new car

Bit of a pointless comment. Obviously your setup suits your purpose.
They said they would be putting stuff on the vehicle and doing a desert trip, therefore extra weight. Do you know exactly where they might be going clearance wise. There are many owners that change suspensions for various reasons.

They are buying a brand new vehicle that they have never owned or driven before. Then they planning mods to it without even driving it. They have also been advised there may be issues with MuX that have been lifted. I thought a view from an owner of a similar vehicle may be acceptable but apparently not. My ute is currently sitting about 150Kg under max GVM with standard height heavy duty springs on the rear. Our last trip was the Canning, the Gary and the Gunbarrel. I have also owned a slew of lifted 4x4s and honestly prefer this one at standard height.

First you say you have a standard DMax with no clearance issues, then you say you have heavy duty springs, obviously the standard DMax didn't suite your purpose, and you don't know where they may be going clearance wise

I learnt that lesson long ago.
Bought a new 2000 model Prado which had 230mm clearance (more than the MUX). First trip was to the Vic High Country and absolutely trashed the underside and fuel tanks because it was well loaded and the celarance was inadequate for the terrain.
Lifted and heavier duty springs are the first thing I do so I avoid damage to the underside.

The suspension on any new 4wd suv is too soft and made for bitumen roads. As soon as I bought my Pajero I had a 2inch lift and lovells/bilstein shocks fitted. Turned an ordinary car into a great handling, better off road car and felt a lot better towing as well. Shop around because I reckon arb are just hellishly expensive for what you get.

Yea ARB gear is pricey but I have owned 4wd vehicles for 40 years with ARB equipment fitted & never had any problems at all.
I need 100% trust in my vehicle when going remote so I really wouldn't consider anything else.
I did get another (cheaper) quote for all the add on's to my latest vehicle but just for peace of mind wanted to stick with the reliability of a product that has served me well for many years.
Agree about the standard suspension on most vehicles not being suitable for loaded, extended travel. My last Hilux had a suspension upgrade & I reckon it was way better than all the factory suspensions I had owned prior.

Cheers
Stu

Thanks for all the comments and help. It is just good to get the run down from people experienced in this area. We have done trips before but in a Subaru Forester and know the desert very well, but owning our first big 4x4 is a bit new and we do need to know the issues and possible problems that may arise if we do not set it up properly. We don't want to have problems out there, so want to be as prepared as we can for off road and very rough off road at times where high clearance is an issue. Under body protection is a must in any case and my husband is not satisfied with the clearance in a new car. He even lifted our XF falcon years ago and with chains on the rear wheels, it became a very good off road car for bushwalking trips and creek crossings etc. Still we are learning, and always will be, no one knows everything and we just want to not make silly mistakes and expensive ones if we can help it. We now have some very good ideas from all your posts, thanks again

Could you please tell me what sort of suspension upgrade you did on yours please. we intend doing a Simpson crossing and other off road things and carrying quite big loads.
we upgraded our Subaru forester with lifting springs and lift kit years ago, worked a treat and it has done 10 simpson crossings no problems at all.
Thanks.

Hi Julie,
If you look on the ARB site they suggest you go in & have a talk to them about the suspension packages..
I am so glad we did as they asked LOTS of questions about what sort of travelling we do & all the various items we would have on board including water & fuel.
There was a lot of things we hadn't thought of right down to which Bullbar & winch we were ordering.
They even match the suspension package to the length of time you will carry the calculated loads.
Turned out we needed a GVM (Gross vehicle mass) upgrade. It's amazing when you add things up & find the total weight you have on board!
Another important thing he pointed out that I didn't realise is that if you need a GVM upgrade its WAY easier to do if you haven't had the vehicle registered yet.

We were dealing with ARB Bairnsdale Vic but I would hope the other branches are just as knowledgeable as Craig at the ARB branch there. It was worth the 3 hour drive from Melbourne that's for sure.

Cheers
Stu

I waited a while to do my suspension, 80k to be precise, but should have done it at about 60k. I figured the standard suspension should get some work first, after all, I had just paid for it. Did some pretty hard off road tracks towing a camper trailer and fully loaded in the back of my MY14 D-Max LSU twin cab. Definitely needed an upgrade after that. Very pleased with the upgrade since doing it. Wasn't fussed about the 2" lift that came with it, but the new ride is brilliant. I went to Opposite Lock and they were very professional. I checked out ARB first, but they seemed to be very overpriced for all their gear.

