Thread: Sydney to Coober Pedy in a D2?

Originally Posted by alpick

300 km east of Alice on the plenty hiway near harts range, middle of no where land! the Transmission cooler hose pressure connection to the pipe let go and in an instant 9.7 ltrs of fluid spewed forth over the engine and no trans drive of course. Cannot be fixed with a clamp and refill (150 psi fluid pressure).

Cheers

Alpick

Lucky mine's a manual then ...

Thanks for sharing your story Alpick ... sorry to hear about all your troubles. I hope the bill isn't too high.

Thanks for the tips too! Extra NRMA cover is certainly on the list.

Cheers

Craig

Originally Posted by alpick

I am in the midst of syd bris alice (via plenty hiway) palm valley, lrapinta trail , ood track wilpena sydney. Currently sitting in motel waiting to pick up Disco from workshop in alice Tomorrow

2000 D2 td5 110k, in very sound condition (or so I thought)!

had the car trip inpsected at Coopers in Syd and recent 100k service there as well. thought she was in tip top shape.( the reciepts prooved it I thought).

carried reasonable tool kit, UHF, engine saver temp gauge ( a must), hard range SLS emer recovery kit (carry dont fit), new sls bags and an old one for spare, spare fuel pump, MAF, fuel filter, second spare tyre, sat phone, epirb and took out the NRMA premium insurance for remote recovery.

hooked up the camper and set off.

300 km east of Alice on the plenty hiway near harts range, middle of no where land! the Transmission cooler hose pressure connection to the pipe let go and in an instant 9.7 ltrs of fluid spewed forth over the engine and no trans drive of course. Cannot be fixed with a clamp and refill (150 psi fluid pressure).

got on the sat phone, rang NRMA, recovery vehicle dispatched from Alice, 4 hours later she was on the flat bed which was towing the camper. arrived Alice about 6pm Sat 1st May

vehicle stored SAT- Tues morn (long weekend in Alice), delivered to suttons in Alice and car sat in work shop until last friday as there was abacklog of work due long weekend 2 short weeks etc.

NRMA ins pays for hire car 7 days from car going into workshop, hired prado and went camping, got bogged in sand leaving Palm valley (no clearance crap road tyres 1 hour dig out bt hey palm valley is a beaut place).

NRMA pays $700 towards accom, now in second night of motel accom hoping car is ready tomorrow transmission willing.

MORAL , Sat phone, NRMA insurance essential!! for landrover Disco remote touring, they are not a dependable vehicle, want one of those get a toyota troop carrier 4.5 ltr v8 diesel.thats all they use out here really!

Change any/ALL hoses that are over 8 years old if you are going remote, its way cheaper than having them go fail.

That no where/no one really mentioned trans cooler hose failure in my research for the trip is a pity as post event both Coopers and Suttons here in Alice say "yair not common but it does happen occasionally", thanks for the advice AFTER THE FACT !!

Waitin for the Bill (NRMA dont cover that!).

My next long distance remote touring trip, you know the 3 mth type around the top end, will not be done in a landrover. Love the car but they just aren't dependable enough and remote repair is too problematic I'm sorry. Nice for weekends in the hills around Syd but.

By the Way the recovery driver said car of the moment is brand new Landcruiser V8 Diesels, outback roads are shaking the **** out of the cars and causing all hell with the electronics in the new version, and once a connection goes loose the car shuts down. the recoverers are towing them into Alice from all over the region.

Hope your trip is trouble free, if you see a dark blue D2 towing a camper going the opposite way say hi on Ch40.

Cheers

Alpick

Sorry to hear of your issues, not a nice way to spend a holiday...

"yair not common but it does happen occasionally", thanks for the advice AFTER THE FACT !!

And what would you have done if they had told you? Seriously?
Most people only do a visual / touch inspection and wont pay the hundreds of $$$ required to remove and swage on a new fitting.
Many vehicles have done multitudes of kilometers without issue.
All one can do is check the hoses and if all seems good off you go.
You can fabricate new pipes with weld on fittings if you want it bullet proof - but even hoses fail.

