Ford Explorer for towing

You will get a tonne of "Ford Exploder" references. I haven't seen any substantiated problems with them (except for the few that had Firestone tyre blow outs on the news, prior to 2001), good legroom in all 3 rows because of it's IRS setup. Much more legroom in the 3rd row than a Landcruiser 200. The thirst comes from the fact you can't lock it in 2wd, on the road it has an AWD mode. The comments to come are of course "get a Patrol" or "get a Landcruiser." But surely you wanted to give you some honest feedback on an Explorer, and they are pretty good for what they were intended in my opinion.

Get a Patrol......hehehe.

Cheers.....Lionel.

I'd search the archives both here and also Google it. Perhaps there's a Yahoo Group for them ?

Hi Ross & Cushla

We have a Ford Explorer, we have had it for 6 Years, it was the
Wifes Shopping Trolley, I now use it as a Work Vehicle, and have
never had any major problems with it, as far as Towing goes, it will
handle any thing you throw at it, we have towed our caravan up
Teewah Beach and never had a problem, I would'nt use it as a
Off Road Vehicle in the true sense, it has'nt got enough Ground
Clearance, and as other have said they are fairly thirsty,
You can buy low kilometre vehicles for half the price of most 4x4,s
I would take notice of other Explorer owners, and ignore the
stories about the bloke who has a mate who has a mate tales,
We currently use the Patrol for towing ect and I would'nt hesitate
to use the Exploder if we had to.

Cheers
Daza

there is apparently a drive belt or chain at the rear of the motor which means you have to pull it out to replace it.
Neighbour has one and it drinks more than me LOL

Ross & Cushla
See the previous thread about buying an Exploder.
Copy of my reply.
We were previous Exploder owners, the following problem that none of which Ford was interested in fixing even though they were recalls in the US.
Ford said that the Australia car was a different car the only difference being that the steering wheel was on the right hand side.
The following problem was in 10 months the car had 50,000 klm on the clock at the start and 85,000 we we got rid of it.
1 Broken timing chain $3600
2 Problems with mixer body $600
3 Climate control running hot and cold $3,200 to fix a $30 valve, dash had to come out.
4 Tyres because two tyres had been changed before the recall they would not replace them,
5 Total cost of repairs nearly $8,000 plus lost $6,000 on the value of the car when sold.
Ford was not interested in any of the problems.
So after buying Fords for a fleet we ran but after the Exploder Ford no more.
Don't buy an Exploder
After getting it back after the climate control problem got rid of it 2 days later and brought a Landcruiser, now have a Prado.
Regards
Ted

Thanks for all those replies both positive and negative,will still go ahead and buy it,have had problems with most cars we have owned one way or other,the Exploer just seems to offer a good towing capacity for a reasonable price.Will get a breakdown insurance when we get it in January,although expensive,probably worth the outlay,and yes Toyota and Nissan sound good but are not cheap and we would finish up with an older vehicle.The 2002 model has a modified engine so hopefully that may help.Least I know what I am in for.!!!! Ross