Thread: Which 4x4

Just back from Western Australia where I ran into one of the fleet managers for Rio Tinto at Tom Price. RT have two iron ore mines close to there and run a fleet of over 2,000 4x4 utes.

He was an interesting man to talk to.

In summary he said that if you are buying a ute for private use, any of the major brands should be OK providing you drive and maintain it to the manufacturers specs.

However if you are running fleet vehicles with multiple drivers in challenging conditions with minimum care then Toyotas are the best choice.

In his opinion Toyota is the best vehicle manufacturer in the world.

Originally Posted by Backcountry Bob

Just back from Western Australia where I ran into one of the fleet managers for Rio Tinto at Tom Price. RT have two iron ore mines close to there and run a fleet of over 2,000 4x4 utes.

He was an interesting man to talk to.

In summary he said that if you are buying a ute for private use, any of the major brands should be OK providing you drive and maintain it to the manufacturers specs.

However if you are running fleet vehicles with multiple drivers in challenging conditions with minimum care then Toyotas are the best choice.

In his opinion Toyota is the best vehicle manufacturer in the world.

He’s a wise man ��

Were 100% Toyota family.

Ive had couple of hi luxes and a Landcruiser.

The best hi lux I think was 3.0 L turbo (1kzte engine). A 2002 Model.

That was faultless that ute. Towed my boat all over the country. As far north as you can go.

If you could find a low mileage one of them, I would be pretty confident it would be great for you.

Be aware, they still go for good money.

Originally Posted by Backcountry Bob

Just back from Western Australia where I ran into one of the fleet managers for Rio Tinto at Tom Price. RT have two iron ore mines close to there and run a fleet of over 2,000 4x4 utes.

He was an interesting man to talk to.

In summary he said that if you are buying a ute for private use, any of the major brands should be OK providing you drive and maintain it to the manufacturers specs.

However if you are running fleet vehicles with multiple drivers in challenging conditions with minimum care then Toyotas are the best choice.

In his opinion Toyota is the best vehicle manufacturer in the world.

I’m 100% sure I’ve told you guys this before, but I’m going to tell you again.

The Gen 7 Hilux (KUN26R) was for years the standard fleet vehicle on the big iron ore mines up north, as it was on the two biggest open cut gold mines in Aus - Boddington and the KCGM Super Pit.

Then, sometime in 2012, some bright spark jobsworth in one of the head offices decided that in order to eliminate various irrational and unlikely safety “risks”, all light vehicles needed to conform with ANCAP 5 Star. This caused all manner of bother because neither the MY12 Hilux or the Land Cruiser 70 series were 5 Star rated, because they didn’t have electronic stability control. They were only 4 star. I think it was BHP that did it first, once they did it then everyone else did it too.

Toyota Australia argued vociferously that electronic stability control made absolutely bugger all difference in the real world, but the decision was made. Any new fleet purchases in 2013 and 2014 needed to be ANCAP 5 Star. The big mining companies already knew that in 2015 the Gen 8 Hilux (GUN126R) was due, but they needed to bridge the gap.

Cue mayhem. On our mine, the Ford Ranger was selected to replace the Hilux, the first batch were for the mineral processing guys running the tailings dams and waste water processing. This would’ve been in early 2013.

I am not telling fibs when I say that every day after the morning pre-start meeting there was a scrum at the LV tag board as guys battled over who got the old Hiluxs and who got the new Rangers. No one wanted the Rangers! On the rutted and corrugated mine roads, the bloody things fell apart in a crazy short period of time, they were in and out of the LV repair shop on a regular basis and the guys were getting really fed up real quick. The guys were having awful problems with electrical gremlins primarily, bulldust ingress into the cab, broken engine mounts, brake problems, all sorts. The Rangers just couldn’t hack the conditions.

Over half of the MinPro Rangers were binned well before the end of the three-year deals. They were supposed to go into the pit fleet but the Mine Manager refused to have them and extended the life of the old Hilux fleet by two years instead, so avoid the inevitable hit on availability. To be fair that resulted in some pretty ropey old Hilux running around by the time I left in 2015, but they were very reliable and kept chugging along.

