My NT Platinum

[Sweefu]

Hey mate,

What a great read! Very unfortunate about the transfer case failure but good on you for sticking with it, what a great opportunity for an upgrade too.

Do you have any pictures of the new rear suspension and how the car sits?

Cheers!

[nj swb]

Hey mate,

What a great read! Very unfortunate about the transfer case failure but good on you for sticking with it, what a great opportunity for an upgrade too.

Do you have any pictures of the new rear suspension and how the car sits?

Cheers!

Thanks!

I probably have some pics somewhere - just need to sit down and go through them all. Stay tuned!

[sa_on_patrol]

Just read your build thread, great setup. It's given me some great ideas for my build.

[nj swb]

Yet again a big gap between updates, and a long post without pics.

A lot has happened since my last post here.

OJ and Pajero12 helped me install some extra custom insulators to the rear springs, along with some new factory upper spring pads, and we installed the old upper pads (which still looked pretty good) in place of the destroyed lower pads. The night before I departed for our Simpson trip (here, fully loaded are ready to go (but without me in the driver's seat), ride heights were 525 front and 535 rear - I finally got factory ride height in the rear, fully loaded.

As posted elsewhere, the combination (OME springs & shocks in the front, King springs and Dobinson MRR in the rear) worked really well. I was very happy with the ride & handling, even when playing boy-racer on outback tracks. Part of me thinks that these vehicles have no right to ride and handle as well as they do at these weights.

But this is a 4wd, and we all know that 4wding costs money - endlessly.

Outside Innamincka, Pajero12 spotted a front swaybar link hanging where it shouldn't, and backed that up by spotting liquid dripping on the other side.

The swaybar link had lost the same nut that went AWOL at Warraweena last year, but this time I wasn't lucky enough to find a replacement in my (small) collection of bits & pieces. OJ lashed it up with some cord, and I eventually found a replacement in Arkaroola (M14 x 1.25 flange nut, for those who may be inclined to find a spare).

The liquid was a leak from a front shock absorber. By the time I returned to Adelaide, it had completely given up the ghost.

The OMEs had done over 70k km, and much of that was without the factory front bump stops in place. They outlived their warranty, and I can't say that the missing bump stops didn't contribute to the failure, so I can't complain about the service they provided.

What to install?

Because the front suspension is coil-over struts, replacing the shock absorbers is a big job - and the struts themselves are not cheap. The OME springs had "settled" from 540mm when first installed, to 525 when I returned home. So I figured I may as well install new springs while everything is apart.

OME quote $900 to supply the same again, and offered to throw in the install. I was pretty impressed by that offer, but I was also interested in finding something adjustable, so I could maintain the ride height I want as the springs settle.

Having read many of Ent's posts, I was interested in what Drummond Motor Sport may have to offer - but they said the had nothing for a Pajero, had never been asked for anything for a Pajero, and generally didn't seem interested.

I've read a number of good reports about Ultimate, so I contacted them, and they took my details so they could send me a form to fill out. A couple of days later I rang and asked for the form again, then filled it out and emailed it back.

I'm still waiting for their quote.

Dobinson also offer adjustable seats on their monotube struts, and I harassed them about an EoFY sale - so they eventually came back with MRRs for the price of standard monotubes.

Today, they were installed. Dobinson couldn't book me in until the 17th, but I wasn't prepared to wait that long - I was noticing a shimmy through the steering after bumps, which I presume was the front wheel's uncontrolled bouncing. So Web Suspension did the job instead. I asked them to target a 550mm front ride height, hoping it would settle around 540mm. They set both struts up the same on the bench, but the vehicle is currently 560mm RH, 550mm LH (without me in the drivers seat). I'm happy with that.

So, now I have Dobinson front suspension, to complement my Dobinson / King rear suspension. Except my old OME shocks are back in the rear.

