the trip is a lot less harrowing with something like that - you may even actually relax for a moment or two. And as someone that has owned Toyotas and Nissan vehicles and has experienced their low maintenance costs and high levels of reliability and owner satisfaction, and tows long distances occasionally, this is an exciting proposition. Can you picture a crew cab diesel version of that "Super Tundra" shown above? I can. Sitting right in my garage that I don't have next to the Gallardo that I also don't have. It is nice to dream!

Check out the Autoblog.com entry

Posted by erik at 01:16 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

August 16, 2006

Your Towing Trouble Contingency Plan Isn't AAA Is It?

On our yearly trip to ride on Lake Winnipesauke, The Wakeboard Report crew was met with an unfortunate towing problem. About half way through the journey, we noticed a slight wobble on the left wheel of our single axle Eagle trailer, causing the entire rig to jitter ever so slightly. After another 60 miles or so, the jittering stopped as the tire gave out in a stinky poof of hot rubber and metal mesh.

On the side of this particularly hilly and poorly paved section of road leading to Wolfeboro, NH, we sat in shock and tried to figure out what the next steps would be. Should we get the Super Air Nautique a ride on a flatbed to a garage? That sounds like fun both for me AND my credit card balance! Should we disconnect the truck and try to find an open garage, in the hopes that they had that exact 6 lug 65psi trailer tire lying around? This happened in the lakes region of New Hampshire after all, so we were certainly in a more towing/trailer friendly locale, but both options seemed sub-optimal. Were we near anything? No - the nearest establishment was a sketchy looking Clam Shack, with the words "closed" spray painted across several windows. This was something we we're going to need to continue to try and resolve on our own.

I should add, with decent cell phone signals, my Dad on his way down to help us sort out the situation, and no less than 10 other motorists stopping to offer help (one of which refuted any doubt I had about the Chevrolet 1500's ability to stop while towing - he stopped the truck and a 28 foot Scarab in about 100 feet, without a single chirp or squeak), we weren't exactly stranded - just hungry, cranky, annoyed and a tiny bit scared. And as the conductor of this operation, I was slightly embarrassed that I was not more prepared for a scenario like this. Our annual Winnipesauke road trip is the longest one we take during the summer, and none of us had never experienced an issue like this. Double dumbass on me for this one: I don't carry a spare for the trailer. It doesn't even have a mount for one. But in a flash of clarity, we remembered good old 'AAA', and the fact that all four of us are members, one of which carries the coveted Platinum AAA Club Card. We were going to be fine.

Right?

On attempt #1 with AAA, the friendly customer service representative told me that they could not help at all, unless I wanted to have the truck towed instead, sans boat (thanks!). They reported that they could give me a number to a local garage that could potentially flatbed the boat, but that it was not covered with my membership. No worries - we had the platinum card on deck, ready to go. Or not. Call #2 resulted in the same answer. So much for that Platinum membership.

So, what is AAA's stance in a scenario where a tow vehicle fails and the motorist requires assistance? Does AAA expect people to detach their boat and leave it on the highway? And if so, for how long? Is there a Super Platinum membership? We encountered what must be a common scenario, yet AAA had no advice apart from what I would call blatantly obvious, or unhelpful. And this was the second time in 2 weeks that I encountered difficulty with AAA, which is why I am firing this shot across their bow. AAA seems to require too much to be going quite well in order to render their services. Their tolerance for bad circumstances seems low, and if you think about it, when you're in a situation where your car has broken down or you have otherwise experienced difficulty on the road, that is just not acceptable. And when all hell has broken loose and chaos has ensued, AAA still needs you to be with the vehicle, with cash in hand, with no fluid visibly leaking from the vehicle. I do not believe that they deal with random factors very well.

Some of this scenario was my fault. I was not carrying a spare for the trailer and I won't make that mistake again. My truck's jack did not have enough travel, but I was lucky enough to borrow one from a passing motorist that worked well. I now own a fancy jack thank you very much, with plenty of travel. Also, I downgraded my AAA membership. I can't see how reactively canceling it altogether would do any good, but AAA certainly was useless during this fiasco. I will whine a little bit when it comes time to renew it.

