Jeep – A Darker View

After a couple years of use the Jeep Compass has been a fairly good vehicle. A decent daily driver, good gas mileage where gas is $5 a gallon, and able to do rough back roads with little worry.

A damaged cargo bed support in a Jeep Compass

I do have a few complaints, one of which had to be dealt with this week… The cargo area bed supports simply failed. I had noted signs of stressed plastic before, some cracks appearing after hauling heavy loads.

The final straw was Deep Violet, my 18″ telescope… Weighing in at well over 100lbs. When unloading the ‘scope after a night at Kaʻohe I found that the bed seems to have collapsed under the weight. The molded plastic bed supports simply ripped away from the cargo bed side panels.

An SUV where the cargo bed supports are two protrusions molded into the thin plastic side panels? Yeah, not impressed.

Photographing some of the gulches, waterfalls, streams, and historic bridges on the old Mamalahoa Highway near Onomea I note that these jungle gulches were often used as dumping spots for cars and trucks.

Numerous engine blocks, frames, tires and axles can be seen in several streams. Most of the vehicles appear to be mid-twentieth century, the remains well weathered by the elements. An engine block among the boulders, an axle protruding from the brush.

One or two? More than that… Just below the bridge at Hanawi there is an entire cliff face made of vehicles, the rusting frames making up the whole side of the gulch. The Jeep grill protruding just above the stream made a interesting photo…

Tag: Jeep

I Am Not Impressed Jeep

Dumped