I’m very interested in the space of vehicles that aren’t exactly cars, but, at the same time, really are very much cars. Things like the Changli fit into this blurry gray space, and the whole class of side-by-side utility vehicles – sometimes called UTVs (Utility Task Vehicle, or something) – definitely fit in here, too. I was just loaned a very exciting Polaris Ranger XD 1500, which is one of these kinds of vehicles. So what the hell should I do with this thing?
I realize these are primarily intended to be off-road work vehicles, ideally in places like farms or ranches or cult compounds or dilithium mines or off-road trails or stuff like that, but I don’t really have anything like that handy. I have a house with a yard and two driveways, both of delicious, chunky gravel, but it’s hardly enough to justify something as capable as this Ranger.
What I’m thinking is that for the time I have it, I’ll just try and use it like a normal car. Because, really, it seems as capable as one – it has a 1500cc inline-three engine making a shockingly good 110 horsepower, over twice what my normal daily driver Nissan Pao makes, with an engine about 500cc bigger.
That engine is also located under the bed, ahead of the rear axle, making this one of the vanishingly few mid-engine ICE pickups you can get in America today.
This thing is no joke; I took it for a test spin and found that it’s shockingly comfortable and smooth to drive. I went over these huge speed bumps my neighborhood has – called, goofily, “speed tables” – without braking at all and it just glided over like I was on a sheet of plywood with a bunch of cubic feet of marshmallow fluff sprayed underneath it.
I got it up to about 50 mph or so, and it did great. The cabin is comfortable and has power windows and a heater and, get this, three speedometers for some baffling reason.
Oh oh oh get this – the bed tilts, like a dump truck!
Now, these things are not cheap: I think this one goes for about $40 grand. This is real car money.
So what do you want to know about this thing? What do you want to see me do with it, given that I don’t feel like getting a trailer for it, and I’m in a college town, and I’m willing to take it on the roads.
At first, I was just going to take it on the roads with my usual cavalier and idiotic lack of consideration of the law, but as it turns out, these seem to be street-legal in North Carolina!
If the beautiful mountains and lovely beaches that birthed aviation and being the home of O.Henry, Edward R. Murrow, singer Libba Cotten, and ex-Globetrotter Curly Neal aren’t enough for you, then you have to admire North Carolina’s delightfully permissive automotive laws.
I have a tiny and oddly capable little truck. Tell me what you want to know about it!
Now I see why you are using your neighbors’ driveway for your photoshops. You have no room at your house. Driveway full, side yard full. Chinese car/golf cart by front door. You need to downsize your collection or buy land in the country side to park them. You’re lucky you’re surrounded by student housing. Otherwise the city would be after you like David was in Michigan.
Old Well glamour shot please
pit it against the Changli ( I hope it’s been fixed, we didn’t have much news of it for ages )
make some very through tests comparng it with the changli for various stasks like grocery store run, getting Otto to school and back ( if he’s still not allowed to drve it on his own, if he is get him to take itt one day and the changli the next one to school and tell us what he think of both and which one the glrs likes the best)
There’s an indecent amount of things that can be done with it while pitting it aganst the cheapest car in America.
Drag the Chang-li out to a cliff and then toss it off…after removing the batteries with a chain saw of course.
What’s it like taking it through the drive-through? Do the windows roll down, or do you have to pull wide so you can open the door?
Take it to the lumberyard and attempt to bring home a single 10′ 2×4. Tell us how it goes.
Since there is no license plate, what happens if you blow past an automated red light camera?
Send it to me, I’ll put it to use around my place. I looked into buying one a few years back and am still recovering from the sticker shock. I have found old JD Gators to be fairly reasonably priced.
Is the bed water-tight enough to make a huge tray of jello?
If yes, how many townies will take you up on offer of ‘free handful of jello’?
Try to pull each of your other vehicles with it, working your way up the curb weights.
Can it take 500 kg of sand/ driveway chalk in its load bed — and still lift it up?
Is it 4wd all the time or only when you want it?
And can you get a manual transmission?
Do they do it in diesel — that 3 cylinder looks a lot like an Isuki and they do a brilliant 3 cylinder diesel too….
What is the towing capacity of this bad boy!?