Thread: How D4 Suspension handling on corrugation and Simpson?

Originally Posted by Redback

Yep those toyota blokes are the experts after all, if someone that has never owned a vehicle, makes a comment on that vehicle, then I tend to ignore that person.

Never had an issue with corrigations, never heard of that error message either, I've crossed 100 creeks, from axle height to bonnet height, never had an issue, I did have a height sensor go and it put up a suspension fault, it had exposed wires, so I'd assume it had contact with something, but it never stopped the car, just press the OK button and continue, reset the car once you stop next, not a problem really, plug in your diagnostic thingy to find the fault code, it will tell you what sensor is the problem, get it replaced when you get the opportunity, for us it was when we got home a couple of weeks later.

A diagnostic tool won't fix the issue, but it will give you an idea of whether it's a serious issue or not, either way you can clear the fault to get you mobile again, a serious problem will put up a different light colour, minor issue is yellow, serious issue red, red means get it looked at ASAP, there's not many faults that will stop you dead, especially if you have a diagnostic tool with you, 9 times out of 10 most issues are minor, that 1 out of 10 will mean get to a mechanic ASAP and that's where the Diagnostic tool will help, keep in mind LRs are not the only vehicle that has that 1 out of 10 moment, they are a pretty tough 4WD, so don't worry too much about the vehicle failing, remember the glass is half full

Baz.

I'm new to this forum. Looking at buying a Discovery. Currently, I'm a Toyota guy. I have a 76 Series Landcruiser 2013 with all the things you can possibly install/attach to it. BP-51 suspension, underbody water tanks, larger fuel tank and massive list goes on. The stories I was told about the Simpson when I mentioned on Toyota forum that I was going there solo... scared me quite honestly. When I got there, going over every dune I thought this is it, it is going to be horrendous over the other side. It wasn't. This was all the way until Big Red. Unticlimactic really. It's nowhere near as bad as people say it is. Remote, sure. Other than that, there was a fellow I passed who was doing it solo in a Freelander 2. That should tell you all you need to know. Oh and the corrugations... regardless of how good ARB says their suspension is, it was a nightmare for the Landcruiser. I thought the panels were going to come loose and this is with their top of the line Suspension. There are massive bogholes that all have an alternate route right next to them so if you don't tempt fate, you will be fine.

Originally Posted by IgorKaz

I'm new to this forum. Looking at buying a Discovery. Currently, I'm a Toyota guy. I have a 76 Series Landcruiser 2013 with all the things you can possibly install/attach to it. BP-51 suspension, underbody water tanks, larger fuel tank and massive list goes on. The stories I was told about the Simpson when I mentioned on Toyota forum that I was going there solo... scared me quite honestly. When I got there, going over every dune I thought this is it, it is going to be horrendous over the other side. It wasn't. This was all the way until Big Red. Unticlimactic really. It's nowhere near as bad as people say it is. Remote, sure. Other than that, there was a fellow I passed who was doing it solo in a Freelander 2. That should tell you all you need to know. Oh and the corrugations... regardless of how good ARB says their suspension is, it was a nightmare for the Landcruiser. I thought the panels were going to come loose and this is with their top of the line Suspension. There are massive bogholes that all have an alternate route right next to them so if you don't tempt fate, you will be fine.

Yeah I got those stories too, we did it solo also, in our old Discovery 2 towing a camper going east/west, there will always be some who think these trips like the Simpson and the Cape are tough trips, but in reality they are quite easy if you're sensible.
Nothing wrong with being a Toyota guy, I have a few good friends with Toyotas, two of which have 79 series single cabs, great vehicle, I would have no problem owning a Toyota, in fact I've had 3 myself, but I do take offence to owners of other makes who think they know how good or bad what others are driving and have that "you need a Toyota if you want to do remote travel" gives me the irrits.

We do most of our trips solo, never had any issues that stopped us yet.

Anyway to get an idea of how good the D4 is on corragations, you need to be in the drivers seat, it's far better than our old Disco 2, some sections of our Cape and Simpson trip in the D2 the dash was a blur and I thought the car was going to self destruct but we survived, despite all the neh sayers and we didn't need to fix or retighten anything at any stage

Welcome to the forum by the way

We were at Birdsville last year and had a play on Big Red. My D4 was the only car while we were there to get up the hard track on the west side of Big Red and it did it effortlessly. We went for a 30 minute drive into the desert and back to have a look and couldn't believe how easy it was to get up the sand hills. We just drove a steady pretty slow speed and no wheel spin or anything, despite big holes that others had dug with their spinning wheels.


We had our tyres on 18 psi, which seems to be rare, given the guy in a Patrol ute that we helped to get up the west side of Little Red, who, after spending ages letting his tyres down because he couldn't get anywhere, still had 50 psi in them. I put my Stauns on and let them right down and he just drove straight up from a standing start. Before that he wouldn't get more than a third of the way with a run up.


The red sand in the desert is a lot firmer than the sand we are used to in the west, so it is not really difficult at all. The only thing that makes it harder is the idiots that dig up the track.

Originally Posted by BobD

We had our tyres on 18 psi, which seems to be rare, given the guy in a Patrol ute that we helped to get up the west side of Little Red, who, after spending ages letting his tyres down because he couldn't get anywhere, still had 50 psi in them. I put my Stauns on and let them right down and he just drove straight up from a standing start. Before that he wouldn't get more than a third of the way with a run up.

The red sand in the desert is a lot firmer than the sand we are used to in the west, so it is not really difficult at all. The only thing that makes it harder is the idiots that dig up the track.

That's exactly what I had to do.... drop the pressures (obviously) and take a run up. Being manual, I would run out of steam at the top and just wouldn't have enough to get over from stand still. So run up was a must for me.
Part of the reason I am looking to get into a Discovery. Don't want to drive stick anymore. Getting lazy.
If you went from the Big Red into the Simpson, that's East to West. This is supposed to be the harder direction with steeper dunes etc. what you drove over at the entry pretty much continues all the way. In fact it is probably "steeper" and "more difficult" closer to big red.

I wonder if the guy you spotted in the Freelander was the guy from here. Can't remember his name off the top of my head, something starting with V----
He wrote an extremely funny report about it all.

Originally Posted by Chops

I wonder if the guy you spotted in the Freelander was the guy from here. Can't remember his name off the top of my head, something starting with V----
He wrote an extremely funny report about it all.

I had also seen the FL2 story ages ago and went looking for the thread.
Second page, post #12, username Vesko
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/freelande...simpson-2.html

Cheers,
Scott

Yep, that's him, it's a great adventure he had, and he tells it so well too

Thanks for finding that Scott.

I think your AULRO membership title should be "The Archivist" as you always seem to be able to find posts from years ago!