Overland Reliability / durability
Posted: 05 Jul 2023 14:12
I used to think that doing weekend trails puts a test on your vehicle that will make it bullet proof for potential overlanding adventures.
I do not believe that anymore.
Overlanding can put a test on your vehicles that flexing on a weekend trail does not do.
One obvious example is the impact of driving long highly corrugated roads.
- Back in 2016, halfway through Kaokoland, I opened by bonnet (a recommended ritual before starting the day's driving) to find that the air intake pipe had sheared off from the filter box. This should not happen in a standard vehicle given the flex purposely built into the air intake. But may, either have been modified, or else did not provide sufficient flex for the demands placed by the roads driven.
- Another related example is the crank battery's brackets shearing off under similar conditions. More common and likely would be the second battery if this was an after market installation inside the engine bay.
- The most recent (new learning for me) was on a trip we just finished through Khaudum reserve. Another arduous challenge for any overlanding vehicle. This is especially due to the 46km soft sand section when approaching the reserve from the North. It is hot, and result sin the car hopping, and the coils working extremely hard. Somehow my left front break-line (the steel part of if) was chafing against the coil spring. Again, this should not be the case in a standard vehicle, but closer inspection (post-mortem at home) suggests that the breakline on the Y60 / GQ models runs a lot closer to the coil spring than the Y61 / GU models. And a slight bent (e.g. from driving over a branch) may trigger the chafing. By the end of the journey into the reserve, I found myself without breaks. There is no fix really, as the pressure inside these lines are at around 100 psi. Welding does not work either. The only solution (if you do not have a spare) is to block off the breakline, which means you only have breaks to the right front wheel and the rear wheels. Slamming the breaks at 120km/h would roll the car immediately. Blocking off both front breaks would render the breaking ability inadequate. So it required slow and patient driving back home.
Inspecting for any potential form of chafing inside the engine bay, but also in the under carriage should in my view be essential every morning before startint the next stage of your journey.
See the pictures below
I do not believe that anymore.
Overlanding can put a test on your vehicles that flexing on a weekend trail does not do.
One obvious example is the impact of driving long highly corrugated roads.
- Back in 2016, halfway through Kaokoland, I opened by bonnet (a recommended ritual before starting the day's driving) to find that the air intake pipe had sheared off from the filter box. This should not happen in a standard vehicle given the flex purposely built into the air intake. But may, either have been modified, or else did not provide sufficient flex for the demands placed by the roads driven.
- Another related example is the crank battery's brackets shearing off under similar conditions. More common and likely would be the second battery if this was an after market installation inside the engine bay.
- The most recent (new learning for me) was on a trip we just finished through Khaudum reserve. Another arduous challenge for any overlanding vehicle. This is especially due to the 46km soft sand section when approaching the reserve from the North. It is hot, and result sin the car hopping, and the coils working extremely hard. Somehow my left front break-line (the steel part of if) was chafing against the coil spring. Again, this should not be the case in a standard vehicle, but closer inspection (post-mortem at home) suggests that the breakline on the Y60 / GQ models runs a lot closer to the coil spring than the Y61 / GU models. And a slight bent (e.g. from driving over a branch) may trigger the chafing. By the end of the journey into the reserve, I found myself without breaks. There is no fix really, as the pressure inside these lines are at around 100 psi. Welding does not work either. The only solution (if you do not have a spare) is to block off the breakline, which means you only have breaks to the right front wheel and the rear wheels. Slamming the breaks at 120km/h would roll the car immediately. Blocking off both front breaks would render the breaking ability inadequate. So it required slow and patient driving back home.
Inspecting for any potential form of chafing inside the engine bay, but also in the under carriage should in my view be essential every morning before startint the next stage of your journey.
See the pictures below
- Breakline1a.jpg (351.18 KiB) Viewed 4618 times
- Breakline2a.jpg (83.47 KiB) Viewed 4618 times