To cut down on more rambling, a low speed rattle / rumble was tracked down to the shocks. When we pulled them out to investigate, it was clear that there was air / gas in the main body - there was a few mm of unrestricted back & forward travel of the shaft, and the noisier of the two had oil on the gas side of the reservoir.

The local Dobinson agent is in the middle of rebuilding them (again) - when I dropped in today, the showed me that the O-rings on the piston (that they supplied for the rebuild) were too small, and hadn't properly sealed in the reservoir. The piston and the reservoir both had wear marks from the piston striking the reservoir. So that explains the failure, and hopefully that failure mode won't repeat itself. But I must admit that I don't currently have warm feelings about all my Dobinson gear, and hope that things get better from here.

The rear MRRs are due to be finished Friday, hopefully I'll have them back in the Paj this weekend. Next test is another Simpson crossing, at the end of this month.

I'm looking forward to it.

Anybody want a pair of OME 915 front springs?

[vladguan]

Yet again a big gap between updates, and a long post without pics.

A lot has happened since my last post here.

OJ and Pajero12 helped me install some extra custom insulators to the rear springs, along with some new factory upper spring pads, and we installed the old upper pads (which still looked pretty good) in place of the destroyed lower pads. The night before I departed for our Simpson trip (here, fully loaded are ready to go (but without me in the driver's seat), ride heights were 525 front and 535 rear - I finally got factory ride height in the rear, fully loaded.

As posted elsewhere, the combination (OME springs & shocks in the front, King springs and Dobinson MRR in the rear) worked really well. I was very happy with the ride & handling, even when playing boy-racer on outback tracks. Part of me thinks that these vehicles have no right to ride and handle as well as they do at these weights.

But this is a 4wd, and we all know that 4wding costs money - endlessly.

Outside Innamincka, Pajero12 spotted a front swaybar link hanging where it shouldn't, and backed that up by spotting liquid dripping on the other side.

The swaybar link had lost the same nut that went AWOL at Warraweena last year, but this time I wasn't lucky enough to find a replacement in my (small) collection of bits & pieces. OJ lashed it up with some cord, and I eventually found a replacement in Arkaroola (M14 x 1.25 flange nut, for those who may be inclined to find a spare).

The liquid was a leak from a front shock absorber. By the time I returned to Adelaide, it had completely given up the ghost.

The OMEs had done over 70k km, and much of that was without the factory front bump stops in place. They outlived their warranty, and I can't say that the missing bump stops didn't contribute to the failure, so I can't complain about the service they provided.

What to install?

Because the front suspension is coil-over struts, replacing the shock absorbers is a big job - and the struts themselves are not cheap. The OME springs had "settled" from 540mm when first installed, to 525 when I returned home. So I figured I may as well install new springs while everything is apart.

OME quote $900 to supply the same again, and offered to throw in the install. I was pretty impressed by that offer, but I was also interested in finding something adjustable, so I could maintain the ride height I want as the springs settle.

Having read many of Ent's posts, I was interested in what Drummond Motor Sport may have to offer - but they said the had nothing for a Pajero, had never been asked for anything for a Pajero, and generally didn't seem interested.

I've read a number of good reports about Ultimate, so I contacted them, and they took my details so they could send me a form to fill out. A couple of days later I rang and asked for the form again, then filled it out and emailed it back.

I'm still waiting for their quote.

Dobinson also offer adjustable seats on their monotube struts, and I harassed them about an EoFY sale - so they eventually came back with MRRs for the price of standard monotubes.

Today, they were installed. Dobinson couldn't book me in until the 17th, but I wasn't prepared to wait that long - I was noticing a shimmy through the steering after bumps, which I presume was the front wheel's uncontrolled bouncing. So Web Suspension did the job instead. I asked them to target a 550mm front ride height, hoping it would settle around 540mm. They set both struts up the same on the bench, but the vehicle is currently 560mm RH, 550mm LH (without me in the drivers seat). I'm happy with that.

