Rear visibility, apparently no longer required.

I loaned my big trailer to a friend, to go pick up a car. When he got back, he didn't want to back it down my curved driveway into the back, so I did with his new Explorer.

There were a couple of notable problems.

Rear visibility is nonexistent. Literally, the blind spot behind the vehicle, was large enough to hide a 7' wide, 17' long trailer. I should note, my trailer has sides on it that are 16" tall, I still couldn't see anything.

The backup camera is worthless if it's after dark. It shows the front of the trailer, that's it. The screen also dumps so much light in your face, it makes the side mirrors useless as well. Any night vision you had is now gone. Even with the lighting down my driveway, that I installed for backing trailers in after dark, it was almost impossible to see the trailer because there was so much light coming off the dash.

The side view mirrors are also tiny. It's no wonder soccer moms can't see anything when they are changing lanes.

If this is the future of new SUVs, I'm appalled. They might as well call it a SV, because there doesn't seem to be much Utility left in it.

Yea I hate driving the new explorer the State of NC has that we use. Next time i need to borrow a car it will be one of the Grand Caravans

AND the outside mirrors dim when the lights come on to further limit vision. I have to roll my windows down to back my pick up. And when it's raining or super cold that's not a good thing to do.

Still a lot better than this:

In reply to Tom_Spangler: Debatable. At least with the cargo van, you know you're not supposed to be able to see out the back. These new Suv's have glass panels, not sheet metal. A fellow ought to be able to see out the back...

In reply to Tom_Spangler:

As long as the trailer is not very short and narrow, like a pull behind air compressor, backing using only the side mirrors is no big deal. As long as the mirrors are decent and not just fashion items.

In reply to Tom_Spangler:

No, it's not. It is substantially worse. I could back the same trailer with my cargo van without problems. It had great mirrors and no stupid tv screen to blind you.

That's the terrible part. Ford had to try to make a vehicle that is worse at backing up a trailer than a cargo van. They were successful.

I've said it before, the safety nazis will kill us all.

Have you noticed how A pillars have gotten wide enough to hide entire cars now, not just pedestrians?

Streetwiseguy wrote: I've said it before, the safety nazis will kill us all. Have you noticed how A pillars have gotten wide enough to hide entire cars now, not just pedestrians?

Yep. 470 airbags, no glass below nose-level, etc. might mean nobody gets hurt when you head-on a tractor trailer at 70. But most of the time, it also means you're a heck of a lot more likely to crash the car in the first place due to all the extra weight and poor visibility.

Of course, most drivers are so clueless that they'd be only slightly less aware of what's going on around them if they were blindfolded...

I realize this doesn't apply to backing trailers, but we can't discuss rear visibility without bringing up this old chestnut. https://www.youtube.com/embed/AjGXn249Fc0

??

Color me confused. We had a 2016 Explorer Sport and put 50K miles on it before turning it in. Many of those were with out Starcraft pop up on the back. Zero issues. Could see the trailer easily. We went from Mi to Colorado with it. Many trips up North (500 mile round trip) and it was zero issue. The great thing with the EcoSport engine is that we could tow at 80mph (with theoretical trips higher than that when passing on, err, private property) all day long fully loaded with six people in the car. It is without doubt the best tow vehicle I've ever owned. Massive torque and electronics made it a far far better off roader in the sand than it had any right to be with those massive street tires on it as well. Both of us really miss the car and agree it's the best all round family hauler, tow car, good looking, good riding vehicle we've had. Right now we've got a Flex and in another six weeks we'll be moving to an Edge, but neither of them are a patch on the Explorer. I couldn't see my little utility trailer behind it, but you can't even see that with with my little Volvo C30 so I dont' consider that a big issue.

If I were about to part with my own money rather than a company car another Explorer Sport would be the first and possibly last vehicle we consider for daily, cross country and towing. It really is an exceptionally good vehicle in every way.

Just a thought - Most of the center stack screens have a setting that dims it when the headlights are on, but it's often disabled. Could be that your buddy just hadn't set it that way.

I agree about engineering out rear visibility, but I'm amazed how much of the world is blocked out by the 8' bed on my old F250 unless I put the tailgate down, LOL.

ultraclyde wrote: Just a thought - Most of the center stack screens have a setting that dims it when the headlights are on, but it's often disabled. Could be that your buddy just hadn't set it that way.

Someone must have been screwing around as it's set to dim from the factory.

rslifkin wrote:

Streetwiseguy wrote: I've said it before, the safety nazis will kill us all. Have you noticed how A pillars have gotten wide enough to hide entire cars now, not just pedestrians?

