2nd Gen. Saves Life During Rollover | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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2nd Gen. Saves Life During Rollover

People always say that 2nd Gens. are particularly dangerous when it comes to rollovers. And while that might be the case, I've seen several discussions where they have saved lives.

And today, just down the road from where I live, a red 2nd Gen. saved this woman's life after colliding with a cement wall, and rolling over.

http://www.fox13news.com/news/local-news/69270630-story

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Shame, looks like it was a nice one.

I felt awful when I totaled my 95 F-150 in 2005. I loved that truck. But given the intensity of the wreck (head on) I was amazed how it gave its life for me. I walked away without a scratch. Ford built some tough vehicles.
 






That whole thing about 2nd gens. being bad about rollovers was really just misinformation and a smear campaign by the media. They are actually one of the harder SUVs from that era to rollover. There are videos on youtube that show it. Also speaking from personal experience.
 






These photos are of my son's '97 Mounty after someone pulled out in front of him when he was going 55 mph 2 years ago. His only injury was being sore from the seatbelt. The damage was even worse than it looks in these pics.

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It's not just the 2nd Gens that protect passengers. My '89 Bronco II was hit almost head-on at about 30 mph by an extended cab full sized Chevy pickup on mud slickened street that was slick as ice - drunk driver with fogged over windows. The B II was totaled, but gave as good as it got considering the size difference. I had severe whiplash, a mild concussion, and a couple of cuts on my arm. At least 1 passenger in the Chevy had a broken bone.
 






Right away my eye was drawn to the gap above the door.
That Explorer took a REALLY hard hit to cause that.

Glad he is okay.
 






Yeah, the door was reasonably straight. If you look close you can see where the roof is buckled right behind the moonroof. I think the engine was shoved back toward the firewall too. It was a hard hit. That intersection always had a flashing yellow light for traffic headed the way he was and stop signs for the cross traffic, but since then they've changed it to a 4 way stop.
 






I have a very soft spot for '97 Mountaineers in particular, because that is what both of my 2nd Gens have been.

I'm glad he survived that, it definitely took a beating, and makes me feel better about driving mine. I will admit that I do test the limits of the suspension though. Those tight turns that call for 15-20mph, I typically take at about 45-50 albeit stupid, she handles it well!
 






The Mountaineer that got wrecked was really nice even though it had about 198,000 miles on it. You can see the buckled roof in the pics, but you can't see the buckled floorpan which was worse than the roof. Knocked the radio out of the dash too. Console was mangled. Even the seats were twisted and broken. I salvaged 3 of the tires and wheels - the passenger front was flat and shoved back into the fender by the time it got loaded on a flatbed a couple of times and I couldn't get it off. There wasn't much that wasn't damaged.

I replaced it with a red '97 2WD Mounty with under 125,000 miles. The green one had all the options. The red one has almost none. In fact, I didn't know you could get a Mountaineer that stripped down.
 






The Mountaineer that got wrecked was really nice even though it had about 198,000 miles on it. You can see the buckled roof in the pics, but you can't see the buckled floorpan which was worse than the roof. Knocked the radio out of the dash too. Console was mangled. Even the seats were twisted and broken. I salvaged 3 of the tires and wheels - the passenger front was flat and shoved back into the fender by the time it got loaded on a flatbed a couple of times and I couldn't get it off. There wasn't much that wasn't damaged.

I replaced it with a red '97 2WD Mounty with under 125,000 miles. The green one had all the options. The red one has almost none. In fact, I didn't know you could get a Mountaineer that stripped down.

My first '97 Mountaineer was a base model, had cloth interior, manual seats, short center console, etc. Although physically they are identical, my current one has leather, powered seats, overhead console, and factory rear ac. I had to add all of that by myself to my old one.

Here are my old and new:

NEW:
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OLD:
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