Thread: Leyland Brothers

Last year on Pay TV (can't remember the channel or day) but I stumbled on a Leyland Brothers marathon a whole Saturday of Leyland Brothers.

Easo

They're on early AM just about every day. No GPS, no air lockers, no giant balloon muddies, no power chips, no satellite dish, no lap top, no power converter, no sat phone, no DVD player, no PLB; how did they manage; silly, mad, irresponsible fools.

Yep, how did they do it? Thats right same as we did before we could all afford te ad ons. Recover used stuff like chain blocks.
Have a couple of DVDs at home I watch from time to time.
Smae as my cousin and a family friend when the left and filmed World Safari on their tours, very basic stuff, but great adventure.

This was us in 1978. In those days it was all about crossing the Jardine. We were the first across the crossing in that year – at the end of June and posted a plaque on a tree on the southern bank as was done in those days. That year an enterprising chap from Vic opened a ferry, made out of 44 gallon drums and used an outboard.


Checking out the river – crocodile problems were unherd of in those days. We basically emptied out camp gear etc into the boat, ferried this across and then drove across. We took enough wire rope to go across and back, just in case. It took a whole day to prepare with raised air and exhausts done there and then as well as waterproofing the petrol engines. Yes, we had those bar tread army tyres as well.












Approaching the exit of the crossing. This is our vehicle – an ex workshop. I wonder if it is still around. Water inside got to the top of the seat base.






In those days you could drive along the beach at the top. This is our camp at the top end of the beach, near the tip. We then camped at the first inlet to the left, about 1km along the beach, for a full week and didn’t see another sole.













Another pic along the way – not sure where?











I must try and dig up spme more pics
Erich

Cheers for that Erich. Great pics.

Have a mate who did it in '82 in ex mil 11A and No 5 trailer. They floated the trailer across and drove the vehicle over. When I was there in '94 the river was about 2 metres deep on the northern exit. Needless to say we went back to the ferry

Perry

I recall too many years ago. reading an old LandRover Owners Club of NSW newsletter of the brothers testing aircraft tyres on the series 2 swb that they subsequently used together with the series 1 wagon(on Michelin Saharas).for their West East crossing of OZ.From a mechanical viewpoint that expedition was a disaster, with countless broken diffs etc.
I don't know what their financial resources were like in those days, but the fragility of Landy diffs were well known, so the wagon at least should have been equipped with at least an ENV diff in the rear which was an available optional .Even after they became famous and presumably wealthier, they still persisted with troublesome Rover diffs on overloaded vehicles right up until they changed vehicle brands.
Wagoo.

G'day Wagoo

There was/is a good reason for the percieved fragility of the series Rover axles, that is, that you break an axle before you break a diff,universal joint,gearbox or engine, as it was easier to replace an axle than to rebuild a diff centre, remember that these 2.25 motors were not an overly powerful only developing 77bhp for the petrol. the usual thing was to carry spare axles both short and long along with the felts gaskets and gasket sealer

Note also the lack of Crocs,that was before the touchy feely do gooders had hunting them banned,the Australiasian Salt Water Crocidile is not an endangered species, as it has a very wide ranging area that is why there are sightings as far south as Bundaberg.

The Jardine is now dredged after the wet season so you can't drive across. Makes it even more special for those who have done it.