Driving Through Water w/ Hybrid Maverick?

[Escapologist]

Dude just got fined $4500 under a similar law in Canada, drove around signs to go on mountain pass where they were dynamiting stuff off the mountain for avalanche safety... and that's probably way less than rescue costs if they'd have needed excavators brought in and air ambulance etc etc.

Sponsored

 

[WJOHNM]

Have any of you guys seen the harness that runs under the Maverick, it's totally unprotected and all the connections not even wrapped with tape, when they get wet it's all over, I would stay out of any deep water.

 

[Ryom]

Have any of you guys seen the harness that runs under the Maverick, it's totally unprotected and all the connections not even wrapped with tape, when they get wet it's all over, I would stay out of any deep water.

Well, we should be seeing lots of vehicles getting bricked after an under-carriage rinse at the touchless carwashes then.

 

[WJOHNM]

Well, we should be seeing lots of vehicles getting bricked after an under-carriage rinse at the touchless carwashes then.

 

[kevink]

Never a good idea of driving through a flooded area....1 foot of water can hide road damage that can strand you in an instant....but the good news is, you'll get to see yourself on the local news and maybe even a national news program.

I had a road near my house a couple years ago. I was driving an AWD SUV at the time (before my Maverick), and there was a section of road with water rushing across it. Probably no more than 6", but who knows for sure. I chickened out and turned around.

The next day I drove that road, and there was a hole through the payment where I could see daylight. It had washed away soil below the road. I would NOT have been a happy camper if that had dropped away while I was driving through it.

 

[WJOHNM]

After I retired I worked for a major insurance company estimating vehicles, when Sandy hit the east coast we were busy for months, I totaled almost every vehicle I looked at, some it took weeks to get to and people cleaned them up water got floor level carpets were wet etc. they ran fine and people had no idea what was going on under the vehicle. It took 6 months or more when they wouldn't start, electrical items in vehicle came on, like wipers, radio etc. brakes froze up, mufflers rioted we were told to total all of them and we did.
Yes that was salt water and some fresh water to, but they were only in low water and body harness were in the vehicle not underneath. I would just stay away from more than a few inches of water, were supposed to get heavy rains tomorrow it doesn't mean am staying home, it means am staying away from deep water and think am cool and drive through a foot of water because I have a truck.

 

[Aherpa]

I had a 1953 Dodge M37 and the operators guide said 'when traversing streams, if the water comes over the top of the doors . . . backup'. It was rusty and trusty, but a lot of fun and got me where ever I wanted to go.

 

[MaverickDragon]

.....I was driving an AWD SUV at the time, and there was a section of road with water rushing across it. Probably no more than 6", but who knows for sure. I chickened out and turned around.
The next day I drove that road, and there was a hole through the payment where I could see daylight. It had washed away soil below the road. I would NOT have been a happy camper if that had dropped away while I was driving through it.

You didn't "chicken out" - you were smart.
The problem with crossing running water is you don't know how deep it is, or what condition the road is in, or in your case, if there is ANY road.

When I lived in Phoenix, there was an overflow wash that crossed at road level, but the road dipped at that point, so you couldn't tell. When it really was running, the road looked flat so it looked like the water should have only been a few inches deep, but it was actually over 8 feet deep at the bottom.

I was walking my dog and watching the deluge when a lady in a Honda Civic came up and started to cross. I waved her down and put my hand up showing he how deep it was.
She turned around.
Later that evening, a car was filmed by somebody at the same spot.
All you could see of it was the rear window wiper as the car was swept downstream.

 

[kevink]

I chickened out because I was too smart. At least in this case. To drive through running water. I was thinking more about what if was deeper than I expected, and the water pushed me off the road.

 

[Ryom]

...and the water pushed me off the road...

People do tend to neglect considering how heavy water is and that momentum still applies to fluids. Kinetic energy is proportional to velocity squared. Moving from a 5mph flow to a 10mph flow quadruples the pushing power, moving from a 10mph to a 20mph flow quadruples THAT.

https://weather.com/safety/floods/news/flash-flooding-vehicle-danger-20140717

Flowing at just 6 mph, water exerts the same force per unit area as air blowing at EF5 tornado wind speeds, according to Dr. Greg Forbes, severe weather expert for The Weather Channel. Water moving at 25 mph has the pressure equivalent of wind blowing at 790 mph, faster than the speed of sound.

 

[MaverickDragon]

I chickened out because I was too smart. At least in this case. To drive through running water. I was thinking more about what if was deeper than I expected, and the water pushed me off the road.

Being smart is a survival instinct. Your Maverick is counting on you!
Being pushed off the road could happen as well.
With running water you can seldom see how deep it is.
Like in your case, the water may also be hiding a major problem.
Had you not "chickened out" this thread might be about a wrecked truck.

Sinkholes can also look like puddles, and water main breaks can leave a cavity that can seriously damage or total your truck.

I can't even count the number of fatalities I've seen on the local news from people whose vehicles are swept off the road when crossing flowing water, and they are later recovered as inanimate objects.
People think of Arizona as a desert, and parts of it are, but we also get flash floods especially during the summer monsoon.
As @Ryom noted, when you cross even a "seemingly" shallow patch of running water, the considerable force that can be exerted can overcome your vehicles traction and you can become a riverboat passenger rather than a driver.

The public service announcements in AZ say "Turn around - Don't drown", yet many people don't follow that advice and it becomes their final poor decision..

 

[Escapologist]

It's also wise to add "if the road is still there" when you see muddy water "only" a few inches over the bridge/culvert etc. Because it's frequent that there's a gaping hole of a washout under that muddy few inches.

 

[dochawk]

The law is called the 'Stupid Motorist Law".

In the 1990s in Las Vegas, we used to have multiple darwinian events each year during flash floods.

Now it's rare.

I'm not sure whether we leveled all the outlying roads where it was possible to get several feet during a storm, or if Uncle Chuck finally got them all . . .

 

[MaverickDragon]

In AZ we still get regular "Darwinian Events".
It's not just the event itself, it requires "willing participants".
Sadly, these do not seem to be lacking.

 

[Robot-Wrangler]

In really crappy weather I leave my Maverick parked and take my 7' tall F-350 with 37" tires on it.

Sponsored