We received a cool email from a customer, thought we would share. We're happy to see a Cayenne being used to it's full potential, especially in such a cool place. I'm ready for an offroad trip!!




From Ashley in Australia:

Just got back from our offroad camping trip to the East and West Kimberley in North West Australia. I have a 2007 V6 petrol cayenne which has now clocked up 70,000km. During the trip we travelled over 6,000 km, about 1,200km of which was on unsealed gravel roads, some of which were quite challenging. For example on one 50km section of Gibb River Road (unsealed gravel road) between Home Valley Station there were 7 roll-overs in the first 10 days of the school holidays.



I have an opinion some of the problem is the new generation of offroad all wheel drive cars have wheels and tyres more suited to sealed roads rather than unmade gravel roads. The low profile, reduced diameter but wider tyres are limited in the amount of extra flexure which can be obtained simply by reducing tyre pressure to 20psi or below. The lack of flexure reduces tyre contact with the front and back sides of the corrugations and this impedes braking and effective steering adjustments.



We encountered far worse road conditions on the 200km stretch of the Kalumbaroo road between Drysdale Station and Mitchell Falls. Deep rutted corrugations in the gravel made it impractical to drive at less than 85km/hr on the unsealed roads which made cornering a bit difficult due to significant understeer experienced going into the corners followed by severe oversteer once the front wheels found grip causing the backend to drift out. This is not a problem for those of us with a bit of experience in these road conditions but not to easy for the uninitiated. The corrugations were sufficiently bad to cause the bonnet release lever in the Cayenne to fall off onto the floor beneath my feet.



I also lost one of the small plastic body panels which cover the jacking points just in front of the rear wheels in one of the creek crossings. The panel on the other side was also dislodged.I didn't have any suspension problems and no dust intrusion. Road noise was minimal and the ride on comfort setting was very pleasant.



At one time I did hit a large bump when taking a sharp left hander at speed which threw the side of the car up and caused the PSM to act. It made the car sit down level very quickly and brought the steering under control immediately. Very Impressive. I have attached a couple of photos





Bell's Gorge is typical of the many gorges you can visit. Most require an hour's hike in from the nearest campsite.



The Boab trees are pretty slow growing. The one shown is somewhere between 500 and 1,000 years old.



Some of the ancient aboriginal rock paintings in and around the gorges have been dated between 17,000 and 50,000 years old.



I set the car up with a "Rhino Rack (1.1m x 1.6m) on which I carried two (2) spare wheels, five (5) 20ltr Jerry cans of fuel, one 20ltr jerry can of water and two gas cylinders plus assorted excess camping gear like shovel and rake plus mats.



I fitted a "nudge-bar" up front to carry the two "light-force" twin 240 HID 50W driving lights and to offer some limited protection to the radiators if I happened to collect a kangaroo or emu along the way (distinct possibility on any outback Australian roads). I was very disappointed that I couldn't fit an extra fuel tank or an extra battery, these are essential for offroad travel in outback Australia. There is a problem running aluminium rims in the outback because they disintegrate if you blow a tyre at high speed and the spare tyre is ok for sealed roads but entirely unsuited to offroad tracks. Hence the need for two spare wheels including rims.







Ashley in Australia

 

Forgot one:


Nom Nom Nom

 

WOW, that was a great adventure

 

Sweet!

 

Wow. and you guys did this with a V6.
time to take mine out offroad.
you guys didn't experience any problems during your trip?

Thanks for the pictures.

