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Thread: Murphy's Law, catastrophic failure in a very bad place

  1. #1
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    Murphy's Law, catastrophic failure in a very bad place

    I write this from Broome, where my wife and I have arrived this afternoon on a Cessna we had to charter from Drysdale River Station, 700km by road from here up the Gibb River Rd/Kalumburu Rd, where we had to leave the beloved Rangie. She suffered a catastrophic rear shock absorber failure on some of the worst roads in Australia.
    Meanwhile the car is on its way to Broome on a tilt-tray truck called in from Kununurra, and we hope to get it repaired at the local LR agent here. Been quite an adventure. Those roads up there are wrecking yards, camper trailers abandoned by the side of the road, broken axles, Landcruisers and Pajeros with blown shocks all over the place.
    It's a long, convoluted story, more to come. In the meantime, absolute joy to be in a nice hotel room after lying under the car in 35 degree heat on the Mitchell Falls track with hot hydraulic fluid dripping all over me. Good grief.

    Never again on 20 inch tyres, even at low speed and aired down as low as I dared.

    The car should arrive here tomorrow. That's the easy bit. Apparently the only right rear replacement shock for a full fat L322 in Australia is in Melbourne. Otherwise, according to the dealer, they have to be brought out from the UK.

    Interesting predicament. Will post some pics/video in the next couple of days. s
    2016 Disco 4 SDV6 SE - LR tank, RWC, Gap IID, UHF, GOE compressor guard, Hema HX1.
    2008 Mercedes E350
    2012 Mercedes 250 CGI Estate (sold)
    2012 L322 TDV8 Luxury (badly missed!)
    2010 RRS 3.0 (sold)
    2007 Audi TT Quattro 3.2 (sold)

  2. #2
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    G'day Greg,

    So sorry to hear your tale of woe and travails with the Rangie.

    I have found that even the main dealers in the capitol cities don't seem to stock much beyond the usual service consumables, and get everything else shipped from the main LRA warehouse (which I think is actually here in Melbourne though I could be wrong - it's happened before!). Not sure whether this is economic measures; that they don't have to dedicate storage space to stuff they don't use every day/week maybe.

    They keep lots of weird and wonderful stuff in that warehouse so hopefully what you need will be in stock and can wing it's way toward your car promptly. Stuff seems to get here quickly even from the UK (3-4 days?), though that'll still be time you'd rather have travelling I know.

    Anyway I hope it works out well and quickly for all of you. We look forward to further tales as you are able. I have enjoyed reading your notes re the trip so far.

    Good luck and Cheers,
    Iain
    Iain
    VK3BIT

    03MY Range Rover HSE Td6

    Nudge Bar, Sat-Nav, Cargo Barrier, IC-450, IC-706 and Codan 9350, DT-90 DBS, Chipped!

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  3. #3
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    Sorry to hear of you trouble Greg.

    May be quicker & cheaper to get your own in from the UK.

    Hope it all works out for the best

    Gary

  4. #4
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    Not good to hear mate. I pray every night that I don't fall to a similar faite when I get across there.

    I like how you said:

    Quote Originally Posted by GregMilner View Post
    ......on some of the worst roads in Australia.

    ........Those roads up there are wrecking yards, camper trailers abandoned by the side of the road, broken axles, Landcruisers and Pajeros with blown shocks all over the place

    Including Land Cruisers and Pajeros but you didn't mention your own LR.

    Happy Days

  5. #5
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    Bad luck mate hope you are back on the road soon.

    It's not just LR that keep low stock levels of shocks. Had my work Commodore (VE) in for a service, and asked them to check the rear end as it handled funny. Picked the car up in the afternoon and they said
    'Yep, rear shocks were stuffed'.

    'Great' I said 'it should handle like a new car again now'

    'Oh, we didn't replace them, we don't keep them in stock, we've ordered them, but you'll have to come back another day to have them fitted'

    So a very large Holden dealer doesn't even stock shocks for a 3 year old car....
    If you need to contact me please email homestarrunnerau@gmail.com - thanks - Gav.

  6. #6
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    lots of kudos for taking a Fully-Phat RR out there to begin with!

    any other issues?
    "How long since you've visited The Good Oil?"

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    '21 to Infinity and Beyond!


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  7. #7
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    Thanks for all your comments guys. The story isn't over yet.

    You all would have had a laugh had you been there. I've already written about 3,000 words for a story I'm putting together for one of the national magazines - had plenty of time while cooling our heels at Drysdale River Station for three days. Looking back it was actually funny, trying to deal with Land Rover Roadside Assist from a borrowed sat phone at a bazillion dollars a minute, standing by the side of the car at King Edward River crossing 100km north of Drysdale River Station.
    "You're where?"
    King Edward River, on the track to Mitchell Falls.
    "Okay, where is that?"
    Darling, how about you Google it.
    "Oh...I see. Oh dear. I'm sorry, but I don't think we cover you for recovery from a place like that, it's not a gazetted road..."
    You mean, you'll recover the world's best, most expensive 4WD from a suburb in Sydney, but not if it's actually, er...off road???

