Are 4WDs too high-tech for the bush?

Its basic probability.
The more complex a thing is, the more faults it will have.
Does not matter if its a luxury 4wd, a F-35 fighter or Microsoft Windows (50 million lines of code in Win 8)

From here

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a premium-class automobile “contains close to 100 million lines of software code.” The software executes on 70-100 microprocessor-based electronic control units (ECUs) networked throughout the body of your car

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Its inevitable that complex new vehicles will have faults and manufacturers are happy to release them quickly to market, after all they can be fixed later via service bulletins (sometime reluctantly) Its just a fair bit more difficult if you are in Woop Woop at the time.

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Originally Posted by shanegtr

On the positive side, if your horse or camel breaks down at least you won't starve to death:D

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Depends what it dies from... :eek::wasntme:

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Originally Posted by spudboy

This thread comes to mind:

Murphys-law-catastrophic-failure-very-bad-place.html (Greg's new L322 RR which blew a rear shock on the Canning Stock Route, and took many thousands of dollars of LR-Assist to get on the road again).

Maybe the 20" rims were the cause? Is that fit for purpose? Because it is such a specialist car, you can't just go to your local Repco and ask for a shock absorber. At least with something more 'traditional' like a PUMA, you stand more of a chance of being able to get something off-the-shelf that can be adapted.

We went through all of this when working out what sort of truck to buy. Something older that a old fashioned diesel mechanic can fix, or something new that needs a factory computer to diagnose. Talking to companies that use trucks in the outback, their attitude was - once these new trucks are bedded in they are ultra reliable and the electronics rarely give problems. So in the end we decided on new.

We had had an "Engine Light" issue in the first 1000 Kms. It went back to MAN and they hooked it up via a satellite to Germany and someone over there diagnosed a faulty 02 sensor. It was still drivable, so hopefully things hold together like that until you can get it to a dealer.

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So if he drove a series three he would not have blown a shock?,my L322 was sold with all four original shocks at 165K and it drove all over the Pilbara.When travelling into remote area's like the canning most people carry a least one front and rear shock,the corrigations break them,the reason weight reduction is so important,20'' rims a problem,my last trip across remote Oz had all five 16'' MTR's suffer complete failure at 40K,I was almost going to fill them with sand to get to the Alice,let me repeat,they were 16'' tyres,my L322's 18'' got one flat travelling the Wanaring road which is all rock,no other problem.You have brought up one bloke that had one problem,thats not really a reason to condemn a vehicle is it. Pat

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Originally Posted by Chucaro

Another view about electronics in vehicles.

Crash analysis at Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) shows that ESC is associated with:

a 32% reduction in single vehicle driver injury crashes1
a 59.6% reduction in driver injury rollover crashes1
an 81.6% reduction in 4WD rollover crashes (4WD offroad vehicles benefit significantly from ESC as they are particularly prone to roll-over crashes due to their high centre of gravity)

There is more to reaad in the howsafeisyourcar site

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Get the same vehicles driven by a bunch of bikky dippers after they have loaded them 500kg over the GVM and fitted a 20'' van on the back and see how well the ESC works.I'm not having a laugh,thats 90% of vehicles you see in winter. Pat

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Originally Posted by 460cixy

Christ there's some blow hards on this forum. Ile stick to my old clangers and you other blokes can have your over priced lame ducks.

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A question if you don't mind Mr 460, given your comments on late model Land Rovers and how they are lame ducks. It would be interesting to know how often do you go seriously off roading in your old clanger to see how capable and or reliable it actually is?

When possible I often read the off road trip reports and I can't say I have ever seen one where you were actually involved.

So I wonder what real life experience you base your comments on about late model Land Rovers being lame ducks, because if you actually did go and read the trip reports there are plenty of reports that are full of story's about those lame duck Landys that you speak about.

For having an expensive rescue of a vehicle (towing) it does not have to be an expedition to a remote bush, 100 km fro Hobart it is enough to ruin the holidays and hit your back pocket hard.
We are fortunate here that we have Justin for LR vehicles and other independent mechanics for other European cars.

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Originally Posted by TerryO

A question if you don't mind Mr 460, given your comments on late model Land Rovers and how they are lame ducks. It would be interesting to know how often do you go seriously off roading in your old clanger to see how capable and or reliable it actually is?

When possible I often read the off road trip reports and I can't say I have ever seen one where you were actually involved.

So I wonder what real life experience you base your comments on about late model Land Rovers being lame ducks, because if you actually did go and read the trip reports there are plenty of reports that are full of story's about those lame duck Landys that you speak about.

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Lets say they more then likely do more then yours ie not just towing a stupid big van down the highway because you can't go with out your noisy diesel heater for a night. I see you have an old clanger too. So it must have some sort of appeal to you. And I don't post trip reports of where I go or what I do just to stroke my ego. My old Dungers are work vehicles and get treated as such fancy pants disco can't carry a ton of wood on the back or dead critters home after a high country hunt. But there perfect I guess for biscuit dippers and caravans doing the hard yards on the hume

Fight, fight, fight - ;)

I will get the popcorn out :D

Terry, Can't remember if you spilled your latte while dunking your bikkie on this section of the Hume, don't think you did did you?:D

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1GRbCe8w9Y&list=UUmc50qQ5eXuB0i2R7_oFqlg# t=163]Land Rover Extreme 4x4 Offroading - AULRO Trek Mt Walker - YouTube[/ame]

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...14/09/1232.jpg