Preparing a 2011 Prado for the Madigan Line

[luke29ermtb Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close luke29ermtb]

Having just crossed the Simpson Desert on the WAA Line our thoughts are turning to a trip across the Madigan Line in 2022. However, the Prado is 10 years old, has travelled 175,000km, has done a fair bit of towing and the Madigan Line is a big step up from the WAA Line. There are quite a few things that book servicing by Toyota has not changed that could become a liability. The things that I'm thinking about changing are:

• Water pump (radiator hoses have been replaced)
• CV joints/drive shafts
• Engine/gearbox mounts
• Suspension bushes (shocks and springs are near new)
• Fuel lines (injectors are near new)

Interested in your thoughts on practical component replacements.

[Wombataus Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Wombataus]

We have just returned form the Madigan Line, in a 2010 Prado 150 Kakadu. (145K) No issues, you will need fuel as 900 plus klm from Mt Dare to Birdsville.
Have to watch out for droped timber from previous adventurers, i found a 600 x 100 timber log in the middle of a sand hill, kinked the Brown Davis tank but no leak.
Make sure traction control off and tires deflated to 18 f 20 r and alls well. Even Big Red

[gunda Member Find all posts View Profile Close gunda]

Traction control off?

[geo Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close geo]

Definitely turn off traction control when driving in sand!

[krypto Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close krypto]

Not sure if there is much that you can do to prepare for what happened to me, but I'll share a recent experience. My Prado is same age, 175,000km and done a lot of towing. Coming back from up north fully loaded and towing our camper, just before Wooramel the engine blew... cracked piston. Head wind and I was pushing it a bit.

Lessons, extended towing stresses the engine. The cracked pistons was a stress failure, not heat, from repeated heavy towing over many years. Replaced injectors just before the trip, complete waste of time and money, don't listen to the crap being peddled in certain areas. A mate of mine has same age Prado with 280,000km, original injectors, and does lots of hard towing without problems.

Definitely worth having the top RAC cover, I didn't. Don't push too hard towing for extended periods, especially in remote areas.

Sounds like you are doing all the right preparation, enjoy the trip.

[404pug Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 404pug]

Yes. Traction control OFF and centre diff locked. Note that you will have to turn trc off again every time the ignition gets turned off. Tyre pressure 16-18 psi HOT once you hit the Madigan. Pressures will go up as the day gets hotter so keep an eye on them, especially in the afternoon . Travel as light as possible with nothing heavy like fuel or water on the roof. If you must carry fuel on the roof empty a jerry can into the main tank every 100 or120 km or so to get the weight low as the dunes are very uneven. For what it is worth my 2.8 used about 13 l/100km. All dunes done in high range first gear, changing manually to 2nd or 3rd as soon as you crest a dune. No need to rev the crap out of it in low range. Keep revs about 1500 to 2000 the whole way. Worked beautifully on CSR , Simpson and Googs in both a petrol 120 and the diesel 150. A great trip. Enjoy.

[Boneyone Member Find all posts View Profile Close Boneyone]

I would replace the starter motor just to be sure, and if you haven't replaced your alternator yet i would do that too. Cheap insurance.

[luke29ermtb Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close luke29ermtb]

We have just returned form the Madigan Line, in a 2010 Prado 150 Kakadu. (145K) No issues, you will need fuel as 900 plus klm from Mt Dare to Birdsville.
Have to watch out for droped timber from previous adventurers, i found a 600 x 100 timber log in the middle of a sand hill, kinked the Brown Davis tank but no leak.
Make sure traction control off and tires deflated to 18 f 20 r and alls well. Even Big Red

I'll be going up from Adelaide so was planning on overnighting in Coober Pedy and topping up at Finke but that probably isn't much different to filling up at Mt Dare. However, I've seen a few things lately that suggest fuel is not available at Finke so I'll have to check that before departure.

18 front and 20 rear (hot) was what we used on the WAA line and it worked well.

[luke29ermtb Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close luke29ermtb]

Definitely turn off traction control when driving in sand!

Thanks Wombataus and Geo, that is another thing I did not know. Although, I only felt/heard traction control come on a couple of times on the WAA Line.

Interested to know what difference it makes and when.

[luke29ermtb Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close luke29ermtb]

Not sure if there is much that you can do to prepare for what happened to me, but I'll share a recent experience. My Prado is same age, 175,000km and done a lot of towing. Coming back from up north fully loaded and towing our camper, just before Wooramel the engine blew... cracked piston. Head wind and I was pushing it a bit.

