Thread: High Country Trip in the D3 - PICS ADDED (16th May)

The D3 almost got through unscathed.

The damage is minor compared to SClarke post on his HC trip.

I'll post some pics tomorrow.

When I was scrambling up the last bit of the rocky track to the trig point of Blue Rag Tk I could hear excitement on the UHF from the 4WD Monthly Group (with SClarke) getting a great view of the HC from Billy Goat Bluff Tk. The view on top of Blue Rag was simply worth the rock scramble to the top. For anyone who has descended from the trig point it is a bit hair raising to say the least with a very narrow saddle with very very steep drops either side to make a bit of a mess of your 4WD (and you) if you fall off 8O

The long haul up Billy Goat Bluff Tk was another highlight. This track certainly gets a lot of traffic judging by the amount of dust and dislodged rocks. My average fuel consumption in the TDV6 was up to 22lt/100km on this Tk.

That minor damage I mentioned was done today on the Mt Wellington Tk when I was trying to get up to the Sentinels to see Lake Tali Karn. The track to the hut is slow going with lots of loose rocks and big rocks to scramble over and it seems to take forever. Once past the hut the track becomes very narrow and my new D3 duco was taking a bit of a battering on both sides. This is when I biffed the LHF wheel onto a rock and managed to take a 20 cent slice out of the tyre near the rim protector and scratch the rim along the bead area. This really annoyed me and soon after taking another biff under the fuel tank guard (I think this is what it is) I gave up and turned around. So close (maybe another 1.5 kms to go). It was clouding over so maybe seeing Lake Tali Karn might have not been possible.

With all of the electronic wizadry in the D3 it certainly make 4WDing much easier. I only had one electronic hic up while I was leaving the hut up the Mt Wellington Tk the Terrain Response decided it didn't want to be available anymore. The D3 was happy to be in low range and any gear but the Terrain Response setting just didn't want to be selected. A switch off of the ignition and restart cleared the error.

The 3 day weekend was an absolute blast. I didn't even have the chance to take out the sat phone I hired to call Land Rover Assist (thankfully) [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif[/img]

Chris

Looks great to see your D3 being used for what it was built for but i dont think I could go off road in a $90k 4x4, please keep us informed of future trips you do would like to see what there reliabilty is like compared to the D2.