The Range Rover: a eulogy
The Range Rover: a eulogy
Saturday, 10 July 2010
Sitting back in London reflecting on the trip, it’s clear that one member of our party was a total hero: the Rangie. On Monday 5th July, we went to extract it from its container in Felixstowe. Naturally it started first time and, despite the battering of Africa, got its road worthiness certificate (MOT in UK-speak) from a local test centre with no advisories, meaning we could legally get it back on the road in the UK.
Apart from a more general desire to explore the ‘dark continent’, one of the other sub-reasons for doing the trip was to answer the question “would it be possible to drive through Africa in an unmodified, current-model (L322) Range Rover?” as, to the best of our knowledge, it hasn’t been done before. (Why on earth anyone would ask such a question in the first place is another subject altogether but it involved several glasses of red wine and the Rangie being referred to as a Chelsea Tractor…)
Well, we now have the answer to that question and it’s an emphatic “yes”. It has been such a faithful friend that we’ve decided to make our last entry on the blog a dedication to the Rangie. Beware this section is for car geeks only!!
On a trip such as this you are incredibly reliant on your chosen means of transport. Not only to simply get you from A to B but also to keep you warm, keep you cool, keep you safe, protect all you equipment, valuables and documents and give you a place to keep and prepare food and, if all else fails, something to sleep on as well.
Added to that, given the need to pass through some of the most remote, hostile and harsh terrain on earth, the vehicle has got to be supremely dependable, tough and have decent ground clearance. It needs to be able to cope with very rough and dusty roads and fuel of variable quality.
Further, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that it’s an incredibly long way from London to Cape Town by road (17,700 miles on our routing) so there is going to be a huge amount of time at the wheel. We reckon we spent at least 500 hours driving. So comfort is of prime importance.
Judged on the above criteria, it is hard to think of a better vehicle for the task than a Range Rover. Below we detail the particularly great things about the Range Rover that we discovered on this trip, the bits we felt could be improved, the service and maintenance regime and the faults encountered on route (it’s a short list).
Things we particularly liked
1.Comfort - seats
The Rangie is a supreme long-distance machine for lots of reasons but particularly of note are the seats. On many occasions we spent all day ‘in the saddle’ and never did we have any aches or pains or want for more lumbar or under-thigh support. The two-stage seat heating was very welcome in wintry Europe and on the cold mornings in Namibia and South Africa (as was the steering wheel heater ;-). Top marks.
2.Comfort - air con and dust control
Another stand out feature of the Rangie. Lots of cars have air conditioning but the system on the L322 is fantastic. Even when it was over forty degrees outside the system easily maintained a pleasant automatically-controlled 22 degrees inside with the fan speed on only 2 (of 8!). Humidity control is also excellent. The best example of how well the automatic climate control works was in Tanzania. We left Arusha in the morning at a fresh 15 degrees and drove straight to Dar es Salaam. Getting out was a shock; it was 35 degrees and over 95% humid and we hadn’t had any inkling of the change in conditions from inside the car!
Probably the best bit of all was the dust control. The Rangie, along with many cars today has a ‘pollen filter’ to separate out allergens and such like from the air entering the car. What we didn’t realise with the Range Rover is that it is a huge item that very effectively removes dust and even unpleasant smells from the incoming air, great news when stuck behind an ancient bus struggling uphill belching diesel fumes. Coupled with excellent dust sealing around the door apertures, a negligible amount of dust and filth found it’s way into the car on the entire trip. Genius. Looking at the state of the interior of other overlanders vehicles that didn’t enjoy this feature made us realise quite how lucky we were.
3.Comfort - air suspension
Despite all it’s famous off-road capability, the Range Rover also manages to provide excellent refinement on road but the air suspension is far more sophisticated than just providing a pillowy ride quality. It provides very good control of body motions, especially at high speed, and contributes to surprisingly good handling for a vehicle of this mass and high centre of gravity (particularly when there is nearly another 200kg on the roof!). Coupled with outstanding NVH control and remarkably low wind noise (the roofrack created a lot of extra wind noise but we could hardly hear it inside) means that we enjoyed a very relaxing ride.
We only encountered one type of terrain that even the Rangie couldn’t smooth out and that was corrugations, a classic (and unwelcome) feature of African untarred roads that have a very good go at shaking your car to pieces.
The air suspension also enables the driver to raise the ride height by about 10 centimetres (4 inches) when tackling rough terrain and this feature is absolutely invaluable in Africa. Only once did we graze the underside of the car and that was negotiating the extremely deep ruts on the Marsabit Road in Northern Kenya. We would suggest that ground clearance is the most useful feature when driving around Africa, probably even more so than four wheel drive.
