Thread: D3 on the Ghan

Originally Posted by shanep

Has anyone had any experience with transporting a D3 on the Ghan from Adelaide to Darwin or vice versa? Did it fit ok?

I never went ahead with it but I did enquire, would fit as long as no roof rack.

Plenty of trucks go Darwin - south empty can get good back loading rates if you shop around.

Try Gilbert's they bring about 10 triples a week to Darwin from Adelaide.

Cheers Ean

Forgot to say its Adelaide to Darwin that costs the $$$ mortgage the house stuff.

Cheers Ean

Not a D3 but we did take our D1 from Adelaide to Katherine on the Ghan. We got off at Katherine because we were taking the Disco to our daughter in Derby.

It only cost $100 because we were Gold Kangaroo passengers.

See also Fender on the Ghan... height of vechicle <2m ?

Yes two years ago we took our new D4 on the Ghan and cost $100 from Adelaide to Darwin with a weeks stopover in Alice Springs as we travelled Golden Kangaroo. This trip I can highly recommend.
As there are no tunnels etc the car travelled on the top deck of the car transporter. There was a little greasy film from the train exhaust but was no problem to remove, and as I was made aware of that before travel, I simply gave the car a thorough polish and wax.

Yes in 2010 we put our D3 + camper trailer on The Ghan in Darwin having driven up there via Oodnadatta Track, Finke, Red Centre, Kakadu, and Litchfield over 3 weeks. We then flew home to Adelaide in 3.5hrs! The D3 and camper arrived 48hrs later. Total cost was around $650 for car and camper. Height restriction was 2 metres. I had nothing on roof but slightly bigger tyres (245/70/17) and locked it in access height. Regards, David

Yes shanep - as mentioned above the D3 fits on the Ghan and in my case was facing forward so the windscreen did get an oily film on it which needed to be removed before travel in Adelaide as there was a light drizzle.

Doing it again I would probably consider using the commercial 'Cling Wrap' type product to protect the screen. Easier to remove at the destination too.

Another thing I discovered when the car was the last vehicle on the train up to Cairns from Brisbane was that metal filings from the wheels/brakes seemed to float up in the air after corners etc. and embed themselves in the paint work and on the glass areas. Looked like dust but rapidly changed to rust when the first showers were experienced on the Kuranda Range road.

HTH, Leigh