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"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
12/14/2017 at 19:14 • Filed to: None

...brought to me by things observed at work: Why the hell does the current gen Ford Explorer have a tunnel that is a whole fucking foot high? And extends into the rear floors? It. Is. A. FWD. Based. Platform.

I mean, unibody, I get. Unibody with almost no sills/rockers and the need for extra stiffness, I also get. But - even taking into account the added available height on a fullsize from having a real frame under it, this thing looks like it would be big enough to put a whole Super Duty transmission setup and 4wd transfer case in. That shit ain’t right.

DISCUSSION (24)

Ash78, voting early and often > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
12/14/2017 at 19:22

Usually the answer is rigidity, and secondarily a place to run an AWD transaxle and exhaust or wiring.

I like the totally flat floor of a minivan, but it also lets junk roll around everywhere, including spills. I actually kind of like sills and humps.

awmaster10 > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
12/14/2017 at 19:24

In general it’s exteemely cramped for the exterior volume

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > awmaster10
12/14/2017 at 19:26

I am aware. That’s more an elaboration than an explanation as to the “y tho”, however.

ranwhenparked > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
12/14/2017 at 19:27

Typically, its for structural rigidity. I know that’s the reason the Rover 75 had a tunnel there, and the pleasant side effect was that, in that case, it made it much easier to convert the platform to RWD later on.

HammerheadFistpunch > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
12/14/2017 at 19:30

Given that most 7 seat crossovers don’t have tunnels... It does make you wonder. Hell my two cruisers don’t have 2nd or 3rd row tunnels

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Ash78, voting early and often
12/14/2017 at 19:30

In this case, I think the reason may have been the focus on console design and wanting to make 80% of the console out of THE FUCKING FLOOR. See, because there needed to be a console higher than the seats like if you were in a sports car except the seats are unlike a sports car and actually nearly a foot high and ah fuck my brain

Because “exhaust”/AWD transaxle space? No. This tunnel could pretty much swallow an entire TH400 with mucho room to spare, and the transmission is (points toward front left of engine compartment) thataway .

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > HammerheadFistpunch
12/14/2017 at 19:31

There isn’t *much* second row tunnel, but there’s a little bit. It’s the first row where the tunnel is real and spectacular.

Ash78, voting early and often > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
12/14/2017 at 19:33

OK, so it’s to make people buying the Ford minivan feel like they’re not buying a minivan. That jives with the rest of the marketing, too.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ranwhenparked
12/14/2017 at 19:34

Typically things designed oddly in a way that makes sense for insane things like that make me suspicious. Why yes, I’d like to put a shortened F350 4wd frame under an Explorer instead of its existing subframe... WHY ARE YOU BEING SO GENEROUS.

It simply looks a great deal like how one would stiffen a truck cab to stand without a chassis, but stiffened in the opposite of the usual way (ludicrous tunnel instead of heightened sills).

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Ash78, voting early and often
12/14/2017 at 19:36

Low sills like a pickup truck, yuge console like a sports car: IT MUST BE A SPORTSERMATRUCK

jimz > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
12/14/2017 at 19:49

if it has AWD then there’s a driveshaft and exhaust running through it.

TheRealBicycleBuck > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
12/14/2017 at 19:53

Is that section of the floor shared with the the F-150? That might explain it.

wafflesnfalafel > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
12/14/2017 at 20:19

it’s to pipe the fake engine noise to the back seat passengers

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
12/14/2017 at 20:27

If it didn’t have that it’d be a noodly bottom dwelling invertebrate...

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > TheRealBicycleBuck
12/14/2017 at 20:31

The F-150 has a flat floor since it’s BOF. All the hardware runs between the frame rails which are stupid tall.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > jimz
12/14/2017 at 20:53

Hence “fwd based”, not “fwd”. I know it has a driveshaft in some cases and exhaust, but the gigantihuge tunnel only extends for most of the floor, not all, and there is not a solid rear axle to account for driveshaft angle. Ipso facto, there is not only way more tunnel than strictly necessary, but also some really fucky packaging.

It looks like it belongs in a lowered custom super duty or some madness - I find it hard to describe just how incongruous it looks, bare.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > TheRealBicycleBuck
12/14/2017 at 20:57

As Finn has it: not really anything in common with f-series. Some in common with a Taurus, which makes me think a lot of it is having a related console to the Taurus but deeper footwells/taller seating positions.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > wafflesnfalafel
12/14/2017 at 21:03

This is cromulent.

GTRZILLAR32-Now saving for Godzilla and a condo > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
12/14/2017 at 22:07

Because they designed that platform for AWD vehicles as well. The new GM SUVs have flat floors and dead pedals which is nice.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > GTRZILLAR32-Now saving for Godzilla and a condo
12/15/2017 at 04:54

I know it’s designed for AWD as well, but even in light of that it seems excessive. At the widest point *before* the “bellhousing swell” as you might call it, it’s about 18" wide and 12" tall... and that extends quite a way in. That is large enough to accommodate a whole very large transmission and exhaust, not just a transfer case output.

boxrocket > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
12/15/2017 at 06:49

It’s on the Volvo S80/XC90 platform. Do those have the same hump?

I expect the engineers and bean counters knew what they were doing. The Freestar had a flat floor, so Ford knows how to make a flat-floor 3-row vehicle. Why waste the steel to make the hump if it’s not useful?

Next time we get an Explorer in the shop I’ll look on the underside to see what’s there.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > boxrocket
12/15/2017 at 07:10

The tunnel is about the same in the Volvo and in the Taurus with respect to /relative position to the dash and seats. In the Explorer, I think the seats are higher, the wells deeper. My current operating theory is that a lot of it has to do with console parts sharing and taller seats.

Thanks for not going “but awd!” by the way. That’s the obvious partial answer, but can’t be the whole one, and I tried to hint that “no, I actually know what I’m talking about and it’s still a big tunnel”. Many levels of car know-how on here, but geesh - benefit of the doubt on being stupid would be nice.

boxrocket > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
12/15/2017 at 14:26

Sorry if it came off snarky. Hadn’t even been awake for 15 minutes, and my mental editor and censor takes at least twice that to load.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > boxrocket
12/15/2017 at 15:25

No, it wasn’t snarky at all. I was actually thanking you for not being one of the several saying “but it needs that for AWD” and assuming I hadn’t considered that.