Subaru XV Crosstrek Hybrid, the winter rescue vehicle: Motoramic Video

Sometimes the mystery to achievement is being just dumb enough to try the impossible. For instance, trying to tow a snowbound UPS motor truck up a vertical high ground with a small Subaru.

That doesn’t appear like a feasible idea, does it? But you’ve got not anything to lose by endeavoring, which is how I find myself pulling along a UPS truck up a high ground with a Subaru XV Crosstrek Hybrid.

The day before the latest crippling south snowstorm, I’m in ownership of a brilliant green Subaru and a head full of bad ideas. I visit Lowe’s and purchase a forged iron alloy hook, which I shackle to the Subaru’s tow eye to conceive a beefy attachment issue for my tow strap. I number that when the gale hits, I’ll just cruise around in the all-wheel-drive Subaru and rescue the non-Subaru-having motorists. I get more activity than I bargained for.

First, there’s the Infiniti G37 coupe by the edge of the road. The proprietor states she’sdesigning to just depart it there and she has a good point — even if I pulled her up on the pavement, she’d be right back in the ditch within 20 feet.

The next opportunity is a Corvette. I give the friend borrowing for heading out in a blizzard in a Vette, but the Crosstrek is useless because Corvettes are deliberately set up to oppose towing. There’s nowhere to affix a strap or hook, a detail verified when we drag out the owner’s manual, and the chapter on towing easily reads, “Don’t.”

I’m despairing of my utility when we occur upon a policeman roadblock ahead of a high ground.The cop informs me that there are vehicles off the street and it’s shut. I offer to drag them out, but he turns us away. So I easily take a five-mile detour and approach the valley from the other edge, cresting a rise to find the jackpot—seven or eight cars attached on the high ground. in addition to two UPS trucks.

The Subaru will now face its genuine check. The Crosstree Hybrid, regardless of its compact wagon wrapping, rocks a downright SUV-worthy 8.7 inches of ground clearance. And its all-wheel-drive system is beefier than that of most crossovers, with an active center clutch that can drive 100 per hundred of the torque to either end of the car. furthermore, when you deactivate the steadiness command system it will permit wholesome wheel spin while still pacing in to shuffle torque by the traction control scheme. This thing can go under claws.

As for the hybrid part of the formula, this scheme is more for trading than fuel finances, with aminute electric engine constructed into the CVT transmission and a .55 kw/h electric battery lodged under the back cargo locality. Contrasted to the standard Crosstrek, the Hybrid profits12 horsepower (for 160), and three miles per gallon, for 31 mpg blended. But you won’t be running 45 mph on the electric battery as you can in, state, a Ford Fusion Hybrid. The Crosstrek Hybrid’s biggest boon is its torque bend, topping out at 163 lb-ft at 2,000 rpm. On its own, the peaky benchmark 2.0-liter organizes 145 lb-ft at 4,200 rpm.

So, the Crosstrek Hybrid has the torque curve of a decent turbo engine paired with the four-wheel traction of, well, a Subaru. Would those components be sufficient to turn it into a righteous little green tow motor truck?

The cop manning this approach to the glut is bemused at my assumption that I can help any person, but he’s game to let me try. An F-250 is towing the first UPS motor motor motor truckup the hill, so I drive down to hook up to the second one. The consignment person driving, like the cop, doesn’t seem to expect much. Candidly, neither do I.

I throw a snare on his bumper, draw the strap taut and deactivate VDC. We both hit the gas and for a long instant the Subaru strains and rotates its tires to no avail. But I stay on the throttle and the Crosstrek soon mines its way down to the pavement. I saw the wheel to get it dancing — a vintage truck-pull method that, safe to state, is finding its first submission in Subaru-to-delivery-truck assistance — and to everyone’s disbelief the large-scale dark motor truck starts moving.

For the next 30 seconds, the quiet of the falling snowfall fall is broken by the UPS truck’s diesel chatter commingled with the signature sound of a wailing Subaru flat-four. The Crosstrek resolutely drags the truck up the slope while a gathering of bystanders gawks in amazement. But we shortly come to an impasse as we try to navigate between a street sign on the shoulder and attached impressive Marquis in the middle of the road. The UPS motor truck lets slip his left-back wheel onto the shoulder and we halt to regroup. We need to get the Grand Marquis out of here first, but one time that’s done he should be able to back down the high ground onto the street for a straight shot up and out.

I hook the Crosstrek to the impressive Marquis and effortlessly tow it up the high ground to drive it on its way. A friend in the traveller chair, having just seen the Subaru towing the UPS motor truck, inquires the cost for the Crosstrek Hybrid. I tell him it’s about 26 impressive and he replies, “You notify them they did a good job with that one.”

I turn back for round 2 with the UPS motor truck, but by now the burly F-250 has returned and snared on. Unfortunately, the Ford person driving eschews the benefit of gravity and they don’t begin by backing the UPS motor truck down the high ground to get its rear tire up on the pavement. Predictably, when the F250 starts dragging, the camber of the shoulder determinants the dark truck’s back axle to slide in the direction of the ditch, where it shortly becomes immovable even for a ¾-ton diesel pickup. Curses! The F-250 has stolen my glory.

However, there is still an allotment of vehicles waiting to be released. Over the next hour, the Subaru tows an FJ Cruiser (which selected a awful day to have its four-wheel-drive scheme proceed AWOL), a Ford Freestyle and a full-size Chevy van. The rest of the cars on the high ground, encompassing a non-Quattro Audi A4, are already abandoned, so I head dwelling.

On the propel back I’m feeling strangely nostalgic. One of my soonest memories is heading to preschool on a snowy Maine forenoon with my dad helming our barge of a Buick Regal. We didn’t make it to school on that specific day, thwarted by a steep high ground. The Regal was shortly traded in on a brand-new 4×4 1982 Subaru GL wagon, rendering snow a moot issue. More than 30 years subsequent, a Subaru wagon is still one of the best ways to beat winter. The electrified Crosstree may not be much of a hybrid, but it’s a torment of a Subaru.

Source. yahoo.com