Hi All
Thinking of adopting my wife's 2014 v6 TDI for Australian based touring and light offroad, mainly gazetted country roads, possibly Gibb river or great central road with some low level wading or potential muddy section nav but not looking to bush bash, i have bikes for that.. Has the adjustable ride height and 20 inch rims I believe ATM and only done 115k.
We have had the car 8 years, it's had a stage 2 tune with usual removals and been a fantastically reliable, economical and comfortable car and goes pretty hard if required. With the prices of 4wds and my needs as above I'm looking for pointers to some threads or general recommendations on tyres, rims,aftermarket items such as whether it's worth fitting a snorkel, concerns around any wading on electrics or mechanicals.
Cheers
Charlie

Hello and welcome to the forums.
Use the "Search Community" rectangle at the top of the page to search for threads on doing such mods.
There have been a few threads on the subject.

 

The Touareg has a deep factoring fording depth rating. Always walk the crossing to confirm the depth, and bottom surface condition, and then cross slowly to minimize bow wave, and you will be totally safe crossing at the rated depth without a snorkel.

If you want to cross things deeper than that, I would consider that extreme offroading, and you need to re-evaluate every system on the car to tolerate depth, not just the engine intake but consider diff and trans vents, door seals, engine bay electronics, etc. as well as the possibility of getting washed away or having the vehicle float and lose traction. Just adding a snorkel without all of that is mostly a cosmetic thing, it won't let you ford any deeper safely.

Although its been done, personally, I don't think the Touareg is a suitable design for deep fording without massive re-engineering: for example moving critical unwaterproofed electronics like the TCU and battery off the interior floor and/or into submersible waterproof containers, removing interior carpets and sound deadening, adding drain plugs, etc. because door seals don't make a Touareg a submarine.

Otherwise, look for smaller wheels to mount good all terrain tires, ideally 17" wheels if you can get them.

 

Many thanks Casioqv. I'll familiarise myself with the fording rating and air intake height. I wouldn't be taking any chances in remote locations at all as I have seen first hand water ingestion on suvs whilst I was driving a Nissan patrol in remote locations. I really appreciate you taking time to respond.

 

All great advice. There are plenty off road all over the world. Just to widen your search, look for OTIS, a TDI Porsche Çayenne (Pretty much a Touareg in a different dress) and you can see how far this has gone with some minor but well thought out mods. Wheels and tyres, underbody protection and some recovery options give you a pretty competent platform.

 

Thanks Tiliiqua.
I have actually seen a diesel cayenne in my area set up with an offroad bias and he actually has red dirt all over his so its clear he actually uses it for this purpose and it's not just for show. I'll go and have a chat and also take your advice on the search terms. Cheers

 

You’ll also really want to inspect your intake system to make sure none of the baffles were removed, hoses dislodged, or airbox not seated well. I’ve seen a few examples of drowned Touaregs and Cayennes, but in every case it has been due to improper modifications or past work.

 

Excellent thank you will do