Subaru pulling power
Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008 6:25 pm
I have been driving Subarus as work vehicles for a while now, but I am still relatively new to the make.
On the building site today the painter was complaining on how he couldn't bring his ute down to the house as the driveway is quite steep and there was no way he would get back up again. I said 'the sooby would do it no worries
(83 4WD wagon)', in jest. He scoffed and said 'not with 15 drums of paint'. I said 'easy'. We worked out that the paint would weigh about 300 kg. Nothing came of it and he wouldn't risk 300 kg of paint anyway, being the sceptic.
20 minutes later a tile delivery arrived. He drove to the bottom of the slope front first in a dual rear axle HQ ute. When the load was off and he tried to reverse, he wasn't going anywhere. The main problem was that the rear wheels were'nt independant of each other and the driving pair were not making good contact with the ground (inner most to the cab). Infact they offered little drive at all.
The boss tried a few tricks with lime and the painters helped out with a push to no avail. I suggested towing him with the wagon. In the past I had offered with other bogged vehicles and my boss had declined. I had pulled out a couple of bogged utes with a brumby on other jobs.
So I brought the wagon down and hooked the HQ up to the tow ball with a tie strap and put it in low range 4WD. Admittedly I had to slip the clutch a bit to get him moving, but it did it easy in the end and I steadily pulled him up the hill. We came a stop at the top and he still had trouble moving so the subaru dragged him up again. The wheels never span and I had border line road worthy road tyres on.
The painter didn't even acknowledge the display or touch on the 300 kg challenge after I got a 2 tonne HQ to move up the slope. He can have his high powered low traction ute (obviously he and the boss have little understanding of the traction and pulling power of a low range 4wd vehicle) and 15 drums of paint.
Just thought I'd share that one, I am starting to become a big subaru fan.
Jeremy.
On the building site today the painter was complaining on how he couldn't bring his ute down to the house as the driveway is quite steep and there was no way he would get back up again. I said 'the sooby would do it no worries
(83 4WD wagon)', in jest. He scoffed and said 'not with 15 drums of paint'. I said 'easy'. We worked out that the paint would weigh about 300 kg. Nothing came of it and he wouldn't risk 300 kg of paint anyway, being the sceptic.
20 minutes later a tile delivery arrived. He drove to the bottom of the slope front first in a dual rear axle HQ ute. When the load was off and he tried to reverse, he wasn't going anywhere. The main problem was that the rear wheels were'nt independant of each other and the driving pair were not making good contact with the ground (inner most to the cab). Infact they offered little drive at all.
The boss tried a few tricks with lime and the painters helped out with a push to no avail. I suggested towing him with the wagon. In the past I had offered with other bogged vehicles and my boss had declined. I had pulled out a couple of bogged utes with a brumby on other jobs.
So I brought the wagon down and hooked the HQ up to the tow ball with a tie strap and put it in low range 4WD. Admittedly I had to slip the clutch a bit to get him moving, but it did it easy in the end and I steadily pulled him up the hill. We came a stop at the top and he still had trouble moving so the subaru dragged him up again. The wheels never span and I had border line road worthy road tyres on.
The painter didn't even acknowledge the display or touch on the 300 kg challenge after I got a 2 tonne HQ to move up the slope. He can have his high powered low traction ute (obviously he and the boss have little understanding of the traction and pulling power of a low range 4wd vehicle) and 15 drums of paint.
Just thought I'd share that one, I am starting to become a big subaru fan.
Jeremy.
