I chose the FEH because it was the only hybrid that did NOT say "not for off-road use." I need off-road capability because I'm a hang-glider pilot, and need to get to sites that can only be accessed by steep off road trails.

So how is the FEH for off road?

The main thing that concerns me is not so much the uphill but the downhill ride. There is no transfer case, so how effective is the "L gear" setting? If I have to ride the brakes, what happens when the regenerative braking fills up the battery? Am I going to end up burning up the break pads?

I suppose I'll find out myself soon enough, but any heads up or tips would be appreciated.

 

It feels different, looks different, sounds different, and behaves differently than any other car you've probably taken off-road. However, it does quite well in most conditions.

A couple of things to look out for:

There is no "clutch" and you can not ramp up the engine to get torque.
What I'm saying is, if you press on the gas, and the wheels don't move ( because of wheel chocks, curb, rocks, lumber, or other obstruction ) within 1 second, all power is cut to the transmission by computer.

I learned that I could not pull a car stuck in snow out, even though I had 4 wheels on dry pavement, because I could not get a "running start" and when you apply electrical current to the motor, and the motor does not spin within 1 second, the power is cut. This a called a "motor stall". Remember, nearly all of your motion under 10 miles per hour comes from electricity, and the gas engine kicks in some torque above this speed. So if you ever have rocks larger than a curb in front of your tires, you need to get a running start first.

There is limited power in reverse.
The gas engine cannot spin the wheels in reverse. There is no reverse gear!!! Only the electricity is applied to the electric motor in reverse.
Not as limited as you think, but you have about 50% as much torque and Horsepower in reverse. Moral? Don't park where you need to push a trailer uphill in reverse.

In most conditions you will be fine, and you will enjoy hearing nothing but the dirt under your tires on mountain trails when you are traveling slow and the engine is totally off.

On the downhill, the car will generate power to charge the battery for the first 1-2 miles, then, when the battery is "full" the car will use the electricity from the traction motor to spin the generator motor, and the generator will spin the engine with all fuel cut just as a giant air compressor. Your engine will spin 3500-4000 RPM without using a drop of fuel. With the drag of the electric generator(s) and the added drag of the engine spinning in "jake brake" mode ( quietly! ) the car will feel like it is in first gear, even though you know there is not any gears to shift!

Enjoy!
-John

 

There was a video link that showed 2 FEH's doing pretty good off road in hills, I don't have a link though. Going downhill in "L" will cause a run-up in RPM's when the HV battery won't accept a charge. This is the small generator burning off energy and will not damage anything.

GaryG

 

This sounds awesome. Thanks for the heads up I thought that I might have over-committed my FEH. Thanks, guys.

Now, if I could only find someone willing to fabricate a roof rack for me ...

 

To go slightly off topic. I started thinking back to last winter. My first expierence with a FWD in snow & ice. One morning coming home from work (2am) the plows had made a 12-18" pile of slush at the end of my drive way. Not thinking I went to plow through it with the mini van, unfortunatly the hours after sunset it refroze into a fairly hard, but not rock hard, pile and I got stuck. Spent 15min rocking to get the van back out & into the street. It had traction control, so when it was on, as soon as the wheels would spin, it shut it down. Tuen it off, only one wheel would spin, thus no help getting out. But eventiually I did get it to back out, walked 1/4 mile home to get a shovel and dig out the drive way.

Now it sounds like the FEH will be similar, once it starts spinning it'll shut down also. How well am I going to get though situations like this, this winter?

I also got the van stuck in the middle of the driveway one warm sunny day. The sun started melting the top layers of sleet, but the lower layers were still hard, so like sluch on ice. We had to push the van the rest of the way home. From then on we reverted to driving the Expedition any time there was white stuff out, even tho it'sonly 2WD, it had no problems trudging through the slush and stuff.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1iHGwj7MUA

There's another of these guys playing in the snow, but I can't seem to find it.

 

It's actualy another one of their videos, click on more from xxxx

That's why i hate youtube, I can click related videos for hours!

 

Some of those comments to those videos are a hoot. They seem to think that the expectation was that the Escape would do what a hummer or jacked up F150 would do.

However I'm not out to rip up the countryside, I just want to get up and down few steep and possibly slippery trails with a full load. I'm now convinced the FEH can handle it; the biggest problem is that I have the stock street tires. If I have problems I'll be changing those out, but I'll go for the smaller version since I don't want to jack up the suspension or cut out the wheel well. Thanks for the links.

 

Mine is a 2005 FWD, one of the first 10,000 ever built.
I don't know if things have changed by now.

With mine, the wheels DO NOT shut down if they spin.
They only shut down if they don't spin within 1 second of applying the gas pedal.

On snow and ice, and can spin my tires as much as I wish!
( There's actually no "traction control" in the 2005's, only ABS brakes )
-John

 

I'd think a Hybrid SUV driver would be a little more responsible then driving off the trail. http://www.treadlightly.org/