OK, the confirmed date is Saturday July 8th, near Mio Michigan on 70 private acres. PM me if you want details (maps etc). Mio is only a few hour drive from the Detroit area. Come up for just the day if you want, or stay in the area and play. (The property owner has the red Escape Hybrid 4x4 with the 'tear' graphic posted in the pics section)
The idea is a 9am to evening day of fun in the woods. About 2.5 miles of trails for both 2wd and 4wd fun without doing anything bad to your vehicles... but who says you have to stay on the trails?? .
2wd are welcome... no problem on most of the trails... just may have a problem on some of the fun stuff . Plan on campfire lunch... so bring whatever you want for food. Campgrounds and Hotel available in Mio about 2 miles away. Other activities are within a few miles (canoe, hike, quadrunner/dirtbike).
I will post some pictures of the area and hopefully a short mpeg Check out my posts (Raven) of the Red and White Escapes in the woods.. those were taken on the property.
Some of the hills are steep enough to challenge the limitations of the Hybrid...but not if you are a good driver This a good chance to learn to drive them effectively. You will be impressed with what these vehicles can do! Hybrids have advantages besides just fuel economy.
Note: This event is free and is a private function on private property and is in no way associated with Ford Motor Company. Attendees are responsible for the safety of themselves and their vehicles. Some basic rules will be established (like which way to go so we don't have collisions at the top of hills). Hope to see some of you there.

 

I wish it was out here in CA. I'm dying to take this Highlander with 4wd-i off road. I'm curious to see what it can and can't do. I'd imagine most/any of the problems will come from the stock tires being designed for on road use.

 

The most difference is the fine torque control available at low speeds... a real plus if you know how to use it. Most offroad is only a couple of mph anyway. The Hybrid designs suffer the lack of a 2 speed transfer case but can provide the required torque to get thru alot of situations... just keep in mind the torque available at zero speed is limited... so ALWAYS keep up some minimal speed on steep uphill or deep snow.. even then its not the same as a normal vehicle.
I have owned a few 4wd trucks/suv's (F150 4x4,Ranger 4x4,...) and I am really impressed with the Escape Hybrid 4wd. Not a vehicle for radical rock crawl or pulling an 8,000 lb trailer like an F250... but it gets me where I want to go.

 

Yeah, I had a Tacoma and it was a beast. I wish there was a locker for the electric rear motors but...
i'm just suprised that no one has posted anything about the Highlander Hybrid off road. I did a google search and found one journalist did a 'light test' and was able to crawl a rock half the size of the tire, hang a little suspension but that was about it. Perhaps i'll have to be the first. I'll be sure to take pix when I do.
Thanks for the info.

 

I'd be happy to go but I don't think my HCH2 will do too well

 

haha...what a sight we'd be. That's worth a pic or 2.

 

I have tried to upload a short mpeg of some of the trails in Mio for the offroad event... but I cannot seem to get it to work.?? The file is 2.2 Mb bytes. Anybody ever upload mpegs? Or do we have a file size limit?

 

If you're having trouble, try this:

http://www.rapidshare.de/

Should be very easy.