Any one know if the Freedom Drive I is still cool for light trail stuff?

Thx

I have been in on some pretty tricky roads with mine. By that I mean old abandoned woods trails with ruts 12 inches deep filled with mud and water. One road in particular was about 2 kms long and had a couple of very slippery mud holes.

I had a 4x4 Dodge Dakota before the Patriot and I used to have to go in low range to get through some of the spots and the truck bucked and bounced all over the place. With the Patriot I have found it much easier- I turned off the ESP (full off) and I put the autostick in 1 and then I just drove. No bouncing or much spinning. A much easier drive and although I was scared that I would bottom out- in fact I did not.

In snow I have found the Patriot a little trickier- We have had a number of storms and I have gone off road a couple of times- I find that the Patriot bogs down even with ESP partially off and cuts the throttle - In deep snow (16 or more inches) you need to really push a vehicle and in fact some spin is desirable if you want the momentum to get up an incline- I still am learning how to do this with the Patriot- It was easy with the Dakota - you just dropped into 2 and gave it gas- but it had a 230 HP v6. It also never got better than 15mpg.

I think that in deep snow you need to plan ahead with the partiot and turn ESP off before you hit the heavy stuff otherwise you lose momentum. I will keep practising and with the weather here I expect I will gets lots of practise.

In summary - the FD I is fine for more than just the ocasional spin on a gravel road. It is quite capable. And it gets 3 or 4 MPG better than the FD II

Thanks for the quick reply...I'll let you know how I do...snow sounds fun, but it has been 65 degrees here in NY the past couple of days!

Well it has been 8 to 10 C here and that translates to 50 F. However I expect that it will drop to 'normal' soon. On New Years day I was in Fredericton (about 110kms north) and the temperature was -24 c

Same here it was 9 F last week...lovin the heated seats then. I think next week will drop to normal. Lets hope for snow & patriot fun!

Thanks again!

I have the CVT2 with FD1 and took it out to an area that I went to often with a friend a few years ago. Well, I got into an area that I couldn't turn around in, an area that had gotten much more off-road than I intended to go. This was thick mud with lots of deep water filled ruts. I had it in 4 wheel lock mode and it went through with no problem at all. I did button out once which I wasn't happy about but it was only on mud. This situation however provided an excellent test of the FD1. Once I got through it I had to turn around and go back because it was the only way out. It was a ton of fun but not the kind of thing I would regularly subject the Patriot to. Also, I have been in some deep snow and it handles very well. While driving I will often drive into snow banks and deep, un-shoveled drive ways. The only time I have a problem is when the snow is wet and a few inches higher than the ground clearance. In this case I turn off the ESP (buy holding it in for 6 seconds) and so far I've always been able to drive out. I'm very impressed with the Patriots offroad capabilities as well as how the computer manages things when driving on snowy roads.

Thanks Brian, Looks like more good news for the FDI.

Thanks,