So, now I have Dobinson front suspension, to complement my Dobinson / King rear suspension. Except my old OME shocks are back in the rear.

To cut down on more rambling, a low speed rattle / rumble was tracked down to the shocks. When we pulled them out to investigate, it was clear that there was air / gas in the main body - there was a few mm of unrestricted back & forward travel of the shaft, and the noisier of the two had oil on the gas side of the reservoir.

The local Dobinson agent is in the middle of rebuilding them (again) - when I dropped in today, the showed me that the O-rings on the piston (that they supplied for the rebuild) were too small, and hadn't properly sealed in the reservoir. The piston and the reservoir both had wear marks from the piston striking the reservoir. So that explains the failure, and hopefully that failure mode won't repeat itself. But I must admit that I don't currently have warm feelings about all my Dobinson gear, and hope that things get better from here.

The rear MRRs are due to be finished Friday, hopefully I'll have them back in the Paj this weekend. Next test is another Simpson crossing, at the end of this month.

I'm looking forward to it.

Anybody want a pair of OME 915 front springs?

Still waiting for mine to be swapped over to monotubes. Booked in for Tuesday. Currently riding on original rear shocks and no knocking noise. They suspect is due to recent changes in the valving.

[nj swb]

I forgot to mention wheel travel.

When taking the Dobinsons out, with the Paj at a comfortable height on a hoist and the wheels off, the Dobinsons were still under compression at full droop of the suspension, and had to be compressed to remove. I didn't check to see what was limiting droop.

When installing the Old Man Emu shocks, with the bottom end bolted into the suspension arm, the top stud barely protruded through the top mount - we had to lift the suspension arm to get the top nut on. So maximum droop with the OMEs is limited by the full extension of the shock.

At the time, we didn't take any measurements, but this morning I jacked the car up until both rear wheels were off the ground, and measured eyebrow heights - 655 and 660. In (very) round figures, that's 4 inches / 100mm of droop travel from my current part-loaded ride height, and 5 inches (ish) from nominal factory ride height.

I'll repeat the measurements when the Dobinsons are reinstalled.

[nj swb]

So my Dobinsons are back in, but the saga isn't over.

As previously posted, the most recent failure was due to under-sized O-rings on the reservoir pistons. I had already pointed out to the local Dobinson that these O-rings were supplied by Dobinson as part of a re-build kit, but I had thought that the re-builder had put the O-rings onto the original pistons, and perhaps should've twigged that something wasn't right. Tonight, I found out that Dobinson had supplied the piston with the O-rings already on it - so I've been charged to re-build my shocks for a failure caused entirely by the fitment of parts supplied by Dobinson.

To add insult to injury, the new shorter hoses (for which I was charged extra) are still too long. I mounted the reservoir low enough to ensure the hose can't rub anywhere, but tonight I discovered that the top rubber bushes compress under load, so clearance at full droop isn't clearance at normal ride height. So I had to lower the reservoir further, to the point that it will now hit the lower control arm once the rear suspension compresses about 30mm below factory ride height.

Why am I doing Dobinson's R&D for them?

The only ray of light in this sorry saga is droop travel. With the rear off the ground, and both wheels at full droop, eyebrow heights are 710 / 720mm - that's a handy 50 to 60mm of additional droop, or 7+ inches of droop from factory ride height, to help keep tyres on the ground in rough terrain. Not much to write home about for a Land Cruiser, but I'll take it.

[nj swb]

Back from another crossing of the Simpson with twisted32, Birdsville to Oodnadatta. This time, Knolls Track to WAA line, out via Rig Road back to French Line (with a detour to the Lone Gum Tree). No dramas on the desert crossing , although I think one of my rear CVs is at the end of its life, and I was wondering if it would survive the trip. It did.

