Only a short one. Crooked River second crossing out of Talbotville on Melbourne Cup weekend


Don't know the actual depth but you can see the tide line on the upstream side of the car. Rear door seals didn't play the game and I ended up with wet carpet in the back. Snorkel was a good investment.

http://i683.photobucket.com/albums/v...eptideline.jpg

Have you extended the diff breathers on yours? That high tide mark puts the the water pretty much level with the fron and over the rear stock positions... Dunking the diffs in the the creek will cool them down, sucking air in the breathers. If the breathers are under water then they will suck in the water... (I realise I may be preaching to the converted, but it might help out someone who doesnt know!)

Likewise for the transfer case breather that sits on the firewall just behind the motor.

The manual lists the max water crossing depth (stock) as 19 inches, which is pretty low really. At a guess I would say the stock diff breather location is about 3in above the tyres, so about 34 inches. I guess at 19in it gives some room for waves!

A bugger about the rear door seal leaking too!

Yep, breathers all done.

The manual will always be on the safe side. Factories don't want you playing submarine and then claiming warranty.

That's probably the deepest I'd want to take it. The back end felt light on a couple of crossings. Any deeper and I would have been floating ... until the door seals let enough river in to regain traction! Might have to lube them up with a bit of lanolin before I go wheeling again.

We had to turn back at the Wongungarra river because we didn't want to end up like this guy who ended up more than 50 metres from the crossing:

http://i683.photobucket.com/albums/v.../SunkPrado.jpg

The diff breathers arent the only issue, the standar axle seals cant handle a minor boghole!!! Check em regularly or buy tube seals.

Nice pic of the Prado, how did you get it out?

They weren't with us, they drowned it the day before. I heard it took another day or two before they got it out. It took a dozer six hours to get it back on dry land.

Some video of it. Check out how fast the water is flowing, there was no way I was going to try it:

http://www.australianimage.com.au/HCC/hcc5/PB012255.wmv

It was a bit of a carnage weekend for Toyotas up there. A tray back cruiser rolled in Talbotville, killing one and injuring five others. An 80 Series cruiser rolled off the side of a track after the side gave way while he was trying to go around an oncoming car, nobody injured. And a 100 Series got drowned crossing one of the rivers. I later heard that it was towed into Dargo and the insurance company wrote it off as a total loss. One of my mates has a picture of his cup holders full of water after he was dragged out.

Thats not good to hear mate, did you see the roll?

Didn't see the fatality. One of the rangers reckoned there was alcohol involved. Most of the passengers were in the tray and were lucky enough to be thrown out. I believe the driver was killed.

I did see the 80 series that went over the side. They were hauling him out as we came past. It was looking very worse for wear.