Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Report: Why U-Haul won't rent you a trailer for your Ford Explorer

If you are a Ford Explorer owner who may need to infrequently tow small loads, here's a Public Service Announcement that may be of interest. Apparently, U-Haul, which we'd guess is the first name that pops in people's minds when the subject of a rental trailer comes up, will not loan trailers out if the lender plans on hooking it up to a Ford Explorer, regardless of the vehicle's tow rating.

According to a spokesperson for U-Haul that spoke to Consumer Reports, it's company policy to deny trailer rentals to Explorer owners. Why? Lawyers. Says Joanne Fried, director of media and corporate relations, "Every time we go to hire an attorney to defend a lawsuit, as soon as we say 'Ford Explorer,' they charge us more money."

The issue can be traced all the way back to the Firestone tire debacle that tarnished the Explorer's good name in the late 1990s. Though the original lawsuit has long since been settled and, more importantly, the current Explorer shares absolutely nothing but its moniker with the old truck-based model cited in the lawsuit, the name 'Explorer' is still enough to incite bouts of panic, sleepless nights and a bucket full of dollar signs to U-Haul's legal team.

The corporate edict also applies to the Jeep Wrangler, unless the owner agrees only to tow the U-Haul trailer only when a hardtop is in place on the iconic off-roader. Seems more than a little arbitrary and ignorant to us, but we're not the ones with law degrees, so what do we know?

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/05/25/w...ford-explorer/

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

the funny thing is, I've read you can still rent them if you have a Mountaineer or Aviator..

IS-SV

Just some general rules from corporate for the retail workers at outlets. Don't expect those workers to be highly trained/educated/compensated or knowledgeable.

toy4two

that is enough for me to stop even considering purchasing an Explorer for my SUV needs, I'll be sure to pass this along to my friends who were considering Explorers. Every year I needed to rent a trailer of some type for my Lexus RX300, there are no other trailer rental places I know of and I don't have space in my condo to purchase my own trailer.

Ford really needs to get this fixed.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

how exactly? u-haul's policy is absurd, but old perceptions take a long time to go away.

mmarshall

There are no Mountaineer or Aviator versions of the all-new 2011 Explorer. Both models have been discontinued, although, as you note, there are a number of the older ones still around. The new Explorer, being unibody and car-based, has also dropped its tow-ratings slightly compared to the old truck-based version. But that should not be a reason to prevent towing ANY trailers. In fact, Ford's own engineers rate the new Explorer, with the proper towing-package, to haul up to 5000 lbs.....that's two and a half tons.

plex

iTrader: (11)

That is total BS, the new Explorer is a 1000 times better in everyway than the old one and back then it was a tire issue. U-Haul is full of it.

mmarshall

To expect common sense from corporate lawyers and marketers is sometimes just asking too much.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Lol I know, I was merely mentioning it for pre 2011. Its just a double standard, makes me laugh

spwolf

it has nothing to do with U-Haul but people suing Ford and U-Haul when they are in accident... Just like it is driver error when GM driver goes through the local mall with pedal misapplication while Prius drivers immediately sues Toyota.

mmarshall

Yes, I totally agree. These lawyers have college degrees and years of law-school training, and they can't look at a Mountaineer or Aviator and see at a glance that they both came from the Explorer? Kids in grade school can do that...I myself could tell rebadged vehicles by around age 9 or so.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

cheap shot at lawyers though, we can't all be good at everything. how would you do at closing arguments in a big trial?

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

....

mmarshall

Well, first, Paul, you, like me, know vehicle-rebadging when you see it, so that post doesn't apply to you. Second, I've served on juries before (once in an auto-accident case as the jury foreman), and I know smooth-talk/lawyer-speak, stretching the truth in an attempt to influence the jury, when I hear it.

(BTW, as a jury, all seven of us tossed the plaintiff's case out, and voted for the defendant, after less than 10 minutes of deliberation...that case should never have been filed)

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

This is VERY old news indeed! It is, I suppose, new news, that even with the current Explorers, that they still will not issue a trailer, but, whatever, they are idiots...

Does anyone want to really know what the original cause of those accidents? I spend many years in the tire industry and had some good talks with those directly involved in the investigations of the accidents... Some independents, lots of Bridgestone/Firestone guys, and even some from competing tire manufacturers...

First off, lawsuits were the original reason they stopped renting them: "U-Haul was embroiled in a lawsuit that Bridgestone/Firestone settled out of court in September. It involved three college students who were injured in 1999 when their Firestone-equipped Explorer overturned while pulling a U-Haul trailer.

U-Haul would not release details about the accidents cited in its lawsuits."

Now, why were they having issues...

The Ford Explorer was never a very stable vehicle to start - it was one of the more top heavy vehicles, and, it was originally recommended during design to lower the engine just a couple inches to lower the center of gravity to compensate for the higher CG when it was adapted from the Bronco 2 to become an Explorer. They essentially stayed with a similar chassis / engine layout, but added more structure, higher, than the Bronco 2 employed.

Next, the tires, oh the tires... The Firestone Wilderness AT, Radial ATX and Radial ATX 2 tires were the ones involved in the lawsuits... Ford took it upon themselves to issue a recommended tire pressure of 26 psi, against Firestone's recommendation of 30 psi. The door placard listed 26 psi on all Explorers back then... The tires that were listed as "dangerous" were indeed coming apart, but with hardly any higher percentage than any other tire line up on the market... So long as they were properly maintained, they would last many many miles, and even as recent as 3 years ago, I had people requesting those specific tires because they never turned theirs in during the recall (at that time 8 years ago, so those were OLD tires), but they loved them so much. This happened a few times!

Alright, so, another interesting statistic is that almost, if not all, of those blowouts that resulted in accidents were in states with higher than average temperatures - Texas, Arizona, etc. We all know that heat is a tires worst enemy - it is put together with heat, heat also takes it apart...

Run a tire too low on air pressure and it gets hot. Run it too low too fast and the sidewall fails, run it too low on a hot highway for a long period of time, and the heat builds up throughout the entire carcass of the tire, and eventually the tread might separate...

So, we know why tires fail - either through defect, lack of maintenance, bad design, or a combination of the three... On top of the already low air pressure Ford recommended, another side note is that an unchecked tire may be well within the norm to lose 1 psi of air per month... Many people rarely check their air pressure unless a tire looks low - many radial tires may not look low until they are at or below 15 psi...

Now, lets look in to how many of these accidents probably went down - loaded, on a trip, lots of weight, forgot to check the air in the tires - hot highways, long miles between stops... then couple a blowout or tire failure with a vehicle that isn't inherently stable to start, and the rest of the tires are mushy because they are underinflated as well, and you have a perfect recipe for a huge accident... Remember, there are thousands of tire failures daily, whether be a flat tire or some other sort of tire failure, and vehicles aren't rolling over every day due to it, the driver simply pulls over to swap the spare...

It does suck that now that Ford has redesigned the Explorer that all of its old traits are still tied to the name...