My Kimberly trip..sorry if its a long story

Sorry about your bad luck.

I know first hand the problems you faced. The whole camping and accomodation was gridlocked due to the Gibb River Travellers taking up all available accomodation in both the West and East Kimberley.
The PCYC overflow park in Broome went from empty to over 200 people in 48hours due to the flooding on the GRR.

And I can imagine the problems with getting help with a Landie as I own one and if it isnt a cruiser then the so called mechanics just make derogatory remarks and tell you to buy a cruiser!!

I had two Grey Nomad friends of my parents on the front lawn for a few days as did quite a few others in Broome. We dont mind helping as we may need the same hospitality in their neck of the woods one day.

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Originally Posted by barryj

I can see why toymotors are the preferred beast up there. I really felt out in the cold so to speak on our trip. Land Rovers were a rare sight all the way to Broome and back. I remember one Land Rover sign on a building in Broome and I should have taken a pic of it.

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Perhaps over thirty years neglect by the manufacturer of product support, of dealers appointed by quality, and of enforcement of dealership standards may have something to do with this?

In Kununurra the Land Rover agent was (not sure if it still is) the Caterpillar Agent. He stocked consumables (filters etc). The Toyota Dealership also only stocked consumables. Even though it was common for Toyota Troopies to break their diff housings, the Toyota dealer always flew one in overnight instead of keeping a couple in stock.

It doesn't really matter what you drive, anything major is going to get freighted in. The Toyota dealer would just as easily order in Land Rover parts as Toyota parts.

The best thing when travelling is to have a ready list of suppliers, if you break down, it's just a matter of a couple of phone calls and the item can get freighted up. If it's too heavy to post, see if a local workshop can order it in from your source, using their freight account.

The only items that have ever brought me unstuck in the bush have been a Marks 4WD gearbox and parabolic springs (I'd imported from the UK), so there was no way to get parts.

Another thing to do is go to an internet cafe' (or library) and log onto www.aulro.com and post a HELP notice. If you can't, call someone at home and get them to log in and post it for you. You'd be surprised how many members are out there, or where they may have contacts.

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Originally Posted by away

Am I missing something here?

You got an untried second-hand gearbox from a wrecker when you could have got a recon unit with a warranty for just $800 more. Then you paid for car shipment that would have made the price pretty much the same as buying the recon box anyway. Then you added airfares and accommodation to this.

Why didn't you just hire a car, stay at Wyndham and have a bit of a look around while they fixed it at Kununurra? Seems like you didn't save much time in the end either.

A quick phone call to Perth might have seen a gearbox at Kununurra in 5 days - the highway would have been open again before the truck got that far. In fact, I think the road was only closed for about 12 hours...I may be wrong.

Seems to me that the shutters went up and rationality went out the window.

Oh well, the joys of travel I guess?

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geez you guys are tough, sometimes in a crisis one does not think straight

my parents bustered a spring on there camper trailer 70km out of birdsville, with no mechanical knowledge at all they forked out nearlly $1000 to have two leaf springs fitted, i couldn't believe what i was hearing but he was happy as he was back on the road in two days

good points out of the experience

RACQ ULTRA pickup the recovery and accomodation
trailer insurance picked up most of the repairs including a damaged rim
trailer manufacturer chipped in a few dollars

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Originally Posted by weeds

geez you guys are tough, sometimes in a crisis one does not think straight

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I agree, i remember when we broke our gearbox out in the danggali park (S/A), we used the HF and called for help at which a guy with a trailor came and got us and gave us a choice: either be towed to broken hill or renmark.

We chose broken hill as it was going our direction.

Problem was it was a public holiday in NSW whereas it wasn't in renmark S/A. The next day was the weekend...:(

But you play the cards your dealt the best way you can, and we bought a box from S/A and had it couried to our motel and we were sitting at the mechanics on monday morning with a broken car and new gearbox ready to go in.

Back on the road in 4 days... :)

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Originally Posted by weeds

geez you guys are tough, sometimes in a crisis one does not think straight

my parents bustered a spring on there camper trailer 70km out of birdsville, with no mechanical knowledge at all they forked out nearlly $1000 to have two leaf springs fitted, i couldn't believe what i was hearing but he was happy as he was back on the road in two days

good points out of the experience

RACQ ULTRA pickup the recovery and accomodation
trailer insurance picked up most of the repairs including a damaged rim
trailer manufacturer chipped in a few dollars

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Err, thanks I think Weeds, nice to get some RAEME support without an EMEFIX.

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Originally Posted by Hymie

Err, thanks I think Weeds, nice to get some RAEME support without an EMEFIX.

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No worries.......you better by a goffa when you next pass my GMV

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Originally Posted by weeds

No worries.......you better by a goffa when you next pass my GMV

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As an ex 226, the currency of the realm is usually a slab;)

I thought some of you guys were a bit harsh on your comments there. Sounds like it worked out well at the end the end of the day.
No where to stay in Kununurra, as well as a 2 week wait. Kids get a flight to Darwin and old man gets to look at backpackers, whilst drinking beer. Now thats priceless!!
After some of those responses, I guess Hymie and a few others will now be reluctant to post their experiences for the rest of the forum.

Greg

I guess after all has been said and done a suggestion is that we all should consider posting a thread on this site before we set off for a long trip. This way willing and able members could be available to assist those who might come to grief.

Another option would be to make sure we have auto club cover that covers us for emergency breakdown. At least this way the passengers and vehicle would be transported to our home base where we could get the vehicle repaired by someone we trust.

In the case of this thread, all went well in the end although the vehicle is now fitted with second hand parts and may fail again.

Bottom line ..... holidays is (sic) holidays no matter what happens.

As they say .... a bad day on holidays is better than a good day at work (or was it fishing?)