Thread: Serious desert trip with a D1 300Tdi...asking for trouble or AWESOME??

Across the Simpson we had the 89 litre tank in the D1 plus 3x20 litres on the roof rack, which we emptied into the tank asap, and arrived in Birdsville with over 40 litres to spare.

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Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Across the Simpson we had the 89 litre tank in the D1 plus 3x20 litres on the roof rack, which we emptied into the tank asap, and arrived in Birdsville with over 40 litres to spare.

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Any idea on what the distance was?

I would ideally like a LR Fuel Tank for D1 but they're hard to come by 2nd hand....

Have driven a 300tdi 96 Defender all over southern and east Africa and the CSR last year, spare lift pump,(never used) and some odds and bobs, no real issues, broke a shock absorber driving out of Ndole Bay near lake Tanganiyka, my fault. On CSR was with a new Hilux and 79 series cruiser, at 18psi and an average speed of 25km/h we made every dune and had no issues. Slowly and enjoyable.

Vehicle now in storage and will drive it around the world in 3/4 years... maybe with a few mods.

As most say just get out and go, before you can't...

Cheers

Tim

Just wondering. The camel trophy cars had 235/85 tires on them. Everyone here says to keep it stock. But those cars went through some gruelling tracks. I assume they had all the drivetrain upgraded to have heavy duty stuff? Were the gearboxes and transfer cases also modified? If one were to modify the other components, then bigger tires and higher suspension would be okay? This is just theoretical. I know it would be cheaper to just leave it stock, but interested to know.

I have a CT 110 and no heavy duty items that I know of... bloody heavy though with all the bar work, and it had 750/16's when in event.

I have upgraded suspension to Koni Raids and OME springs, VNT turbo and Allisport radiator and intercooler as original was UK spec, and HD axles and now have 235/85's...

Tim

Originally Posted by Robmacca

Any idea on what the distance was?

I would ideally like a LR Fuel Tank for D1 but they're hard to come by 2nd hand....

From memory the Simpson itself was about 600, but it depends on what route and detours you choose.

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Originally Posted by Fausto79

i have 245/75 on mine. it does make a difference. i think what everyone is telling you is leave suspension standard height and tires 235/70 as per factory, if you want to do remote touring that is.

i do a bit of highway driving and some offroad to camping spots etc. so 2inch lift and bigger tires suits me fine and gets me to some fairly hard to get spots.

my braking has been affected by the bigger tire as has my pick up. you need to play with the clutch on take off more so now or you get some shudder and can stall. this has follow on effects on rest of drivetrain. you dont want that when you are 1000km from the nearest person.

i did want to do some touring later down the track, would have been mostly highway touring though so would have left as is. if i was to do outback touring though, id probably change back to factory settings after this discussion.

you seem to still want the lift and bigger tires against what people here are telling you.

Finally I got a chance to answer a few of these...yes I agree the discussions are pointing towards totally stock settings for outback touring, however my vehicle already has a 2" lift and high quality upgraded springs and shocks and even axle upgrades (to cope better with the other upgrades??) and runs 245/75/16 tyres.

I have zero space as I live in a small apartment, so a different set of wheels with different tyres for different applications is out of the question. Also since my vehicle already has this stuff done to it, and done well, I'm loathed to even think about reversing it especially since outback trips are definitely not the only thing I want to do in this vehicle and there's no way I have the resources to keep chopping and changing depending on what kind of trip I decide to take. I don't want to beef it up any more, that's a definite, but I want to be able to do good tricky off road stuff that requires a little extra clearance as well as be reliable for outback stuff so I'm hoping what I've got is a good happy medium that is either still very reliable for outback touring (since it's only got very modest upgrades) or can be made so by upgrading things like brakes or other bits that are purely to make it stronger and more reliable...it sounds like there are definitely a few options for that.

Fantastic discussion it's getting me so jazzed up for a trip!

Originally Posted by Fausto79

Just wondering. The camel trophy cars had 235/85 tires on them. Everyone here says to keep it stock. But those cars went through some gruelling tracks. I assume they had all the drivetrain upgraded to have heavy duty stuff? Were the gearboxes and transfer cases also modified? If one were to modify the other components, then bigger tires and higher suspension would be okay? This is just theoretical. I know it would be cheaper to just leave it stock, but interested to know.

Great question, I read this after I posted my other post...really interested to know other points of view on this train of thought.