Drove my Titan to Jazz Fest

Bayou Titan · 05-02-2004, 08:41 PM

I drove my Titan on it's first long distance (about 15 + hours) trip this weekend to the Jazz Fest in New Orleans. My wife and I had an excellent time and were on the front row when Santana took the stage!

Here are some of my driving experiences that I noticed on the trip:

The wide angle mirrors on the tow package are great. Traffic in New Orleans is horrendous but the wide angle mirrors make merging into traffic a snap! In other trucks that I have owned the side view mirrors would not "pick up" the traffic you were merging into until you were parallel to it. I had to rubberneck and look out of the back glass to see what I was merging into. The wide angle mirror on the Titan makes merging fun. I also found out that these wide angle mirrors make "fire trucking" the Titan into parking spaces easy. The parking spaces in private lots in downtown New Orleans are really tight and hard to get out of. When I was backing into a tight parking space I happened to look at the wide angle mirror on the driver's side and much to my amazement I could see the the painted yellow parking lines easily. This allowed me to see if I was too close to one side of the parking space. I like to park right in the middle of parking spaces to reduce the chance of door dings from cars parked on either side.

Ball mounts on the hitch allow you to back up without the fear of denting your bumper. When I parked at the pay lot mentioned above, I backed in as far as I could to keep the front end of my Titan out of harm's way. I backed up very slowly until the ball mount barley touched the side of an old brick building. Later on, when I paralleled parked I noticed that the guy that parked behind me was almost touching my ball joint. If the ball joint wasn't there the guy could have rubbed up against my bumper causing a scratch.

The Titan can handle side winds very good. I was driving across the Ponchartrain Causeway (a 24 mile long bridge) during a driving rainstorm at night with high winds and the Titan "tracked" very well. I didn't have to keep making steering adjustments to correct for the side winds.

The windshield sheds rainwater very well. While I was driving in the night time rainstorm mentioned above, people passed me driving like a bat out of hell. When it rained even harder these people slowed down not out of concern for safety but because they couldn't see due to the fact that it was raining too hard for their wipers to work effectively. I passed them by and then they started following my tail lights because they couldn't see. The steep angle of the Titan's windshield allows water to shed easily and makes it easier for the wipers to do their job.

The Titan made our trip an enjoyable one and my wife and I sure made the right decision to take the Titan on the trip and leave the car at home.

**CaliforniaTitan** · 05-02-2004, 08:44 PM

Sounds like a great time you guys had even though you had some rain to contend with..

Thanks for the report and I am sure more to follow!

Chris

PHOEBISIS · 05-02-2004, 09:10 PM

Bayou Titan,you're right about the rain;the Jazz Fest was canceled one day last week.It rained like heck Thursday night-,Friday was a little better,and Sat was OK.
Where is Blanchard?It must be the far NE,or maybe NW corner .Shreveport is about 7 hours away,but if you go to the NE corner of the state,you run out of interstate-slow going.
Thanks for the report on the Titan's long trip qualities.We might take it on our trip out west this summer.Thanks,Charlie

ben95m · 05-03-2004, 07:30 AM

Thanks for the report. This gives me more confidence so I can make the 23+ hour drive to Mexico City in July.

rrumaner · 05-03-2004, 08:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ben95m

Thanks for the report. This gives me more confidence so I can make the 23+ hour drive to Mexico City in July.

In March I drove my Titan from Chicago to Tampa and back with no problems. Just under 3,000 miles and averaged a little over 14.5 on mileage.

bestatchess · 05-03-2004, 09:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bayou Titan

Ball mounts on the hitch allow you to back up without the fear of denting your bumper. When I parked at the pay lot mentioned above, I backed in as far as I could to keep the front end of my Titan out of harm's way. I backed up very slowly until the ball mount barley touched the side of an old brick building. Later on, when I paralleled parked I noticed that the guy that parked behind me was almost touching my ball mount. If the ball mount wasn't there the guy could have rubbed up against my bumper causing a scratch.

Sounds like a good idea. I am going to get one as soon as I decide which drop fits my buddy's boat.

Last time I was in New Orleans I drove down from Jackson, Mississippi and there were tornados all the way down. Just after I would pass an exit, I would hear on the radio that a tornado had just been sighted at that exit. But when I finally got to New Orleans, it miraculously cleared.