Thread: Wheel out your bad trip stories

Ron s are probabley still covered by the official secrets act! snafu. Hey Ron I heard a weather warning today for A Ck Z mere C side etc, on ABC, hail rain local flooding, did it eventuate?

Originally Posted by PhillWilde

C'mon Ron, we need to hear tales of woe from a true master

Christmas 1975, I headed from Townsville to Keith SA, in my trusty 1968 302ci Fairlane 500.
All was well until Christmas night when we went to vist the relies in Bordertown. On the way to the highway I saw the biggest Red Roo (7ft) I'd ever seen on the side of the road.
Comming back at midnight, I was looking out for this bugger, and sure enough, at 30 kph, this bugger junps in front of the car! There is a crunch!, the roo hits the front, swings around and thrashes the drivers side door with his tail, which leaves a big dent.

I opened the door and this angry roo adavanced from the rear of the car!! I immediately took shelter inside the vehicle until he "Hopped away".

The damage was not too bad and I drove home the last 3 km. The next day I was able to reshape the front to get back to QLD.

I had bought a Suzuki RV 125 in Singapore in 1974 (shipped back to AU) and decided to take it back with me to Townsville. I welded up a holder/ramp to hold the bike, on the back of the ZB's bumper/tow bar.

All finishing and I took off in early January. I decided to go via Cunnamulla for a change. Prior to all of this the Ford had been overheating and one night, I drove it from Keith to Willalooka at 150kph because I was "socially excited" and pi**ed off with the car! End result, glowing manifolds and a boiling motor.

So her I am cruising along at 100kph, heading for Cunnamulla. 10 km short of the town, I ran out of fuel.
The bike on the back had a bigger impact that I thought.

I take the bike off and road to a nearby Property where I bought some fuel off a guy to get to Cunnamulla.

I arrive at Cunnamulla at 6:10 pm. Everything is shut!
I cannot buy fuel or food. I check into a Motel and stay the night eating a pack of bisuits.

Next morning when everything opened, I fueled up and took off for Charleville.

I'm flying alond at 110kph and all of a sudden the road disapears!! Gravel and huge holes. By the time I stop, bothe exhausts have been ripped off and badly bent up, just past the extractors.

I throw what is left of the exhausts in the boot and head off with this horrible booming noise from under the car.

I eventually get to Charleville, only to find the raod is blocked by fload water. I book into a Motel and basically loose it! Depression has a new meaning.

The next day I back tack to Cunnamulla and head for the coast. By this time I'm loosing days and will soon be considered AWOL.

I coast through NSW on to QLD, pass through Brisbane and near Gympie, the car starts to splutter and loose power.
Eventually it back fires and stops with flames from under the bonnet. A passing by motorist puts that flames out nd I headed for a servo to get a new set of plug leads and excelerator spring.

Three hours later I'm on the road again.

Later, close to a servo in the middle of no where, between Brisbane and Rockhampton, the Fairlane will not go any faster than 20kph. I finally realised that the spark plugs were shot. At the servo, the owner found 4 new plugs and 4 second hand ones, but , boy, did the make a difference!

The car almost left a smokey getting out of there

Later in the day I got to Rockhampton and found out that the road was flooded ahead. No movement for at least 3 days. I went to the local Army depot and reported in. They said they would send a message up to my unit and tell them where I was.

In the mean time I stayed in a Caravan Park, on site dingy van, until I could get away.

The river eventually dropped, I got to Townsville, was charged for being AWOL absence involuntary, traded that that bloody Fairlane on a nice Peugeot 504 Automatic sedan, flogged the bike and remainded a happy camper
~~~~
Long winded yes, horrid experience yes, do it again NO!!!

Hells Bells Ron, what a bad run!

Did you get a storm today Ron?

on a "fishing" trip with some mates I twisted my ankle... so was relegated to the 4x4 at the back of the convoy being slower than the fast cars we were soon left behind and with no maps or clue as to where we were we ran out of fuel.... not that I cared the 4x4 had the food the booze and the pain killers mixed with that lot and I was in happy lala land.

one of the more sober guys goes off on foot to get fuel, the short version of his story is that we were only 15KM from a remote servo/bottlo/postoffice/general store/mechanics/motel and hed scored a lift, a map and a jerry and apparently had refuded the offer of a lift back for the 4b and carried a jerry of fuel back on foot on the basis of sheel be right one of the guys is good with the spanners.....

now by this time its been 24 odd hours with a beer fridge stocked to deal with 8 blokes and theres 2 of us having a go... maybe some trip prep and making sure that the isolators for the batteries on the vehicle work could have saved some heart ache here. but the crux here is the batteries are too flat to crank the diesel over...

thats ok we can push it so after debating wether or not to save the last of the battery and let the beer warm up the decision was made to turn the fridges off drink the beer and put the meat in the fridge to try and save that.

we go to push start with me sitting in the drivers seat and we got it to go, for about 40 meters or so before the engine made some disasterous noises and then the back axle locked up... well that was sobering and now Ive got guys waving and yelling at me to get the hell out...

oh the engines on fire... well thats not good, nuff nuff had got petrol to put in the diesel engine, the spanner turner was too drunk at the time to realise and for some reason or other it all went very bad and well walking 15km with an unsupported twisted ankle and a hangover is not a good way to spend a long weekend.


Or would you rather hear the story of spending 3 days chasing a cyclone in a soft top jeep with no windhsield wipers or doors?

Or would you rather hear the story of spending 3 days chasing a cyclone in a soft top jeep with no windhsield wipers or doors?[/QUOTE]

Why do you need wipers with no windshield???

Originally Posted by Ian

Ron s are probabley still covered by the official secrets act! snafu. Hey Ron I heard a weather warning today for A Ck Z mere C side etc, on ABC, hail rain local flooding, did it eventuate?

We had a nice drop of rain, 16mm, but no bad weather

Cheers,

I once had a really bad trip ....

car ran better than a swiss clock, recovery gear stayed clean, plenty of food, plenty of beer, no rain, saw some beautiful places with really nice people ......

...... boring