Round Australia Tour

[SamF]

I just got back from a 4 month trip around Australia (21,000K) with the Kluger pulling a 1800Kg caravan. The Kluger was brilliant both in towing and going off-road. We left the van and did a few day trips into Cape Leveque, Bungle Bungles and a lot of unmade tracks around Tom Price. We also visited most of the national parks on our trip and toured through them extensively. Unmade tracks usually most pretty good but a few shockers!

Cape Leveque was 120K of very sandy roads with deep ruts. Bungle Bungles was very rough stony terrain with 6 water crossings on the way in and the same number on the way out. The water was knee deep. The Kluger took it all into its stride and never missed a beat. The dusts sealing was excellent in the cabin although a lot of dust get trapped in the seal cavities of the rear hatch.

The best petrol consumption per tank was 14.5 L/100K with a slight tail wind, the worst was 21.6L/100K fighting a directly opposing gale from Port Hedland to Broome.

Nothing broke or fell off the Kluger on the whole trip.

Tyre wear was good, the car has done 45,000K now and the tyres are wearing fairly evenly and have probably 15000K left on them. Considering 28,000K were done pulling the caravan, I am reasonable happy with wear.

Edited September 24, 2009 by SamF

[mdv]

Thanks. Good story ... which reaffirms all the good reasons why I chose Kluger KX-S (even the same colour).

BTW, you wouldn't be from Canberra per chance. I saw a merlot Grande on the road in Canberra the same day I took delivery of my merlot KX-S in December, but haven't seen it for some months.

[Hado]

SamF

If you have got some photos of the Kluger in outback Australia 4WD action - we'd love to see them.

Kind regards

Hado

[1rocky]

Also would like see pics of where you took the kluger. :yahoo:

[Blackkluger]

Ho did it go on real 4wd tracks, did you get stuck, turn traction off? did it go better with it off or on?

[SamF]

I just got back from a 4 month trip around Australia (21,000K) with the Kluger pulling a 1800Kg caravan. The Kluger was brilliant both in towing and going off-road. We left the van and did a few day trips into Cape Leveque, Bungle Bungles and a lot of unmade tracks around Tom Price. We also visited most of the national parks on our trip and toured through them extensively. Unmade tracks usually most pretty good but a few shockers!

Cape Leveque was 120K of very sandy roads with deep ruts. Bungle Bungles was very rough stony terrain with 6 water crossings on the way in and the same number on the way out. The water was knee deep. The Kluger took it all into its stride and never missed a beat. The dusts sealing was excellent in the cabin although a lot of dust get trapped in the seal cavities of the rear hatch.

The best petrol consumption per tank was 14.5 L/100K with a slight tail wind, the worst was 21.6L/100K fighting a directly opposing gale from Port Hedland to Broome.

Nothing broke or fell off the Kluger on the whole trip.

Tyre wear was good, the car has done 45,000K now and the tyres are wearing fairly evenly and have probably 15000K left on them. Considering 28,000K were done pulling the caravan, I am reasonable happy with wear.

No I am from Melbourne.

[SamF]

Ho did it go on real 4wd tracks, did you get stuck, turn traction off? did it go better with it off or on?

No never had any problems whether it was in mud, sand on water. I just let the tyres down about 10PSI on the serious sandy bits. The mud was not deep mire it was just fire tracks that had a fair amount of mud/water on them.

[SamF]

Thanks. Good story ... which reaffirms all the good reasons why I chose Kluger KX-S (even the same colour).

BTW, you wouldn't be from Canberra per chance. I saw a merlot Grande on the road in Canberra the same day I took delivery of my merlot KX-S in December, but haven't seen it for some months.

See attached photos unfortunately these were not the worst situations and I was to busy getting through stuff to take pictures.

[Speedz]

great stuff!!!

glad you made the trip and the demonstrated the Kluger is a tough as nails AWD something even the 4WD will need to respect for, i think the only thing holding it back is the lack of range (fuel tank)...

[Blind Kid Seeks]

Great thread!

Love seeing people taking their cars out of the city! Tip My Hat to you Sir!

[SamF]

Thanks. Good story ... which reaffirms all the good reasons why I chose Kluger KX-S (even the same colour).

BTW, you wouldn't be from Canberra per chance. I saw a merlot Grande on the road in Canberra the same day I took delivery of my merlot KX-S in December, but haven't seen it for some months.

