SA - QLD - SA

[BigJon]

Back home again after a Christmas trip to Brisbane and back.
Total trip distance was slightly less than 5000km.

Average speed of 73 kph. Quite a bit of time was spent driving around Brisbane, which knocked the average around a bit.

Fuel use of just over 10 litres per hundred km (as reported by the dash).

One failed intercooler hose. One of the over radiator hoses. I am very disappointed with the quality of the genuine hoses. I replaced both of those hoses about 4 years and 50 000km ago. To put it in perspective, my brother has a LandCruiser 100 series with nearly 500 000km on the original intercooler hoses (radiator hoses too, for that matter).

I did a couple of bodgy side of the road repairs to keep me going until I finally bought some decent self amalgamating tape and cloth tape to cover it. I think that repair will last until I can get hold of some silicon hoses.

[Homestar]

It's all that power the TDV8 makes mate. :D

Great vehicle to be doing a trip like that in. :)

[The ho har's]

And Jon didn't visit us:(

Mrs hh:angel:

[BigJon]

Time constraints, unfortunately. Had to spend too much time visiting the Boss's relatives :angel:.

[BigJon]

It's all that power the TDV8 makes mate. :D

Great vehicle to be doing a trip like that in. :)

It was even better than that. On the way up I was by myself, only had the family for the trip back!

[CSBrisie]

Just did the same trip - BNE to ADE to BNE. Back yesterday. Avge speed 94 (little driving in SA); averaged 9.6/100. Very happy with the car - faultless and now with 90,000km on the odo; didn't like some of the outback NSW and SA roads...very bumpy...!

[chaybra]

I just finished my melb to bne to melb trip,
av about 13L/100 being fully loaded a 3.2tonne was getting down to 10.5 on the hume, but I didnt spend long on major roads. Camped the whole way with doggo and misses on the way back, 5 days up, 5 days down.

2 niggles the whole trip (except the tyre noise) front left airbag got a leaky hose on the valve block (just tightened it)
and in bathurst I stopped for fuel, then she wouldnt start again :/ did the battery reset and she came good. still investigating this matter.

all in all....still love this car

[Graeme]

didn't like some of the outback NSW and SA roads...very bumpy...!Original shocks or Bilstiens on the rear now?

[CSBrisie]

New OEM CVD's. Definitely the road condition not the car.

[Graeme]

Can you feel any difference with the new shocks? Either I'm giving mine a hard time doing 90 kph at medium raised on my bob-cat repaired lane with its undulating and bumpy patches or both my fronts and rears have degraded somewhat over the last 12 months. However it's still good on normal back-roads so hopefully just my indifference to the rough conditions.

[BigJon]

Original shocks or Bilstiens on the rear now?

I have Bilstein on the rear, originals on the front. I initially thought the Bilsteins were a bit firmer, but I don't notice it now. None of the roads I drove on worried me at all.

[Graeme]

I understand that Chris sourced CVDs marketed by Bilstein directly rather than from LR. If Bilstein indeed produce the LR L322 CVDs as people suggest then they could have still different valving and therefore provide a different ride. However new shocks will hopefully always feel firmer than a tired set so it would be hard to determine if any ride differences were due to just being new or due to different valving. I don't look forward to paying for LR CVDs so hope that Bilstein branded ones provide pretty much the same ride. My D2 experiences with Bilsteins make me wary of them.

[BigJon]

Mine are just the ordinary ones, not the flash computer controlled ones.

[CSBrisie]

Graeme is correct re mine - its not that they are firm - the ride is really good !!!
Its just the road out there are crap - like a patchwork quilt. At times I was moving in my seat all over the shot....

cheers