Thread: Looking for a new or newish D4

Hope it all worked out ok Mike; being able to walk away from that is an endorsement of the vehicles strength.
Good luck with the search for a replacement - that in itself can be fun!!

Glad you are ok, how & who recovered the D3?

Hi Rich
It was a tow truck company at Nambucca Heads arranged by insurance. He needed to go out and assess one day and then come back the next with two trucks to get it out. He sent me some photos (that he took for the insurance company). The bill was high, but covered by insurance.
Pics now:
The lonely D3 as she ended up:


A couple of the recovery setup:




And up she comes:


It was wet, steep and took him a while apparently.
I will post up more info on it in the trip report.
Cheers
Mike

Yeah I thought it may need some serious gear to get it out!
Did you just loose it on the corner?

Not worth buying the wreck, it's gone!

No I didn't lose it on the corner. Unfortunately not that simple (and I would have to have been travelling way to fast).
A litany of issues. Basically we had just finished some driving including Jacobs Ladder and were on our way back to camp. Then engine fault, overheat. Cause is that apparently the ATF cooler blew, and then mixing of engine coolant and ATF. Probably understating it to say not good.
So we are on a National Parks road, can't leave it there and we needed to get it somewhere where we could leave it safely. The four of us MLD, Isuzutoo-eh, Geedublya and I thought about is and decided to to tow the D3 behind Geoff's D4.
It was going OK until we came to that bend, with a lovely tree right on the apex, as soon as the tow rope touched the tree I was gone, dragged straight over the edge and then it rolled a full 360 landing, against the trees in the picture, on its wheels.
You can see the offending tree in the picture below and Geoff's car just beyond it


You can also see the marks where my car went off the road and how it twisted as it rolled, ending up facing 90 degrees to the direction it went off the road.

Yes we definitely made some mistakes on the tow, and I think we have learned some good lessons, which hopefully we will never have to put in to practise.

So, we did get off the road and out of the way and I guess I have saved the cost of a new transmission.

Cheers
Mike

That is sad to see Mike and glad you're ok. Surprised the towing D4 wasn't also pulled in to the gully. Must have been very scary to say the least. Would you need a shorter tow rope for that situation?

Anyway, hopefully a new/newish D4 will be the silver lining. There seems to be very few things wrong with the later MYs.

Regards,
Scott

Yes one of our mistakes was rhe length of the tow rope. We went longer because we were a bit worried about downhill sections, I had the ignition on but no engine so braking was not good.

But in saying that a shorter one would possibly had the same problem.

And thinking about it the length of the tow rope may have been what saved Geoff's car, as I picked up momentum as I went over the edge, it very likely caused the load to be taken off momentarily slackening the rope. Perhaps if it was shorter there may have been no slack.
Cheers
Mike

Mike, very sorry to hear of the sad tale. Glad you are OK and as Scott has said, it may have been a blessing in disguise! Bring on the D4!