4.Ease of maintenance
On an ultra-complex, modern car this came as a bit of a surprise. All the key service items - oil filter, air filter, fuel filter and pollen filter - have clearly been designed for easy access and ease of replacement. You realise the depth of thought that has gone into all of this when you remove the air filter box and realise that all the retaining bolts & washers are captive so they cannot fall out. You really appreciate that when doing the job in a side-street in Khartoum. After changing the fuel filter, the fuel system automatically purges itself of air - brilliant! The oil filter is the simplest to change on any car I have even seen, and being done from above, means you don’t have to grub around on the floor. The pollen filter change takes all of 2 minutes and is just a slot-in job. There is even a clever little float device that aids checking the coolant level. All the electrical connections are triple sealed against dust and moisture. I could go on and on but doing some simple maintenance on the Range Rover makes you realise there is serious engineering-in-depth going on here. I’m impressed.
5.Security
The Range Rover has incredibly good security. Having studied the various systems I’m convinced that it is virtually impossible to steal one without physically lifting it onto a trailer and towing it away, so that was the least of our worries in Africa. We were more worried about smash-and-grab and hijacking. For the former the UV protection and tinting film applied to the windows has the added side benefit of making smash-and-grab very difficult as it will prevent the window from shattering and needs quite a sustained attack to break through.
Hijacking was a bit more of an unknown. The guys at Land Rover Nairobi told us not to worry - they did not know of anyone being hijacked in a Range Rover. The reason? Because of massive import duties, Range Rovers are very rare all over Africa (they cost 2-3 times the price in the UK) so the only people who can buy them are government officials or very influential business people. Hijackers leave these sorts of people alone because they know that if they attacked them, they would have the secret service breathing down their necks immediately. In other words, we looked important, so it would be easier to leave us alone!
6.Reliability
Amazingly the Rangie did not miss a beat all the way down despite rough roads, unknown fuel quality, loads of dust, high heat, high humidity and high altitudes. It was our utterly dependable friend. Given that Africa generally has a good go at breaking your vehicle this is no mean achievement. We know of no other Cairo - Cape Town expedition that has suffered from so few issues with the car (and that includes Land Cruisers!!).
Things that could be improved
1.GM Automatic Gearbox
I have one or two gripes over the GM auto ‘box fitted to the Td6. Our route through Africa was immensely hilly or mountainous and we seemed to be always ascending or descending mountain passes. This coupled with frequently running at high altitudes (hence reduced engine power) and a heavily laden vehicle exposed the gearbox as the weakest link of an otherwise superb package.
Firstly, the gap in the ratio between 2nd and 3rd gear is too big. This is particularly noticeable when climbing mountain passes, especially at altitude. To maintain, say, 30mph up a steep incline you are forced to either run at high engine speeds in 2nd (which exacerbates 2, below) or slog away in 3rd. The gearbox electronics themselves could rarely decide on the correct gear in these circumstances so it was better to take manual control.
Additionally, the ‘box loves to get into 5th gear - presumably for economy reasons - but then it is quite reluctant to drop down ratios when additional torque is required. Again this issue is exacerbated at altitude when the engine develops less power.
Frequently we would run the ‘box in ‘Sport’ mode simply to lock out top gear. This had the added benefit of making gear selection more sensitive to throttle position (eg: when trying to maintain speed going up a hill) and preventing the ‘box from changing up when backing off going down hill, when the additional engine braking was welcome.
2.Noisy Viscous Fan
Not a problem as such as the cooling system never seemed to be under strain in any circumstance, however the viscous-coupled fan is intrusively noisy when it engages. Thankfully, in normal circumstances, this is relatively infrequently. However we noticed that approximately 1,500m above sea level it would engage and stay engaged until altitude was lost. Given that the whole of Ethiopia was above 2,000m this meant the fan was locked on for about two weeks! We were beginning to think we had a problem (had the coupling seized?) but dropping altitude into Northern Kenya proved this not to be the case. Is this designed-in safety net for the cooling system at altitude really necessary?
3.Inadequate Jack
Jacking a large, heavy vehicle with extremely long suspension travel is always going to be difficult and the jack supplied with the Range Rover is only just capable of the job. We did not have space to take a trolley jack that would do the job properly, a Range Rover is not compatible with a high-lift jack arrangement normally used by overlanders and the air jack we did take proved incapable of lifting the car. Had we had punctures offroad or on soft surfaces we would have had a problem on our hands. Land Rover needs to design something better.
4.Sun Visor
A slightly tongue-in-cheek one, this. Driving south (we did a lot of that) in the late afternoon meant that the sun would be on the side of the driver’s face. No problem because the sun visor swings round (revealing another one to fold down facing forwards - genius) but it is not long enough to shade the entire width of the front side window. If only these visors would extend, we mused. About 4 months and 15,000 miles into the trip, we realised that they did... Doh!!
Servicing & Maintenance
Our policy was “look after the vehicle, and it will look after you”. On a daily basis we would check oil, coolant and brake fluid levels plus a look under the car to check for leaks or damage. Amazingly, nothing needed topping up for the entire journey and we suffered no leaks or damage.
