Travelling in Oz

[diesel99]

G'day All,
During our many years of travelling here in Australia we have met and formed close friendships with quite a few international visitors and I have often made the comment that you lot, especially tourists from the UK and also Germany see more of our vast country in a short time than most Australians see in a lifetime. However, most international visitors only see the coastal strip from Melbourne in the south to Cairns in the north and also the Red Centre to view Uluru and Kata Tjuta and then onto Darwin with a couple of days at Kakadu and then jump on a plane back home. I will attempt to give you a glimpse of some of the out of the way places that we go to in our travels.

Australia is a large landmass - approximately 7.5 million square kilometres and a fair chunk of it is uninhabited. It is the remote areas that we enjoy and to be able to visit these locations, trip planning and thorough preparation is paramount to not just a trouble free journey, but also survival at certain times of the year. From late 2007 to August 2008 we did an 18,000 km trip from our home in central Queensland to Western Australia and back and the highlight of that trip was traversing the Great Central Road ( GCR ) - over 1100 kms of bone jarring, teeth rattling, corrugated dirt road from Laverton WA through to Kata Tjuta ( The Olgas ) in Northern Territory. Below is a map showing our route with the black dotted line being the GCR.

Eventually the GCR will become an all weather road which along with the Donahue Highway in western Queensland, the Plenty, Stuart and Lassiter Highways in the Northern Territory will form another route to link the eastern states to the west. At the moment it is only accessible for the entire length by 4WD vehicles. It is generally out of bounds to rental vehicles due to the high cost of recovery in the event of breakdown or accident although we did come across a German couple in a rental 4WD ( 2 Fritz in a Britz ) on a very remote stretch of road who had no idea where they were going - I managed to convince them to turn around and go back or the chances were they would die out there. Below is a pic of terrain for most of the GCR.

More to follow ........
cheers
diesel

 

[diesel99]

There are a lot of "gung ho" people that let their ambitions exceed their capabilities and they also overestimate the limitations of tow vehicles and caravans. A breakdown on the GCR or any of the even more remote tracks in that area will result in a very, very costly recovery - 2 years ago the going rate was $8,000 per vehicle.

During our run across the GCR we saw probably in the vicinity of 500 vehicle wrecks in the 1100 kms - the majority of these were cars abandoned because of minor breakdowns and they were not worth recovering. The most common breakdown problem on our remote roads is suspension failure with tow vehicles and caravans. When we chose our caravan I selected a model with absolute "bullet proof" suspension so that I had peace of mind that if the Toyota Landcruiser could handle the rough going, the caravan would stand up to the punishment just as well if not better. This has proved to be the case and below is a pic of the Control Rider suspension as fitted to our van.

more to follow .......
diesel

 

[Gafferbill]

G’day mate…. Hows it going?
Arrived back from Australia to the UK on December 3rd after 5 weeks in WA.
Left Perth to its highest spring temperatures for 40 years…… around 35 degC for most of the time we were there.
We did see 40 degC up at Exmouth!

We live 7 miles from London Gatwick airport, which was closed on December 2nd due to 60cms of snow.
Lucky for us it was reopened on the 3rd and we landed as normal on schedule! Got a taxi to within 200 metres of our house and struggled the rest of the way with our suitcases.
There was our caravan next to our house with 60cms of snow on the roof!
The thaw has now set in but is only 2degC.

When in Western Australia we used a hire car doing over 7000 kms from Exmouth in the Tropics to Albany on the south coast.
Whilst in the North, I got used to scanning the road ahead for wandering animals and dodging road kill; if and when you saw another car I found out the custom was to wave hello.
We only ventured a few kms on unsealed roads mainly to see particular sites.
The corrugations are something else; my UK caravan would have disintegrated completely after 50 kms!!
We stayed on campsites in Cabins/chalets so I was able to see all the kit you use out there.
Very impressive to a European Caravaner and as you say built much stronger all round. You also use disc brakes on your caravans, which are unheard of over here.
4x4’s are looked down on here in the UK, with punitive purchase and annual taxation supposedly to save the environment.
In Western Australia I would say 50% of the vehicles on the road are 4x4’s

The plan is to come over again next November to Sydney to visit that side.

