The back story on the Dmax
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8G7WDB9QZM&t=314s
interesting read
Incredibly lucky that the catastrophic failure didn't result in a loss of control at high speeds or a vehicle rollover. As a workshop manager of Australian mine engineering workshop, and being a senior mechanical engineering myself, this failure has occurred on various sites, resulting in the DMax being excluded pending further investigations. Our own investigations have concluded several faults in the rear suspension/ chassis and differential design and implications. I will state the three major. Firstly, the casting of the axle tubes have indicated that the metallurgy has lead to a very brittle compound that is easily fractured on impact, resulting in hairline fractures forming within the impact zone and spreading outwards approximately 30mm before flexing causing the fractures to migrate in a circular action, encompassing the housing. This leads to the second fault of excessive deformation of the axle. Due to subsequent undersizing, excessive vertical torsion, and unusual tapered design that induces hairline fractures at the wheel end, which is also the narrowest taper point, due to harmonics, and taking into account wheel bearings that deform, allowing axle free play to exceed recommend parameters, failure is sudden and catastrophic. Thirdly, are the airbag placement. They should only be used to support excessive weight on the rear of the vehicle when towing. They should be deflated when not in use, as they severely limit the flexing ability of the chassis by increasing rigidity and causing distortion within the body structure that the vehicle was never designed to achieve. Their placement also restricts the absorption and release of stored momentum within the rear suspension, resulting in undesirable horizontal and vertical movement, excessive torsion and multi axis movement not engineered, nor within, the design of the vehicle. A redesigned rear suspension system is available for civilian vehicles but is not applicable for minesite vehicles. Hope this helps
