leaking jerry cans & wine casks

Would suspect that your friends did not have a Bushtracker. While motion on the corrugation can wear thru cans and such on sharp object there are three things that minimalize this issue:

1) Proper tyre pressure, being reduced on the corrugation to minimalize the vibration and chafe.

2) The Bushtracker suspension itself, being load sharing, shifts the load such that the ruts do not deliver all of the shock to the van like a normal suspension, but absorbs a lot of that in the articulation of the Load Sharing Independent Suspension itself...

3) Proper packing before a big trip also minimalizes that chafe and wear. I had hardware mixed with bottle drinks and it wore through on one trip out there many years ago... Soon learned to pack correctly, and put drinks and such in cardboard boxes away from hardward. Bottles of wine (Life is too short to drink third rate wine out of boxes) Ha!.. Bottle of wine travel well in the cardboard dividers they are orginally shipped with in cardboard boxes.

And finally, just like Yachts off-shore, the best locker is the one that is full. We pack extra paper towels or whatever in the lockers to minimalize movement when making a 500km crossing of the Outback on dirt corrugated roads. If we do not have extra bulk like paper towels or cannot buy them, we use linens and towels to pack the locker full to minimalize movement. Loose packing in lockers is the main cause for problems. Just like on a ocean going yacht...

Lessons learned the hard way long remembered.

Another tip from the "Lone Ranger" at Bushtracker, Happy Trails....