DarkMan
Elite Idiot Stocker
- Joined
- August 8, 2000
- Messages
- 437
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- DFW, Texas
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- '11 Taco TRD/OR
Thought I'd share my letter to FourWheeler Magazine.
Concerning the First Look, 2002 Ford Explorer, April 2001:
I don't remember the exact issue, but a while back you guys covered a gathering of OHV minded Ford Explorer owners called Serious Explorations. I wasn't there for that event, but I am a member of the club (www.explorer4x4.com). For those out there that think that the Explorer is just for soccer mom's, you should know that about half a dozen of our Ex's made the Golden Crack in Moab look like a Sunday drive to Grandma's house.
I hoped that Ford would take our group seriously after several of their engineers rode with our group in Truckhaven. Apparently they did not. The 2002 Explorer leaves me spittin' mad. We have worked hard to dispel the urban sissy image of the Explorer. Visit the club site and you'll see that these rigs really can perform. But now, Ford seems to have taken the road most traveled with the IRS '02. Independent rear suspension is bad, but running major suspension and drive components through holes in the frame is insane! Please tell me how in the h*ll do you lift a truck when the rear axle(s) run THROUGH the frame!! When I hear Subaru ads telling the world that their WAGONS have more ground clearance than the Explorer I want to cry!!
My '94, even with it's stock suspension, has left many a jeeper slack jawed here in the Colorado high country. ("How in the h*ll did he get THAT up here?") I'm proud of what it can do. But I am utterly ashamed of the '02. It's almost enough to make be go out and buy a J**p.
Trint Ladd (DarkMan)
Concerning the First Look, 2002 Ford Explorer, April 2001:
I don't remember the exact issue, but a while back you guys covered a gathering of OHV minded Ford Explorer owners called Serious Explorations. I wasn't there for that event, but I am a member of the club (www.explorer4x4.com). For those out there that think that the Explorer is just for soccer mom's, you should know that about half a dozen of our Ex's made the Golden Crack in Moab look like a Sunday drive to Grandma's house.
I hoped that Ford would take our group seriously after several of their engineers rode with our group in Truckhaven. Apparently they did not. The 2002 Explorer leaves me spittin' mad. We have worked hard to dispel the urban sissy image of the Explorer. Visit the club site and you'll see that these rigs really can perform. But now, Ford seems to have taken the road most traveled with the IRS '02. Independent rear suspension is bad, but running major suspension and drive components through holes in the frame is insane! Please tell me how in the h*ll do you lift a truck when the rear axle(s) run THROUGH the frame!! When I hear Subaru ads telling the world that their WAGONS have more ground clearance than the Explorer I want to cry!!
My '94, even with it's stock suspension, has left many a jeeper slack jawed here in the Colorado high country. ("How in the h*ll did he get THAT up here?") I'm proud of what it can do. But I am utterly ashamed of the '02. It's almost enough to make be go out and buy a J**p.
Trint Ladd (DarkMan)