Thread: Big Trip and Breakdowns

OK, we live in Canberra, so every winter my wife, Sylvia and I, do what most sane people who live in Canberra do.

We head NORTH!!

The aim was to enjoy the camel races at Boulia after spending a week getting there via Birdsville and Big Red, then onto Lawn Hill National Park, Karumba on the Gulf of Carpentaria and over to Townsville for a bit of snorkelling. Finally a slow trip back to Canberra .

Should take about 6 weeks to do the 6.5 thousand kms.

Vehicle of choice, of course is our 2000 model P38 with recently installed LPG system, towing our new Paramount Duet 13.5ft expanda caravan. Along for most of the trip were our friends, John and Carole with their Toyota Hilux and ActiveCamper.



After two days we were onto the dirt near Cobar on our way through Louth, Hungerford, Quilpie and on through to Birdsville.

Although the weather was clear it was FREEZING at night.

I thought that this was causing some strange faults with the Rangie, SRS fault was on everyday, door locks were playing with themselves, and the passenger window was getting stuck half way up.
Annoying, but hey we’re on holidays!!

Big Red Birdsville
We went out to Big Red for a night’s camping and a bit of a play in the sand. I was last there about 6 years ago, middle of the drought, and boy has it changed!
There’s now a lake at the foot of Big Red and an 8km ‘go around’ to get you to the sandhill. This ‘road’ was horribly corrugated and it was almost impossible to get up to a suitable speed due to the width of the track.
We spent a great day watching the lesser vehicles fly up the hill, some airborne, complete with bits falling off. Hilux’s are NOT unbreakable.
A great night camping at the base of Big Red next to the new ‘lake’ will not be soon forgotten.
And, of course the Rangie had no trouble conquering the hill several times.



Whilst airing up after the return trip on that rough ‘go around’ I noticed that the front bull bar was half falling off. A half hour with the spanners had that all tightened up.

The other problem that had appeared over all those kms of dirt road was DUST. Plenty of it, but all in the caravan, the Rangie was proving to be excellently sealed.
The poly pipe sink outlet on the van was also a casualty of the constant pounding of rocks.

On to Boulia for the camel races!
Well the rain actually. Two nights of heavy rain and the races were effectively cancelled for the second year in a row. They ended up running a couple of short races on the Monday and most of the other entertainment also continued. In fact our small contingent from Canberra, now up to 8, were the winners of the 50’s dressup dance.



The mud also provided some fun when a couple of Toyota and Nissan drivers found themselves bogged. I immediately offered them some assistance, “Either drop your tyre pressures to about 18 or I will get the Range Rover and tow you out”.
I didn’t have to do anything else!

More dirt roads to Lawn Hill Gorge (a national park), which was beautiful, and more to Karumba. Couldn’t stay in Karumba for too long, we weren’t Victorian, so headed across to Townsville.

Stacks of wildlife out here, though one less emu, it ran under John’s Hilux and had to be put down, and one less eagle that broke my Lightforce driving light.

When we got to the coast, 40 kms north of Townsville, I had to save the Hilux when a brake hose started to leak badly. A mercy trip into Townsville for a replacement had the Rangie one up on the Toyota.

But that only lasted a few days before the Rangie’s water pump let go near Airlie Beach. Now we were even.

A couple of forced days at the beach had the Rangie repaired and we were on our way home. Repair cost was $560 including supply of a new, genuine water pump. Not too bad I thought!

Back home to Canberra, via Lightning Ridge, and we found that the weather was no different from when we had left 6 weeks earlier. On this part of the trip, the ‘testbook’ symbol on the HVAC came on. The air con worked alright but the symbol was there for few days. Also, on the last night out I broke the gas bottle connector on the van so something else to fix when home.

I took the 10 month old battery from the Rangie back to Costco for a replacement as it had not been keeping charge as well as it should for the whole trip. With a new one all the error messages and door and window problems have disappeared. The car seems to go smoother as well.

So, a great trip was had by all with just enough ‘issues’ to keep it interesting.

Originally Posted by Keithy P38

Nice write-up there! Sounds like a great trip!
We need to see more P38's doing trips like this!
Keithy

There are a few doing the trip, shared the road with a lookalike at Cunnamulla.

Not trying to steal your thread but some might get inspiration from my pics.

Parsons Gallery

Some of my travels over the last couple of years.