Hi guys,
Just wanted to relate my recent experience making a trip to the North West of Western Australia in my 2011 7P 4XMotion.
The first time I did a trip like this was in a 1962 Landrover Series 2. That was back in 1994. That was followed by a new Toyota 4Runner in 1996, then in 98 a used Nissan Pathfinder 3 door from 1992. Since 1998 I haven't done any offroading at all and there were heaps of places I wanted to see again.
Given how bad the roads were back then I was a little concerned the Touareg was going to break....I need not have worried. However I made sure it was given a major service, fitted new discs and pads and had a mild tune done on the ECU. I also fitted a Provent 200 catch can.
We loaded it up with a Front Runner roof rack and wind deflector, 'Razed' roof top box (made in Australia and freaking awesome) plus a full 105Ah lithium battery install under the rear floor. A spare wheel was hung off the back on a locally made Mirack swing out spare wheel mount.
The rear seats were taken out and I made a platform to fit a fridge and water bottles onto. The rear airbags were deactivated with VCDS so the light didn't stay on. Gave us heaps more space too. Those rear seats a re VERY heavy as well so this helped with the GVM.
I'd already fitted new Dunlop Grandtrek AT25's 265/60/18 which gave an extra 15mm ground clearance. These were new takeoffs from a Toyota Prado. The Toyota guys drive straight from the dealer to the tyre shop for serious AT's here so there are always cheap top quality factory fit tyres for sale cheap.
In three laps around the country I have NEVER had a flat, although admittedly I used to use Dunlop Adventurer tyres which were 8 ply tread and sidewall. These Grandtreks are no where near as serious but I was keen to see if the Toyota guys were wasting their time. On road these tyres are silent and offer really good grip wet or dry.
The roads up the WA coast were actually even worse this time than I remembered. So much traffic due to Covid overseas travel restrictions so everyone is holidaying at home. Severe corrugations for hundreds and hundreds of kilometres. Really rough, sharp stones in the Pilbara on gravel roads that apparently hadn't been graded in three years.
To help smooth things out for us on the gravel / offroad sections I left the suspension in standard height mode, set the shocks to comfort and reduced tyre pressure to around 20psi.
Running these pressures meant there was zero tyre damage from sharp stones. The conditions usually meant that going over 80km/h was impossible anyway.
Even doing all that, the new Dometic CFX55 fridge started to die in the first week......it was that rough.
Long story short, the Touareg had no issues at all, performed perfectly, passed countless LandCruiser 200's and Prado's on the rough stuff and was incredibly comfortable to cover the long distances needed. The recovery gear didn't get used once and no flat or damaged tyres.
Anyway, you guys want pics right?
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Just wanted to relate my recent experience making a trip to the North West of Western Australia in my 2011 7P 4XMotion.
The first time I did a trip like this was in a 1962 Landrover Series 2. That was back in 1994. That was followed by a new Toyota 4Runner in 1996, then in 98 a used Nissan Pathfinder 3 door from 1992. Since 1998 I haven't done any offroading at all and there were heaps of places I wanted to see again.
Given how bad the roads were back then I was a little concerned the Touareg was going to break....I need not have worried. However I made sure it was given a major service, fitted new discs and pads and had a mild tune done on the ECU. I also fitted a Provent 200 catch can.
We loaded it up with a Front Runner roof rack and wind deflector, 'Razed' roof top box (made in Australia and freaking awesome) plus a full 105Ah lithium battery install under the rear floor. A spare wheel was hung off the back on a locally made Mirack swing out spare wheel mount.
The rear seats were taken out and I made a platform to fit a fridge and water bottles onto. The rear airbags were deactivated with VCDS so the light didn't stay on. Gave us heaps more space too. Those rear seats a re VERY heavy as well so this helped with the GVM.
I'd already fitted new Dunlop Grandtrek AT25's 265/60/18 which gave an extra 15mm ground clearance. These were new takeoffs from a Toyota Prado. The Toyota guys drive straight from the dealer to the tyre shop for serious AT's here so there are always cheap top quality factory fit tyres for sale cheap.
In three laps around the country I have NEVER had a flat, although admittedly I used to use Dunlop Adventurer tyres which were 8 ply tread and sidewall. These Grandtreks are no where near as serious but I was keen to see if the Toyota guys were wasting their time. On road these tyres are silent and offer really good grip wet or dry.
The roads up the WA coast were actually even worse this time than I remembered. So much traffic due to Covid overseas travel restrictions so everyone is holidaying at home. Severe corrugations for hundreds and hundreds of kilometres. Really rough, sharp stones in the Pilbara on gravel roads that apparently hadn't been graded in three years.
To help smooth things out for us on the gravel / offroad sections I left the suspension in standard height mode, set the shocks to comfort and reduced tyre pressure to around 20psi.
Running these pressures meant there was zero tyre damage from sharp stones. The conditions usually meant that going over 80km/h was impossible anyway.
Even doing all that, the new Dometic CFX55 fridge started to die in the first week......it was that rough.
Long story short, the Touareg had no issues at all, performed perfectly, passed countless LandCruiser 200's and Prado's on the rough stuff and was incredibly comfortable to cover the long distances needed. The recovery gear didn't get used once and no flat or damaged tyres.
Anyway, you guys want pics right?