My next long distance remote touring trip, you know the 3 mth type around the top end, will not be done in a landrover. Love the car but they just aren't dependable enough and remote repair is too problematic I'm sorry. Nice for weekends in the hills around Syd but.

Remote repair is not any more or less problematic than a Jap brand... Unless its just an oil filter..
Even the most simple gear for a Cruiser is now often a fly-in order.
Anything 'heavy' will be 4-6 weeks from Japan. So dont break a diff etc...
Or have an electronic issue of any sort....

Sorry to inform you but the tour companies around the top and especially Alice Springs are running Discovery 3's as tour vehicles without issues.
And love them! They would be working harder than most private vehicles.

MORAL , Sat phone, NRMA insurance essential!! for landrover Disco remote touring, they are not a dependable vehicle, want one of those get a toyota troop carrier 4.5 ltr v8 diesel.thats all they use out here really!

Sorry But what you say above (in Blue) is bull dust.

ANY vehicle can have issues... I see lots of vehicles on flat bed recovery vehicles pass through every day...

Most are Toyotas.... Both V8 and HiLux... Not many older 80 or 100 series only the new ones!

Grab a troopy and enjoy all the failures (which ironically YOU quoted up above as being the recovered vehicle of choice by the tow driver) - Enjoy the excessive oil consumption, rattles, electronic and electrical issues, alternator failures, hub issues and driveline vibrations. Or the clutch failures and gearbox issues.

Or grab a HiLux - enjoy the rattles on the dash of a 50,000km old vehicle, the airbags trying to bounce out of the dash... 3 steering racks in 1 vehicle in 90,000km... The other one I use has had 2 in 140,000km.
Continuous ball joint replacement... Bullbars - Both factory - that have to be welded back together every 3rd service... The mystery globe failures...

Then enjoy the hire vehicle you'll get whilst they wait 4-6 weeks for a simple engine part, or diff component...

Sorry, but ANYONE who thinks that the other offerings are reliable compared to the LR range - has their head so far up in the clouds that they deserve to own a "Great Wall"

Strangy has pretty much nailed it with the advice...

All I will add is the following:

TYRE PRESSURES... I cannot stress this one enough...

and

SPEED... Its NOT a race... On rough gibber etc... SLOW DOWN...

Combining the 2 above and you wont damage a tyre...

Originally Posted by Tombie

TYRE PRESSURES... I cannot stress this one enough...

and

SPEED... Its NOT a race... On rough gibber etc... SLOW DOWN...

Combining the 2 above and you wont damage a tyre...

Thanks Tombie!

Should I be looking at a system like TyreDog?

4 Wheel WTPMS :: 4 Wheel Tyre Pressure Monitor (0 to 60 PSI) - TYREDOG Tyre Pressure and Temperature Monitoring Systems

or is there a cheaper option ... other than stopping every couple of Ks to check em.

C

A search on ebay will save you $100, hmmm, just about affordable at that price.

Get yourself a good pressure gauge for your tyres and forget the tyre monitoring system. You will catch a slow leak with a monitoring system, I don't know if that is a common mode of failure.

I was dissapointed to have my tyredog sensors knocked off but did not think it was worth buying a replacement system as they wanted the same for replacement sensors as the cost of a new system.

She's just had her 100000km service ... no major issues other than a poor earth from the battery.

So the mechanic has suggested replacing the front propshaft with a reconditioned greasable one and perhaps the starter motor as it sometimes clicks when starting but I put that down to low voltage in the battery because of the earthing problem ... thoughts?

C

tyre pressures on the rough dirt for loaded D2 high speed cruise 75-85 kmhr towing a camper trailer.

front 22-24 rear 26-30

I ran 24/30 (normally 28/48 on tar) for the plenty and sandover and ood tracks and had a smooth ride great handling with lotsa traction,

See pink roadhouse guide (google it ).

lotsa people reckon its too low pressures but the proof is in the ride/grip