Just completed the Gibb road in the R50 towing 3.5 tonne caravan with 2people and 2 dogs.
Damage report on the Traveller Sensation 24foot Van includes all 4 shockers shredded, 1 tyre blowout and 1 slow leak plus various bits of the van interior rattled to death but overall ok. You soon find out how well or not your van is built!!
The R50 had a strange issue. Other than the outside driving mirror becoming very loose on the hinge and lots of new squeaks and rattles we started getting this loud knock as we drove over the corrugations, at first I thought it was a problem with the front end. It was a chattering like ABS braking. We pulled over opposite the Gibb River Station, about 500k into the road, and rummaged around the front end. Not finding anything obvious we put the front wheels on the caravan ramps and climbed under the car. We found the drive shaft to be very loose with free movement in the middle of the shaft. The shaft is made of 2 pieces with a universal joint in the middle and one at each end. The middle joint is held in place by a bearing and rubber "shroud" and a clamp bolted to a bracket. This rubber shroud had disintegrated and the drive shaft mid joint was flaying around inside the round clamp that holds the shroud. The shaft was still in good condition and the bearing still had free movement. To fix we cut off the old rubber shroud off the bearing and the clamp and used a long 2cm wide strip of 5mm rubber mat to form a new shroud. We secured this to the clamp with cable ties and reassembled. Amazingly 250kms on and it's still holding. Arrived Derby yesterday and will call dealer to start discussion about how to replace drive shaft. Not sure if we need a whole shaft or just the clamp and bearing. Being 2000 kms from the nearest dealer will be a challenge Warranty expired 3 months ago but will ask for exception.
Being in convoy with a ford F250, Land cruiser and a old patrol it was a bit embarrassing that the Dakar winning car was the only one seriously damaged.
Most of the damage was done on the Kalumbura road. We only got as far as the Drysdale Station and didn't get to Mitchell falls as the road was just awful. Huge corrugations that rattled your teeth even with the wonderful air suspension. Just the 60km drive to Drysdale Station was shocking enough and took 2 hours so we took the decision not not go on to Mitchell Falls. Many others did and got back ok, some didn't. One Pajero did 7 shocks and got 2 flats. Someone took a winabego on the road?? It obviously died 30km in and was trucked home. There are lots of Mau and Brits rental 4x4 hurtling down the road like it's an autobahn. We saw 3 or 4 rolled rentals being trucked out and the aftermath of one near death accident involving a French family. Needed 2 RFD planes to take them out.
On the dirt we only averaged 25litres per 100km because we didn't get out of 5th averaging 60kms/hr over the road. We use Cooper LTZ 245/45-20 which are good. We ran at 340 kpa rear and 310 kpa front. We found after getting a sidewall blister soon into the trip that tying to run at lower pressures exposed the small sidewalls to pinch damage.
Would i do it again. Probably not. I would do both ends going in the dirt road only to see El questro in the east end and Manning gorge in the west end then fly to mitchell falls in the middle. You see all the main things doing that without going all the way and risking the damage. But it so very very interesting place and well worth the visit.
Overall to date we have averaged 19.3lts/100km from Melbourne to Derby. Interestingly we have only seen 6 Touareg's on the 20,000km trip so far. Every owner we spoke to loved their Tregs and would never change. On to Perth we go. All the best. Al
Damage report on the Traveller Sensation 24foot Van includes all 4 shockers shredded, 1 tyre blowout and 1 slow leak plus various bits of the van interior rattled to death but overall ok. You soon find out how well or not your van is built!!
The R50 had a strange issue. Other than the outside driving mirror becoming very loose on the hinge and lots of new squeaks and rattles we started getting this loud knock as we drove over the corrugations, at first I thought it was a problem with the front end. It was a chattering like ABS braking. We pulled over opposite the Gibb River Station, about 500k into the road, and rummaged around the front end. Not finding anything obvious we put the front wheels on the caravan ramps and climbed under the car. We found the drive shaft to be very loose with free movement in the middle of the shaft. The shaft is made of 2 pieces with a universal joint in the middle and one at each end. The middle joint is held in place by a bearing and rubber "shroud" and a clamp bolted to a bracket. This rubber shroud had disintegrated and the drive shaft mid joint was flaying around inside the round clamp that holds the shroud. The shaft was still in good condition and the bearing still had free movement. To fix we cut off the old rubber shroud off the bearing and the clamp and used a long 2cm wide strip of 5mm rubber mat to form a new shroud. We secured this to the clamp with cable ties and reassembled. Amazingly 250kms on and it's still holding. Arrived Derby yesterday and will call dealer to start discussion about how to replace drive shaft. Not sure if we need a whole shaft or just the clamp and bearing. Being 2000 kms from the nearest dealer will be a challenge Warranty expired 3 months ago but will ask for exception.
Being in convoy with a ford F250, Land cruiser and a old patrol it was a bit embarrassing that the Dakar winning car was the only one seriously damaged.
Most of the damage was done on the Kalumbura road. We only got as far as the Drysdale Station and didn't get to Mitchell falls as the road was just awful. Huge corrugations that rattled your teeth even with the wonderful air suspension. Just the 60km drive to Drysdale Station was shocking enough and took 2 hours so we took the decision not not go on to Mitchell Falls. Many others did and got back ok, some didn't. One Pajero did 7 shocks and got 2 flats. Someone took a winabego on the road?? It obviously died 30km in and was trucked home. There are lots of Mau and Brits rental 4x4 hurtling down the road like it's an autobahn. We saw 3 or 4 rolled rentals being trucked out and the aftermath of one near death accident involving a French family. Needed 2 RFD planes to take them out.
On the dirt we only averaged 25litres per 100km because we didn't get out of 5th averaging 60kms/hr over the road. We use Cooper LTZ 245/45-20 which are good. We ran at 340 kpa rear and 310 kpa front. We found after getting a sidewall blister soon into the trip that tying to run at lower pressures exposed the small sidewalls to pinch damage.
Would i do it again. Probably not. I would do both ends going in the dirt road only to see El questro in the east end and Manning gorge in the west end then fly to mitchell falls in the middle. You see all the main things doing that without going all the way and risking the damage. But it so very very interesting place and well worth the visit.
Overall to date we have averaged 19.3lts/100km from Melbourne to Derby. Interestingly we have only seen 6 Touareg's on the 20,000km trip so far. Every owner we spoke to loved their Tregs and would never change. On to Perth we go. All the best. Al
