The first vehicle I used for the mapping project was a 1991 Ford Explorer sport. This vehicle was great off road, not so much on the highway.  It lasted for 197,000 miles.

My next field vehicle was a 1998 Ford Explorer. This truck wasn’t as good off road, and the suspension was not as durable as the earlier Explorer– mapping on back roads is hard on a vehicle, and I went through a lot of ball joints and IFS parts. It only made it to 130,000 miles before unsolvable electrical problems ended it.

My next field vehicle was a 2004 Subaru Forester, which lasted for 215,000 miles before rust and winter started causing unfixable problems.

The Forester played a prominent role in Marcus du Sautoy’s “The Code” on BBC.

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