Is Powerboost only good for mall crawlers?

[UGADawg96]

Is there a video of this?

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[BHunted1]

Is there a video of this?

Yea, but it has my dashcam info on the screen. So not publishing it online.
Here's another shot....

 

[turbospartan]

Yea, but it has my dashcam info on the screen. So not publishing it online.
Here's another shot....

What was the situation? Off roading or just caught in a flash flood or?

 

[chill_will]

I am in Houston as well and bought the truck for the same reason you listed. I wish I was getting your mileage. I am at 18 PBG right now 1,500 miles in. We are doing a long road trip for Thanksgiving hopefully we will see some improvement from that trip. Did you do the 2" leveling yourself or did you have someone do it for you?

Pre level and tires I could get 24+ mpg (<1000mi) so if you’re still stock then you should be getting more than 18. I will say that the cold does impact mpg quite a bit and mostly non stop highway doesn’t give you much upside for electric only miles. My commute is mostly highway with speeds in the 70-80mph range and best I get is 20. The PB is best in town with stoplights and lower velocities.
For my level I went to Allout Offroad. They’re a great shop. They even have you come back after a 1000mi for a retorque and inspection of the suspension.

 

[don.mullins]

I plan to level mine and add slightly larger tires as well. Whatever the mpg ends up at, it should still be at least as good as the other power trains after the same mods, if not a little better on average.

Have you off-roaded it stock though? Mine has been off-road 3-4 times already and I was surprised at how good it is. Not going to do any rock crawling, but it's decently capable as it comes.

Well, I did a bit of unintentional off-roading with my FX4 (with the stock Hankook tires) in Colorado, when I found out that “Under Construction” could mean “we removed the roadbed completely - down to the dirt”.

So I went 4-5 miles on North CO dirt. At night. In the rain. Towing a 7600# travel trailer.

It performed perfectly. I maintained a 20-ish MPH speed throughout. And the rain was heavy enough to clean most of the mud stripes up the front of the trailer after we got back on paved roads and finished that leg of our trip and set up for the night. But I am still getting CO out of the nooks and crannies of both truck & trailer it seems.

 

[BHunted1]

What was the situation? Off roading or just caught in a flash flood or?

Sort of all. I purposely look for this stuff just to have some fun. It was flooding after remnants of a hurricane left lots of areas flooding. So rammed through it just for kicks. My wife thinks I'm nuts and asks if I'm 12. I kindly reply, if I were 12, I'd have no license or a truck like this. lol.

Only thing was the truck was pointing on a downward steep angle crawling into the water before entering. All the front sensors tripped for a few seconds because it thought the water was an object.. But stopped beeping once I leveled out.

 

[ATLalien]

Well, I did a bit of unintentional off-roading with my FX4 (with the stock Hankook tires) in Colorado, when I found out that “Under Construction” could mean “we removed the roadbed completely - down to the dirt”.

So I went 4-5 miles on North CO dirt. At night. In the rain. Towing a 7600# travel trailer.

It performed perfectly. I maintained a 20-ish MPH speed throughout. And the rain was heavy enough to clean most of the mud stripes up the front of the trailer after we got back on paved roads and finished that leg of our trip and set up for the night. But I am still getting CO out of the nooks and crannies of both truck & trailer it seems.

Wow, the kicker is doing that while towing a big trailer. Glad you made it with no issues!

 

[gtotco]

I hate to be pedantic on the title of this post but isn’t a lifted truck on larger tires the definition of a mall crawler? Thats where the crawling comes in - otherwise it’s just a truck.

If the point is about utility I would imagine actual work trucks benefit the most from the PB. Everyone I know with a trade job (HVAC landscaper construction etc) drives a pickup also they can throw a furnace or a bunch of ladders in the back at a moments notice. Most of them spend their day driving around town at low speeds and doing a lot of idling - all the things a hybrid is really good at. None of them raise their trucks because nobody wants to make it even more of a pain in the ass to get stuff in and out of the back.

