Interesting stats

[wardy1]

Tuesday 18th December saw me take off at 3:00am for the drive to Brissie from Melbourne, I arrived in Brisbane about midday Thursday. I was driving alone so thought I'd keep a record of 4wd breakdowns etc by brand.

Toyota LC200 3 (one looked like a flat tyre)
Toyota LC100 1 (going on a flat top)
Toyota LC 80 1 appeared to be overheated by the steam)
Toyota Hilux 1 Guy was under it with a lot of tools on the ground
Nissan Patrol 1 whole family out of the car, bonnet up.. it was about 38deg
Nissan Pathfinder 1 spoke to the owner, lost his transmission
Great Wall 1 broken rear spring
LR NONE:D (and there were plenty on the road)

The route taken was Hume Hwy to Wagga, Olympic Hwy, Newell Hwy, Cunningham Hwy. Not exactly hard going.

I'll be heading back next week via the New England Hwy and across to Cooma then through the Snowy Mtns and through Suggan Buggan etc

Glad I drive a reliable car ;);)

I'll keep counting

[UncleHo]

New England H'way like playing hop-scotch around the potholes :(

the Pacific is much smoother, even the truckies use it now, divided most of the way :)

[rick130]

New England H'way like playing hop-scotch around the potholes :(

the Pacific is much smoother, even the truckies use it now, divided most of the way :)

Yep, between the B-Doubles and lack of maintenance by the RMS you need a 4WD to survive it :(

[rick130]

Tuesday 18th December saw me take off at 3:00am for the drive to Brissie from Melbourne, I arrived in Brisbane about midday Thursday. I was driving alone so thought I'd keep a record of 4wd breakdowns etc by brand.

Toyota LC200 3 (one looked like a flat tyre)
Toyota LC100 1 (going on a flat top)
Toyota LC 80 1 appeared to be overheated by the steam)
Toyota Hilux 1 Guy was under it with a lot of tools on the ground
Nissan Patrol 1 whole family out of the car, bonnet up.. it was about 38deg
Nissan Pathfinder 1 spoke to the owner, lost his transmission
Great Wall 1 broken rear spring
LR NONE:D (and there were plenty on the road)

The route taken was Hume Hwy to Wagga, Olympic Hwy, Newell Hwy, Cunningham Hwy. Not exactly hard going.

I'll be heading back next week via the New England Hwy and across to Cooma then through the Snowy Mtns and through Suggan Buggan etc

Glad I drive a reliable car ;);)

I'll keep counting

Saw two Disco's broken down within a few km of each other on the Pacific between Coffs and Grafton last Friday :(

[The ho har's]

Tuesday 18th December saw me take off at 3:00am for the drive to Brissie from Melbourne, I arrived in Brisbane about midday Thursday. I was driving alone so thought I'd keep a record of 4wd breakdowns etc by brand.

LR NONE:D (and there were plenty on the road)

The route taken was Hume Hwy to Wagga, Olympic Hwy, Newell Hwy, Cunningham Hwy. Not exactly hard going.

I'll be heading back next week via the New England Hwy and across to Cooma then through the Snowy Mtns and through Suggan Buggan etc

Glad I drive a reliable car ;);)

I'll keep counting


Ummm didn't we meet you last weekend:D:p

Mrs hh

[Xtreme]

...........................................

I'll be heading back next week via the New England Hwy and across to Cooma then through the Snowy Mtns and through Suggan Buggan etc

Glad I drive a reliable car ;);)

I'll keep counting

Or you could try the less trafficked and more scenic route via Thunderbolts and Buckets Way (Uralla, Walcha, Gloucester, Raymond Terrace). Maybe a little rough and windy in places but sealed all the way and about 50kms shorter than the New England.
The Pacific Hwy, although maybe dual carriageway and good surface most of the way, will be carrying a fair amount of holiday traffic throughout January.

[rick130]

Or you could try the less trafficked and more scenic route via Thunderbolts and Buckets Way (Uralla, Walcha, Gloucester, Raymond Terrace). Maybe a little rough and windy in places but sealed all the way and about 50kms shorter than the New England.
The Pacific Hwy, although maybe dual carriageway and good surface most of the way, will be carrying a fair amount of holiday traffic throughout January.

As will the New England towards the end of January.

The Tamworth Country Music festival is on around then.

[Xtreme]

As will the New England towards the end of January.

The Tamworth Country Music festival is on around then.

x2^^ - and people invade Tamworth right throughout January for the TCM festival.

[bob10]

Or you could try the less trafficked and more scenic route via Thunderbolts and Buckets Way (Uralla, Walcha, Gloucester, Raymond Terrace). .

Sounds interesting, would it be found as ' Thunderbolts & Buckets way' on the map, and does it start at Uralla? I'm keen to drive these less travelled roads when the chance arises, especially if it's a good drive. It's not the destination, it's the journey, for me, nowadays. Bob

[Disco44]

Tuesday 18th December saw me take off at 3:00am for the drive to Brissie from Melbourne, I arrived in Brisbane about midday Thursday. I was driving alone so thought I'd keep a record of 4wd breakdowns etc by brand.