I have an Isuzu bull bar fitted, alloy, and am very impressed. The wife has hit a couple of 'roos so far and it still looks new.

Hope this helps

Put a bigger tank in it? The only current models with a long range tank standard is Cruiser and Patrol

When I ordered my D-Max I had it fitted with a 137L LRT as I was sick of nearly running out when towing with the old Challenger with 65L.

Now I have a range of 1,000k or 650k towing.

Having a small tank isn't a big problem in Australia really. You just need to plan your fuel stops a bit better.
They have done the Simpson many times in a Forester, so I'd say they are all over the fuel management.

Hi Gronk

Many times it is not at all possible to plan fuel stops a bit better as you state above.

I have a 120 series Prado with the standard 180 litre fuel capacity and any serious four wheel drive manufacturer should seriously look at the capacity of their standard tanks, which in most cases it a complete joke for serious long distance remote travel.

A very good number of our desert trips have seen us with no fuel stops at all for over 1300 kilometres, so try doing that with a standard small tank.

The distance across the Simpson is not big in travel terms and not a good comparison for long distance remote travel.


Just my thoughts.



Cheers



Stephen

I agree about the fuel tank. They should have way more capacity than what they come with. Not sure about fitting a long range tank, we tend to carry fuel on the roof in drums. However it may be something we will end up doing. They don't come cheap. A friend of ours had a challenger and fitted a long range tank and ended up with so many issues as they left bits and pieces in the tank when fitting, took him a long time and a lot of money to get sorted. However by now I am sure those issues have been addressed. My husband initially wanted a Fortuner as it has the bigger tank, but the rear seats just put us both right off, even removed they pose an issue and hard to fix. Having a sister and BIL with an MUX and I have driven it, I can see why they love it. I am guessing we will be on a journey of finding out what works, what doesn't and learning. Thanks

A very good number of our desert trips have seen us with no fuel stops at all for over 1300 kilometres, so try doing that with a standard small tank.



I'd like to see you do it with 180ltrs as well ? Across a sand desert ?

They never mentioned doing trips that possibly only 0.5% of offroaders do.

Nice to have a standard long range tank ( I have a 200 series ), but a pain to install/ fit one in a smallish 4wd. The MUX won't have the room underneath like the Dmax.

Friends have a 2014 MUX and did the Simpson E to W in Sept 2015 towing a camper via Rig road. Last fuel at Innamincka then made it to Mt Dare using 2 or 3 jerries. Standard suspension as is my 2001 Pathfinder. Bogged 4 times between us but snatched each other out. See pics in Places of Rig Road for the fun...... W

Hi Gronk

I am no stranger to the Simpson Desert, having travelled it many times. Yes our Prado has been out there a few times and I know in fact I can do a double crossing on my standard tank, so does that count?

The other longer trips for over 1300 kilometres included our last fuel top up at Warburton, down the Connie Sue, side trip out to Sydney Yeo Ranges, Side trip on Parallel No 2 Tracks, Plumbridge Lakes, Lake Rason and our long awaited fuel top at Laverton, just under 1400 kms and i still had just under 20 litres in the tank.

My point is here that you will not do this without taking spare fuel with todays modern vehicle with their very small fuel tanks as standard.

I know the new Prado's now have a 150 litre tank, but they claim with better fuel economy, has the same range as my standard Toyota 180 litre tank.


Cheers



Stephen

The other big advantage of the larger tank is that you can pick your fuel stops to make the most of the cheaper fuel along the route eg Perth to Broome.

While it probably wouldn't happen often, we also got caught out once where the power had gone out in a small town and the pumps weren't working. We had enough fuel to carry on to the next town while other vehicles were stranded until the power came back on several hours later.

Regards

Concur with rowdy here alot of smaller towns have 24hr unmanned pumps that you have to use a valid credit card or fuel card for - and guess which pumps are the ones that get frequently vandalised by the local element leaving everybody stuffed.

Meekatharra especially even the manned r/houses have issues of supply and failure of pumps

for M-UX suggest a diesel tank from dolium (boab tanks has around 45-50l capacity not great ie 180 on prado but better than 60