goofyr
22nd January 2019, 09:17 AM
Hey all,
For anyone interested. I’ve just completed a road trip from Sydney to Victoria, with stops at Albury, Phillip Island, Torquay, Melbourne, Dinner Plain, Lakes Entrance, Central Tilba and Sussex Inlet.
I’ve had the D3 for just over 12 months and it performed faultlessly. It carried my family of 5 and all the gear that 3 young kids have very well. For a 13 year old car it’s very comfortable and a pleasure to drive. The best mod I fitted is the long range fuel tank and wheel carrier combo. I could choose the cheaper petrol stations because I had a range of 1100 kms. The GasBuddy app was very useful for planning fuel stops.
Virtually no off-road, we did a bit of the Dinner Plain track which looked interesting, but I have HT tyres and locals advised against going too far without at least ATs. The roof tray had 2 Rhino 200L half luggage bags, we travelled 3800 kms, used 613L of P98 for an economy of 16.14L/100kms.
The only negative is that we developed another crack on the dash which I think is around the airbag which I will do a cheap fix with sugru and a dash mat.
To prep the D3 for this trip, I made the following fixes over 12 months or so:
- Front LCAs
- New coolant reservoir
- Replaced injector 1 which was misfiring
- New radiator
- New rear propshaft
- Added OA long range fuel tank and rear wheel carrier
- Added Frontrunner ladder which made packing the roof a lot easier.
I tried using the Ark cig charger for my Ark box to run the 40L fridge, and that didn’t work. Basically the charging while driving didn’t keep up with the drain from the fridge which was set as a freezer. It could be the battery which is almost 10yo, I’m currently testing the battery but will most likely get a traxide kit for the next trip north in 18 months.
Cheers,
Randy
For anyone interested. I’ve just completed a road trip from Sydney to Victoria, with stops at Albury, Phillip Island, Torquay, Melbourne, Dinner Plain, Lakes Entrance, Central Tilba and Sussex Inlet.
I’ve had the D3 for just over 12 months and it performed faultlessly. It carried my family of 5 and all the gear that 3 young kids have very well. For a 13 year old car it’s very comfortable and a pleasure to drive. The best mod I fitted is the long range fuel tank and wheel carrier combo. I could choose the cheaper petrol stations because I had a range of 1100 kms. The GasBuddy app was very useful for planning fuel stops.
Virtually no off-road, we did a bit of the Dinner Plain track which looked interesting, but I have HT tyres and locals advised against going too far without at least ATs. The roof tray had 2 Rhino 200L half luggage bags, we travelled 3800 kms, used 613L of P98 for an economy of 16.14L/100kms.
The only negative is that we developed another crack on the dash which I think is around the airbag which I will do a cheap fix with sugru and a dash mat.
To prep the D3 for this trip, I made the following fixes over 12 months or so:
- Front LCAs
- New coolant reservoir
- Replaced injector 1 which was misfiring
- New radiator
- New rear propshaft
- Added OA long range fuel tank and rear wheel carrier
- Added Frontrunner ladder which made packing the roof a lot easier.
I tried using the Ark cig charger for my Ark box to run the 40L fridge, and that didn’t work. Basically the charging while driving didn’t keep up with the drain from the fridge which was set as a freezer. It could be the battery which is almost 10yo, I’m currently testing the battery but will most likely get a traxide kit for the next trip north in 18 months.
Cheers,
Randy