We looked after the tyres and pressures fastidiously and perhaps this is part of the reason why we only had one puncture on the entire trip, despite a lot of bad roads. You see a huge number of shredded tyres by the side of African roads, especially in the hot desert areas, illustrating how hard the tyres have to work when the roads get hot. Tyres pressure are normally set when cold but we found, using this value, the rear tyres were exceeding their maximum allowable pressure (50psi) if run at speed on hot tarmac. Consequently we experimented with cold pressures to prevent this happening and are sure this saved us a few blown tyres en route.
Dust and grit is a major enemy on a trip such as this as it finds its way into everything and tries to jam and seize whatever it can. After motoring in particularly dusty environments (eg: Namibian dirt roads) we would do a ‘dust service’ on the car involving blowing dust out of the radiators, cleaning and greasing the bonnet latches and giving the engine bay a dusting but it has to be said, the latter resisted dust intrusion surprisingly well. Where possible we would get the underside and suspension components jet washed. The area that picked up the most dust was the rear tailgate and this was the only place where some dust managed to find its way into the car. We carefully cleaned the seals, hinges, locks and latches to ensure efficient operation. Finally, we would increase the frequency of air filter changes when motoring in these environments.
In terms of servicing, before we left the UK we did a thorough service on the car knowing that the next time the car would see dealer facilities would probably be in Nairobi, 8,000 miles away. What we did is detailed in the preparation section.
En route we did the following;
1.Khartoum, Sudan at 5,500 miles (9,000km)
Following much motoring in dry, arid and dusty conditions we made a precautionary air filter and fuel filter change, plus all the above mentioned maintenance.
Total cost was nil as we did the work and supplied our own parts (in a hot, dusty side-street).
2.Nairobi, Kenya at 7,500 miles (12,000km)
Given the existence of a major, modern Land Rover dealer in Nairobi this was to be the point on the trip where we would take stock and do a major inspection and service on the car as follows;
- the car was given a thorough jet wash, including the engine bay and underneath.
- we changed engine oil plus oil, air, pollen and fuel filters. We also changed the wiper blades.
- we replaced the worn out bushes and ball joints in the front suspension trailing arms. These were original, 88,000 mile-old components that the rough roads of Northern Kenya finally finished off!
The total cost of the service was 105,000 Shillings (circa £875). Although labour rates are charged at about one quarter of UK rates, parts prices are circa double UK prices due to import duties. Hence the high price. However, we did get a LR Nairobi service stamp in the Rangie’s service book, which has got to make it worth it!
(We saw this again when we returned to LR Nairobi to pick up a Goodyear MTR tyre: £150 in the UK, more than £300 in Kenya)
3.Maun, Botswana at 11,500 miles (18,500km)
There is a small LR service agent in this northern outpost of Botswana and they very kindly let us use their facilities. We changed engine oil plus oil and fuel filters.
Total charge for this? Nil. We supplied the oil and filters and the service manager would not except payment for this 30 minutes of work! Instead, we gave the guys who helped us drain the oil etc a healthy tip. We also got a nice Botswana service stamp in the service book!
4.Johannesburg, South Africa at 14,000 miles (22,500km)
Not a proper service as such but, after the dirt roads of Namibia, a serious ‘dust service’ was in order, as well as a change of the air filter. There was so much grit and sand in the latter the poor Rangie must have been suffering from a dose of asthma!
Total cost was again nil as we did the work and supplied our own parts. This time we did the work in a friend’s driveway!
Now back in the UK after it’s 18,000 mile (28,000km) journey and with the car having completed a total of 99,000 miles (160,000km) it is nearly due another detailed service and inspection. Having passed it’s roadworthiness examination with no advisories this should be a simple matter of changing oil, all filters and cleaning out the last traces of grit and dust from the underside.
Things that went wrong
Some of these issues may seem absolutely trivial, but there is nothing else to report from the entire 18,000 mile, trans-Africa trip.
1.Parking sensors: the only thing that seems to have genuinely gone wrong. Probably because of being bombarded by so much grit and dust en route, the sensors sometimes work, most of the time they don’t.
2.Information screen: after the battering and shaking of the Marsabit Road in Northern Kenya the info screen in the car stopped working meaning we didn’t have music, fuel consumption stats or the helpful GPS/heading screen. Before fearing the worst for the electronics, however, we simply removed the relevant fuse, waited for a short period, then reinserted it. And guess what? It worked again, without fault, for the rest of the journey!
3.Electric folding mirrors: not really a fault of the car, more the fault of a ham-fisted Ethiopian. This gentleman, very kindly and unasked, washed the RR early one morning at Lake Awassa, Ethiopia. I had folded the mirrors in the night before using the button in the car. Unfortunately he opened the mirrors manually and this seems to have put the mechanism out of calibration. Pressing the button now will close the mirrors, but they open again immediately and will not stay closed. I’m sure this can be reset, I’m just not sure how!
So that’s it. The end of a great trip and emphatic proof that a modern Range Rover - 40 years on from its initial introduction - is still a formidable vehicle in virtually any environment you can imagine. The most capable vehicle in the World? Get’s our vote.