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Amateurs taking 2018 Jeep and 2018 Ram trucks off-road to see how good they are
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0:01
so it's 2017 and another year to go
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off-roading this time we followed behind
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somebody in a Jeep Compass for a while
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we also took out a compass and we took
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out a rebel there you see the compass is
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going through some rather nasty uh
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contortions now a Wrangler will keep all
0:18
four wheels on the ground at all times
0:20
for Maximum Traction uh as you can see
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the compass raises two wheels at a time
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the Renegade occasionally would raise
0:28
three wheels at a time but this is quite
0:32
an effort for any car and there are
0:34
vehicles that claim to be off-road where
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if you try to do this exercise you will
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end up with a bent frame and you'll be
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stuck after the first test it's lifting
0:44
up alternate tires so the front right
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and the rear left get lifted up while
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the other two tires get uh put
0:54
down and it is quite a ride inside as
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you can see here I am trying to hold the
0:59
camera steady not having much luck of it
1:02
but you can see the next uh obstacle
1:04
over is the breakover test and that's
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where you go over this very very steep
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little Hill and uh you see if the bottom
1:11
rubs on the top of the hill and it
1:15
doesn't in any of these
1:18
vehicles um more fun and more
1:20
challenging than it looks here on
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film so we're doing the photography from
1:26
a Jeep Renegade and we're following a
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Jeep Compass the Renegade is the bottom
1:31
of the line for the Jeeps the compass is
1:33
the next step up a brand new compact
1:35
that was just launched here we see that
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the driver is going to go through a very
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deep puddle uh we have photos of this
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from a previous here you can see just
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how deep it is and these vehicles just
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don't lose traction and they don't die
1:51
either uh both of the drivers are very
1:54
inexperienced the driver taking meat
1:56
round on the Renegade had never been on
1:58
the course before and I think that the
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compass driver probably hadn't
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either we took the cars through water
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that was even deeper because it was
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raining while we went through the course
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this Trail is all loose mud because
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water has been coming out all day these
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cars started driving on this Trail at
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about 8:00 in the morning we took this
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video at about 2:40
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p.m. the trails were muddy they've been
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going through them all day and these
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Jeeps have been in constant use
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as far as I can tell they have no
2:32
problems they've been running the entire
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set of them the whole day long they
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didn't swap in fresh ones every hour
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it's really a testament to how well they
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make them because every Jeep regardless
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of articulation and other issues which
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come in handy at Moab and the mo
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absolute toughest Trails where you'd
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want to be in a modified Wrangler
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Rubicon regardless of all that these
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bodies are just incredibly tough
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and that's just something that's amazing
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that they still build them to this
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standard so here we're basically going
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up a set of
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Timbers I really don't know if you get a
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sense of the height this is a breakover
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uh test also a traction test the cars
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really have no problem if you drive it
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and in the case of the Renegade if you
3:21
just give it enough gas it will just go
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all that you have to do is steer and the
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car does the rest uh I can tell you from
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experience on that hill all that you you
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don't even have to worry about coming to
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a stop and starting up again you just
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have to trust the car's automatic
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functions now if you're getting tired of
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the sound of my voice we'll just go
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through a little bit more of the trail
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but I just have to say again you can see
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how the car is bouncing around and
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that's for a good reason you really
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can't see the trail very
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well um when you can see it the camera
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sort of hides just how deep these ruts
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and spots are they are very deep it is
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not not an easy
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Trail it's not one of those places where
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you would say well I can take my
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all-wheel drive Subaru on there because
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you would either be stuck or you'd be
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getting a toe and a new car and these
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vehicles even the Renegade even the
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compass they can just do this all day
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long without any problems they come back
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they're covered in mud they've got uh
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grass sticking out of the
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underside you hit the skid plates over
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and over and they just hold even the
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cheapest of the Jeeps if it's trail
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rated as long as it's trail rated you
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will have very thick steel skid plates
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that will protect the bottom of the car
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if it is not one of the trail rated
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models you almost certainly do not have
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the skid plates and you don't want to be
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doing any of this with
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it as close as you want me you see why
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too they they do trails and packs cuz
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it's just you sure just follow the back
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you know Jeep in front of you and you
5:01
always know you're you
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know that's why they have the big trail
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rides with the leader and everybody
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follows a leader you
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know I got a bog over
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there it's a lot easier following than
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having
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to especially because you can see when
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they bought them out on something and
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say maybe I should take that slightly
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slower there should be some good stuff
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right here I I'll hang back just a
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little bit there
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fun that is
5:43
fun now here we actually switched over
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to a ram Rebel which is a much larger
5:48
vehicle it means that it's a little
5:50
harder to take the narrow trails and the
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turns become a lot tougher but you have
5:54
more than enough power uh you just don't
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even notice some of the mud and and
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other bad conditions you go right
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through that little
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puddle uh it's just very easy car to
6:08
drive Offroad
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