Which spares for road trip?

[GregMilner]

Good morning gentlemen, the bride and I are taking off in ten days for a three-week trip towing our camper trailer north through the Pilbara/Marble Bar/Boreline Rd up to Broome and the Dampier Peninsula. About 6,000K all up. The camper will put about 180KG on the tow ball.

Given our experience two years ago in the Kimberley (Mitchell Falls road), I'm a little nervous about the rear shocks, but hopefully won't be encountering such horrible corrugations this time. Aside from spare shocks, what bare-bones basic spares would you be carrying for such a trip?

I'm also thinking I'll leave the standard Continentals on this time, since 85% of the travel will be on sealed roads. I have a couple of good Cooper LTZs in the garage, may throw them on the CT's boat loader, but am shy of shelling out another $900 for two more just for one trip. Am I tempting fate?

My car is a 2012 TDV8. This time I'll be taking a sat phone so I can more readily call Roadside Assistance:-)

[CSBrisie]

Good Luck Greg, sounds like a great trip!

I would think with 85% on bitumen you should be fine with the Conti's. Lets face it you can have bad luck with brand new LTZ's....its one of those things. A second spare is always a good idea though...

Re the shocks, out of interest (as I replace mine this week - arriving from UK tomorrow) I enquired via a Bilstein rep in NSW (Sydney Shock Absorbers P/L) whether they could be rebuilt - he said No. Bugger.


cheers

Chris

[GregMilner]

Chris I'll throw a couple of LTZ tyres on the CT just for peace of mind. Anything else in the way of spares you'd carry?

[BobD]

Just a warning, Greg. The Cape Leveque road is apparently very corrugated at the moment. It was also terrible last time I went on it a couple of years ago. It is mostly sandy, so not a threat to tyres. However, it will test the shockies again! I would probably be doing between 60 and 80 on those corrugations in the D4 with my Kimberley Karavan. To slow is worse for everything I think, unless you just crawl along and don't get anywhere!

[GregMilner]

Thanks Bob, yes I learned my lesson last time - bad corrugations, stop every so often to let the shocks cool down.
And much of that road has been sealed now, I believe. The side tracks to places like Middle Lagoon and Whalesong are still and will remain unsealed though.

[CSBrisie]

Have you got a GAP IIDTool or Faultmate or similar? Not a bad idea to be able to clear faults etc.

[GregMilner]

No, haven't got one of those Chris. I keep seeing people talk about them, but never got around to it. I've never had faults come up on my screen, although I did with the RRS a few years ago. I just stopped the car, made a cup of tea, started her again and hey presto, faults gone:-)

[CSBrisie]

I will PM you!

[Graeme]

My Faultmate Extreme can't (yet?) modify mine's CCF values so not much sense in buying of these unless BBS can get it to work.

[rar110]

That will be a great trip.

In addition to what's already mentioned. I would take rescue tape in case of radiator, coolant hose or intercooler hose failure. I think a proper heavy duty set of jumper leads is worthwhile. Not the light duty ones from auto shops. Get some made by a auto electrician. I assume you have a dual battery setup or a battery in the camper. I would also take spare coolant and power steer fluid.

[Graeme]

If you're considering taking spare rear shocks then you should know that left and right are interchangeable simply be rotating the top mount plate 180 degrees, therefore keeping the weight of spares to a minimum. IIRC an Allen key is used in the shaft to hold it while the nut is turned with a ring spanner. Check that the angle of movement of the replacement is much the same as the one being replaced and adjust the top plate position if needed.

[GregMilner]

That will be a great trip.

In addition to what's already mentioned. I would take rescue tape in case of radiator, coolant hose or intercooler hose failure. I think a proper heavy duty set of jumper leads is worthwhile. Not the light duty ones from auto shops. Get some made by a auto electrician. I assume you have a dual battery setup or a battery in the camper. I would also take spare coolant and power steer fluid.

Rescue tape...is that the same as duct tape? Got plenty of that. I've got good jumper leads, but also one of those OzCharge 16,00mA jump start Li jobs, which are great. We've got a dual battery setup in the car plus two 110aH batteries in the camper so should be okay in that area. Plus 250w solar, 1KVA generator. Power won't be an issue.

[GregMilner]

If you're considering taking spare rear shocks then you should know that left and right are interchangeable simply be rotating the top mount plate 180 degrees, therefore keeping the weight of spares to a minimum. IIRC an Allen key is used in the shaft to hold it while the nut is turned with a ring spanner. Check that the angle of movement of the replacement is much the same as the one being replaced and adjust the top plate position if needed.

I'm not going to carry a spare shock for this trip Graeme, I don't have one handy and buying one just for this trip is probably (touch wood) going a bit overboard. But I have saved the text of your advice above into my phone:-)

[GregMilner]

By the way, if anybody is interested in tagging along - or letting us tag along - on all or part of this trip, please advise. We'd love the company!

[rar110]

Rescue tape...is that the same as duct tape? Got plenty of that. I've got good jumper leads, but also one of those OzCharge 16,00mA jump start Li jobs, which are great. We've got a dual battery setup in the car plus two 110aH batteries in the camper so should be okay in that area. Plus 250w solar, 1KVA generator. Power won't be an issue.

Not the same as rescue tape.

Here's one brand.

http://www.rescuetapeaustralia.com.au

[Graeme]

I'm not going to carry a spare shock for this trip A new or used non-CVD version could be fitted and the original carried inside with the electrical connector plugged into the top to keep the rest of the CVD system working.

I priced a low km used non-CVD version to carry as a spare but didn't think the risk warranted the cost.

[GregMilner]

Not the same as rescue tape.

Here's one brand.

Rescue Tape - Fix It All with Silicone Rescue Tape (http://www.rescuetapeaustralia.com.au)

I'd never heard of it. Looks like brilliant stuff, I'll get some - thanks for the heads up:-)

[Road Stone]

I always take:


Duck Tape


Araldite (not the 5 minute stuff).


Both worth their weight in gold.


Cheers, Jerry


PS and cable tyes/ties.

[GregMilner]

Yep, got plenty of duct tape, cable ties and araldite Jerry:-)

In the 'old' days, a few lengths of fencing wire and a pair of multi-grips would fix just about anything....