Originally Posted by
TJS-70Y
"There was a humvee in a group ahead of us, heading for Birdsville on the QAA line.
They had followed Madigans line, across the Simpson, we went down the Hay River.
The humvee was not as large as I had expected from only seeing pics before. They are wide, but even with 40" tyres, this one was considerably shorter than my disco."
That was my dad's. It is only around 4.5 metres long but has a 130 inch wheelbase. It runs 37" tyres not 40's.
"That Humvee on the Madigan Line earlier this year was a heavily modified 20 year old ex military one that has done at least 20 desert crossings. The owner is obviously very happy with its performance in the desert.
However, I don't think I'd like paying the fuel bills at a reported 25 l/100kms on the Madigan trip - I got 14.7 l/100kms from the Td5 Defender over about 850kms between Mt Dare and Birdsville."
It has done 2 desert crossings but the driver has done 20+. I has been converted to right hand drive has the four speed out of a civilian one and has been set up for touring storage etc. The fuel consumption was comparable to the toyota traytop and the Gu that was with them. It gets 15.5 litres per 100km on the road with a shipshape on the roof and the aerodynamics of a house brick. Which way did you cross the desert? It's a shame that the owners of very misunderstood vehicles such as Landies and Rangies do exactly the same thing to other makes when they do not have the experience to back it up. Everyone is entitled to an opinion though.
I spent the day in the watagans yesterday with 3 civilian hummers yesterday and they are quite a capable vehicle when in right hands. The H1 is based on the silverado ute and the H3 is based on a modular platform. They are not worthy of the Hummer name in many enthusaists minds. The same could be said of Freelanders in many Landy owners minds.
Thomas
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