Canning shock route

The Canning Stock Route turned into the Canning Shock Route on Day 7 of the Mercedes-Benz Canning Stock Route challenge.

Our convoy of seven G-Wagens finally succumbed to the relentless punishment of the world's longest stock route, when each of the five G 350 wagons suffered single or multiple shock absorber 'blow outs'.

While fairly flat and fast, the 19km stretch from Well 33 to Well 34 has some of the worst corrugations on the Route; big, nasty, bone-jarring ridges that can enact terrible punishment on your vehicle's shock absorbers.

And that's exactly what happened, with one by one each vehicle pulling over on the nightmare stretch to be greeted by the pungent, roast beef-like smell of leaking shock absorber oil.

Some of the vehicles that had leaking seals were able to cruise into our makeshift campsite at Bungabinni Well, just 60km up the road from Well 33, while others with 'sheared' shocks or multiple blowouts were restricted to a very jumpy, 15km/h crawl into camp.

Envisioning all his finely-tuned planning going up in smoke, an ashen-faced tour leader, Geoff Becker, quickly sprung into action. It was decided to fly in a cargo-load of G-Wagen shock absorbers to Perth that night, after which a special-order charter plane would deliver them to the Well 33 airstrip the following day.

Meanwhile, Becker would drive the military-spec G-Professional wagon, the only vehicle not to have had problems, back to Well 33 to pick up the new shocks, and drive back the next day for fitment.

With only two 'Benz dealers in Western Australia and spares for the low-volume G-Wagen in short supply, it was an expensive and risky exercise, but Becker was confident he could pull it off.

"We will have all cars fixed by tomorrow," he declared confidently, satellite phone in hand, while 'Benz Australia corporate communications manager, David McCarthy, who'd just joined the drive at the half-way point along with five other journalists, was thankful that at least it had happened now rather than later.??"It's better to fix it now rather than further up the track," he said.

"I don't think it's the speed, it's just the heat," Becker concluded, referring to the extreme heat generated in the G-Wagen's standard, oil-filled shocks over the unforgiving corrugations being the main root of the problems.?
"We probably should have had more than two pairs," he also said, referring to the fact that they had only brought along four spare shocks.

Other issues on Day 7 included more cracked spare wheel mounting plates, while the air-conditioning also stopped working on one of the G-Wagens.

The mass shock absorber meltdown means that we will now enjoy two nights at Bungabinni Well (a slight detour off the Canning Route), before heading off again with a revised schedule to reach Halls Creek, still by August 9 as planned.

It's been a disappointing day and a major setback, but Becker and his team are still confident of completing the full 2013km Canning Route in the allotted, two week period. Stay tuned…
Tracking the Canning Stock Route: