So this is my experience of picking up my IVECO Daily 4×4 fitted out as an Earth Cruiser. We went for a Euro 5. We did this because we did not want to carry Adblue and due to Marcus Tuck ‘s positive experience of using poor quality fuel in the Euro 5. We plan to drive the EC around the world hence our concerns about Adblue and fuel quality.
It has been a long time between ordering our EC and picking it up. This gave me a lot of time to do a lot of reading about the Daily 4×4 EC. After reading about all the short comings of the Daily I picked the truck up with some concern. Was the transfer case going to explode? Were we about to be killed by the run away truck on the first down hill section? Worry worry worry.
I should note that we did have the brake up grade offered by EC. I will also note that our truck comes in at about 5000kg.
We we picked up the truck ran it around the Wollongong area for a few days and then drove it up to Rockhampton. So this report is based on experience of only driving the truck for 2000 km. I acknowledge this is VERY limited experience.
Let’s start with the less positive issues encountered. I simply could not get my head around the air con or air recirculation control to the point where I thought the controls were broken. I called into IVECO Newcastle. They checked the controls and found them to be working fine. They took time to explain the controls and a few other features of the truck. I could not fault IVECO Newcastle in terms of service or friendliness.
We did encounter the problem of the fuel gauge not recognising fuel that we were pumping over from auxiliary tanks in he EC. This was not a major issue. If we stopped and turned the ignition off the fuel was recognised when we restarted the engine.
The brakes did feel sluggish compared with my daily drive – a Mustang. I never had any problems pulling up when I needed to in normal traffic.
We did not have any problems in controlling the truck on hills. We did not do any massive hills but we did take the truck down the Mount Morgan range. Not a massive stretch but a test none the less. I descended the hill in forth and third gear half gear. I used minimal foot brake. I felt in control all the way down. I was greatly relieved. I will of course try the truck on bigger hills.
I did not use low range at all so cannot comment.
The truck was sluggish going up hills. At the weight we were running I think this was to be expected and it was not a great problem.
I really enjoyed diving the truck. It was great being up so high – you get to see much more than in a car or a 4×4. As I said I was apprehensive about picking up the truck and I have had worries that I had chosen the wrong truck – these worries are now gone – this is the right truck for me.
In terms of the Earth Cruiser I cannot believe how good it is – just fantastic.
This report is based on VERY limited experience but there might be some people who are interested in first impressions.
BowmansOverlanding 