AnswerID: 10739 Submitted: Tuesday, Jan 07, 2003 at 13:30
MikeyS
replied:
Fed, did the Cape in a 95 petrol Pajero without a
snorkel. Trip included a real heart stopper across the Pascoe River on Frenchman's Track and a few other over the bonnet crossings (way over the recommended max wading depth of 600mm) but we had no problems. Walking the crossings, and using a wading blind, heaps of WD-40 on "all the little black electrical thinggies", and letting diffs and engine
cool down before tackling the deep crossings at the Pascoe and on the OTL saw us through. By the way, the water is bloody beautiful so it's well worth walking crossings to
cool and wash the dust off yourself, assuming it's not a croc risk crossing.
The other vehicle (petrol Prado) we were travelling with did have a
snorkel so that gave us some comfort in case we got into trouble but pre-crossing preparation, taking things easy and slowly did the job.
A
snorkel may give you some peace of mind but I wouldn't say it's essential equipment.
Just to soap-box for a minute, what ever you do, after you have made a crossing, stop in the shallows on the other bank and let the chassis full of water drain back into the river rather than cart it up the other bank which many people were doing. Many of the exits were buggered by water and vehicle erosion after the first person through wet the exit, making it slipperier for the next person who needed to gun it up the bank carrying more water and so on and so on.
Have a fun trip.
MikeyS
Reply 3 of 7
FollowupID: 5718 Submitted:
Tuesday, Jan 07, 2003 at 13:43
Savvas posted:
MikeyS,
A good point about letting diffs, engines, etc
cool down before the deep x-ings. I haven't had first hand experience with this, but I always wondered how a hot engine will cope with being partially immersed in
cool water. Don't even want to think about fully immersed.
How much of a
cool down do you allow? Half an hour, an hour, a few?
FollowUp 1 of 4
FollowupID: 5793 Submitted:
Wednesday, Jan 08, 2003 at 11:59
Mikeys posted:
Savvas We probably allowed about half to an hour but who keeps track of time up there? By the time we had stretched the legs, walked the crossing, had a snack, filled up water bottles the tarped up etc, and on the scarry crossings taken some deep breaths to get the heart rate down at least half an hour would have passed. No hurry.
The main reason for allowing
cool-down time is to avoid sucking water into the diffs as the air in the diffs cools in case the diff breathers get submerged. Remember the old "egg in bottle" trick? Same physics, more or less. Even with extended diff breathers I doubt that it's really smart to dump a hot engine block into a nice refreshing river.
FollowUp 3 of 4
FollowupID: 5804 Submitted:
Wednesday, Jan 08, 2003 at 15:20
Savvas posted:
Yep...knew about the diffs ingesting water when heated up, gearboxes too.
The reason I asked is because I also follow the Isuzu Owner's
Forum on Edmunds Townhall, a US based
forum. There seems to be a lot of occurences of cracked blocks and heads over there after water crossings. All due to thermal shock after a sudden temperature change.
I often wondered what the Australian experience is.
FollowUp 4 of 4