Everything worked out in the end. My wife has a photographic memory, and remembered that there was a small Tire Warehouse franchise near our location, and she remembered the name of the place so we were able to contact them, and despite the fact that he had already closed, he stayed open and waited for us to jack the trailer up, remove the tire, detach the trailer, and pay him a visit. The owner happened to also be the town Fire Chief; helping people may have been in his nature and the tire was changed faster than I shave in the morning. The whole thing took about 2 hours from blown tire to getting rolling again. We didn't miss a moment on the lake, and I learned at least 6 lessons from the whole ordeal.

1. Carry a spare tire for your trailer.
2. Downgrade your AAA membership.
3. Have a long-travel jack and proper lug wrench.
4. Support your local tire shop.
5. Don't buy cellphones without analog roam modes.
6. Go on road trips. We had a blast.

Posted by erik at 01:36 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 16, 2005

Toyota FJ Cruiser: I Drone on Again About a Convertible SUV

Wouldnt it be the Bee's Knees to tow your wake boat with a drop-top SUV? Scooped yesterday over at Autoblog is the news that there will likely be a convertible version of the concept-turned-reality FJ Cruiser, debuting in 2006 as a 2007 model. While most of the pictures show the FJ in a nice, clean, smurfy blue, there are many other colors slated. I want the olive green one.

I trolled some of the FJ message boards and the consensus is that the convertible version is extremely likely. Their exact words: "I'm pretty sure the convertible version will be a sure thing." I just hope they do it Jeep Wrangler/Defender 90 style and rig it up with roll bars, not metal B and C pillars as part of a unibody construction.

I want to see a full convertible, half-doored version for that FJ. Adding to that is the fact that it uses a 4-Runner platform, and is supposed to be a lower-end vehicle. So it will be reliable and cheap. I would have preferred that Toyota base the FJ on the Tundra/Sequoia platform, but they would sell far fewer vehicles that way.

I've also seen some rumors of a Jeep Liberty drop top with more of a fast-back style slide-off roof, which leaves the doors and sides intact. Not that it applies to this site anyway; nobody is going to be towing their Wakesetter with a Jeep Liberty anytime soon, but the effort Jeep is making with the Liberty is noble. Plus it comes in diesel now.

I've had a major gripe with car manufacturers worldwide for a few years now concerning their lack of motivation and effort in making SUVs more fun. And when I think of fun I think of outdoors - and open-air motoring & towing is certainly a part of my line of thinking here.

True SUV enthusiasts have been requesting open & removable tops, locking differentials, steeper approach and departure angles and low-maintenance interior for years and the only company that has answered properly is Jeep, with the Jeep Rubicon/Wrangler/XJ/YJ models. And the unaffordable Mercedes G-Wagon Cabrio. Good luck towing 4000lb boats with them.

Every moment spent in an open-top vehicle seems to stand still and makes any trip seem like a little adventure. And yet the Jeep Wrangler is really still such a piece of junk after all is said and done. I've been burned by three Jeep Wranglers (twice, literally) and every time I see one I feel nostalgic and wish for one again. But Jeep has a death-grip on the drop-top SUV market, and for some odd reason, nobody is challenging them!

What I am hoping for specifically, is the use of a seasoned full-size SUV or pickup platform in a vehicle that shares all of the same characteristics of the parent vehicle (towing capacity, wheelbase length, torque). I'd like to see a Toyota Tundra modified to this end. Or perhaps a Nissan Titan crew cab with a drop top and roll cage. How hard could it be for them to do this? Almost every major vehicle manufacturer makes a full size pickup, and several pickup-based iterations always come out that use the platform in far less useful ways, like the Chevrolet Avalanche.

After my bitter-sweet ownership of a 1995 Defender 90 Station Wagon ended, I decided that I wanted a simple, spartan, cheap sport utility vehicle or pickup. What I did not realize was that finding one with a removable full top is nearly impossible. Not anymore it would seem.

Posted by erik at 12:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack