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Hey, over the weekend I had a great time in my saab. I went camping with friends here in north georgia (where i go to college). We packed the saab with lots of supplies for a full weekend of camping out. Me and my girlfriend rode in my 1991 900S 5 speed and other people packed all their stuff into the back of a friends 1999 Ford F-150 V-6 5-speed. We headed out to the camping grounds where I had never been before. When we turned onto the road to it i was like 'hell yea' cause it was more of a paved path winding through the woods with lots of on-camber turns. so i pulled ahead and started zipping through it and then out of one of the turns the pavement ended and it turned into a dirt trail. I quickly slowed to around 10mph and hit the dirt dirt. Then i waited for the F-150 to catch up. Once it did i followed it through a maze of the dirt trail which was gorgeous as it followed a creek and other natural scenes. After about 15 minutes of trail driving the path came to a creek crossing. I was like...."um, this sucks" and i got out to investigate. The F-150 crossed it without any problem. I checked it out and it was solid ground that was all small stones, and the water was about 5 inches deep. The approach and exit angles seemed kidna steep, But i decided to give it a shot. the car cleared the entrance and i slowly crept through the water and climed up the other bank. The creek was about as wide as my car was long. And the saab managed with no problems at all. We setup camp and then had a good time despite the rain that came soon after. It rained the rest of the weekend, I didnt even think about the trail becoming a mess for the ride home. Well sunday afternoon when we packed up to leave... I couldnt belive how muddy everything got. The trail was a disaster, but i had to get home. I led the way out doing my best to avoid a bad situation, There were huge mud puddles everywhere and the ground was slick. The Saab did amazing pulling itself through the mud in 2nd gear with me keeping just a tiny bit of wheel slip. Then we got to the creek again....but this time it was nearly twice as deep. I got out to find the most shallow path accross and again the saab crossed it with ease. The next obstacle was a muddy uphill section and the saab continued to pull through it all. Well the F150 had issues making it up that hill and had to make several attempts. I laughed at it and waited. We managed to get to the pavement with no more major problems....but my saab impressed me the whole way. Later on the open road the F150 flashed me from behind and pulled over onto the shoulder. Apparantly some tarps had come loose in the bed and were falling out. I pulled to the shoulder about 100 ft up the road from it. and got out of my car....my boots sank into the ground immediatly...i was like oh damn, the ground was completely a marsh and i had 4 wheels in it. The saab sunk into the mud so that half of the tire sidewall on the bottom was no longer visable. I went back to see why the F150 pulled over and helped out. Then the F150 started to go and i was walking up to my car....then i heard the crap ford V-6 rev and the tires slip. I turned around and saw that it was stuck! I was like, oh no. I went to my car and put it in second and tried to creep out of the shoulder. The tires slowly slipped at about a 10mph pace and the car moved at about a 1mph pace. Also the shoulder was angled away from the road (a side slope) so once i got rolling i started to turn up the sideslope but the car didnt follow....so i kept a light steering angle and barely made progress forward and toward the road...There was a speedlimit sign about 50ft infront of my car...so i couldnt roll forward forever. i let the clutch completely out and kept a bit of pressure on the throttle...holding about 1000rpms in 2nd. The car finaly got one front tire on the asphalt and i turned full left and the car pulled its way back onto the road. I kept 2 tires on the road and got out to go help the F150. I learned a few 2wd offroading tips back in highschool so i offered to drive the F150 and give it a shot. I tried alittle trick with the parking brake to lock the rear differential but it still woudlnt get moving. About 10 min later a 1997ish Chevy Z71 with a chain stoped on the shoulder and asked if we needed help. It pulled into the shoulder infront of the F-150 (all 4 tires on the dirt) and chained up. The guy hit the gas and all four tires started slowly turning then the tires dug in and the truck muscled itself and the ford back onto the road. *Ford sucks* and we got alot of laughs cause my friend with the ford trash talks chevy trucks a lot. I hate all pickup trucks(although i would take a dodge ram 2500 4x4 with a manual trans and the cummins turbodiesel) and got an even better laugh that my saab faired better on the dirt all day. This adventure made me love my saab even more cause its designed to deal with a lot more than just a dry road. Im fully confident that i couldnt do the same thing in most any other 2wd car.
just a little story.
Austin
1991 Saab 900S 5-Speed (146,000mi)
posted by 168.30.19...
, Fri, 21 Feb 2003 18:41:59
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