Flipped a Blazer

I have a 1986 full sized blazer and have never had trouble with it.. It now has 130,000 on it from fairy aggressive off roading to lots of highway miles. YOU can NOT treat them like a sports car but if you take what I would consider normal care in driving they are NOT easy to flip over.

I think anybody can flip almost any vehicle if they ask it to do something it wasnt designed to do. And, to be honest some of the extreme lifts I have seen in Washington state on broncos, blazers, toyotas etc would make me nervous to drive.

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Not real easy unless you do something stupid, like turn real sharp at high speed. Con-the consumer reports is going to court over the fact that they rigged testing on the original Samurai and said it was real easy to flip over.

Anyway the biggest problem is the fact that 99 percent of the people driving them have no concept of center of gravity or the fact that a 4x4 IS NOT A SPORTS CAR. Just like I don't expect someone to take a stock Corvette off road and onto trails I also figure a vehicle designed to go off road is not going to handle like that Vette on the road.

Any IDIOT can flip an SUV but the smart guys rarely do it. I've never met anyone that flipped one but I've seen a few on TV (imagine that!) Consumer Reports is TOTALLY biased against certain vehicles and SUV's are in that category.

It's proportionate to how hard you try.

Hi!

My '03 S-10 seems pretty stable around tight corners. I'd guess flipping it would be difficult.

My '84 GMC is another story. I took a curve too fast and it almost taught me a lesson in sideways driving...which is hard on the paint at least! I haven't lifted or lowered it, but it seems like the suspension has lots of travel and that the old truck does not hold the road very well.

William

the flow of traffic on this freeway at that time of day is 70-80 in the slower lanes. By the looks of the spread of the cars, it looks like ether a Honda changes lane into the blazer and got deflected into the side wall, and the blazer rolled. Or they were racing, and they didn't see the Dodge sedan that looks like it was somehow involved too.

I felt bad when I saw the blazer upside down, but there was a little bit of a feeling of satisfaction seeing that Honda prelude smashed into that cement wall. I do not follow the body styles for the Blazer, but it was the smaller/newer body, maybe a two door late nineties style. stock height. the back end was collapsed, but the front part of the cab where the driver sits looked like it was not collapsed at all. Some careless driving by someone in one of the three cars caused about a two hour backup on the one of the two main routs from Orange County to LA. what a mess!

If you had indicated that this happened in California in the first message we would have all understood how it happened. :-)

If I was driving in LA traffic every day, I'd try to kill myself as well.

Trust me, you don't have to try! There are so many dangerous drivers here, its just a matter of blinking and you can be sideswiped. Everyone is in a hurry here, and the freeways just don't move. there are too many cars. And even though this freeway will be moving at 80+ sometimes, people will blow by you like your standing still! What's worse, is most the time you will notice that they are on the phone while weaving through traffic at 110. From talking to many cops here, they agree that there are a lot of people here with more money then sense, and they are buying their kids expensive cars, and if the kid totals the car, they simply buy another for them. The kids are growing up thinking life is a game, well, they are not going to be happy when they find there is no reset button on this one. I happen to ride a motorcycle to work, Yes, I know I am putting my life in my hands every day. I have some friends that used to race motorcycles, and now refuse to ride on the street, They say its just too dangerous on the road on a bike. With all the inattentive drivers and the constant increase of roadrage, its getting more and more hostile. That's the main reason I want to get out of this place!

'84 GMC ????

I have a 1988' S10 that feels like it's going to roll over in any turn, just because the way the suspension travels. My '85 blazer felt nothing like it until one/two of my shocks blew (I'm pretty sure the shocks in the S10 are good though).

But I don't let that stop me, I've done a power slide around a hair pin turn (that I didn't know was coming up) to keep up with a beemer....

1985 TH700R4 NP208 305CUI 161000 miles

As far as I know it is the original steering box, power steering pump.

One day I started to notice "flat spots" in the steering. IE parts where it felt like the power steering stopped working. It stayed around the same for a while, only happening once and a while (noticing it maybe once a week).

It's a junker truck, so I basically said whatever. Then one day it got progressivly worse (it was during a snow storm to boot) making the steering somewhat erratic and smooth steering quite dificult.

I got it home and checked the PS fluid and found it didn't even touch the stick. It smelt kinda toasty too. I purchased some fluid and filled it up, checked for leaks and didn't see anything obvious (looking from the top, too wet and cold to get underneath right now). Well with it filled the steering seemed to get WORSE. Just cutting the wheel in my driveway it felt like it was fighting me. Then after about 3-4 minutes, it got back to normal.

It was slightly over filled COLD and when I checked it after a 40 minute drive, about 50/50 highway/backroad (I'm assuming that would make it hot?) it wasn't quite up to the hot line. I would think this means it's leaking. I have not had a chance to check it cold yet. The steering also seams to pull to the right now. Especially on breaking. It always used to pull randomly on braking (left/right/left/right coming up to the same light) but I always thought it was the cheap brake pads put in by the previous owner (wheels are caked with dust after 200 miles). Now it consistently pulls to the right, every time.

Any thoughts? Do PS pumps die when they run too low? Does it sound like a steering box problem? What kind of fixes am I looking at? Is it something I could just let rot and deal with the drivability? It is a $350 beater, including parts and fluids. So I don't want to perform any acts of heroics in a slushy mucky driveway.

-The Lonely Grease Monkey

1985' K5 305CUI TH700R4 NP208 KJ's successor

"Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, then he who believes what is a wrong." - Thomas Jefferson

Hi!

Fullsize, Sierra, 6.2 Diesel. Heavy in front, light in back until recently. Well worn shocks, but I don't think they're bad...yet. The ride itself is very good, almost as good as some nicer cars...whether you believe that or not...

It's driveable at this point, but it ain't pretty. I'm slowly (slowly!) working on a complete restoration for it. So far I've done some little things here and there. Next step is to buy a window or a door from another truck. Beyond that the next major thing is likely to be a cab so I can be rid of the sunroof and most, if not all, of the holes in the floor.

Above all else the old truck was good at teaching me respect for a motor vehicle and its power. I learned not to let belts slip, and never to drive too fast for conditions.

William The Guesser