Mercedes G-class can't handle the Canning Stock Route

I did hear that that bloke was $4000 lighter when he headed out east of Birdsville post that saga and still had no spare....... might have been better off in a Morris Minor with cross-plies.

Duncan
We seen these massive run ups, before most dunes.
Also seen dip marks, where those 55 psi people, would nose dive and bounce all the way up the dunes.
We ended up calling then the "55 lb club" been here, and also the "Jumbo Jet run ups."
Absolutely rediculous.
We were 4.7 tonne over 6 wheels (camper included), and run 15'psi or less tyre pressure, and breezed over the dunes. Only buggered up 3 times, and that was due to my being sack.
The Mrs even drove o er the biggest dunes fron Nth side on 40 + days and had no dramas

Cheers
Bucky

Yes I agreed. How many people have travelled the Canning with "standard equiped vehicles"? I suggest other "Standard" vehicles could possibly fail too.

There is always those that ASS U ME w/out knowing the true facts!!!

OREJAP
Yes I agree.
Ask Pat Callinhan, he was held up at Well 35 with stuffed shockers, in one of 3 vehicles, when we went thru in 2009.
I offered him, or should I politely say his Mrs, our spare OME's but they didn't fit the Pathfinder, in his convoy of 3 vehicles.

Der me, I didn't even recognise them, I only seen a group of really nice people, in a bit of trouble. They really are delightfull !

Cheers
Bucky

went through 2 weeks ago with a standard Jackaroo, a standard 80 series landcruiser and standard 2006 prado, no probs and none of the drama of these merc guys

I would say the shocker broke the shaft in half and got caught under the vehicle.

Didn't know clearance could cause shockers to fail!

So you can't drive the Canning with road tyres?

Didn't imply that clearance had anything to do with shocker failure!!

My comments are simply a reflection of the so called "outback expertise" of the participants.
The vehicles are heavily loaded and not set up as well as they could have been for such a trip, the fact that they had no spare shocks which most experienced outback travelers carry is a further reflection of their lack of planning in my view.

All makes and models of vehicles can and do suffer shocker issues on that trip and its prudent to be prepared.

I don't carry spare shockers and I know a few other remote travellers on this forum who don't as well!

If I'm going to go somewhere where it's going to wreck my 4x4 I don't really want to go but I haven't found a place like that yet

I think it was good of them not to take modified vehicles and try and do it with standard off the floor models.

At least it shows up any weaknesses and if standard shockers were the one thing to let them down they have done very well.

The Canning is a track and should be able to be tackled in a near standard of the shelf 4x4 if taken easy.

This one thing that we don't know... maybe they wanted to test the Merc by travelling at a higher speed and tyre pressures up as a form of torture test.

You got that in a nut shell Barry!!!,...Trouble is mate the truth hurts. ,.so you won't get much response,..LOL.



Cheers Axle.

"We put in place a group of very experienced Outback operators who have the expertise and logistical knowledge to cover off any eventuality. "
Agree there Baz. While shocker failure could happen to most any vehicle clearly the so called experts weren't quite as experienced as they thought. Spare shocks were definately packed on my 2 Canning trips despite running top of the line Koni's.
I just wonder if air drops for spares is part of Mercs ongoing "Total care package" ;-))

Cheers Craig.........

And Craig did you have to use your spare shockers?

"Craig did you have to use your spare shockers?"
No but I have loant/given my spares shocks to others on 2 occations. From my experience travelling with groups outback, shocks are one of the most likely items to fail after tyres, loose bolts & fridges.
Cheers Craig............

hi crackles
and most women shake two bits as well
cheers barry

Yes Baz the woman can fall apart too but even though I carry 3 spares girls as well I still have trouble getting any to work out there ;-)

Did he say what the other vehicles were?

Doesn't mean a lot.
I was up Cape York in 2008, and though I saw vehicles with other problems, the only one I came across with busted shock was a Landrover Defender.

I went along the Canning in June in a group of nine vehicles (150 series Prado, 200 series cruiser, 80 series cruiser, Discovery 3, Triton and 4 Patrols) and none had any problems.

No-one on our trip carried any spare shocks. If a shock fails it is not going to stop your trip. I'm curious as to why they bothered to stop the whole trip to replace the shocks as they could have happly continued along without them. Yes the ride would have been a bit more wallowy but if you slow down there is no major problem.

We came across a Patrol at Well 33 with a tray-on camper that had collapsed the rear srping supports - they just continued on takiing it easy and made the remaining 600km, albeit somewhat more bumpy than it otherwise would have been.

I know he had a GQ Patrol and his mate a GU but don't know about the rest or if any of them were standard.

Defender oe springs are good - shocks less so.

OMG...it was a validation test trip people. Give them a break. The whole idea of these trips is to drive un modified vehicles in places where most people wouldn't take them to purposly see what will break.

Yes they could have continued without the shockers but that would place unrealistic strain on other components, and potenitally mask the real results.

Every manufacturer does this sort of thing plus extreme cold climate testing, alpine conditions, dust, water crossings, extreme heat etc.

I went up the Oodnadatta track with a group of WK Holden Statesmans on low profile rubber. "Why would you, "you ask. Well because sooner or later, someone will do exactly that.

Extreme testing ensures reliability.

Kudos to Mercedes for taking the initiative.

Fab.

Sorry blue one... that wasn't directted at you. I was meant to post it on the main page, not as a response.

A thousand apologies.

Fab.

Roger get a Tojo if you want a showroom floor offroad vehicle for $70k or less :))

I saw this in Meeka last week, wouldn't mind one of those!!

Image Could Not Be Found

Cheers
Alan

Hiya,

Why would I want to spend 70k on a car? Ive got an unbreakable hilux, must be worth 5k at least! LOL !

I believe thats a 14Tonne Bushmaster and not a Merc part in it. You can only afford the fuel if you invade an oil rich country like..um...Iraq.
My ol' diesel mech mate would love it - Caterpillar motor !

Gidday


This quote from the reporter's diary rmight give a few clues to the reason for the problems:

"What this all means is that we're stopping very little to 'sightsee' at the historical well sites that Canning and his crew placed at great personal expense on the original cattle route at about 20-30km intervals.

Instead, we're enjoying an exhilarating drive, with everything from 10km/h creekbed crawls, to wild 80km/h thrill rides along the rare two lane, heavily corrugated sections of the route."


Cheers

Hello Ric,
I'm very interested in the camera you used to take that video!

It appears to put the lattitude and longitude onto the video image, is that correct?

Where did you get the camera from?

Thanks,
Geoff

Hi Geoff
The camera is a DOD GS600 and costs under $300 on Ebay ( take care there are some copies around)

It is primarily a data logger and you are correct it records its position on the film using GPS technology. and also records your speed.
It records to a mini sd card , I use 2 x 32 gb cards in rotation, when the card is full it then over writes previous data 32gb stores around 7 hours of video in 1 minute blocks , can be extended out to 15 minute blocks but this looses some vision while it saves the previous.

When played back using the inbuilt software it also shows your position on Google Maps and includes a graph accelerator and decelerator , it is really designed to record any incident you may have while driving and it automatically locks the video taken if you have a crash, would be great for proving that you were in the right in a prang, could also prove the opposite.

I just leave it running in the car and let it over write but I got it specifically to record the CSR trip so now I have around 90 hours of the whole CSR and I will be putting clips from it into a slide show presentation with mainly stills taken during the trip but some excerpts of interesting video , camels crossing the track etc.

I would highly recommend it to you.