aswigon

Well I just made my first real off road trip in the Terri and am very pleased with the performance. Took it up the beach on Bribie Island with the tyres lowered down to 20. The only point of difficulty was the beach access track and this was only because the sump guard kit completely filled with sand. On the way back along the track I stayed out of the existing wheel ruts and forged my own way keeping the bottom of the body out of the sand as much as possible.

Has anyone else with a sump guard kit experienced this? Is it worth or possible to get extra holes in it to allow the sand out? Adjustable ride height would certainly be beneficial in these transition areas.

 

Ouzo

Its obviously not desirable but was there a tangible consequence to the sump guard filling with sand?

aswigon

Yes there was. It effectively made the engine, transmission and exhaust all in permanent contact with the body of the car. The rumbling noise coming through the floor was initially quite disconcerting and sounded like a really ill transmission. A bit of circle work cleared enough to reduce the noise but it was extremely difficult to clean out even with a lot of water.

Has anyone removed the sump guard kit for cleaning purposes? I am thinking that driving it up on ramps and taking the guard off is probably going to be the only option. Any feedback would be appreciated.

johnydep

Took mine off so I could change the engine oil & filter.

Quite easy, a series of bolts (13mm heads from memory), just make sure you don't over tension the bolts when re-fitting, otherwise you will break the plastic.

aswigon

Have you ever taken your Terri on a sand track with deep ruts and experienced anything similar to me?

Ouzo

Hmm not good. Sounds a lot like a problem that I recall reading about in Overlander or one of the other 4wd mags when they tested the Terri. I'll see if I've still got it at home.

Did notice that even in light beach diving that I did over Christmas that there was a fair bit of sand in the guard when I got back - nothing to the extent you've described but this was really only 2wd beach driving so it was just the stuff that flicked up.

aswigon

The track onto the beach @ Bribie Island is quite long and the wheel ruts are deep. The Terri performed admirably when others were stuck. The beach driving itself was no problem whatsoever.

newbee

I'm planning on going to Fraser Island when I get my Terri, this week or next week.
Has anyone been there yet?

aswigon

No but Fraser Island is one of the reasons I bought the Terri as the outlaws have a house on Fraser. The Bribie Island trip was a test for the Fraser Island trip without the travel time and barge trip. I am extremely happy with how it performed on Bribie and expect the same of it on Fraser.

johnydep

No sand tracks yet, just dirt & rocky roads.

The bash plate was fairly clean when I removed it.

I did read a review which complained that sand got trapped between the floor pan & rear exhaust muffler & caused the same noise/vibration you experienced.