20' Series Underbody protection

[Crusty181]

Get caught on a wet clay road around broken hill and the stuff will stick to Teflon coated in olive oil. And thats were the flaps are good cause they stop the stuff getting past. But as long as you wash it off whilst it's still wet your good.

Good advice, thanks Jim. Ive not experienced that type of sticky flicky clay. My theory would be to use the mesh sparingly tho, following piping with 100mm or so strips. Ive tucked up and neatened all the plumbing, but there's a couple of areas that are still a bit exposed. Ive got some rubber for some areas that warrant it, and I think that mesh will be ideal in strips.

 

[achjimmy]

Tbh @Crusty181 you need to avoid it if at all possible. You can't drive on it you slide. at 50kph the whole rig slides sideways because of the camber only straightening up when the wheels go into the gutter and thankfully no trees! You plant the Cruza and apply opposite lock but it hardly makes any difference.

The car wash at broken hill made about $50 out of me that day ! Plus I emptied both water tanks just getting the mud of the stonestomper so I could continue into town.

And this was just after a light morning rain!

You can see why half the roads close at the first drop of rain out that way?

But I'd go back tommorrow

 

[Drover]

Sounds like the old camp in the shed caper, blow up pool and a truck load of sand with heat lamps. @Crusty181.

 

[mfexpanda]

Weve seen under your rig @Crusty181 it doesn't know what a dirty road is let alone a dirt road.

How would he clean the undercarriage with the toothbrush with the mesh in the way ?

 

[Crusty181]

What is this .... are you two on the phone together ???

Sounds like the old camp in the shed caper, blow up pool and a truck load of sand with heat lamps. @Crusty181.

Yellow tarp ... actual sand way too dirty. I studied the Apollo 11 landing videos to pull my ruze. Ha, I don't even own a van !!!!

How would he clean the undercarriage with the toothbrush with the mesh in the way ?

Electric tooth brush

 

[alexvk2]

I was thinking or putting a piece of shade cloth the full length under the van and pulling it tight and then securing it with tek screws and or cable ties

How did the shade cloth idea go?

 

[DRW]

How did the shade cloth idea go?

I ended up selling the van and before we were to go way in this one I crashed my bike and everything turned pair shape for a while, before we go adventuring agin I will look at it but I have been banned from dirt roads for a while because of the dust issues with the expanda

 

[alexvk2]

sorry to hear bad luck -- I've put in a blower to help with any dust issues - I saw a youtube video of a guy towing a 19' panda along GRR and up to the Mitchell Falls with no problems and no dust - he used a forward facing vent to pressurise the van. I am still under the van fitting a second spare and looking at the shade cloth idea.

 

[Drover]

Not a fan of the shade cloth idea, crap gets in can't get out and one bit of old tyre flying around underneath could pull it away and under a wheel, if a bit of tyre can rip truck brake lines off a bit of cloth is cactus . Have had a tie down strap go around a wheel and it's not fun at all.

 

[Crusty181]

We did 1000s of km's on dirt, rocks, dust, sand and wet clay. We did Central Oz, Cape Leveque, GRR, Tanami and Savannah Way plus all the Nat Parks and other bits and bobs we could find along the way to get away from other people

Our pre-trip prep consisted of a Stone Stomper, extended mud flaps on both the car and van. I slid the gal water tank guard right across to protect the tank fittings from impact, and inserted a folded gal filler piece at the other end where the tank was now exposed from moving the factory guard across. Bunnings sell small sheets of gal that fit perfectly into that exposed gap with no cutting or hardware required. A small strip of rubber over the sullage outlet was the only rubber I used because there wasnt any other way to protect that. Tucked up the water hoses that hang down like Aunty Gertys undies, and pushed them through the chassis where possible. (I had already re-plumbed most of our van with a mix of 25mm black poly pipe, and 40mm PVC with the sullage all running into a single sullage outlet. (The way it damn well should be) Pulled and pushed the elec brake wiring and tied it off to the top and rear of the suspension hardware out of the firing line (only using the slack and excess, i didnt re-wiring).

We had no sub floor damage all, and the only legacy is a distinct red tint to everything (which you just cant avoid unfortunately) and some serious pitting to the front face of the rear gal water tank guard.

I spent a bit of time rolling around under the van on a creeper with goo gun in hand and sealing all the gaps and all the joints I could find and also re-sealing the factory penetrations, along with the penetrations I did. I would say the most important, critical, and less obvious sealing was the joint between chassis and the black plastic wheel arch skirts. That area gets the biggest shellacking from the relentless dust. After 9mths on the road, much of it on dirt, for the first time we started to get some dust into the lower cabinets. We quickly found our sealer in that area had deteriorate. Stripping that back, resealing and we were back to no dust. I used thick course fish tank matting permanently attached for the door gas vent and I didn't seal off the fridge vents.

 

[alexvk2]

Thanks
Will work on those suggestions...esp the wheel arch
I've previously done Tanami, GRR,Savannah Way and Cape Levique as well as Cape York but roof top tent and also a Trayon slide on camper but this is our first trip towing.