There was a minor drama discovered at camp at Dalhousie (technically the end of the desert crossing) - the contents of my lower drawer had moved around, and a large screwdriver ended up wedged between the upper and lower drawers. The top drawer was partially open, and unable to close, and I couldn't pull the lower drawer out far enough to access anything - the wedged screwdriver pulled the top drawer with it, until it reached the end of its travel. We poked and prodded with a number of long skinny items until twisted32 managed to poke the screwdriver out of the way.

The Dobinson MRRs are still a work in progress - to put it politely. Trying to track down the rear noise, I noticed that one of the remote reservoirs had moved on the shock body, and was getting close to bodywork again. Because the top bushes are so soft (more on that shortly ) I was wondering if they were actually striking occasionally (and causing the suspicious noise), although I couldn't see any evidence of such striking. But, to be safe, I pulled the wheel off, then disassembled and cleaned the mounting bracket, shock body and reservoir. At twisted's suggestion, I put a layer of cloth tape on both the body and the reservoir, to ensure the clamp could clamp tightly, then snapped one of the M8 socket-head cap screws that hold it all together. Using a 6mm allen key - not an insert in a rattle gun, or on the end of a breaker bar. A 6mm allen key. We found another high-tensile M8 bolt and washer to do the job, and the reservoir doesn't appear to have moved since.

The top bush on the driver's side shredded itself. Because Dobinson don't sell bushes to suit their shock absorbers, insisting that they are designed to use OEM bushes, I had to source replacements from Pedders. Because of the shoulder on the top stud, there is a limit to how much the bushes can be compressed, leaving plenty of room for the shock body to move in the bushes. Maybe this had something to do with the less than impressive suspension performance on some of the chopped out sections of dunes? I don't remember where I first spotted the buggered bush, but we replaced it in William Creek with layers of chopped up rubber hose, held together with cable ties. The lower half bush appeared fine, and the other side also appears fine.

The booty-fab bush certainly has less movement in it than the Pedders bush, because that shock absorber stopped rotating about its vertical axis, so the hose stayed clear of body work for the rest of the trip. Not so the passenger side, which was found to be rubbing against bodywork near the end of the trip. I had placed an extra layer of heater hose over the reservoir hose, but I guess it moved - so I chopped the cable ties, moved the heater hose, and applied new cable ties again.

I also had to add a layer of heater hose to one front MRR, where it was rubbing on the metal brake line where it comes through the guard. I originally had a protective sleeve on the brake line and some plastic clips on the shock hose, hoping that would prevent any issues, but the protective sleeve wore through, and the plastic clip disappeared. So another length of heater hose was cable-tied into place. The MRR on the other front corner has yet to show any sign of issues - my protective "rubbing clip" has rubbed a bright spot inside the wheel arch, and others have rubbed against the spring, but the hose appears undamaged.

So. Dobinson MRRs? At this point in time, I would not recommend them.

Note that I'm not criticising the Pedders bush that failed. It would be designed for an OEM application, not King EHD springs with Dobinson MRR shocks. I don't believe it was ever intended to cope with the loads to which it is subjected by my rear suspension.

[vladguan]

Back from another crossing of the Simpson with twisted32, Birdsville to Oodnadatta. This time, Knolls Track to WAA line, out via Rig Road back to French Line (with a detour to the Lone Gum Tree). No dramas on the desert crossing , although I think one of my rear CVs is at the end of its life, and I was wondering if it would survive the trip. It did.

There was a minor drama discovered at camp at Dalhousie (technically the end of the desert crossing) - the contents of my lower drawer had moved around, and a large screwdriver ended up wedged between the upper and lower drawers. The top drawer was partially open, and unable to close, and I couldn't pull the lower drawer out far enough to access anything - the wedged screwdriver pulled the top drawer with it, until it reached the end of its travel. We poked and prodded with a number of long skinny items until twisted32 managed to poke the screwdriver out of the way.