See attached photos unfortunately these were not the worst situations and I was to busy getting through stuff to take pictures.

Yes the range towing a caravan is not great (380-450K) therefore I usually travel with a 20L gerry can attached to the caravan. However on its own its quite adequate. I recently drove from Melbourne to Adelaide on one tank.

[Speedz]

The Kluger would absolutely kill their rivals if only they could dig up a diesel motor somewhere, with the refinement of the car already quite high Toyota doesnt need to do too much besides dropping a diesel donk and tweak a couple of settings in the ECU and gear ratios...

[Colonel]

The Kluger would absolutely kill their rivals if only they could dig up a diesel motor somewhere, with the refinement of the car already quite high Toyota doesnt need to do too much besides dropping a diesel donk and tweak a couple of settings in the ECU and gear ratios...

The Kluger's 3.5L 6 cylinder is an awsome engine, for city driving at least. The first thing I'd want to change with the Kluger is to replace the transmission with a 6 or 7 speed automatic transmission. The 5 speed is a bit crappy for a $50k+ car. If I was living in the country I'd probably opt for the Prado diesel.

[Speedz]

^ +1 for the Prado diesel but its too expensive over the Kluger...

and +1 for the 6/7 speed auto!

[SamF]

Thanks. Good story ... which reaffirms all the good reasons why I chose Kluger KX-S (even the same colour).

BTW, you wouldn't be from Canberra per chance. I saw a merlot Grande on the road in Canberra the same day I took delivery of my merlot KX-S in December, but haven't seen it for some months.

See attached photos unfortunately these were not the worst situations and I was to busy getting through stuff to take pictures.

Yes the range towing a caravan is not great (380-450K) therefore I usually travel with a 20L gerry can attached to the caravan. However on its own its quite adequate. I recently drove from Melbourne to Adelaide on one tank.

I am not a big fan of diesel engines, they have their strengths, but I hate noisy rattly engines that sound like a "bucket of bolts". There is an insignificant difference in running costs with diesel because although you get more fuel economy, the cost of diesel in the country is significantly higher, based on my observation while touring. The cost in remote areas was up to 20c per litre more ( I cannot explain this except the petrol companies exploiting the location by the type of fuel dominant). When you add that to the fact that the Kluger does pretty well in the fuel department, then add the extra cost of a diesel engine (Toyota charge $10,000 for the diesel in the Land Cruiser), I do not believe the finances would stack up. True they have more low down torque for towing and you do not have to be too concerned about electric in a water crossing. So based on the above, I would not buy a diesel if it was offered.

[Speedz]

hmmm would beneficial if Kluger has a long range tank if not a diesel donk, i just love the touring range of a diesel...

[holmesie]

especially the Prado with its twin tanks B)

[Kesawi]

US Toyota Nation site has started a thread for people to post pictures of their Highlanders in out of the way locations. We need a few more pictures of Aussie Klugers on there.

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=313944

[Cookie]

I've got long range on my Kluger, have the standard petrol tank and 68 litres (usable) of LPG ( JTG Liquid Injection) but only just had the install done so cant quote all the figures yet.

[Speedz]

did the LPG took away any additional usable storage space?

[Cookie]

LPG tank replaces the spare tyre and most people carry one of those tyre slime repair kits or you can throw the spare in the back.

Around the city I leave the spare at home, on a trip w/out a trailer I'll throw it in the back , usually I have a trailer on trips so I had a bracket made to hold the spare on the side of the trailer.

[Blackkluger]

Hi cookie, hope you dont mind, as soon my lease runs out, im geting the Liquid injection gas as well. Could you tell us your initial impression on power and economy on gas when you can?

did your installer do a dyno to compare the power loss? As apparently some far out claims say you can actually get a 5% INCREASE in power???

Cant get the government rebate when the car is leased....

[Cookie]

Blackkluger, there is no specific Li "kit" for the Kluger as yet, mine was a one off custom installation...the only one done with JTG liquid injection.

No dyno was done but it definately feels better, no power loss only gain. On a 1000k trip last w/end towing a fully loaded 3 bike trailer, fully loaded car it went like a dream. I do the same trip every 6 weeks and I noticed a huge difference in it just wanted to fly along.

Installer is still doing some changes/fine tuning etc so cant comment on the fuel economy yet but its still cheaper to run on gas than petrol.

PM me if you want more details or when the car is fully sorted I will post up the figures and some pics.