Yep. 470 airbags, no glass below nose-level, etc. might mean nobody gets hurt when you head-on a tractor trailer at 70. But most of the time, it also means you're a heck of a lot more likely to crash the car in the first place due to all the extra weight and poor visibility. Of course, most drivers are so clueless that they'd be only slightly less aware of what's going on around them if they were blindfolded...

This era, stuck between "I have to pay attention to driving or I'll die" and "I for one welcome our new self-driving overlords, errr, cars", is going to be increasingly brutal and difficult, in the name of mandated but misguided safety regulations. It's not coincidence.

I could add a flounder about socialized medicine, but I'm smarter than that.

I have an E-150 van and it is a challenge to back my jet ski trailer with or without the jetski on it because the trailer is too narrow to see in the mirrors and too low to see out the back windows. The boat is not a problem as the trailer is wider. I need to get a hitch on the XC70 just for the jetski.

Adrian_Thompson wrote:

ultraclyde wrote: Just a thought - Most of the center stack screens have a setting that dims it when the headlights are on, but it's often disabled. Could be that your buddy just hadn't set it that way.

Someone must have been screwing around as it's set to dim from the factory.

Yeah, both of our DDs have backup cameras, and I've never been "blinded" by them at all, they very helpful.

I have SOME sympathy for these complaints, my son's 2002 Exploder is much easier to see out of than our Expedition or any newer SUV. But the benefits of the newer vehicles FAR outweigh the downsides. And backup cameras are a huge plus, no matter what the vehicle.

Then again, it's been a few weeks since we've had an "All new cars are awful" thread on GRM, so I suppose we should just let this take it's course.

Tom_Spangler wrote: And backup cameras are a huge plus, no matter what the vehicle.

Eh. I've driven a variety of things with and without them and the only time I've found them even remotely helpful is when wanting to back up within 6 inches of something that's directly behind the vehicle, mostly if it's down low. It would come in handy for lining up to a trailer without a spotter, but I've done that solo with no camera enough times that I don't find it too hard in most vehicles (long pickups are a little more of a pain though).

For pretty much anything else, I don't find their field of view helpful. The mirrors and turning my head tell me more about what's around me.

And don't get me started on those stupid, piece of crap parking sensors... BEEP BEEP BEEEEEEEEEEEP "yes, I know there's a single piece of tall grass behind me, SHUT UP YOU STUPID CAR". Those get turned off immediately in anything I drive that has them...

"outside mirrors dim when the lights come on" . I have a problem with this statement.

When backing a trailer, what good does looking out the rear window do ? Particularly an enclosed trailer.

I hate my new version work Explorer, because it isn't really an off road vehicle anymore.

seems this could be easily solved with a "trailer package" that includes a monitor mounted above the rear window so you can look backwards and see out the rear window AND see the monitor at the same time.

Streetwiseguy wrote: I've said it before, the safety nazis will kill us all. Have you noticed how A pillars have gotten wide enough to hide entire cars now, not just pedestrians?

I actually typed up a response about a pillars last night and forgot to post it.

Even my 06 grand Cherokee could hide an entire car behind the A Pillar, I can't imagine what 11 more years of "safety" has done to them.

It appears focus groups have told automakers that drivers feel safer when they are in a cave-like machine. Hence doors that come up to your neck, giant pillars, and tiny windows. This leads to lane departure warnings, back up cameras and all kinds of devices to compensate for the fact that you can't see out of your vehicle.

I find back-up cameras handy when lining up a hitch to a trailer. That's pretty much it. Even when a car is equipped with one, I find myself looking over my shoulder anyways--- as it feels more natural, and I have a greater field of view with my eyes.

Adrian_Thompson wrote:

ultraclyde wrote: Just a thought - Most of the center stack screens have a setting that dims it when the headlights are on, but it's often disabled. Could be that your buddy just hadn't set it that way.

Someone must have been screwing around as it's set to dim from the factory.

The display was suitably dim, until you put it in reverse and the camera system came on and blinded you. The image was then completely washed out by the front of the trailer, so you couldn't see anything behind it. Backing a white box would have been simple. Unfortunately, my trailer is green and disappeared.

A decent set of mirrors and no camera would have been infinitely better. Or at least the ability to turn the camera display off. The owner didn't know how to do that, or even if it was possible.

I would never buy one for towing. I frequently roll into the house well after dark after events, and need to back the trailer into the back yard. IMHO, that isn't safely possible with the Explorer, due to the lack of rear visibility.

In looking at the Explorer's comparable alternatives, I'm betting they are all horrible. It's no wonder the feds are requiring backup cameras.

And just to be clear, I don't necessarily hate the car. Nice interior, probably drove very well. It just sucks that rear visibility is so bad.

In the 80' I backed it up my driveway, I crossed it off the list of cars to look at in the future.