Any VW members

Robert Z
And rightly so mate , those VWs are a nice car but not my choice , he to flash eh brudder,
I have read reports on them and they seem to be way up in the class of Mercedes and Sahara's, as for your questions Rob sorry I can't offer any help on battery set ups , maybe if you contacted ARB they have some info for you. And welcome to the the Forum

Doug

At first I thought you were talking about Combi Vans..... there must be a few of those around still exploring oz.

Try Richie at Hume Offroad Centre - I don't have the number handy - But I have yet to hear of an unsatisfied customer.

Cheers.....Taz

Hi Bob Z
Yes hard to find much on the mighty Touregs!
I have a V10 - fantastic vehicle. I get circa 12 l/100 towing a TVan and with over 700Nm of torque you wouldn't know the TVan was there. VW released a 350KG ball weight tow bar in late 05 - until then the ball weight was ridiculously low for a vehicle rated to tow 3500Kg.
The V10 has two standard batteries - I have another that I charge from a heavy cable run into the cargo area with a Hella plug to run the Engel. Plus an Anderson plug to the TVan for its power. The alternator steps up to the job and charges them all. Where is the V5 battery in standard trim? The V10 has one under the passengers seat and one inside the rim of the space saver spare wheel - maybe you could locate your second battery in whichever place the R5 doesn't have one.The V10 has self levelling air suspension so I haven't thought about a lift - but it is usually hard to get things like lift kits for the less common vehicles. My only concern with the Toureg is the lowish profile tyres - the Porsche brakes on the V10 restrict going to smaller rims and higher profile tyres. I carry a full spare plus the emergency spare and drive slower than I might otherwise when the conditions are ordinary. Have blown one tyre - in the city when I clobbered a gutter at a reasonable speed - the sad news was that the tyre was $500!
Great car but suffers because there aren't enough around to get add on stuff easily for them. And of course anyone who doesn't have a Patrol or LC just has to cross their fingers they don't seriously break in the bush!

IAN

I read today that VW is "repositioning" the Touareg in the marketplace with a slight cosmetic facelift and some new engine/equipment combinations.

I think that means they will be available from a cheaper entry price and might move them into the mainstream a bit, where perhaps you could get a snorkel. The big problem as noted above is the inability to put tough tyres on them, and with a fording depth of just 500mm it means you better not get caught in a summer rainstorm, let alone try and cross a creek. I seem to remember a couple of years ago Jutta Kleinschmitt went through a puddle in the Paris-Dakar and the diesel got a gobful and poopd itself.

Just had a look at Discountnewcars.com.au and found the 2.5 diesel model for $69990, about the same price as a Grand Cherokee - I know which one I'd rather have and it isn't the Jeep (even though it has the luvly merc engine. You can specify a rear diff lock for a reasonable $1600, but a spare wheel is $2100 - OUCH!

If you can't easily fit a second battery, install an AGM battery in place of the normal one - you can get some serious battery power with these (mine is 100AH and 1000cca, and you can readily get higher ratings than this) Mine ran my Evakool fridge at Glasshouse Mountains for 4 days and the car started easily.

Not sure about the space under the seat to put a second one, but an AGM can be mounted in any position so a suitable sized one could be fitted and charged via a Redarc or similar isolator. My second one is in the Camper trailer and gets charged through a Redarc via an Anderson plug and 8mm cable, both active and earth running from front to back. The earth goes to the front battery, the vehicle chassis, and the trailer chassis.

Good luck.

I've got around the limitation of the space saver by having a roof rack and full sized spare. I've kept my water crossings pretty close to the 500mm, and avoiding anything else. With a set of Cooper ATRs, I can overcome some of the low profile problems. I've also got to get better at picking my lines.

Bob