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Had this emailed to me, as I was an avid 4WDer and Camper, thought that the members on here might like to see it. The narrator believes the problem came from an incident with a rock. I personally think that the vehicle was overloaded and the suspension tooo stiff.
My thoughts come from experience dealing with 4WD suspensions and accessories.
-You don’t have to watch the whole clip. The interesting bit starts at about the 21 minute mark.
YouTube
Kryn
Why do people keep calling those things cars? :? They're four door trucks with a wheel barrow on the back, and in no way a replacement for a safe and comfortable family car. :D
I agree with you about the load but there has been a couple of incidents similar to that and I believe they have upgraded the housing in the later models
I've heard of a Pajero that a similar thing happened to on the Canning. They managed to repair it of sorts and get it back, when it went to the dealers for "warranty" claim, they were told that the vehicle wasn't designed to go those sorts of places??????
Kryn
Kryn,
Airbag assist suspension??? there is a huge clue there in itself. My personal 4WD vehicles have Old Man Emu suspensions.
I spent a good 20 years of my surveying career working across the top end of QLD & the NT performing surveys for the rural & remote area radio program in the late 1970's to early 1990's and then optic fibre routes. We operated out of a single Toyota Troopie, the old 40's series then the 75 series, HF radio, all standard suspension, a Thomas PTO winch, and basic recovery gear i.e chain slings, shovel, axe etc. Later years we had a Sat phone, and better recovery gear, but the dreadful and useless electric winches (imo).
I chose and very much preferred the "Troopie's" capability over the "4WD wagon's" our other surveyors preferred and I can say with complete honesty the "Troopie's" have never let me down - ever! We got them hopelessly bogged, & hung up, at times but we managed to be self reliant on all but one occasion. Perhaps that is more due to my attitude and how I treated them.
I could write a book on the under prepared "terrorists" we encountered particularly in the late 1970's, early 1980's on Cape York, and in general the unreal expectations many "outback travellers" have of their vehicles and equipment. Sadly many got into deep trouble, with vehicle roll overs etc. We still see it today.
In the late 1970's if you could get Mareeba to Cooktown with out destroying a tyre in the St George's creek crossings area on the shaley rock ridges, or Hughenden to Winton, it was a good trip. Our Troopies did some very hard work and we had to look after them as they were our lifeline. Often we winched for hours at a time, a whole day, then the next at times to get to proposed radio sites. Remember we were often the first ones into many of those now popular 4WD tracks to the radio towers on mountain tops. We surveyed then created those tracks. Even accessing optic fibre routes during the construction phase can severely test a 4WD's limits. Our vehicles were always at the upper end of their GVM etc. We also operated all year round, often the first in after "the wet" and "last out", rain, hail or shine. I've worked in temps exceeding 45C so did the vehicles. Many other companies such as Forestry, Ergon etc have similar experiences.
"Modern 4WD's," I use that term loosely, more correctly SUV's (imo) are most definitely getting softer and the roads and tracks in general are better than we encountered 40 years ago, so they can masquerade as a "real 4WD."
I will keep my opinions to myself about the merits of some very popular makes but our (& others) real world every work day use / testing has proven that many popular makes are far from reliable, have major design flaws, under engineered components or are even capable of say 25% use in "moderate to difficult" formed tracks let alone real 4WD conditions. The top two manufacturers did not like how "hard" our vehicles had to perform. Even our very well serviced and maintained vehicles struggled at times, like running at 80k with A/C running or 100k & no A/C on well formed but "sandy" surfaced "roads" (Boulia - Bedourie 1980's) otherwise they overheated. We experienced persistent issues like cracked chassis on some makes / models, boiling batteries (3 month life if you were lucky!), turbo failures, yadda yadda.
All of the manufacturers are guilty of creating the "enhanced lifestyle" image due to 4WD ownership and a very misleading impression of the capabilities of their offerings. Yes they may do what they show in the glitzy ads perhaps once or twice, with some damage, long term - not a hope.