Lessons, extended towing stresses the engine. The cracked pistons was a stress failure, not heat, from repeated heavy towing over many years. Replaced injectors just before the trip, complete waste of time and money, don't listen to the crap being peddled in certain areas. A mate of mine has same age Prado with 280,000km, original injectors, and does lots of hard towing without problems.

Definitely worth having the top RAC cover, I didn't. Don't push too hard towing for extended periods, especially in remote areas.

Sounds like you are doing all the right preparation, enjoy the trip.

This seems all too common krypto and it is always on my mind. I've had the injectors changed not long ago and a compression test didn't reveal any issues. I'm towing a Pod Extreme trailer on these trips but I'm very careful to keep weight to a minimum. The trailer fully loaded probably weights about 750kg (with wood, extra fuel and water) and I use it to keep weight out of the Prado. The trailer weight obviously decreases every day.

I use Club 4x4 insurance and pay extra for recovery. It isn't cheap but if you get stuck in there middle of nowhere recovery costs are going to be very high.

[luke29ermtb Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close luke29ermtb]

Yes. Traction control OFF and centre diff locked. Note that you will have to turn trc off again every time the ignition gets turned off. Tyre pressure 16-18 psi HOT once you hit the Madigan. Pressures will go up as the day gets hotter so keep an eye on them, especially in the afternoon . Travel as light as possible with nothing heavy like fuel or water on the roof. If you must carry fuel on the roof empty a jerry can into the main tank every 100 or120 km or so to get the weight low as the dunes are very uneven. For what it is worth my 2.8 used about 13 l/100km. All dunes done in high range first gear, changing manually to 2nd or 3rd as soon as you crest a dune. No need to rev the crap out of it in low range. Keep revs about 1500 to 2000 the whole way. Worked beautifully on CSR , Simpson and Googs in both a petrol 120 and the diesel 150. A great trip. Enjoy.

Good advice 404pug. I used the same approach on the WAA Line, except I rarely got into third gear, and was amazed at the fuel economy. We exited the Simpson via the Warburton Track (not recommended in hindsight) to keep the trip duration down. We filled up in Mt Dare and with the 40L of spare fuel we were carrying (standard tanks) we made it all the way to Hawker on way home.

As I said in my reply to krypto, I use a Pod Extreme trailer to keep weight out of the Prado. I don't carry anything on the roof. The trailer carries most of the gear and has the same wheels and tyres as the Prado. I was running the trailer tyres at 10psi to get them to belly out and it floated over everything.

[luke29ermtb Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close luke29ermtb]

I would replace the starter motor just to be sure, and if you haven't replaced your alternator yet i would do that too. Cheap insurance.

The list of potential replacements/repairs is long and expensive for a mid-life upgrade so I'm going to have to prioritise. I guess I'll have do search this forum for each item and try to work out which are the greater liability. That and spend a considerable amount of time under the car with a good torch inspecting everything.

[luke29ermtb Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close luke29ermtb]

Having just crossed the Simpson Desert on the WAA Line our thoughts are turning to a trip across the Madigan Line in 2022. However, the Prado is 10 years old, has travelled 175,000km, has done a fair bit of towing and the Madigan Line is a big step up from the WAA Line. There are quite a few things that book servicing by Toyota has not changed that could become a liability. The things that I'm thinking about changing are:

• Water pump (radiator hoses have been replaced)
• CV joints/drive shafts
• Engine/gearbox mounts
• Suspension bushes (shocks and springs are near new)
• Fuel lines (injectors are near new)

Interested in your thoughts on practical component replacements.

I forgot the obvious...

The cranking battery is now about six years old (fitted in NZ when we were living there) so it definitely needs to be replaced.

[RPP Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RPP]

The fuel pump would be on my to do list at that age. The main tank can be inspected/cleaned at the same time.
On ultra remote treks, especially when going solo, I carry a spare starter and alternator.

On my recent trip in the Kimberley I discovered that half a dozen layers of glad wrap is a good fix for a staked CV boot (better than the split boot I carried for such an emergency).
Glad wrap sticks to itself and stretches, just cable tie down the ends. You might need a small tub of grease to repack the boot. That fix got me 4,000kms back to Adelaide.