Thread: 4WD myths, facts and stats

Originally Posted by dm_td5

So why not finish it with an open question?

All Land Rovers leak oil. Is this a 4WD myth, fact or statistically correct?

I have had 7 land rovers so far, rangeing in age from 1966 to 1995 and not one of them has been leaky. I do however see seal replacement as normal maintenance and if its getting wet around a seal I replace it. seals are so easy to replace on a land rover, why let it leak for 2 years before you fix it. A leaking truck shows a real lack of maintenance and neglect. If oil can get out water can get in.

Originally Posted by dm_td5

So why not finish it with an open question?

All Land Rovers leak oil. Is this a 4WD myth, fact or statistically correct?

Strangley enough my 5.7L Rangie also leaks fuel through the engine as the tanks keeps dropping. Bloody thing! Not oil though!

JTO

I'm just sitting back watching and eating pop corn on this one

Quite a few years back when 4x4 bashing was just gaining steam I heard a twit on telly stating that in a collision the drivers of 4x4 vehicles were getting injured due to the vehicles construction. This was aparrentltly due to the fact that many 4x4's dont have crumple zones and the seatbelt was dislocating the drivers shoulders even in low speed collisions.
I found this an odd comment as frankly i could see more advantages to being in a 4x4 with a dislocated shoulder as opposed to a glorified coke can like a hyundai x-cel with tread marks on my chest.
Vehicle safety is now a joke anyway as many reports I have seen state that any collision over 60-70 clicks can result in fatalities.

Is it just me or do others recall reduced numbers of road deaths occuring when we drove cars made of steel with full box chassis.
Of course these were by modern standards tanks disguised as cars.

I read an interesting artical in Overlander Magazine on a sign in Nth Geelong somewhere at a strip of shops that is "No 4wd parking" but the thing is there is no law to back this up so it is only an advisory sign apparently.

The thinking behind this (like a lot of things by the councilin Geelong) is that 4wd's are High sided and this impairs the vision of "normal" vehicals.

The plain fact is that a ute like my old AU with work body on the back could park there with nobody being worried about it even though I couldnt see out the side of it backing out and anyone in a car along side me was also impaired but as far as the disco, yes it's higher but about 2 1/2' shorter so you can see past it sooner than the old ute.

I cant see past a Crysler Voyager when parked in a Safeway carpark out of the Disco which is lifted so how could you normal Falcodore driver see past it.

This is a prime example of all of this going too far without rational thought.

You can be locked up for being Racist or Sexist but it's fine to segregate on the type of car you drive because there were people that couldnt drive properly having accidents probably more because they wouldnt slow down or be curtious to other people who may be trying to reverse out.

Again it comes down to training and attitude more than laws and restrictions.

My family experienced a fatal car accident Christmas time last year. People die in car accidents no matter what you are driving.

I had the...experience...of seeing the wrecked car (my brother's silvia) for the first time this morning. I -wish- it had been a four wheel drive. I wish a great deal of things. The irony was that the passanger that died in that accident would still have been seated and not crushed or bent or anything. The car had gone rear into a tree, the left hand rear strut tower was sitting where the left hand rear seat would have been. The door and sides of the car were dented in, and yet the seat was still there, with the back on and nothing overly notable around it.

Sometimes no matter what you do, no matter what you drive...***** happens. In some ways you have to look at it this way, crumple zones save whip-lash...and not necessarily lives.

Originally Posted by Relay

My family experienced a fatal car accident Christmas time last year. People die in car accidents no matter what you are driving.

I had the...experience...of seeing the wrecked car (my brother's silvia) for the first time this morning. I -wish- it had been a four wheel drive. I wish a great deal of things. The irony was that the passanger that died in that accident would still have been seated and not crushed or bent or anything. The car had gone rear into a tree, the left hand rear strut tower was sitting where the left hand rear seat would have been. The door and sides of the car were dented in, and yet the seat was still there, with the back on and nothing overly notable around it.

Sometimes no matter what you do, no matter what you drive...***** happens. In some ways you have to look at it this way, crumple zones save whip-lash...and not necessarily lives.

Sorry to hear that mate, Its terrible when something like that happens.

Theres no saying that being in a 4b would have been different as it could have ended up worse or better because of the different handleing caracteristics and weight of the 4b but we will never know.

But 1 thing your right about is the crumple zones, who really cares about whiplash if you could be more assured of that being your most serious injury in most cases, I would prefer life with a sore neck that can be treated than death.

I think they have created a market by making it law to have to make cars like tin cans and they sell it using the safety badge.

Originally Posted by Nanna66

..............
Is it just me or do others recall reduced numbers of road deaths occuring when we drove cars made of steel with full box chassis.
Of course these were by modern standards tanks disguised as cars.

Road deaths in Australia declined dramatically with the introduction of compulsory seat belts and again with the introduction of random breath tests. After each of these drops the actual numbers continued to rise, albeit fairly slowly, but in fact reflecting the steady increase in the number of cars and the number of kilometres driven. Road deaths are now at about the level they were at the beginning of the seventies, but the rate per kilometre travelled is way lower.

As I said, the major reason for this reduction is seat belts and much reduced drink driving (but the 2-3% of drunk drivers cause nearly 50% of the deaths!), but it has also been affected by the steady improvement in roads*, and to a lesser extent improved vehicle safety. I have seen no evidence to suggest that lowered speed limits have had a significant effect on road fatalities, and the effect of improved car safety is pretty minor as well.

So I don't think your memories of lower road deaths is accurate, unless you are remembering one of the major dips in death rates, and are not taking into account the rate per km travelled rather than the rate per year.

While any road deaths are something I would prefer not to see, it is worth remembering that, as was published a few days ago, in the list of lifestyle factors causing deaths and illness, road accidents are way down the list, with, not surprisingly, tobacco causing more deaths per year than the next five factors combined, and I don't think road accidents even made the top six.

*I know this is hard to believe, but I look as an example at the Golden Highway going past here - at the beginning of the seventies it was about 50% gravel, no line markings, and about eight unguarded level crossings. Now it is all bitumen, with centre line and edge lines, wide lanes, only two level crossings with lights, guard rails where necessary, much better alignment, and so on. OK, there is still room for improvement, overtaking lanes, better grades in places, a few floodways to be replaced by culverts, and so on.

John