Thread: 2014 Range Rover Tyres and Suspension for Australian conditions.

Sorry but a lot of people seem to be banging on about this and think that because it is a more expensive car this should not be an issue.

Sorry - but puncturing tyres, breaking shocks and even breaking springs is a natural part of life when driving in that part of the world. You can be right one day and have issues the next - depends on a whole range of variable conditions.

Maybe the only unusual issue is that there is an airbag around the shock and it is a bit harder than some to change.

Someone driving a Toyota, Nissan, Mitsu and even a Landie who had shock failure and was not mechanically minded and did not have spare parts would have ended up in the same position.

I think we are being a bit hard on the old RR.

Garry

Originally Posted by Ozjet

I guess the notion of having to nurse your car along the corrugated road and stopping regularly to measure the shock temps - and then wait for them to cool before progressing the journey highlights my point. Why should you NEED to do this on a 200k vehicle that is pitched by Landrover as the most capable off road car in the world. I reflect on the countless hours I've driven on outback roads over the years at a comfortable (but safe) clip in other vehicles without being overly concerned about my suspension and tyres and I've never had one failure. All I've needed to do is reduce the air pressure down to about 28psi and off I've gone - no needing to stop by the edge of a dusty road in the hot sun being covered by flies (sometimes) to check shockie temp just to ensure you get to the end of the journey with shockies and tyres in tact. Dougal, you're probably right. a little bit of air out of tyres on 20 inch rims wouldn't help that much - but what does seem so wrong is that a car that is designed to be so good of road can't mix it with the pack when it comes to Australian corrugations.

As I said before - there are only two accounts that I can find (Greg's and Toby Hagon's) of RR's on outback roads. In both accounts there were catastrophic failure of shocks.

As a way of not falling victim to the same thing - yes, you could doddle along at a snails pace, yes you could stop a regular intervals to check the temperature status of the shocks, and yes, you could carry spare shocks BUT, wouldn't it be just better if the Range Rover was designed in such a way that owners could be more confident in the suspension or equivalently confident as they would be with any of the main brands that are commonly seen traversing this great country of ours.

It's really frustrating that they didn't consider resolving this issue at the time of release of the 2013 model. Had they done this I'd say that they could proclaim (hand on heart) that their cars were undeniably the best cars off road.

Sorry if this sounds like a rant but I guess that my frustration over this issue is directly proportional to my love of the car. What I'm hoping is that there are a lot more untold stories of loaded RRs travelling along outback roads without incident.

Still, I should keep things in perspective here as it's very much a first world problem!

Ozjet, I have now done over 70,000km in my 2011 Vogue Luxury and a lot of that, nowhere near 1/2, but a lot of it has been on corrugated dirt road in outback Qld and in the mining areas of NSW and I do not have shock failure. I am sure if you speak to the guys doing the trips that lead to shock failure you will find they were towing or ran a heavy car and that will lead to OEM shock failure on the type of roads they were on. It will do it on any vehicle, not just Range Rovers. If you are going to do an expedition, you need to prepare for it. In a past life I was the GM of one of the major 4wd products retailers and I have built or been responsible for the build of more vehicles that were destined for the "big trip" than I can poke a blunt stick at and yet all of them needed some form of major suspension help to do the job being asked of them. You might think that because you're paying a certain amount of money for a car, you should get what you want in every circumstance and I cant argue with that but if you want an indication of what I'm talking about, go to a new car dealer and find a new vehicle fitted with leaf springs and take a good hard look at the springs. For a spring to work, it must have a curve in it, a place to bend to when put thru it's arc of operation, but I bet you find that most leaf sprung vehicle from new have flat or inverse springs. This is because of a build budget, the manufacturer chose to fit cheap and nasty springs because they are out of sight and out of mind. When we consider a "lift kit" for a leaf sprung or torsion bar vehicle, it is really just taking the suspension back to where it should have been had it been fitted with a fully working suspension as new. So my point is, that no matter how much you want it, your suspension will let you down under extreme conditions no matter what you pay and what you drive. If you want it to work under those extreme conditions, go to a specialist and have it built to suit your requirements.
Sorry for the rant

Grant

Grant - not a rant. I understand what you mean. Epic trips need proportionate preparation. Knowing what you know, what suspension mods could you/would you make on the RR to make it more suitable for outback touring? I'm anticipating that I'll be moderately to heavily loaded in the back of the car and towing with about 150kg - 200kg on the ball.

Just so everyone in this thread knows - I'm honestly not trying to be intentionally provocative and I do appreciate your comments - I'm just trying to ascertain if RR (because of their design) are going to be more prone to failure on the roads I intend driving.

What I haven't heard anyone say categorically (or even with much confidence) is that if I took my newish RR (loaded and towing) with the Cooper A/T's I'd be no more prone to tyre or suspension failure than I would be in an equally prepared Land Cruiser for example, with fresh Coopers/BFG's (285/75/R16) driven with the same load on the same roads with the same driving style.

(Unless that is what some of you are actually saying?)


I have had lots of experience touring in the outback and have always made sure the car I'm driving is prepared as sensibly as possible. For me - it means making sure that the scheduled serving is up to date, filters and fluids are replaced and belts inspected and replaced if required. Most important for me is that the replacement of tyres occurs just before a big trip and the suspension inspected and revived where required. I don't go and get a whole new suspension ARB kit etc installed. The trips I do are not epic (I'm mostly travel on the Gibb, Great Central for example) - most often they are on gazetted roads. These roads however can be quite corrugated for long quite stretches and it's these conditions I'm most concerned about as this is where I've seen vehicles fail the most. Whilst I've personally never had any vehicle failures I aware that other cars fail too - but like I said before, the failures I seen have often been related to old tyres or inadequate tyre choice or just expecting that their 9 year old fully loaded cruiser would happily belt down any road forever and ever on it's original shocks.

All good info.

The new L322 will never carry the amount I carry on the Perentie. So I'll be using the RAAF Track trailer to lighten the load on the car. The tdv8 should handle it easily especially as it normally has a really light tow ball weight.

So I'm keen on info to help ensure my 19" tyres & shocks survive a trip.

Originally Posted by Ozjet

What I haven't heard anyone say categorically (or even with much confidence) is that if I took my newish RR (loaded and towing) with the Cooper A/T's I'd be no more prone to tyre or suspension failure than I would be in an equally prepared Land Cruiser for example, with fresh Coopers/BFG's (285/75/R16) driven with the same load on the same roads with the same driving style.

For some reason I seem to read more about cooper tyre failures than any other.

Dang Dougal. I didn't want to hear that! I'm am a fan (and user) of BFG but with the RR it looks like I'll have little choice.

Originally Posted by Ozjet

Dang Dougal. I didn't want to hear that! I'm am a fan (and user) of BFG but with the RR it looks like I'll have little choice.

I know what you mean about choice. I recommended a family member put Zeon's on the RRS because they were the only thing that fit the needs. They are wearing well but the cracks in the tread blocks (from solely road use) concern me a little.

If you have 19" then I'd look at the Duratracs. I'm impressed with mine (albeit in a completely different size). 20" you're kind of stuck.

Originally Posted by rar110

So I'm keen on info to help ensure my 19" tyres & shocks survive a trip.

Are your shocks convential or CVD? LR convential shocks generally seem to survive OK unless already worn-out before a big trip. The trick is to detect when they need replacing - mine always by about 60K.