What does “planted” mean?

I see the word “planted” used on tacomaworld frequently, but I never know for sure what the writer means by it. Having grown up in rural southern Minnesota, it gives me images and of a truck buried to the frame in a cornfield. What does it mean and what are its origins?

 

It means the author senses an improvement where there is none.

 

When a vehicle does not wander or float, I consider it "planted".
Either that or you've got a water leak and and mushrooms are growing in the backseat.
Probably the former.

 

Like when there’s a cross wind on the drive to get your new suspension installed and there isn’t a cross wind on the drive home?

 

planted = stable and under control.

 

That makes some sense to me in an off road racing context. I might have heard it once in my dirt bike days… maybe. But it seems out of context when driving down a paved road.

 

The term "planted" used in automotive references is just a colloquialism. It doesn't have to make sense, often times language and slang do not.

Like others have said, planted = stable, predictable, controlled. Like a plant with roots in the ground. Slap your hood and proudly exclaim in a dad-like tone "this baby ain't goin' nowhere".

The opposite end of the spectrum would be "squirrely". Chaotic, unpredictable, wanders all over, possibly hoarding acorns...wait, scratch that last one. But also don't talk to the squirrels. For the love of all that is holy don't talk to the squirrels!

How it relates to paved road performance: planted would be like a brand new set of tires and a nice street-tuned suspension, squirrely would be like maxxing out preload and inflating your bald E-range MT tires to 80psi then driving in the rain.

Hope this helps. I find my own words shallow and pedantic.

 

A truck with worn out ball joints, an out of balance tire and/or a worn steering rack or undjusted ball and worm will wander a lot. This will be even more evident at speed, IME.

 

So basically it means nothing or maybe everything. Only the writer knows anything more. Lol

 

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What it generally means is "I just spent a buttload of money on something and I don't know what it actually does, but I think it feels better."

 

How else are you going to grow more Tacomas?

 

You might be referring to me. I used that term an awful lot recently.

Here's what I meant. I used "planted" as a shorthand means to describe the rebound action of a shock.

As a wheel rolls over a bump, there's a moment, however brief, where that wheel isn't carrying the full vehicle weight. For the purposes of simplicity it might be easier to visualize a wheel going slightly airborne off of a ramp. And it's in that teeny tiny immeasurable section of time that I want to focus on. Because that's where shock rebound is having it's shining moment.

I think the hallmark of a good shock is not in it's dampening behavior during the impact stroke, it's the dampening behavior during it's rebound stroke. It's the ability to a) keep as constant weight on the tire as physics allows through impact, rebound, recovery and all transitions between, b) shorten the rebound time as much as humanly possible without pogo-sticking on the post-impact recovery.

So in other words, when a tire leaves that ramp and goes "airborne," a quality rebound in my book is one that shoves that tire back to earth and holds it there. Even on pavement, you can feel the difference when your suspension is giving you solid traction and when it isn't. I know you have driven over pothole ridden roads and recognized that your tires are not connected, even if you don't slip or drift. At least I sincerely hope you all have. That's the difference of rebound. A shock with good rebound might find a little more traction in those situations because the tires aren't unloading as much.

"Planted."

 

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Why would it seem out of context for pavement?

It means exactly what accutune wrote, stable and under control. It doesnt matter whether you are on a motocross bike or a Kawasaki H2, a Formula 1 car, or a Tacoma. It's been used to describe stability for all of my life time.

 

Because your shocks hardly sweat on the road. Planted gives me the vision of keeping my tires on the ground as I go through some whoops. I suspect people have borrowed/adapted off road racing slang to describe their trips to the mall, but at the same time I don’t remember planted being used in my dirt biking days.

 

Are your roads really all sunshine and rainbows up in Minnesota, and if so, have you ever taken a road trip to Michigan?

 

We pay lots of taxes here to have perfect roads… except in the spring thaw where they turns into a mine field.

I’ve been to Chicago. Does that count as being to Michigan?

In my youth, I had a brief dream of attending Michigan tech in the UP.

 

Not all sunshine and rainbows around central MN where I’m at! LOL

 

I was up at Spider Lake yesterday (30m north of Brainerd) for a group wheeling trip. It was the coldest day so far this year,
(5-8F), but like true Minnesotans nobody wanted to admit they were cold.

There will be colder days. Hah!