The Long-Term GWM Cannon/Poer/P-series Review Thread

[Disco Nic]

Long been threatening it, so now feels like the right time.

December saw Swakopmund invaded by Suffers as usual, so the missus and I decided we need to hit up Spitzkoppe. So off I went to build out the Canopy. Many thanks to Ginger for the help, guidance and patience.

First things first, ran a 10mm2 cable from battery (with a 100A fuse and Fuse Holder) into the rear of cab. As mentioned before the sound is dog awful, but we fitted a Flat-Sub/Amp under the seat that has made a huge difference. Earthed into the chassis through the Seat Bolts, and Amp is hooked up with a standard 50A plug. If I need it for something else, I can just hook up to that plug. Since it isn't isolated from main battery, I won't ever go this way, but it's good to have options.

[Disco Nic]

Now for the actual interesting bit... Ran Wiring into the rear of the bak, through the grommets between Cab and bak. Earthed at Chassis where the Fender bolts into the frame.

Next step, I had a Fridge Slide + Battery Tray fabricated by Juka Engineering in Swakopmund. 1400mm slides, 180kg weight rating. Slide is built to load the fridge and two ammo boxes stacked on top of each other. As an extra feature, I had a solid Wooden chopping board fitted to the slide, can pull out once fully open. Rock solid and very well designed.

The battery Bracket is designed around the NL DCDC 25 Powerback, bolted to the tub and also mounted rock solid. Running a 100A Gel battery, so far it has gone 4 days between charge running my SnoMaster 42l.

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Lastly, I fitted a solar panel and some lights inside the canopy. Solar panel came out great, 150W unit mounted to Front Runner Loaders. Drilled through the canopy roof and filled the gaps with Sikaflex. Has been waterproof without any issues.

Lastly, I ran another positive to the rear of the bakkie, terminating next to my license plate. This is a 50A plug that I use when towing, to power my trailer battery. Earthed it through the bolts mounting towbar to chassis and put a 40A fuse here too. Not sure if that was needed, but I had a spare fuse so I figured why not.

[Disco Nic]

Next Steps:

Dust proofing the canopy. We do a lot of gravel travel, so it gets a little wild back there

The wiring is a mess, so I will be running all cables along the side of the slider using some D-Clamps to get the cables neat and out of the way. The wiring for the lights needs to be reworked. if you look closely, you can see that I originally glues the wiring in place but the paint of the canopy was done very poorly so it came apart very quickly... (another issue for another day)

Overall, I'm happy with the setup and how everything works. We've been on 4 trips so far and I've never had beer go warm.

[Paul#25]

Nice setup that you have done. The only thing that I'd do differently is to run negative cables to each power point instead of relying on the body for the negative conductor. I've never had a problem with doing installation with two cables but have chased bad earths numerous times when working on vehicles that have an installation like yours. There are just too many places where a slight bit of corrosion starts and you start getting a high resistance area. Normally if I have a problem with a system like that, the first thing I do is run new negative wires which fixes the problem straight away.

[PsyPhin]

Sooooooo

While looking at my engine I noticed some shining on the bottom of the car near the sump.
Further inspection, some oil on the front bash plate. I think I have a broken thumb from removing it to check myself. The last bolt caught me off guard and forked up my hand.
#snowflake

I saw a facebook post earlier in the year about P series LTD model and I checked myself. Didnt see a problem. Gearbox cooler pipes rub on the fan cowl housing. I checked, but didnt see the issue.

But at 22  mine had the issue.
This was Thursday morning. I called GWM. Friday morning car was in @Hatfield GWM. I stressed I needed my car and had an event the next day on Saturday and I needed to travel at least . I cant wait for parts. It was the gearbox oil cooler pipe going to the radiator.

Part is on back order but the sales manager paid for the part himself and got it repaired on a 3rd party supplier. It was a hose.

Hose replaced, gearbox oil replaced, service done while I was waiting anyway, ironman leaf springs greased on the rear because I mentioned it, rear diff breather advised it was rubbing too and moved, so my bad.
Friday morning @about 11h00 problem was resolved.

GWM Hatfield need recognition though.
The team, they did me a solid. T&Cs warranty approval/admin process wise, I cant say more.

Their coffee machine however was terrible.

[Mad Manny]

Fong Kong Fixed!!!

[Disco Nic]

Manny threatened to visit me for a weekend if I didn’t share my latest update, so here is a quick check in.

Currently sitting at 32,000km, and still going strong. No oil leaks to report . One annoying thing however, are the wiper arm springs that seem to have gone limp, making my wipers bounce when parked. Not a train smash, but still annoying.

Did a quick trip to Sossusvlei in July, and again I’m amazed at the gravel ability of this bakkie, it’s really comfortable. Sand driving in Sossus was easy peasy, tires down to 1.2 Rear and 1 bar fronts and just plodded along in low range 4th and 5th.

Oh yes. I also did a thing:

Brand New Tentco 1.4m Rooftop tent fitted on Frontrunner Loadbars. It rattles and the cornering has gotten worse, so I’d call this a great success.

[PsyPhin]

30 000km for me too. I am seeing them everywhere now.

I am on many groups for the POERs and havent seen any trending issues yet apart from that gearbox cooler pipe rubbing, but that is LTD specific. A lot of people post things like "I have heard of many problems" but these guys with the issues dont seem to be in the groups posting about them.
When people have issues, their biggest complaint is lack of knowledge of the dealer techs.

Also havent heard of any being stolen yet. Nobody wants to steal the Chinas it seems.

I have seen 2or 3 turbos go at over 100k km, ~R10k fixes our of warranty.
Handbrake button coming off, some dealers fix, some want to fight and say no.
Some clutch issues on the manuals, but solved under warranty.
I have had the infotainment freeze twice, but I havent actually had that in a very long time. Maybe fixed.
DPF cleaning issues on the pre 2022 models. Takes 20min and throws a fault until run.

One glitch I have is if you remote start, dont press brake and car turns off before "unlocking" it with the brake pedal, it will start again and be in 4H.

Resale value isn't doing terribly, but it isnt Toyota. I see LTD is going for R580k new at some dealers and was at R680k.

[Disco Nic]

5000km roadtrip across South Namibia and South Africa. Faultless, if a bit thirsty (RTT to blame)

[Mad Manny]

Nic, expand on this"bit thirsty" comment please....

[Disco Nic]

Nic, expand on this"bit thirsty" comment please....

Averaged 12.4l/100km over the 4850km we did.

[Leon]

Nic, expand on this"bit thirsty" comment please....

Averaged 12.4l/100km over the 4850km we did.

Nie te sleg nie en spoed wat jy gery het.

[Disco Nic]

Nic, expand on this"bit thirsty" comment please....

Averaged 12.4l/100km over the 4850km we did.

Nie te sleg nie en spoed wat jy gery het.

Average speed was 108km/h. Stuck to 120 on the speedo

[PsyPhin]

With a rooftop tent, I would accept that fuel usage quite easily.
I would actually think it would be more. I am in the process of looking into one and I am guessing at 13L/14L/100 with my LTD on bigger tyres, suspension, bumper etc as a starting point so this gives me hope.

[Disco Nic]

With a rooftop tent, I would accept that fuel usage quite easily.
I would actually think it would be more. I am in the process of looking into one and I am guessing at 13L/14L/100 with my LTD on bigger tyres, suspension, bumper etc as a starting point so this gives me hope.

If you’ve ever driven from Noordoewer into Namibia, you know that you are climbing for about 45km… this is what fuel consumption looked like. 🥹
But overall I’m extremely happy with the performance and the consumption. I took the tent of this afternoon, what a nightmare but that’s a story for another day.