In Newman, the Ford service centre imploded under the pressure and it wasn’t long before there was a very sad looking car park of stationary Rangers less than a year old sitting in the hot sun. You’d see car transporters doing the long trek back to Perth with 7 or 8 dead Rangers hanging off the back. Lots of the mobile mechanic contractors maintaining the big plant in the pits had tried to get away with treating the Rangers like they did the LC75. GVM upgrades, 10ply LT tyres. It didn’t work - chassis cracks, broken springs, etc etc. Just couldn’t deal with the weight & conditions, despite what the sticker on the inside of the door said.

Toyota Australia obviously knew what was going on and they were very sore about losing a significant chunk of revenue in that period. So they pulled a fast one and issued a facelift model - the MY14 - which was the last version of the KUN26R. It was exactly the same as the previous one with two notable exceptions…. It had electronic stability control and a funky touchscreen head unit instead of the old CD/radio. (And the dash console was a different colour.) It did of course have a 5 star safety rating. It was only available for a few months before the new Gen 8 came along, but because it was proven, the mines bought them up in their droves.

I got my MY12 in April 2014 on a run out deal from Toyota in Perth, $35k in SR cab chassis form, no deck, nowt. Built it up and then toured the entire continent inside out towing a trailer, and still going strong here in NZ, doing the hard yards.

The one that wore the engine out in under 100,000K's was a MY14. The MY12 was probably a better vehicle, and I'd agree the rangers had and have had a lot of issues and are rather a lot more lightly built in a lot of areas.

But having said that, my experience of the Toyota's in wet conditions was considerably less flattering than what they experienced in the drier and dustier Aussie environment. Mining in NZ in very wet conditions went through LC's at a fearful rate through body failure due to rust. A couple of the local outfits run different brands now after that, rust the same but cheaper to purchase I think is the argument. But, having said that one Amarok's effort that suffered a cracked taillight is a bloody eye opening example. That resulted in a written off loom through water ingress up the cable's insulation, which resulted in after several attempts at repair a complete write off as the loom and electronics required full replacement which was eye wateringly expensive. Written off as water damaged but not flooded! Work that one out.

Nice info there FB.

I suppose my love of Toyota comes from working on them when I did my first apprenticeship.

It was just the build quality of the things that did it for me. Everything was well built and logical to repair. Parts easy to get and always correct. Priced well

I used to hate working on Honda's. Bloody things. They must have been built by people with very long skinny arms and also contortionists.

Nissans not so bad, but a lot of their stuff seemed like it was euro inspired (like peugeot or something) Hopeless.

Thank god I dont have to fix the bloody things now, i just wear them out now and let someone else do that.

Not to hijack the thread but just out of curiosity has anyone had any experience with the Mahindra utes.

Apart from the glaringly obvious, ugly as sin

Rust is an issue apparently. No experience here but.

Originally Posted by Flyblown

I’m 100% sure I’ve told you guys this before, but I’m going to tell you again.

The Gen 7 Hilux (KUN26R) was for years the standard fleet vehicle on the big iron ore mines up north, as it was on the two biggest open cut gold mines in Aus - Boddington and the KCGM Super Pit.

Then, sometime in 2012, some bright spark jobsworth in one of the head offices decided that in order to eliminate various irrational and unlikely safety “risks”, all light vehicles needed to conform with ANCAP 5 Star. This caused all manner of bother because neither the MY12 Hilux or the Land Cruiser 70 series were 5 Star rated, because they didn’t have electronic stability control. They were only 4 star. I think it was BHP that did it first, once they did it then everyone else did it too.

Toyota Australia argued vociferously that electronic stability control made absolutely bugger all difference in the real world, but the decision was made. Any new fleet purchases in 2013 and 2014 needed to be ANCAP 5 Star. The big mining companies already knew that in 2015 the Gen 8 Hilux (GUN126R) was due, but they needed to bridge the gap.

