Thread: Discovery round aus trip - advice

Not crazy, its the best place to put it and if you are planning on running a fridge it will save your starting battery if you use a decent isolator like the USI 160 from Traxide (saved mine in WA just last month in Broome). Used a roof top tent too, they do add some weight so good to have decent springs in the back - there are some cheaper tents out there which are OK, mine is from Up Top Campers and was $1K less than brand name ones and looks and works just the same. Contact me for more info on this if you like. Make sure you take spare hoses, a set of wheel bearings, filters, uni joint etc. Have a good trip.

Hi Eligh

Welcome aboard to the forum and sounds like a great trip that you are planning there.

Cheers Arthur

I have my second battery installed in that position with a good isolation system and a dash switch so I can put both batteries in parallel in case the main one dies on me (great for cold starting). I had my jack moved to the back-side of the drivers-side shock tower.

Rear springs are a little soft when fully loaded on a D1 - it's worth seeing about getting uprated springs.

It's really worth looking at real off-road shocks as they cope with the heavy going up north (Savannah way or Gibb River Road for instance). I have Bilstein shocks on mine and they're brilliant. They've lasted for over 200000km so far and I've done about 40% of that on the dirt.

I also carry a second spare on my roof rack, but that may not work well with your roof-top tent. Whenever I have gone for a long trip I've needed that second spare ...

Originally Posted by Eligh

y.

I'm about to embark on a trip around australia very soon, working and travelling in my 96 v8i Disco.

I was just wondering your thoughts on the essentials to have before leaving?

a Toyota

Hey guys thanks for the warm welcome!

I had that same toyota joke when I took my landy in yesterday to my mechanic, had to point out that top gear episode where they were dropped in the amazon jungle with second hand 4 wheel drives. The landcruiser died, and the land rover soldiered on! (Not very relevant, but hey)

I've bought a redarc isolator, snorkel, 300w sine wave inverter and a century N70ZM Deep Cycle battery, also picked up a roof top tent. Things are getting well under way, starting to get excited haha.

Thanks again for the tips, going to go pick up some spare parts and another spare tire.

Dont forget the simple stuff such as a tyre pressure gauge and compressor.
And a spare key...

Reminds me of a recent business trip to China, where my local contact borrowed a decent car off a friend to take me sightseeing, and also enlisted the help of another friend who was a taxi-driver to do the driving.
Contact and I get dropped off at a museum, driver parks the car and joins us inside. When we got back out to the car he'd put the bar-type steering lock on.
Trouble was, the key for it was still in the owner's pocket 2 hours away

Steve

spare hoses and belts..

I replace all hoses and belts prior to leaving and keep the old ones as spares. The RV8 does not take kindly to overheating, aside from the fact that is is much easier to replace them when the engine is cold in your garage than a hot engine in the middle of nowhere.
I would also take a spare water pump, as I have now had one fail on each of my long trips.
Regards Philip A