Do you really need a 4wd??.

Lol Kev!, sounds like a bad choice, Might be just a matter of time in your case.


Cheers Axle.

I now have 4000km on the clock in 6 weeks so will see how long it survives.

I spend more time off the bitumen than the Road Gang foreman and he has a Landcruiser ute. Go Figure??

G/Day Kev

Many years ago when I worked for the Government on Trunk Water Mains, from the Dams to the Treatment Plants, I had an occasion to attend an urgent Blow Out which was causing big dollars in damage to properties, the Fleet Manager insisted that I didn't require a 4wd to carry out my work which entailed driving along Pipe Line Easements in the bush, any way on this particular night it was paramount that the water had to be shut down in a hurry at the nearest valve to the Blow Out, I was driving a Falcon Ute at the time and I weighed up the cost of damages to the Ute compaired to the damage the Blow Out was doing to property, to cut a long story short I ended up nearly destroying the under carriage of the ute plus panel damage ect, but I got the water shut down and saved a lot of dollars in the process, the vehicle had to be transported back to the workshops the next morning, and they decided to write it off, I had to front the Chief Engineer and the Manager to explain my actions, they dragged in the Fleet Manager and within a week I had a new 4wd, maybe you will have to do more damage to the Aurion lol lol.

Daza,

My boss agrees with me and reckons when I have totaled my new car, can I drive his LOL

We have the same problems where I work. Vehicle selection is ultimately done in Sydney. Every time we get a replacement vehicle we have to argue for something better than a small front wheel drive sedan. We usually finish up with all wheel drives and occasional front drive sedan (when we loose the argument). Now I get to see leasing costs and the various green ratings of the vehicles but it makes little difference to argue facts. Quite often what we want is cheaper and greener than what they insist on supplying.

We probably should have half of the vehicles as landcruiser traybacks and the other half all wheel drives like Subarus Forester and Impreza (we have had some success in getting Subaru Foresters). Our vehicles encounter ice and floods and occasional bush fire while out and about. Unfortunately the only way to get a suitable vehicle is to put up with the crap and send it back broken or under used and hope for better next time. The front wheel drives sedans usually are under used as they are not popular and I will not allow them to travel on the highlands after first frost. That takes out five months of the year. In Sydney they seem to have absolutely no idea that we get ice on roads in Australia and at times of day we have to travel on the roads.

Flynnie

Add bull dust holes, mud, rocky escarpments, water crossings etc and that is just to get to the properties front gate LOL


Cheers Kev

As long as I have phone reception I will be OK, but there is quite a few spots i go to that don't.
I asked for a radio to be fitted and was told NO as I have a mobile phone. They didn't even want to come on one of my inspections with me to see excatly where I go in a 2wd hehehehe

Pretty much the same here. My first car in 1965 was a battered old FB Holden statioon wagon. One of the pink and grey ones. But it had racks for the surfboard and a mattress and esky in the back. Since getting the Toyota I have only been one place where the Holden would not have gone. Up into the high country.

Things were different somehow. You would see a track heading to the ocean and you would try it. Admittedly the clearance on those older cars was a hell of a lot more that the new stuff. Approach and departure angles were better also. And the bumper bars pushed heavier trees out of the way.

The paint also stayed on better.

But I think I will appreciate the Toyota imore in years to come as we go where we have not been before (sounds like a TV show hey!!).

Phil

An FB with surfboard racks ???

Now theres ya problem ya see ...

If you had a VW Beetle with winter treads and snow chains ... the high country would have been a doddle .... unless ya hit a wombat ....

Overhang of the surfboard may have been an issue tho .....

My mate had a VW and after the first few nights sleeping in the VW we agreed to take the holden. Too damned cramped.

We once in 1967 made it across the creek at Noosa to the idsland. That was a day???

Can't do it now can you. The VW seemed to just "bounce" across.

Great car but way too small.

Phil

Had a similar experience last year on the Plenty Highway

Here I was heading east in the Prado with the KK on the back and noticed a very small car heading towards me at a slow pace.

I slowed and then stopped to see if the lady driver was ok.

She thought I was stopping cause I needed her help!!!

Waved and just kept slowly motoring along.

Clearance, tyre pressures and speed. Control these and as long as it's not wet you will most likely get through. Not "offroad" though.

Cheers
Garth

Doncow - If your van weighs 2ton or over you can look forward to 20ltrs per 100k towing with your d-max.

Get into the hot country on hilly terrain and they eat the fuel as well.

I returned just under 20ltr per 100k on my last 2 trips towing a 2 ton boat 320k with the same motor.

You may be able to tow up to 3 ton with the 4cyl common rail - but they work hard and thus eat the fuel.

Cheers Tony

The topic did come up a while back and I supported the 4X4 proposition.

That said I drove my then new Mitsubishi Magna to Lamberts Centre in 1996 and ages ago drove a Honda Civic around the Olgas back when it was all dirt road.

A Falcon RTV could get into a lot of places normally thought of as 4X4 roads but it would never be the best choice as it would be sadly lacking in serious 4X4 terrain and they are no longer made.

Flynnie

That's the obvious answer. Just like I wanted to say to such an open ended comment.

If you want to go 4 wheel driving you need a 4 x 4

Otherwise you don't.

If you have to modify your 2wd to make it work like a 4 x 4 - then buy a 4 x 4 without modifications to do the same job.

Axle - you must have been bored :-)

truth is Ian I get asked "do you need a 4wd?" from a lot of work colleagues .... my answer usually is :

you don't need 4wd for 99% of the time, however you need the robustness of a 4wd most of the time.... get's down to ... do you want a vehicle that will shake itself to bits or not...

Ya dont if you can get your hands onto an old vw and cut the guards back and throw on some balloon tires ,

Or a Statesman ;-))

Or maybe a Rolls :-))

Yeah , people forget that a 4x4 just makes it easier but is NOT always a requirement , was a renactment last year of a model T ? Ford from Longreach to Darwin , the original trip was NO road ,No track to follow , through virgin scrub ,nowadays people say "need a Tojonissan with 4x4 and $30,000.oo of modifications " for the same trip.

Too right, I spoke to a group of 4 pommy backpackers a couple years ago.

They had bought a old bunky corolla in Tassie while there for $50 to explore the isle with the idea of leaving it at the airport when they'd seen enough.

Well, it was still going ok so they put it on the ferry and proceeded up the coast on their tour.

They went up to the Cape, then west avoiding nothing on the way...Gibb River Road, no problem. They almost got to Bunbury when the poor thing tossed in the towel with a blown head gasket.

I took them & the car to Perth and that's the last I heard of them. Don't know if they fixed it or not.

They took great pleasure taking pics of themselves with the car at some of Australia's most isolated places and sending them to the guy they purchased it from.