 

[Bluey]

On my recent trip very dusty indeed but on @Crusty181 s advice i sealed up the wheelarches with some black matsic no dust in the van i could hardly see it somtimes behind the car for the dust so a big thanks Ian

 

[Dobbie]

We did 1000s of km's on dirt, rocks, dust, sand and wet clay. We did Central Oz, Cape Leveque, GRR, Tanami and Savannah Way plus all the Nat Parks and other bits and bobs we could find along the way to get away from other people

Our pre-trip prep consisted of a Stone Stomper, extended mud flaps on both the car and van. I slid the gal water tank guard right across to protect the tank fittings from impact, and inserted a folded gal filler piece at the other end where the tank was now exposed from moving the factory guard across. Bunnings sell small sheets of gal that fit perfectly into that exposed gap with no cutting or hardware required. A small strip of rubber over the sullage outlet was the only rubber I used because there wasnt any other way to protect that. Tucked up the water hoses that hang down like Aunty Gertys undies, and pushed them through the chassis where possible. (I had already re-plumbed most of our van with a mix of 25mm black poly pipe, and 40mm PVC with the sullage all running into a single sullage outlet. (The way it damn well should be) Pulled and pushed the elec brake wiring and tied it off to the top and rear of the suspension hardware out of the firing line (only using the slack and excess, i didnt re-wiring).

We had no sub floor damage all, and the only legacy is a distinct red tint to everything (which you just cant avoid unfortunately) and some serious pitting to the front face of the rear gal water tank guard.

I spent a bit of time rolling around under the van on a creeper with goo gun in hand and sealing all the gaps and all the joints I could find and also re-sealing the factory penetrations, along with the penetrations I did. I would say the most important, critical, and less obvious sealing was the joint between chassis and the black plastic wheel arch skirts. That area gets the biggest shellacking from the relentless dust. After 9mths on the road, much of it on dirt, for the first time we started to get some dust into the lower cabinets. We quickly found our sealer in that area had deteriorate. Stripping that back, resealing and we were back to no dust. I used thick course fish tank matting permanently attached for the door gas vent and I didn't seal off the fridge vents.

.

Look out...Aunty Gertie's undies are still cracking me up! I think she left them around Kunenarah...or maybe Leveque.

@Crusty181 that really was an image I'll leave.

but...the protection works! Do as much as you can reasonably do and every bit helps.

The space filler, the pipe protection and everything else is worth doing...we sold ours after a bit of travel (20k or so) and it didn't have a mark on it.

(But we didn't do venting protection and no dust issues at all....surprisingly). Now have some protection but mainly for water, not dust.

 

[Drover]

I've found behind the axles usually gets the biggest flogging by rocks, I've sprayed the wheels arches after the reseal with underbody sound deadener works well. It's not the rough roads that do the damage as you are going slow on them it's the recently graded ones that you up the speed on that does it I reckon...............If fridge is fitted properly why block the vents while I haven't done the Tanami etc I've traversed a couple of dirt roads and don't find heaps of dirt/dust behind my fridge, might have house trained spiders there though, but the flap over the door vent is a must.

 

[alexvk2]

.

Look out...Aunty Gertie's undies are still cracking me up! I think she left them around Kunenarah...or maybe Leveque.

@Crusty181 that really was an image I'll leave.

but...the protection works! Do as much as you can reasonably do and every bit helps.

The space filler, the pipe protection and everything else is worth doing...we sold ours after a bit of travel (20k or so) and it didn't have a mark on it.

(But we didn't do venting protection and no dust issues at all....surprisingly). Now have some protection but mainly for water, not dust.

Jayco have shown that they do actually know how to deal with Aunt's Undies...I looked under the new Adventurer at the Rosehill show and it is so much better organised... a pity they don't do that with all models ..cant see it costing much more

 

[Crusty181]

Jayco have shown that they do actually know how to deal with Aunt's Undies...I looked under the new Adventurer at the Rosehill show and it is so much better organised... a pity they don't do that with all models ..cant see it costing much more

Bit more Victorias Secret'esk ??

 

[alexvk2]

A gentleman doesn't tell

 

[The escapist]

There are gentlemen on here??

 

[chartrock]

There are gentlemen on here??

A few of us. eep:

 

[Frog]

We did 1000s of km's on dirt, rocks, dust, sand and wet clay. We did Central Oz, Cape Leveque, GRR, Tanami and Savannah Way plus all the Nat Parks and other bits and bobs we could find along the way to get away from other people

Our pre-trip prep consisted of a Stone Stomper, extended mud flaps on both the car and van. I slid the gal water tank guard right across to protect the tank fittings from impact, and inserted a folded gal filler piece at the other end where the tank was now exposed from moving the factory guard across. Bunnings sell small sheets of gal that fit perfectly into that exposed gap with no cutting or hardware required. A small strip of rubber over the sullage outlet was the only rubber I used because there wasnt any other way to protect that. Tucked up the water hoses that hang down like Aunty Gertys undies, and pushed them through the chassis where possible. (I had already re-plumbed most of our van with a mix of 25mm black poly pipe, and 40mm PVC with the sullage all running into a single sullage outlet. (The way it damn well should be) Pulled and pushed the elec brake wiring and tied it off to the top and rear of the suspension hardware out of the firing line (only using the slack and excess, i didnt re-wiring).

We had no sub floor damage all, and the only legacy is a distinct red tint to everything (which you just cant avoid unfortunately) and some serious pitting to the front face of the rear gal water tank guard.

I spent a bit of time rolling around under the van on a creeper with goo gun in hand and sealing all the gaps and all the joints I could find and also re-sealing the factory penetrations, along with the penetrations I did. I would say the most important, critical, and less obvious sealing was the joint between chassis and the black plastic wheel arch skirts. That area gets the biggest shellacking from the relentless dust. After 9mths on the road, much of it on dirt, for the first time we started to get some dust into the lower cabinets. We quickly found our sealer in that area had deteriorate. Stripping that back, resealing and we were back to no dust. I used thick course fish tank matting permanently attached for the door gas vent and I didn't seal off the fridge vents.

We bit the bullet and ordered a Stone Stomper this week, arrives next week. Looking forward to installing it.