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Old 06-28-2010, 01:26 PM   #52 (permalink)
TheEnemy
The road not so traveled
 
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: New Mexico
Posts: 680

The Truck - '99 Nissan Frontier xe
90 day: 25.74 mpg (US)

The Ugly Duck - '84 Jeep CJ7 Rock crawler
Thanks: 18
Thanked 66 Times in 57 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by JacobAziza View Post

Plus, mass tends to cause the impact: 1/2 the weight = 1/2 the braking distance = no impact. No impact > "winning" impact
The weight/stoping distance thing is way more complicated than that.

Yes typically the heavier the vehicle the longer it takes to stop, but it is also very dependant on the brakes, suspension, and tires. My pickup is the lightest car we own, it also has the longest stoping distance despite having good tires on it. My wifes 05 Accord can't quite out stop my Jeep despite having a supierior braking system and suspension. And thats with the rear brakes on the Jeep still not working 100%.

Yes, if the lady had a smaller car she might have fit without causing a wreck, but my argument isn't that larger cars are or aren't safer. My statement was concerning Frank's belief that he is a good enough driver to avoid anything, even a distracted driver that isn't paying attention to what they are doing. I used to believe the same way until the realities caught up with me.

The whole roll over thing is in most cases overstated. Yes there were a few models built that were less stable than my 25 year old Jeep, and it didn't help that the cheap tires they put on them were prone to failure, even when properly inflated. I have yet to roll either my pickup or my Jeep (just a matter of time), and I have done some rather interesting things with both.
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