The Dobinson MRRs are still a work in progress - to put it politely. Trying to track down the rear noise, I noticed that one of the remote reservoirs had moved on the shock body, and was getting close to bodywork again. Because the top bushes are so soft (more on that shortly ) I was wondering if they were actually striking occasionally (and causing the suspicious noise), although I couldn't see any evidence of such striking. But, to be safe, I pulled the wheel off, then disassembled and cleaned the mounting bracket, shock body and reservoir. At twisted's suggestion, I put a layer of cloth tape on both the body and the reservoir, to ensure the clamp could clamp tightly, then snapped one of the M8 socket-head cap screws that hold it all together. Using a 6mm allen key - not an insert in a rattle gun, or on the end of a breaker bar. A 6mm allen key. We found another high-tensile M8 bolt and washer to do the job, and the reservoir doesn't appear to have moved since.

The top bush on the driver's side shredded itself. Because Dobinson don't sell bushes to suit their shock absorbers, insisting that they are designed to use OEM bushes, I had to source replacements from Pedders. Because of the shoulder on the top stud, there is a limit to how much the bushes can be compressed, leaving plenty of room for the shock body to move in the bushes. Maybe this had something to do with the less than impressive suspension performance on some of the chopped out sections of dunes? I don't remember where I first spotted the buggered bush, but we replaced it in William Creek with layers of chopped up rubber hose, held together with cable ties. The lower half bush appeared fine, and the other side also appears fine.

The booty-fab bush certainly has less movement in it than the Pedders bush, because that shock absorber stopped rotating about its vertical axis, so the hose stayed clear of body work for the rest of the trip. Not so the passenger side, which was found to be rubbing against bodywork near the end of the trip. I had placed an extra layer of heater hose over the reservoir hose, but I guess it moved - so I chopped the cable ties, moved the heater hose, and applied new cable ties again.

I also had to add a layer of heater hose to one front MRR, where it was rubbing on the metal brake line where it comes through the guard. I originally had a protective sleeve on the brake line and some plastic clips on the shock hose, hoping that would prevent any issues, but the protective sleeve wore through, and the plastic clip disappeared. So another length of heater hose was cable-tied into place. The MRR on the other front corner has yet to show any sign of issues - my protective "rubbing clip" has rubbed a bright spot inside the wheel arch, and others have rubbed against the spring, but the hose appears undamaged.

So. Dobinson MRRs? At this point in time, I would not recommend them.

Note that I'm not criticising the Pedders bush that failed. It would be designed for an OEM application, not King EHD springs with Dobinson MRR shocks. I don't believe it was ever intended to cope with the loads to which it is subjected by my rear suspension.

Have you asked Sharkcaver how his MRRs are fairing?

[nj swb]

Have you asked Sharkcaver how his MRRs are fairing?

The MRRs that went back to Dobinson, or the MRRs still in his Paj?

[vladguan]

The MRRs that went back to Dobinson, or the MRRs still in his Paj?

Both I guess. He is on a trip at the moment.

[nj swb]

My second Inawise TPMS had two sensors fail, and I couldn't obtain replacements, either in Australia, or from the manufacturer (in China).

After seeing the Masten name here, then stumbling across it on Dig Options' website, I ordered aTP-16 Masten TPMS system, with an extra sensor for the spare tyre. At the time of posting this, these systems are out of stock, and listed at $9,166 - I paid a little over $200 delivered.

After a Simpson crossing, I'm happy.

The system comes with a cigarette lighter plug, with a micro usb plug on the other end. Perfect, I thought - I have a dual USB outlet on the dash with one spare socket, I wanted to mount the display on the windscreen, so it would all be really simple to install. Except the display wouldn't work plugged into my USB outlet. The supplied cable puts 12V onto the micro USB plug.

Running out of time, I routed the cable from the 12V socket in front of the shifter, under the dash and up the windscreen pillar, to put the display at the top of the windscreen.

