Hi
Just something that happened to us a couple years back. Then was still driving a normal aspirated 4.2 D with also 285/75 tires with standard suspension, was towing a friends Offroad trailer and lots off extra gear and supplies. We where on a 4 week trek through the Northern Cape and Richtersveld. When we left Pretoria all went well car pulled the trailer and load no problem. Had to gear down on uphills as expected but never down lower than 100 km/h. Nice highway driving, turned off on to Parys road, first uphill on this nice bumpy road no more speed
geared down 3rd, battling to reach 80km/h, down hills all ok. Continued like this till we reached family at Hertzogville, 2 hours later than normal and calculated. Lucky he owns the spares shop in town, IT MUST BE A FILTER THAT IS THE PROBLEM
. We decided, not getting enough fuel. Got new set installed, test in town no power problems, off to Upington to meet the rest off the 5 Patrol convoy. Lucky that part off the Freestate are flat so no major uphills.
Just outside Kimberly
uphill back 70-80 km/h. This lasted the for the first two weeks- fuel consumption
4-5 l/km instead off 8. Lucky for me the one 4.5 Petrol who was not towing any trailers started losing even more power than me. Got to Richtersveld Park we decided as it the nearest we will be at help to stay an extra day and see if we can get the cars fixed.
Out comes the laptop and a search on the Ausie Patrol site for any help. As we all know they are big on Patrols.
First we checked all on the 4.5 and all lead to fuel or wiring, checked all the wires we could trace no problem. Change the filters, still same. Now out with the drawers to get to the pump.
What we got shocked us all. As the owner off the 4.5 wanted to make sure all will be going well for the trip, he send the car to be serviced by a dealership(Lucky not in business any more) here in Pta and at the same time to replace the fuel pump. Because the pump is new!!!! we at first ignored it. On removing the pump and inspecting it, all the little impellers are gone!!! Stripping it completely we found pieces of bubble plastic that got sucked into the pump. Resulting in tangling and breaking off the impellers. We then started transferring all the fuel still in the tank to all the empty Jerry cans. With most off the fuel save for reuse we removed the tank, with the tank out we discovered what looked like the rest of the bubble plastic, that fitted nicely over the pump.
We recon the guy must have thought that if it is protecting the pump from damage while it is not in use it surely will let it last and protect it for life when installed with it.
We never found the fuel filter normally fitted on the pump as well.
So after lots off phone calls we managed to get a pump that might fit and is the same size as the one in the Patrol.
While waiting on the pump we start looking for a solution for my problem, on the Ausie site and we got the advice to check the back brake adjuster. It is their to help when the vehicle is loaded to start pre-tention the back brakes.
What happened to me was these was over stressed with my heavy load and the trailer hooked with the still standard suspension. So was basically driving with back brakes half engaged the whole time. We just simply unhooked the tension spring for the rest off the trip.
Speed was back to normal fuel consumption rest off trip averaged on 6.2 l/km.
So what i want it say check those two things, as i see you was towing as well and have a an aftermarket suspension if they did not install an extension that go with the suspension lift.