    So with busted shocks we endured a 5 hour trip, crawling at 20kmh - often down to 5kmh - bouncing violently all over the place, back the 100km to Drysdale River Station where I spent most of the next two days trying to deal with roadside assist people - a different one every time I called - from a steam-driven pay phone (housed in an old fridge!) out the front of the station homestead. The tilt-tray truck finally arrived yesterday, from Kununurra 400km away up the Gibb, to take the car to the agent in Broome, another 700km down the Gibb to the west. And he has to go back and pick up our camper trailer and bring that back too. Fortunately, Land Rover are picking up the bill, which is going to be pretty eye-watering.
    I said to them, how do you suggest my wife and I get back to Broome?
    "Well, what usually happens is the owner rides in the cab of the truck, we're happy for you to do that."
    Well, I'm certainly not happy to make my wife endure a 12 hour overnight trip down the Gibb River Rd in a truck cab, particularly since the driver was going to stop and roll out his swag by the road at the Windjana Gorge turn-off. And we had no camping gear with us except the camper trailer. So we ended up having to charter a Cessna to fly out from Broome and collect us. That'll be $2,310, thank you sir.

    So this morning in Broome I'm dearly hoping the Land Rover people are going to call me with some good news:-)
    Attached Images Attached Images
    2016 Disco 4 SDV6 SE - LR tank, RWC, Gap IID, UHF, GOE compressor guard, Hema HX1.
    2008 Mercedes E350
    2012 Mercedes 250 CGI Estate (sold)
    2012 L322 TDV8 Luxury (badly missed!)
    2010 RRS 3.0 (sold)
    2007 Audi TT Quattro 3.2 (sold)

  8. #8
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    Years ago I had a rear shock fall in half coming down from the plateau. We drove for about 1000km with one rear shock. Very bouncy.

    We could have bought a shock from another vehicle like a Patrol. In hindsight I should have done that as while not exactly right it would have been better than driving the 110 with one shock.

    You could get a mechanic to pull out the shock to see if they have something similar that will get you going again quickly. They are good at improvising up there. It's an option that might be worth considering.
    L322 tdv8 poverty pack - wow
    Perentie 110 wagon ARN 49-107 (probably selling) turbo, p/steer, RFSV front axle/trutrack, HF, gullwing windows, double jerrys etc.
    Perentie 110 wagon ARN 48-699 another project
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    REMLR # 137

  9. #9
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    Bummer - that is a sorry sight.

    According to my old man, who in retirement has travelled all over the outback during the past 15 years.

    The biggest killer is speed. So with a previous thread in mind, am I allowed to ask?

    Being a retired couple with heaps of time they are never in a hurry and the 300tdi Disco was recently retired to “Fraser Island duty only” with 385000km showing and in desperate need of new suspension components. I’d say 16” tyres with 28psi also helps.

    His simple rules, when the black stuff runs out, the tyres go to 28 on the car, 24 on the camper, the speed < 80. Rarely gets punctures since he introduced those 2 rules, only other issue he’s had is the tensioner pulley (half way down the Gibb River road), a hose (near Innamincka) and a thermostat housing gasket.

    Everyone blasts past him (with rocks flying); most are changing tyres (or more) later in the day when he potters through. They all end up in the same camp ground around the same time….

    At least it is the rear and not the front which is a strut carrying the air spring...
    L322 3.6TDv8 Lux

  10. #10
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    Yes we had thought of that, among a dozen 'what-ifs' we were considering. But a near-new vehicle under warranty, I am very nervous about doing anything major for fear of giving LR any excuse to void the warranty. And in any case, I had neither the tools, the expertise nor the inclination to lift the car with a single 6 ton bottle jack in the middle of the bush and make repairs...even if we could have found a suitable shock, which, with the rate of destruction of these things out there, would have been difficult finding one anyway.

    One guy with a Landcruiser was stuck up at Mitchell Falls with two broken rear shocks. We heard on the radio that he got two replacements flown in by helicopter from Kununurra, cost him more than $2,000!
    2016 Disco 4 SDV6 SE - LR tank, RWC, Gap IID, UHF, GOE compressor guard, Hema HX1.
    2008 Mercedes E350
    2012 Mercedes 250 CGI Estate (sold)
    2012 L322 TDV8 Luxury (badly missed!)
    2010 RRS 3.0 (sold)
    2007 Audi TT Quattro 3.2 (sold)

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