I recently tried to reserve a enclosed trailer to tow behind me 2002 ford explorer sporttrac and they said they would not rent to explorer owners.

I then called U-haul and asked the following question: I'm planning to rent a Enclosed trailer with a friends truck and towing it part way, then switching to my own truck, would there be any problems with this??. Response, No as long as the vehicle is equiped properly to tow there is no problems with this.

So that is what I'm going to do, and then tow it with my sport trac.

the thing that is so funny is the Mercury Mountaineer can rent trailers even though mechanicaly they are the same as the explorer. U-haul just has a beef with explorers since the firestone day's.

Joe

 

Joe -

I'd get that in writing; if you have a problem on the road, you won't be dealing with the same office.

Steve

 

the reason they have the beef with explorers (as explained to me by the local area manager, so I am not sure how true it is) is that there is currently litigation open against Uhaul in which the famous tire/rollover issue is involved and also a Uhaul trailer. The litigation calls out "ford explorer" so they are not going to do anything that might make the result of that worse (in case they had to pay out). The other vehicles, Lincoln and Mercury, are not specifically called out.

And while I think that it stinks (i.e. they would hold you responsible) I agree with Steina... make sure that you don't get yourself in a position where if something does go wrong you are liable (as Uhaul did tell you that you were not driving, according to them, a qualified tow vehicle).

 

I hear ya but at this point I can afford to rent there scary trucks to move my stuff. And since nobody rents trailers thats alli can do. My insurance on my truck will cover everything involing the trailer, so I'm not too worried.

Joe

P.S. They also say that its not because of safety issues that they wont rent to explorer owners, its all like you said legal issues.

 

Joe -

So.......because you can afford a U-Haul truck/trailer combo, is that what you're gonna do? If that was a typo and you meant "can't", then don't be too sure your insurance co. will cover you if U-Haul shows your SportTrac on the bad-boy list and you have a problem. Talk's cheap; get it in writing!

Steve

 

Sorry that should have been Cant afford to, yeah i might see what I can get in writing.

 

It's a joke... and it's all over the whole Firestone Tire fiasco...

Funny thing is if you have a Mazda Navajo (IDENTICAL to the ford explorer), or a Mercury Mountaineer, or a Lincoln Aviator, they'll be more than happy to rent it to you!

 

Yeah, it's a joke, BUT......I don't want to see Joe get into a bind because someone at U-Haul gave him bad info.

Unfortunately, Ford contributed to this whole fiasco by putting 26psi tire pressure stickers on the '99 Explorers.

Steve

 

It's funny because I've worked for both Ford and Firestone over the years. Firestone is very quick to point fingers at Ford over the whole mess, and to be honest I, for the most part, have to take Firestone's side on the matter.

First off they showed me a picture (which I had seen before) of a newspaper cover showing an explorer upside-down on the side of the road. The article was about the whole firestone mess.. however in the picture you can CLEARLY see "GOODYEAR" in bright white letters on the side of the tires.

BUT from what I had seen throughout my career at Firestone, the problem with these tires was simply because they LASTED TOO LONG! The amount of miles you would get out of that tread was astounding, and those tires could take a beating. People were simply not replacing them because the tread was still halfway decent, however the sidewalls were deteriorating due to normal wear.

Add to that the low recommended pressure... heavy loads.. and high temperature... and you have the perfect mix for a blowout. My problem with Ford on this whole deal was... yeah tires blow out.. it happens, BUT how many vehicles actually FLIP OVER due to a blowout? Personally I feel the center of gravity was too high on these.. but then again they ARE SUV's and this is simply how SUV's are.

If you look at the percentages (I don't remember exact numbers) but I do recall noting that Firestone's tire failure rate on these were MUCH lower (percentage-wise, not quantity-wise) than the Goodyears.. but the problem is 98% of these came from the factory with Firestones... and less than 2% with Goodyears, so of course more of the heat is going to fall upon Firestone.

Unfortunately on these same tires, Firestone had a defective batch get out (due to replacement workers during a strike at one of their plants) and that turned into EXTREMELY bad media coverage over the whole mess, which ultimately led to the recall. Still.. I did enough recall tires on explorers that were 6 or more years old with the original tires still installed. That's just a LOT of life for a tire. It's a shame they disco-ed that whole line afterwards.

Next time your tires don't last nearly as long as you think they should, you'll understand why.