Cue mayhem. On our mine, the Ford Ranger was selected to replace the Hilux, the first batch were for the mineral processing guys running the tailings dams and waste water processing. This would’ve been in early 2013.

I am not telling fibs when I say that every day after the morning pre-start meeting there was a scrum at the LV tag board as guys battled over who got the old Hiluxs and who got the new Rangers. No one wanted the Rangers! On the rutted and corrugated mine roads, the bloody things fell apart in a crazy short period of time, they were in and out of the LV repair shop on a regular basis and the guys were getting really fed up real quick. The guys were having awful problems with electrical gremlins primarily, bulldust ingress into the cab, broken engine mounts, brake problems, all sorts. The Rangers just couldn’t hack the conditions.

Over half of the MinPro Rangers were binned well before the end of the three-year deals. They were supposed to go into the pit fleet but the Mine Manager refused to have them and extended the life of the old Hilux fleet by two years instead, so avoid the inevitable hit on availability. To be fair that resulted in some pretty ropey old Hilux running around by the time I left in 2015, but they were very reliable and kept chugging along.

In Newman, the Ford service centre imploded under the pressure and it wasn’t long before there was a very sad looking car park of stationary Rangers less than a year old sitting in the hot sun. You’d see car transporters doing the long trek back to Perth with 7 or 8 dead Rangers hanging off the back. Lots of the mobile mechanic contractors maintaining the big plant in the pits had tried to get away with treating the Rangers like they did the LC75. GVM upgrades, 10ply LT tyres. It didn’t work - chassis cracks, broken springs, etc etc. Just couldn’t deal with the weight & conditions, despite what the sticker on the inside of the door said.

Toyota Australia obviously knew what was going on and they were very sore about losing a significant chunk of revenue in that period. So they pulled a fast one and issued a facelift model - the MY14 - which was the last version of the KUN26R. It was exactly the same as the previous one with two notable exceptions…. It had electronic stability control and a funky touchscreen head unit instead of the old CD/radio. (And the dash console was a different colour.) It did of course have a 5 star safety rating. It was only available for a few months before the new Gen 8 came along, but because it was proven, the mines bought them up in their droves.

I got my MY12 in April 2014 on a run out deal from Toyota in Perth, $35k in SR cab chassis form, no deck, nowt. Built it up and then toured the entire continent inside out towing a trailer, and still going strong here in NZ, doing the hard yards.

Yep, I’ll be hanging on to my ‘14 hilux for now


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by Flyblown

There's a bloody good reason for that.

The mines and construction sites I worked in Aus in the early 1980's were all Toyotas. Some things never change

My son n law(machanic) up at Newman only drives Toyotas around between the different sites.The wee trucks just dont break easilly.

Originally Posted by Hunterdave

Hey guys, looking for advice from mechanics or anyone with knowledge. After a 4x4 probably up to 2020 models considering hilux, ranger, amarok double cabs. So the question is which is the more reliable models and which to stay away from?
Was thinking of a 2019 ranger Wildtrak with the 2.0 bi turbo but just hear so many stories of problems with rangers it’s ridiculous.
Cheers

Spent 3 months overseas driving a newer 2.0 bi-turbo Ranger and I'd never but one. Gutless prick of an engine. If you do go for a Ranger I'd say get the 3.2.

My 2 cents

The 3.0 V6 is apparently a step up on the 3.2 5cyl Ranger - although the jury is still considering on the long term lifespan of the newer donkey. No perfect lunches is there haha...

Originally Posted by No.3

The 3.0 V6 is apparently a step up on the 3.2 5cyl Ranger - although the jury is still considering on the long term lifespan of the newer donkey. No perfect lunches is there haha...

100% and the 10speed auto

Motor isn't all that new tho it been around in some f150s and before that in Europe apparently, the old motor put out 230kw in a land rover or something but with all the emissions shit these days they had to cap it back.

isuzu dmax. Nice ride