Basically I think I reject the premise of the phrasing on this question.

Edit: adding in though - I have the 3.5 and run it stock and do a lot of light "off-roading" (high mountain pass old mining road type trails with a lot of loose rocks and small 6 to 8 inch ledges) on a stock FX4 without much issue. Requires a bit more tire placement and finesse on the bigger stuff than my TJ Wrangler did but mostly does a good job. This is, however, one of the places I'm most jealous of PB potential because its all at speeds under 10mph, and seems like the type of thing the PB should thrive at. Anyone have much experience they want to share on what I would consider more standard off-roading (slow speed loose/rocky to get somewhere) on it? Personally I've always found the limits on a truck for off-roading to be less about ground clearance and more about length, but that is probably the type of off-roading I do. Switchbacks in a big vehicle suck.

 

[SteveP150]

Edit: adding in though - I have the 3.5 and run it stock and do a lot of light "off-roading" (high mountain pass old mining road type trails with a lot of loose rocks and small 6 to 8 inch ledges) on a stock FX4 without much issue. Requires a bit more tire placement and finesse on the bigger stuff than my TJ Wrangler did but mostly does a good job. This is, however, one of the places I'm most jealous of PB potential because its all at speeds under 10mph, and seems like the type of thing the PB should thrive at. Anyone have much experience they want to share on what I would consider more standard off-roading (slow speed loose/rocky to get somewhere) on it? Personally I've always found the limits on a truck for off-roading to be less about ground clearance and more about length, but that is probably the type of off-roading I do. Switchbacks in a big vehicle suck.

This ^^^^.
If you're doing really serious off-roading/rock crawling that requires big tires and a lift, you're making life much harder for yourself with a big, long-wheelbase vehicle like a truck.
But for moderate stuff and overlanding, I'm certainly planning that my FX4 Powerboost with better tires and eventually better shocks and a sway bar should be just fine. Very much looking forward to the extra range. And maybe even an eventual mod to use solar panels to feed power back into the battery.

 

[don.mullins]

Wow, the kicker is doing that while towing a big trailer. Glad you made it with no issues!

My previous tow vehicle was 2wd, so this was new ground for me. I am really pleased with the performance of this truck on all fronts. Fuel economy, comfort, towing performance, etc.

 

[ATLalien]

I hate to be pedantic on the title of this post but isn’t a lifted truck on larger tires the definition of a mall crawler? Thats where the crawling comes in - otherwise it’s just a truck.

Not exactly, as I understand it, a "Mall Crawler" is a 4X4 that never goes off-road, even though it's equipped to do so. So, yes a Mall crawler would likely be lifted but the primary point is that it's not really used for it's intended purpose. Least that's how most of the folks over on the Gladiator forum used it

You're also correct that the sheer size of these things is a bigger obstacle off road than ground clearance in many cases, Espescially east of the Missisipi where most trails are tightly bordered by trees. If you're out in the open desert out west, not so much.

 

[turbospartan]

Sort of all. I purposely look for this stuff just to have some fun. It was flooding after remnants of a hurricane left lots of areas flooding. So rammed through it just for kicks. My wife thinks I'm nuts and asks if I'm 12. I kindly reply, if I were 12, I'd have no license or a truck like this. lol.

Only thing was the truck was pointing on a downward steep angle crawling into the water before entering. All the front sensors tripped for a few seconds because it thought the water was an object.. But stopped beeping once I leveled out.

Did you know how deep it was before going across?

 

[allJUMPstyle]

Yea, but it has my dashcam info on the screen. So not publishing it online.
Here's another shot....

4' would be at the top of the grill. This looks like about 2' to me.

 

[BHunted1]

Did you know how deep it was before going across?

Yes, I’ve been down it many times when near dry.

 

[BHunted1]

4' would be at the top of the grill. This looks like about 2' to me.

If you say so… I have no reason to bs. I wouldn’t want to be standing in it. Compromise. 3’ but it’s deep especially when it’s rushing. See how high the water is flying?

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