Johni
20th September 2019, 12:32 PM
My wife and I returned this week from an 8000km trip to Karumba, via Bourke, Thargomindah, Hungerford, Windorah, Birdsville, Boulia, Mt Isa, Lawn Hill, Burketown, Normanton, and back through Lightning Ridge. The other couple travelled in a VW Touareg.
I purchased the DS SD4 HSE MY18 as a ‘tough’ replacement for my ‘well tested’ BMW X3, and after the sponsored Adventure Day, I was convinced that the DS would go anywhere – lifting wheels, down hills using paddles etc.
But, in reality, the vehicle is not suited to extended rough outback travelling. Loaded with the equivalent of 5 adults and luggage, no trailer nor van, but a month’s food and drink, fridge, spare battery, Adblue (not available anywhere out there!), compressor etc., the rear of the vehicle is lowered by about 50mm, just enough to be vulnerable to stones that other offroaders can travel over.
On the way out of Hungerford on a rough unsurfaced ‘main’ road a stone clipped the rear diff sump plug which fortunately only fell out near Thargomindah – saved by a Toyota plug and some diff oil! Could have been disastrous..
A factory fitted Conti 235/60 R18 tyre was punctured by a stone on the unsurfaced road to Birdsville and the spare desperately required. Thank goodness for TPMS (Tyre Pressure Monitoring System – saved shredding the tyre and damaging the rim). Travelled all the way to Mt Isa, a reasonable sized town, and managed to get the puncture fixed, but could not buy this configuration tyre anywhere (just in case we needed a second spare). It would take a week to air any brand of tyre from Brisbane – so kept fingers crossed and realised that the DS tyre options do not work outback.
Then on the way to Lawn Hill we lost the front left door moulding, which then allowed more dust to enter the cabin than we had hoped for.
Regrettably it is not possible to fit a ‘roo bar’ to the DS, and we had two whacks, but no serious damage. We only drive during the day, so take no unnecessary risks.
On the way back we noticed that all the tyres were very badly worn – with only 18,000 kms on the clock – turns out that the rough roads had ‘changed’ the toe-in and the tyres were scrubbing/chipping off. Have had to replace with four General Grabber AT3s.
And the rattles in the door panels and thumping on the corrugations were deafening – turns out that the exhaust system hits the chassis when the going gets tough.
During this trying adventure, the Touareg did not miss a beat, and I was not allowed to forget it!
Under controlled urban offroading the DS is magnificent, but beware when the going gets rough!
Having said all this, it was a fantastic trip – brilliant birding, great experiences, and lots of fun.
I purchased the DS SD4 HSE MY18 as a ‘tough’ replacement for my ‘well tested’ BMW X3, and after the sponsored Adventure Day, I was convinced that the DS would go anywhere – lifting wheels, down hills using paddles etc.
But, in reality, the vehicle is not suited to extended rough outback travelling. Loaded with the equivalent of 5 adults and luggage, no trailer nor van, but a month’s food and drink, fridge, spare battery, Adblue (not available anywhere out there!), compressor etc., the rear of the vehicle is lowered by about 50mm, just enough to be vulnerable to stones that other offroaders can travel over.
On the way out of Hungerford on a rough unsurfaced ‘main’ road a stone clipped the rear diff sump plug which fortunately only fell out near Thargomindah – saved by a Toyota plug and some diff oil! Could have been disastrous..
A factory fitted Conti 235/60 R18 tyre was punctured by a stone on the unsurfaced road to Birdsville and the spare desperately required. Thank goodness for TPMS (Tyre Pressure Monitoring System – saved shredding the tyre and damaging the rim). Travelled all the way to Mt Isa, a reasonable sized town, and managed to get the puncture fixed, but could not buy this configuration tyre anywhere (just in case we needed a second spare). It would take a week to air any brand of tyre from Brisbane – so kept fingers crossed and realised that the DS tyre options do not work outback.
Then on the way to Lawn Hill we lost the front left door moulding, which then allowed more dust to enter the cabin than we had hoped for.
Regrettably it is not possible to fit a ‘roo bar’ to the DS, and we had two whacks, but no serious damage. We only drive during the day, so take no unnecessary risks.
On the way back we noticed that all the tyres were very badly worn – with only 18,000 kms on the clock – turns out that the rough roads had ‘changed’ the toe-in and the tyres were scrubbing/chipping off. Have had to replace with four General Grabber AT3s.
And the rattles in the door panels and thumping on the corrugations were deafening – turns out that the exhaust system hits the chassis when the going gets tough.
During this trying adventure, the Touareg did not miss a beat, and I was not allowed to forget it!
Under controlled urban offroading the DS is magnificent, but beware when the going gets rough!
Having said all this, it was a fantastic trip – brilliant birding, great experiences, and lots of fun.