Toyota LC200 3 (one looked like a flat tyre)
Toyota LC100 1 (going on a flat top)
Toyota LC 80 1 appeared to be overheated by the steam)
Toyota Hilux 1 Guy was under it with a lot of tools on the ground
Nissan Patrol 1 whole family out of the car, bonnet up.. it was about 38deg
Nissan Pathfinder 1 spoke to the owner, lost his transmission
Great Wall 1 broken rear spring
LR NONE:D (and there were plenty on the road)

The route taken was Hume Hwy to Wagga, Olympic Hwy, Newell Hwy, Cunningham Hwy. Not exactly hard going.

I'll be heading back next week via the New England Hwy and across to Cooma then through the Snowy Mtns and through Suggan Buggan etc

Glad I drive a reliable car ;);)

I'll keep counting

On my trips around Oz the most times broken on side of road for me was the Patrol with that grenade motor.
John.

[Ralph1Malph]

I will be making the Bris - Wodonga trip towards the end of Jan for a reunion.
I will only be allocating two days for travel in each direction. Used to be enough years ago. I usually do the New England/Newell route but now starting to doubt it! Maybe just stick to Pacific and Hume.

Ralph

[Xtreme]

Sounds interesting, would it be found as ' Thunderbolts & Buckets way' on the map, and does it start at Uralla? I'm keen to drive these less travelled roads when the chance arises, especially if it's a good drive. It's not the destination, it's the journey, for me, nowadays. Bob

Go to Google Maps, Get Directions and use Uralla and Raymond Terrace as 'to' and 'from' locations.
Beautiful undulating sheep and cattle country through Walcha and Nowendoc, a few nice camp sites around the Barnard and Manning Rivers and nice hamburgers and coffee at Stroud Rd.

Last time I did it, travelling south a few weeks ago, I took a slight detour via some fire roads and descended (1st and 2nd gear low range) to Giro and through the Barnard River valley. Took about an hour longer but a very pleasant run.

[rick130]

And the best coffee in Uralla is found at 'The Galloping Gourmet'

Young Lachie, the barista there is passionate about his coffee and does a great job.
He also road races motorbikes and their cakes are extra good too.

[bob10]

Just reading the latest Overlander 4WD. Mag., a letter on page 11 [ I wont repeat verbatim ]. Basically a NT Pajero 115,000km., has had a major oil leak at the top of the engine, , fixed under warranty, and recently, an engine computer failure. He wrote in because the mag. had said there were no known issues with the vehicle. The vehicle is expected to be off the road for 6 weeks, as there are no computer parts in Australia, all in Japan. I must stress, this is not a dig at the model, but , welcome to the 21st century. Bob

[inside]

I was driving alone so thought I'd keep a record of 4wd breakdowns etc by brand.
See this is where you are mistaken. In Land Rover world we would call a transmission failure a break down however in the Japanese world of 4WD ownership these issues are called "maintenance". This is confirmed when discussing the reliability of Japanese vehicles with their owners as you will often here the sentence "I have had to do nothing to it other than the required maintenance".

[Ralph1Malph]

See this is where you are mistaken. In Land Rover world we would call a transmission failure a break down however in the Japanese world of 4WD ownership these issues are called "maintenance". This is confirmed when discussing the reliability of Japanese vehicles with their owners as you will often here the sentence "I have had to do nothing to it other than the required maintenance".

Lol. This is actually true do a point.
In the reliability game, if something is deemed to have a finite life and reaches its life of type, then it is indeed 'maintenance'.
E.g. If a component manufacturer builds a gearbox with the expectation that it will be rebuilt at 100000km, then that is classed as 'predictive' maintenance as you should book it in for this work at 100000km.
If it fails at 75000km, yep she's a breakdown, at 115000 km, well, that's overdue maintenance.

Cheers
Ralph

[wardy1]

Ummm didn't we meet you last weekend:D:p

Mrs hh

Yes we did..... and my car wasn't 'broken down' LOL, just gutless!:D

[wardy1]

Well.... on the way back along the aforementioned route (thanks for all the tips on alternatives by the way), 1 more 200 series, suspension problem (stopped and offered a coffee which was greatly appreciated), owner thinks his KSS is doing funny things. 1 Hilux, 4 months old, hole in the front diff AND sump:p. He was an idiot who thought the best way over rocks was to hit it hard and bounce..... the breakages happened within 50 metres of where I was camped.... I saw the oil trail and found his car all locked up half way up a very nasty climb about 5 km from my camp the following morning. He had a short walk back to my camp, or a bloody long one to Benambra (about 40km). Not sure what he did. 1 Hilux with a broken steering rack and......... ONE Disco overheated on a steep climb. Not a member here, I gave him some coolant and the use of some emergency tape to seal the top hose. Hopefully not too serious but I have to say, like me he was travelling solo in some very harsh and remote country with no spares, extra coolant or emergency repair stuff. Nice family though and very appreciative.
I got home last Friday after about 4,500km round trip, apart from the problems with my MAF on the way up, the car was a dream. BTW, the replacement MAF improved my economy to 10.2lt/100km (from 11.3) on 33's for the highway bits, can't knock that for a car weighing in at almost 2.5 Tonnes:D