 

[diesel99]

G'day there Gafferbill,
We have met quite a few UK tourists seeing Oz the way you are doing it - the west on one trip and then come back again to have a look at the east. We have also met a lot who only have the one opportunity to come here and they attempt to see the whole country in 6 weeks. It can't be done. We've done the "lap around the block" 5 times, each trip usually taking between 1 and 2 years and there are still things we haven't seen.
Five weeks in WA at this time of year would have been a bit of a shock to the system - as you have experienced, the heat is relentless and it will get hotter by January. Away from the coast in mid summer the daily temps are always in the high 30s up to mid 40s - a rather uncomfortable time of the year to be travelling or doing anything for that matter.
Are you going to wave at other travellers back in UK or is it not done over there?
We were in Germany a few years ago and my wife's family over there could not understand why I waved at oncoming drivers - "you do not know these other people" my sister in law would say "they will be confused and wonder if you are a friend." I told her that in Australia everybody is your friend, it's just that most of them are friends you haven't met yet. She still didn't understand.
I wasn't aware that big 4x4s were on the outer over there. If our federal or state governments tried to get too heavy handed with big 4x4 ownership there would be a revolution. Cities like Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne have at times considered banning bullbars on vehicles, but it would be an enforcement nightmare for the authorities. Their reasoning is that vehicles with bullbars do more damage to pedestrians than those without bullbars. My vehicle weighs 2.6 tonnes with the bullbar and 2.45 tonnes without - either way, hitting a pedestrian will do a lot of damage.
I'm glad you enjoyed your trip over here enough to want to come back and see some more.

cheers
diesel

 

[Gafferbill]

G’day Diesel
No I won’t be waving to other motorists here in the UK…… there are too many of them for that custom to be practical over here!
Our traffic levels, even out of town, are about the same as you have in a town the size of Perth!
Some of your roads are so remote there is really no other option than to be friendly.
A person you have never met may literally be your savoir in the case of a breakdown or a medical emergency.
Even on a sealed roads over there, it concentrates the mind to have no phone boxes, no mobile signal and to pass a sign saying " No water for 200kms"
I can well imagine what it is like on the GCR!

Over here to have no mobile phone signal and hence any help you may require at any time is almost unheard of.
Mountaineers in remote parts of Scotland used mobile phones to summon help when they get into difficulty.

We still have snow on the ground here in West Sussex UK as the one day thaw did not clear it. The temperature today is –3degC.

Yes …..we have Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) here in the UK.
This is an annual tax levied on vehicles, and it is banded depending on the Carbon Dioxide output of the engine.
Most large 4x4’s are in the top band.
You would have to pay £950 ($1532) in the 1st year, if you bought a new vehicle in this top band,
and £435 ($701) in subsequent years.
Over here most of your big-engined saloons and Utes would be in this top band as well.

I have a query about your caravan outfits.
In addition to your road light electrical connections from car to caravan, I noticed you have a heavy-duty connection that can obviously carry some serious low voltage current.
Can you tell me what this is for as the Guy I asked did not really know or could not explain it?
I also like your two security chains to keep the caravan attached should the hitch fail.
Over here we only have a strain wire connected separately to the towbar of the car and the handbrake mechanism.
Should the caravan part company with the car it yanks the handbrake to the fixed on position.
The ‘out of control caravan’ has to remain on its wheels for this to have any effect!
Funnily enough we allow unbrake trailers of up to 750kgs to be towed, and these adopt your method of having a security chain (wire) to stop the trailer parting company from the towcar if the hitch fails.

Out of interest how much does you fully loaded caravan weigh?

 

[diesel99]

G'day Gafferbill,
In answer to your question re the heavy duty wiring connection, the connector itself is called an Anderson plug and generally those fitted to most vehicles and vans are 50amp capacity. They are for transferring 12 volt power from the vehicle to the on-board battery/batteries in the caravan.
Our van has 2 - 100 amp hour batteries for running refrigeration etc when free camping - ie when not hooked up to 240 volt mains power. The power to charge these batteries comes direct from the vehicle alternator (120 amp output) via the Anderson plug connection when driving and when stationary for a few days or more free camping then the caravan batteries are charged by 2 - 85 watt solar panels. When the weather is poor we use a Honda portable 240 volt generator through an on-board battery charger to keep the batteries topped up. Most of the time though solar power is all we need. We also have a 65 watt solar panel mounted on the tow vehicle roof connected to an auxilliary battery to run a portable freezer/refrigerator that we carry in the back of the vehicle - you've gotta keep your beer cold.

The fully loaded caravan weighs 2100 kgs and the tow vehicle with all the gear we carry is about 2850 kgs - all up weight of the complete rig is just under 5 metric tonnes.

cheers
diesel

 

[Gafferbill]

Thanks for that…………. Very interesting.

The standard set up over here is that 12 volts are only supplied to the refrigerator in the caravan if the tow vehicle engine is running.
This is used when towing on the road.
The 12-volt supply at 10 amps is passed to the refrigerator down a dedicated wire.
There is no direct connection to the caravan battery from the refrigerator.
When on site with a 240-volt mains supply the refrigerator can use that source of power or it can run on LPG if there is no mains supply.