 

Thanks for the post That2bad.
The V6 had no major problems with the trip.
I chose the V6 because there is no 95 or 98 octane fuel available once you leave the bitumen road. I ran the car on 91 octane and also "opal" which is a brew they have in remote communities which discourages petrol sniffing. I have made this trip twice before with my 4.2 litre Nissan Patrol and the V6 has slightly more power so I didnt see the need to go to the V8.
The two main problems with the car for extended offroad travelling in very remote locations were lack of an auxiliary fuel tank and no place to connect in an auxiliary battery. The longest stretch we did between fuel stations was 980km. I averaged about 15 litres/100km on the gravel which gave me a range of roughly 600km per tankful, hence the need to carry extra fuel in jerry cans. Since the car is automatic it is imperative that you always have a well charged battery at all times. Leaving the stereo playing with an interior light on overnight can be a problem next day if you dont have a spare battery. I would like to be able to isolate all the internal lights in the car when the engine is not running. Everytime a door is opened the interior lights come on which is not necessary and quickly runs down the battery over an extended period.
I did loose the small plactic covers over the jacking points just in front of the rear wheels when I went through one of the deeper river crossings where the water was over the top of the wheels.
There was very little vibration on the rough corrugations although at one point the bonnet release handle fell off onto the floor.
I have air suspension which helped a lot with the water crossings and some of the rougher terrain. I did have to wait though for the compressor to catch up sometimes but this wasnt a real hassle.
One feature that you need to be aware of is the dust accumulation around the back door and glass hatch. We has some rain on the trip and the dust accumulated in the back door hinges quickly turned to mud which was very difficult to get out. I also had a lot of dust accumulate inside the rear door through the breather holes behind the glass panel. My Porsche dealer hasnt been able to help with any hints on how I might get the dust out.
We had no dust infiltrate the cabin on the trip which was a real bonus and a credit to the door seals.
The car behaved extremely well on the rough roads, far better than what I have experienced previously with Nissans, Mitsubishi's, Land Rovers and Toyotas. The ride was smoother and quieter and we had no problem playing CD's the whole time which has been a bugbear with other cars I have driven on similar terrain.
I have 4 zone airconditioning which was more than adequate for the 40+ midday temperatures in the Kimberley.

 

I am going to have to ship my car down for a trip!

 

Ashley,

Thanks for joining the forum, and for a great story. Most of us won't get the opportunity to have an adventure like this, so thanks for taking us for a ride.

 

Dual batteries were an option on the Cayenne. The second battery would be located under the spare tire. They were set up exactly how you would like them. One dedicated to the functions of the car and the other solely for starting it. It might be possible to retrofit the battery and isolator if you really want it.

I would be someone on this thread could look up all the part numbers to figure out what it would take

 

Probably far easier to carry a rechargeable jumper box, if that would meet your needs.

You can also replace all the interior lights with LEDs and draw much less power.

Great pics and thanks for sharing!

 

Having done lots of four wheeling in my life I can say that cargo space is always at a premium. The more things you can have built into the rig the better. I personally would prefer to take a little time to install dual batteries than to carry a jumper box with all my other gear(and make sure its plugged in while the car is on and unplugged while it is off).

I have added dual battery set ups to several Jeeps over the years. There are several aftermarket solutions and in this case a factory solution. Should not be that difficult.

 

awesome story and trip. Glad to see that the Cayenne was durable enough for your adventures. Rep point for the great write up

 

If you havn't already, you should read the "Cayenne Book"(link below). Talks about all the development and the testing they did all over the world in some pretty extreme conditions. Lots of neat pictures.

http://www.amazon.com/Porsche-Cayenn...2316193&sr=8-5

 

I have been duck hunting and just outdoor scouting for 5 years in my Cayenne. I can haul to far away destinations much easier than any jeep or truck and take on speeds optimally above the legal limit on the highway, it pays to sleep in that extra 30 minutes.

I love the look on other peoples faces when I come smashing down the road in my 06 base and pull right up to all the V10 diesels that have 6inch lifts and mudtires....(i live in Texas).....the only reason they need them is because they rutted out the dang road anyway.

I have never had to adjust the gearing either when I am remote, just maybe some manual shift to start in 1st........I find that the mud in Texas majority is a heavy slippery clay.......it makes great mud donuts too.

I will say, having 17's the majority of the time has really limited my tire selection. I would love to have a set of 17s with mud tires or military grade tires similar to the ****** but it looks like I will have to stick with A/T only.

I spend every sunday cruising the backroads to just check out a new park or explore.

 

Nice pictures