My advice, none are "perfect" they all have "issues" so drive them cautiously and with respect like your life depends on them because it does, remote areas or not!
I don't think anyone's experience can beat Len Beadell's, he was one tough man. Anyone who can repair 13 tyres in a day by hand on his own in heat that on one occasion melted radio components has to be respected for his pioneering efforts. As for the incident above, they had to know the rear axle was overloaded due to the airbags and I bet they never weighed the front and rear to find out what the axle weights were after loading it.
I read elsewhere that he had a GVM upgrade and airbags .
Apparently they upgraded the diff housings from 2017 onwards as a result of a couple of similar failures.
The problem is is that people expect too much from these medium duty vehicles but the manufacturers all overstate their true ability, the tow capacities they offer is ridiculous for such light vehicles.
I do a fair bit of off-road touring and prefer a 70 series Landcruiser as they are heavier duty
A good mate of my fathers spent quite a bit of time in the outback with Len retracing some of our early explorers tracks. I really enjoyed listening to his stories, they were a tough breed back then.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Parks
You are absolutely correct in what you're saying. The advertisers have a lot to do with it as well, take the ad of the Hilux rolling down a hill and over a cliff, a few days later he finds his vehicle and not a dent on it!!!! There was another one of a vehicle being helicoptered to a spot, then "driven" down off the mountain. There wasn't any running gear or motor in it, but people believed that it could be driven down off the craggy peaks.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mobyturns
I've had the pleasure of meeting Len on several occasions and on a bus trip to Sydney, he was a marvel to listen to, read his books, and on a couple of occasions travel his "Highways".
Kryn
I have the greatest respect for Len & his achievements - truly the last great Australian explorer. Having worked in similar environments his achievements are truly remarkable. I actually met Len and chatted with him briefly at one of our professional do's. Len was a Fellow of our Institution of Engineering & Mining Surveyors Australia (now wound up as several professional bodies merged). So when I was elevated to a Fellow in 1999, I was justly proud but very humbled to be in his shadow.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Parks
That was a Subaru!Quote:
Originally Posted by KBs PensNmore
True story - we took our 1982 Subaru to Kakadu & Jim Jim Falls amongst many other journeys in 1985. On the way into Jim Jim at the "Jump Up" near mid day we came across a Sydney tour guide towing out their 4WD Tour Bus with a Patrol wagon. He was rather flustered and gave us an absolute gobfull about "toy 4WD's" ….. We were set up at the camp ground before 3pm and about 7pm he returned. An hour or so later after he had a feed and a tub he came up to us very apologetic about his earlier behaviour and could not believe that we had made the trip in less than 3 hours when he was taking 5 or more in "a real 4WD." The early Subaru DL 1800 dual range wagons & Brumbies were very capable vehicles, their weight and agility were a huge bonus. The Brumby's were very popular with graziers on the black soil plains south of the Flinders Hwy. A property "Sarre" (iirc) had 3 or 4 Brumbies for routine bore and fence maintenance, and they had very high miles on them - several hundred thousand kilometres in fact.
We have owned a number of Subarus continuously since 1980 and most likely will always have one in the driveway.
A lot of years back we had the privilege of seeing him do a talk at University of NSW. He was an unpretentious man who (in his own understanding) was doing his job. I very much doubt you would come across anyone to do what he did under the conditions. I think he was one of nature's gentlemen. His books are a great read
Just another observation of the mishap on the Canning.....when we would gear up for a long expedition (for recreation) we would go over our vehicles checking everything. With our packing we would be very conscious of weight and packed to a minimum! My Landcruiser is 1.8 tonne "dry" but what I call empty it weighs 2.4 tonne. So the load carrying capacity is arrived at quite quickly.
I have always regarded the loaded axle weights and not the all up weight as the only way to avoid trouble. Every vehicle has a maximum load on each axle and that weight limit should be respected.
When I was a kid growing up I had a pet camel. Noddy could take you anywhere.