Having said that, my own caravan is set up electrically so that the refrigerator can run on 12 volts regardless of whether the car engine is running.
In that respect my set up is more like you describe on your caravan.
I have two 100amp batteries to supply the caravan, however one is fitted to the caravan and the other sits in a carrier bolted to the chassis of my 4x4.
The second battery fitted to my 4x4 is being charged whenever the car engine is running, regardless of whether the caravan is being towed.
When towing the two batteries are joined together electrically in parallel by a separate connection but not as heavy duty as you employ.
The two caravan batteries are isolated by a relay from the car battery when that battery is being used to start the engine or when the engine is not running.
However the car battery, which is 160 amps can be switched manually to supply the caravan. Care is needed to leave enough in this battery to start the engine by keeping an eye on the battery condition gauge sited in the caravan.
I altered my caravan from our standard set-up because I wanted the caravan refrigerator to keep working if I stopped for a break etc when on a journey. I did not want to keep switching it over to running on gas.
I also do overnight stops or stay on sites with no mains power available and the extra battery capacity is very useful.

My set-up is not common over here!

 

[diesel99]

G'day Gafferbill,
From your description, your setup is practically identical to most rigs here except for the manual switching of the tugs starting battery. Very few vehicles here would have manual switching and most owners elect to go with a solenoid arrangement that will not allow the starting battery to drain. I find it interesting that your setup is uncommon - I would have thought that it would have been an industry standard setup.

As more and more caravanners here turn to the "free camping" style of touring as opposed to paying the ever increasing high fees in caravan parks, there is a very competitive market for all the "gadgets" to make the experience all that more comfortable and enjoyable. Over the past couple of years I have replaced all of the original internal halogen lights in the caravan with "power miser" LED lights and this has reduced the power demand significantly. The biggest demand for power of course is the refrigerator which is a 12 volt compressor type that pulls around 4.5 amps. They are a very efficient refrigerator in so much that it will handle high ambient temps and does not have to be absolutely level to operate - they operate the same even at an angle of 30 degrees.

cheers
diesel

 

[Gafferbill]

G’day….

Your 12volt compressor refrigerators will be much more efficient than our absorption refrigerators when operating on 12 volts.
The type fitted in UK caravans require a heat source, which is provided by a 120watt 12volt element or a 120watt 240volt element or a small gas heater.
The refrigerator is switchable one to the other depending on requirements.
When operating on 12 volts the current demand is 8-10 amps and our manufactures deem this is too high unless the engine of the tow car is running.
Hence caravans here are wired accordingly ….. unless someone like me fiddles with them!!

Yes LED lighting is very popular over here and most new caravans come fitted with them.

I guess with your heavy duty Anderson connection for the 12 volt supply….. all of your batteries will be connected in parallel, including your engine starting battery.
With this type of set-up you would have to have a solenoid cut out controlled automatically by battery condition.

 

[david.wise]

This is an interesting thread and brings back memories of our trip to Oz early last year. We have family and Brisbane and whilst there we thought a campervan trip would be a good experience.
We knew about 'Standby Cars' - a kind of broker which acts on behalf of a few hire companies when they want campervans and motorhomes relocated to their various depots around Australia. For as little as one dollar a day you can spend a week or more on the road.
We took a 2 berth campervan from Brisbane to Adelaide which is about 1600 miles. The hire companies are no fools - they give you a time allowance which is just about right. We were given 6 days and were able to drop the van at the Adelaide depot mid afternoon on the 6th day. If you want to sightsee you have to do what the Aussies do - get on the road between 5 and 6 in the morning. There is usually a kms. limit but we were able to go off route here and there and still stay within it.
If you want the relaxation usually associated with campervanning then this is not for you. But for sheer adventure it was hard to beat. Long straight roads with nothing in sight until a dot appeared in the rear view mirror. The dot quickly got bigger and bigger until, with a hoot on the horn loud enough to wake the dead, a 16 wheeler truck would surge past and become a dot in the distance just as quickly.
Happy Days! Have a look at standbycars.com and click on 'standbyrelocs.com'. You could be on the road between Cairns and Melbourne this Christmas!!

 

[diesel99]

G'day David,
Good bit of info there - I remember hearing a few years ago of backpackers relocating rental vehicles from one place to another, but was not aware of the website you mention.
Some of the "big rig" trucks on our roads are not the thing you would come across on UK or other European roads.

When this one went past us on the way across to WA, we were travelling at 100 kmh - it went past us as if we were standing still and had disappeared from sight in less than 3 minutes.

There are "big rigs" and then there are "whoppers". The one below has 2 prime movers pulling and 1 pushing. The weight of the load was 369 metric tonnes and the whole outfit had 222 wheels. Not the type of thing to get stuck behind.

diesel