jadmt
ignore button user
Well, time to throw my hat into this ring.
For starters I am in Canada. BC to be exact. Land of the over-lifted, 35 to 37 inch tires sticking 2"- 4" outside the fenders on city trucks. This wonderful province has some of the most beautiful back country in the world. It also has a ton of regulations on the books that rarely get enforced. I live on Vancouver Island which has tourism as the third largest sector for the economy which equals tourists all year round but especially during the warmer months.
I have had the pleasure of witnessing and being first on scene for a number of bad accidents as a result because here on the island we have winding roads with off camber tight corners at the bottom of hills, narrow mountain roads, you name it. Overloaded SUVs, people using too small of automobile to tow too big of trailer (overloaded as well) is a common sight out this way. Overloaded 30+ year old vans and SUVs that are not maintained but part of the "van-life"/tourist scene are a common sight - so are these automobiles rolled in ditches with gear spread out a kilometer down the road after said crash. 95% of these crashes are avoidable - but does local law enforcement stop and ticket said people? Almost never - when they do people complain about it and it's impact on the tourism sector. People and yeah mostly the under 35 year old crowd buy an older truck/car to go and live the lifestyle and happily spend money on camera/video gear, cool clothes, cool e-bikes - meanwhile the factory suspension (that hasn't been repaired or updated since 1989) can't take all the weight, the brakes are faded and done and they don't have much actual real world experience driving said rigs. Makes for a beautiful cocktail of ******** going sideways fast.
The city-trucks as stated previously almost never see a backroad. My roomie's boyfriend is a prime example. Brand new F-150 Sport 4x4, sitting on 35" KO2's - it gets used to goto Costco and commute to his job where it parks beside 30 other city-trucks. Hey if he wants to spend $600.00 plus a month on gas to look "cool" to his fellow co-workers that is his choice. But it is damn funny watching him pull a "snow day" with brand new KO2's because the roads are covered in snow and are slippery and every-time I bring up the topic of real winter tires he points out how his KO2's are 3 peak rated. ( sigh )
I have had to replace four windshields in ten years because the guy in front had tires sticking way outside the fenders with no mudflaps or flares. Again, who do I blame?
I have to agree with most of the article. But then the way I build up my rigs has always been inline with Aussies. I personally don't like my wheels sticking out. I try and always keep my weight down. I don't like RTT because I don't want that much weight on my roof. I doubt I will ever own anything bigger than a set of 33" tires (on my SUV/mid-sized). I also have never cared what others think of my rigs. I like the quirkier ones (LOVE my Isuzu Troopers for example). I almost always over-engineer my builds and am happy to pay a professional to do the work I don't have the skills for. As we all know, proper maintenance should also be mod number 1.
I grew up during the 70's watching folks in Land Rovers/Land Cruisers in documentaries go to all these cool places and that has stuck with me my whole life. Thank the Gods we have smartened up since then though. I grew up in a time with tall and narrow ground grabber tires were the norm for the back country. It was an era where "lifted" meant two more inches of ground clearance. So yeah maybe I am now "that old guy", but as the bumper sticker says "remember, you have to drive it back home" has truly become my back-country motto.
Maybe with people starting to use dash-cams we will see people getting ticketed for their tires throwing rocks at the cars behind them. Maybe insurance companies will finally start denying claims because people are overloaded. Maybe we will get to the spot where when search and rescue has to be deployed because dumb people did dumb things they get a bill from SAR (it does happen in a number of places). I figure it will be insurance companies that will start hitting people for being over-lifted and with heavy steel off road bumpers when said trucks are involved in hitting pedestrians.
I am all for freedom of expression and the freedom to build your rig the way you want - until that is, your freedom puts my life/safety at risk.
Lots of folks build up damn cool off-road rigs around here - and they trailer them to the back roads for a reason.
Cheers for now folks.
Scott
ah that would be you....following too close no doubt.....
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