Hi guys
Recently back from another outback loop , this being the first time I have really let our newish auto 4800 Patrol go beyond the city lights and we were determined to try out lots of new things.
Not all worked , but it really is good sometimes to re-evaluate things and just try something new.
Am wondering if others have been surprized by just trying something new and finding it worked better than expected.
We also took a new petrol 200kw Prado and a the new 550nm 3lt V6 diesel Navara so we had 3 near new cars to compare.
The Patrol did seem to have the edge but overall there wasn't much in it and apart from some cosmetic damage to the other cars this edge could have been simply because loaded for bear and even with 250lt of fuel, people and all supplies for 2 weeks no shops , the car still only came in at 2900kg.
Our trip was hard in
places as we had to do some cross country mogul driving up around the
Madigan line before dropping down for a bit of a Simpson run and then around to Santa Terrsa where much embrassment was had by
almost got bogged on the main road in a super soft bulldust hole.
(Noting another current thread - whilst in the Simpson we called on UHF 10 every 2-3km to warn others and keeping our own chatter to our private channels, this along with a flag seemed to stop most surprizes)
We then had to do the tourist thing and give the girls a climb up the big
rock and went through the very scenic
Boggy hole track a a few others before running for
Melbourne.
Near
home a cold front had come through so a quick flick of the wheel east then saw us into the snow to make quite a contrast to the previous 2 weeks which were nothing but sunshine.
Some things we tried for the first time were -
1/ Auto Goop paint on scratch resistant film and we give this a big thumbs up.
2/ 2 of the cars had new Copper ST Maxx tyres and I think it was Jeff at Mt Dare who said they have never had so many side walls punctures since Copper and others put big lugs on the side to catch sticks.
We were blessing him when after only 500m into a burnt out cross country section we staked one.
For not the first time the Tyredogs warned us and all was
well and we never took another hit and were quite happy we had these strong tyres during the many later rocky bits.
After this 7000km run we give the ST Maxx the thumbs up also.
3/ One of the guys took a swent (half swag and half tent - I think its already on Ebay.)
4/ I made a car bra out of 70% shade cloth and this worked
well to keep out Spinefex which seemed more abundant than usual.
It also worked
well in 1/2 meter deep water crossings as
well.
This was interesting as the Navaras weak underguard broke under the force of hitting the water whereas the shadecloth had less resistance - (worth investigating further)
5/ Not a fan of the extra complexity and issues of having an auto in our Patrols but overall the petrol use was on a par with our manual 4800 Patrol (16.5lt/100km) thanks to long stretches of highway.
However the Prado was a laugh as one morning the keys were left in a swag which was tied to the roof and this new keyless system allows you to start the car and drive off a little before it squeals and turns off the engine whereupon a hunt for the keys ensures.
Well thats all I can think of for now , except when we arrived
home the kids were trying to fit a 4inch dump pipe and huge turbo to our
test bed 4800 petrol Patrol claiming 1000nm no sweat.
Just maybe trying out some new things isn't such a good idea.