Thread: Are 4WDs too high-tech for the bush?

Don't expect to get Land Rover parts and service outside major cities. There is not a Land Rover dealer in Qld. west of Toowoomba.

And you may have to wait a long time for roadside assist. If the RACQ agent (who is almost always the "assist" contractor) in a small town is out on a job somewhere and out of 'phone contact, roll out your swag. You could be there a while. You can bet they won't have trained staff and special tools for your LR.

I priced an ECM for a popular Jap passenger car. Over $2,000, nil stock, order now and it will come from overseas. Few could afford to carry these as spare parts on an outback trip. I mentioned this to a friend who has a smash repair business. He reckons this is common. Dealers don't carry expensive or slow moving parts, and often the distributor doesn't either. "Ex Japan, six weeks". He pointed to a shape covered by a dust sheet. A medium up-market Jap car. It has been waiting six months for parts from overseas. Parts arrive in dribs and drabs.

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

[/COLOR]Have you ever heard of private property?

There are remarkably few areas of wilderness in the UK for "going bush" but they still find places.

I hardly call an over grown lane way as offroad but yes there are quarry's and and " offroad " parks.

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

Any Aulro regulars know how I feel about automotive electronics. I have had an absolute rooting by them. From personal experience I don't believe auto electronics are yet sufficiently reliable to be considered for a remote area outback rough usage vehicle. My Falcon ute has stopped with distributor failures (3), modules (2), Smart Lock Box (1), coils (3). Refused to start once with a blown fuse in the interior light circuit. The light is switched through the Smart Lock and no light tells the Not So Smart box that something is wrong so it won't start the car. Each replacement distributor came with a new ignition module by the way. The last replaced distributor looked inside like it had been struck by lightning. I grew up in Winton and my family did remote area mail runs from 1908 with horses until 2004. Working in these areas gives one a great appreciation of vehicle reliability. A dead vehicle can mean a dead driver. One of my failures was on a station track between Diamantina Lakes National Park and Coorabulka homestead. Fortunately I was standing in for a cousin who had gone to hospital. He stressed that I take a UHF with me. Workers from Coorabulka came and towed me to the homestead.

I own a County-Isuzu for touring. Stone reliable, no electronics except in the entertainment system, does 30 mpg up the highway. Old, economical, efficient, and reliable technology.

Would Roadside Assist or the RACQ come to your rescue out there?

In the last 5 years how many outback K's have you done in your stone reliable Isuzu?,I've done a few hundred thousand all across WA,SA,NT in my L322 and TDCi defender without one single mechanical or electrical fault,not one,I can't even remember changing a globe.IMHO people will criticize what they don't like or know about and will make up any type of hypothetical argument to back what they say,your Isuzu would be stopped dead in it's tracks by any number of issue's regardless of how little amount of electrics it has.All you people who knock modern vehicles,guess what,they crap all over your old ones in performance,power,economy,comfort,ease of use and most of all capability,a bog standard D4 would eat a county for lunch,it wouldn't even touch the sides. Pat

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

Don't expect to get Land Rover parts and service outside major cities. There is not a Land Rover dealer in Qld. west of Toowoomba.

And you may have to wait a long time for roadside assist. If the RACQ agent (who is almost always the "assist" contractor) in a small town is out on a job somewhere and out of 'phone contact, roll out your swag. You could be there a while. You can bet they won't have trained staff and special tools for your LR.

I priced an ECM for a popular Jap passenger car. Over $2,000, nil stock, order now and it will come from overseas. Few could afford to carry these as spare parts on an outback trip. I mentioned this to a friend who has a smash repair business. He reckons this is common. Dealers don't carry expensive or slow moving parts, and often the distributor doesn't either. "Ex Japan, six weeks". He pointed to a shape covered by a dust sheet. A medium up-market Jap car. It has been waiting six months for parts from overseas. Parts arrive in dribs and drabs.

I had some doubts about my new 130 Puma coming up to the recent Edjits trip off track across the Simpson so spent plenty getting it serviced, suspension upgraded, chipped, took advice from my mechanic and took plenty of spares and purchased a Nanacom.

Fortunately apart from a cooked start battery that dropped a cell which I replaced at Copley and a leaking vacuum pump that I had a replacement part Express posted to Oodnadatta, it went fine.

I read plenty of persons with minor faults being halted or the vehicle going into limp mode and agree it was easier to work out the problem and fix the old 200 Tdi but the comfort, power and ride of the Puma outweighs that.

Yes they are more complicated but if we want less complicated we could get a horse or a camel

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

Don't expect to get Land Rover parts and service outside major cities. There is not a Land Rover dealer in Qld. west of Toowoomba.

And you may have to wait a long time for roadside assist. If the RACQ agent (who is almost always the "assist" contractor) in a small town is out on a job somewhere and out of 'phone contact, roll out your swag. You could be there a while. You can bet they won't have trained staff and special tools for your LR.

I priced an ECM for a popular Jap passenger car. Over $2,000, nil stock, order now and it will come from overseas. Few could afford to carry these as spare parts on an outback trip. I mentioned this to a friend who has a smash repair business. He reckons this is common. Dealers don't carry expensive or slow moving parts, and often the distributor doesn't either. "Ex Japan, six weeks". He pointed to a shape covered by a dust sheet. A medium up-market Jap car. It has been waiting six months for parts from overseas. Parts arrive in dribs and drabs.

How many times have you waited 6 months for a LR part?,never.As far as parts people who travel into outback Oz and get stuck deserve all they get,it happens all the time and it's everyone else's fault they have a clogged fuel filter and no replacement. Pat

Originally Posted by Chucaro

John, one of the things that I really miss was when we used to go to the local Repco shop and was able to get from short and long motors, engine heads and gearboxes to distributors and fuel pumps among other parts for Ford, Holden and Valiant
On the top of that the man behind the counter used to have the knowledge to supply you a cross reference part from other vehicle to the one that you have.
I used Austin pistons and other parts to rebuild my Triumph Herald
Now, we the amount of different models and the complexity on some of them we cannot have that very good old service.

Thats why we buy modern vehicles,we aren't interested in rebuilding motors every other year,we like to travel instead. Pat

Originally Posted by PAT303

Thats why we buy modern vehicles,we aren't interested in rebuilding motors every other year,we like to travel instead. Pat

Old engines need rebuilding every other year?
I can list so many old engines that last close or more to 1 million km that it is not funny.

I doubt whether the quality of the electronics and wiring in a $7M Komatsu 960 dump truck can be compared to the stuff in any modern 4wd, in terms of reliability, and harsh environmental protection.
That would be like comparing avionics with auto electrics.
Plus those trucks dont range very far from a workshop.
And only use the electronics which are necessary to make them more cost-effective at moving dirt around.