First day of the Simpson trip I discovered a major flaw of my rushed install - the display was in the way of the sun visor. In camp that night, I pulled apart the cigarette plug to see what was inside - a resistor and LED. The device was running directly on the car's electrical system, with no regulation in the plug. So I cut the wires, and cobbled together some connectors to piggy-back the supply off another circuit I had already installed. The extra length freed up allowed me to reposition the display above the rear vision mirror, and there it still sits.

The unit requires a set pressure, then alarms for +/- 25% of that pressure. It has two settings, one for "light load" (two seats filled in the display) or "heavy load" (five seats filled in the display). Switching between the two settings is very easy (single push of a button) so I set them up for off-road and on-road, but of course, I was regularly adjusting tyre pressures up and down as road / track conditions changed, so I also adjusted the set pressures regularly. This too is quite a simple process - front and rear tyres can have different set pressures, although they don't always adjust in 1psi increments.

Particularly when set for lower pressures, the +/- 25% can get a bit "tight". From driving at 20 degrees to cold start around 5 degrees, it's tricky to find a set pressure that doesn't get upset at one end or the other. But that's a minor issue.

The internal sensors come with caps that have a yellow & red symbol on the top, to indicate to tyre fitters that sensors are fitted. The installer commented on that, thought it was a good idea. I'm still getting used to the look.

I have discovered that the thread on the valve stems is only just long enough for the caps, so my angled tyre inflation clip no longer clips on properly, and I can't clip on my inflation hose and do other things as my compressor does its thing - I need to squat by the tyre and hold it. I've done some research on the thread (quite odd - 0.305" by 32tpi, apparently), and found a die that should let me extend the thread enough for my clip to work again (5/16" UNEF is 32tpi, nominally 0.3125").

[sharkcaver]

Have you asked Sharkcaver how his MRRs are fairing?

I'll steal Scott's thread to give you all an update.

MRR's fitted March 2016, front and rear.

Along with SteveMc181, who had MRR's fitted on the rear only, we killed 3/4 rears on our CSR trip. That had me abort the CSR and limp 750 odd Km's solo into Newman for replacements. All I could get was OME in the isolated township.

I believe there was a manufacturing issue with the hose, the mounting rubbers, the top washer and the compression valving. Dobbo customer service was second to none, they took all onboard I suggested and fixed those issues. They replaced them without drama, although it took a while. So kudo's to Dobbo. I note Scott hasn't had the same experience. When I mention going back to Dobbo, I mean the local agent, not Dobbo direct. The local agent is just an onseller and sells all other product too, Billies included. So whilst Ii have a good agent, It seems Scott's isn't of the same calibre.

The replacements have been very good since they were replaced about December 2016, with multiple rough trips including desert crossings.

Fast forward to Feb 2018. Chasing an annoying squeak in the front end, I discovered my front wasn't aligned in its seat in the top hat. Off it came, back to Dobbo for a disassembly. Shockingly, it was discovered that two crush washers had to be installed, but only one was. the squeak was the top hat screw rubbing on the vehicle strut mount. An assembly issue, not a Dobbo design problem. So the other side came off too, same deal. interestingly, I reviewed my CSR footage and this squeak was evident then. It has actually damaged the vehicle as the mounting screw has worn a slot in the hole of the strut mount.

Again, Dobbo were very accommodating, but I'm starting to get over the 60Km round trip to have my issues sorted. I note there is some clunking and a different squeak in the front. Something is not perfect there. I also have to say, these fronts have been punished over some pretty rough ground (enough to break other items on the vehicle), and apart from the assembly error and the clunk and squeak, they are going great guns.

In june 2018, noticing a thud in the rear, progressively getting worse, I pulled a wheel off one morning thinking it sounded very "shocky". I discovered on both rears that the lower rubber bushing had parted company with its housing. The vulcanising had failed. Again, Dobbo has been very accommodating, sending me a new set of shocks as they don't have spare bushes....WTF??

