Quartermaster Autocar review

[snowball]

View: https://youtu.be/0kOJLxhE1DM?si=IP2tlHBBo7twXJYP

 

[Xrford]

I noticed the quartermaster has an antenna sticking up at the rear of the cab roof that is going to prevent it from fitting in most standard 7 foot garage door openings. Seems odd as the wagon does not have that antenna.

 

[TheDocAUS]

I noticed the quartermaster has an antenna sticking up at the rear of the cab roof that is going to prevent it from fitting in most standard 7 foot garage door openings. Seems odd as the wagon does not have that antenna.

The wagon has the antenna in the rear door, no rear door on the Quartermaster, hence the antenna on the rooftop.

 

[ADVAW8S]

I noticed the quartermaster has an antenna sticking up at the rear of the cab roof that is going to prevent it from fitting in most standard 7 foot garage door openings. Seems odd as the wagon does not have that antenna.

The QM is actually 1 inch shorter from the highest part compared to the SW

 

[Eric]

I noticed the quartermaster has an antenna sticking up at the rear of the cab roof that is going to prevent it from fitting in most standard 7 foot garage door openings. Seems odd as the wagon does not have that antenna.

But the wagon has crap radio reception with its twin internal tail pillar mounted, poor earthed aerials. Perhaps this is IAs upgrade of a DAB aerial

 

[rovie]

But the wagon has crap radio reception with its twin internal tail pillar mounted, poor earthed aerials. Perhaps this is IAs upgrade of a DAB aerial

Hi @Eric , I'm not sure if it's really due to the earthing.
As I often drive the same route, about 60 km, I can make a good comparison. I usually have very good DAB reception. But there are some days when the reception is constantly interrupted. In such cases, I have pulled over, switched off the ignition and waited a while. After restarting, the reception was ok again. I would actually also suspect a software bug.

 

[Eric]

Hi @Eric , I'm not sure if it's really due to the earthing.
As I often drive the same route, about 60 km, I can make a good comparison. I usually have very good DAB reception. But there are some days when the reception is constantly interrupted. In such cases, I have pulled over, switched off the ignition and waited a while. After restarting, the reception was ok again. I would actually also suspect a software bug.

Difficult for me to tell as this part of Scotland has poor DAB and FM reception, but this has been the worst vehicle for reception that I have owned. In the pictures that have been posted on this forum it appears that one side of the earth connection hasn't been connected to the earthing bolt, and on the other side, that the vehicle has been sprayed and then the earth connected to the earthing bolt, have they scrapped the paint off this bolt prior to attaching the earth?? I think probably not. When I get round to it I'm going to take these connections off and clean up the earth bolt to see if it improves reception.

 

[Xrford]

The QM is actually 1 inch shorter from the highest part compared to the SW

Are you including the height of the antenna as that looks to be at least 6” above the roof line? There is no way that roof line is 7” lower than the wagon. As high as the stock wagon is and by the looks of the Qmaster is almost the same height, adding any more height is really a poor choice and is going to limit its appeal to many North American buyers with garage parking.

 

[Mountain4x4]

Its funny how people complain about steering and I cannot even hardly feel anything different. However, for the first time ever I truly hate the way a vehicle steers. I went to look at cars last week for the business and test drove the new Frontier, and I could not believe it. It had terribly stiff steering to go with its lethargic engine. Ended up with the Chicken Tax disaster for Ford oddly enough, one of the last Transit Connect Vans.

 

[ADVAW8S]

Are you including the height of the antenna as that looks to be at least 6” above the roof line? There is no way that roof line is 7” lower than the wagon. As high as the stock wagon is and by the looks of the Qmaster is almost the same height, adding any more height is really a poor choice and is going to limit its appeal to many North American buyers with garage parking.

No not including the antenna. I assume you can move the antenna flat. I'll find out when mine arrives in Q4

 

[TD5-90]

Difficult for me to tell as this part of Scotland has poor DAB and FM reception, but this has been the worst vehicle for reception that I have owned. In the pictures that have been posted on this forum it appears that one side of the earth connection hasn't been connected to the earthing bolt, and on the other side, that the vehicle has been sprayed and then the earth connected to the earthing bolt, have they scrapped the paint off this bolt prior to attaching the earth?? I think probably not. When I get round to it I'm going to take these connections off and clean up the earth bolt to see if it improves reception.

Since I also have _considerably_ worse DAB reception than e.g. in my 2016 VW Passat I have checked the antenna grounding on my relatively early vehicle and found that both sides were properly grounded from factory. So that can't be the (only) problem.

What I recognized several times is that reception is strongly dependant on the direction you drive: One direction is nearly perfect (if you leave a bigger city), but if you are heading towards the city it is bad. So, I suppose there is indeed a problem with the antenna system being somehow directional, even if they seem to use diversity (or at least are prepared to do; can't tell for sure just from the fact two antennas are physically present).

 

[CRH]

But the wagon has crap radio reception with its twin internal tail pillar mounted, poor earthed aerials. Perhaps this is IAs upgrade of a DAB aerial

I had a Quartermaster Fieldmaster as a courtesy car with the ariel and it did not have DAB only FM & AM, which seemed quite odd but fits in with the ariel