Unfortunately, they don't seem to have a standardised design, they sent non piggy backed units. I like the piggy back. When set up correctly, it works well and there is no need for drilling of holes to mount the res. However, Dobbo has now chosen the latter for their design. For the piggy back to work, you need to set the height correctly or as Scott found out - the res will hit the control arm on compression. It also needs decent top rubbers to stop the top assembly from rotation. My original sets had crap rubber and i was watching them move in position every time I stopped. The new versions haven't done this because they changed the rubber. The bigger issue is the side clearance to the tyre sidewall. If it walks the wrong way, you could easily damage or destroy your Tyre. So I think from a risk perspective, non piggy back is probably the way to go.

I also note there is some alignment issue with the vehicle. With the shock secured at the top, the base doesn't up with the control arm mount. Conversely, when the bottom is secured in the control arm the top doesn't meet the mounting hole. To make it fit, the shock has to be side loaded and I reckon this is why the lower bushes failed. I have to state here, this is not a shock issue but a mits design issue.

As the control arm swings up/down, the lower pivot point will move in relation to the top mount and it could well be, that at oem height with wheel on the ground, this position is centred. Add a lift and stiffer springs and this side loading will increase. When i get around to replacing these shocks, I will investigate this issue further.

My rears have now been with Dobbo for a month. To be fair, I did state there was no rush. last update, they sourced some rubber bushings and were going to have an attempt at fitting them. I guess after a week, they are having some issue doing this.

So, you can see I've had some issues. Dobbo customer service has been great, but the product is slowly starting to wear me down. So much so, I looked into some alternatives, but couldn't find a cost effective solution. I have proven the remote res keeps temps under control in the rough, that's why I want to stay with them. But if I have to perform major maintenance every 12 months, I am slowly thinking, maybe I should go back to just plain vanilla monotubes. But where to go? Billies are not on my list any more and neither are OME. Its the conundrum I'm facing.

Sorry for the detailed thread Hijack Scott, but I hope it helps both yourself and others reading this thread.

[nj swb]

Sorry for the detailed thread Hijack Scott, but I hope it helps both yourself and others reading this thread.

No issues here - it's all about sharing experiences, the good and the not so good.

[nj swb]

Time for a bit of an update.

Tyre Pressure Monitoring System
The Masten TPMS is still working well. The first button die I bought to extend the thread couldn't cut far enough while the valve stem was installed in the tyre, so I found another smaller hex die on EBay. Winding it on by hand, the cheaper die is obviously rougher than the first die, but it still cut the thread far enough, using only a socket on the hex (i.e. didn't need a ratchet or other leverage). My compressor hose once again clips onto the valve properly, so I don't need to crouch beside the tyre while airing up.

I won't mention suspension - I don't wish to jinx anything.

CVs
One front CV became noisey, so I pulled the CVs from my wreck (with a little help ), had them reconditioned, and paid my friendly mechanic to do the swap. I'm glad I did, because the passenger's side of the diff began leaking oil, which the mechanic offered to fix immediately. A minor comedy of errors ensued, so the 1 hour fix took 3 hours, but he refused to accept any payment - I figure the seal might've been about to go anyway, and I was happy to make a contribution to the fix.

Tyres
After 43k km of service, I have swapped out my Kumho MT51s. They still had approximately 5mm of tread to the wear bars (what's that - about half worn?) but I wanted to have new tyres for my upcoming High Country pilgrimmage, and Toyo offered a "Buy 4 / get 1 free" deal for the 4wd Show. It worked out $1500 for the set, fitted and balanced, or $300 per tyre. Driving away from the tyre store they felt a little rough, but pressures were a little high (40 - 44 psi on my gauge). Once I dropped them to 38/40 (warm) they seemed to ride a little better (or I was already conditioned to the feel), and the hum is a different pitch, but not noticeably louder than the part worn Kumhos. Given the stiffer sidewalls for which these tyres are known, I might need to run slightly lower pressure again - I'll keep an eye on them.