Thread: Keithys P38 Cape Trip update

Good on you mate, living the dream, very impressive fuel figures, hope you have a good trip.

Keith

Looking forward to following your progress, best of luck

Steve

Keithy

Enjoy your trip up the cape. All your bad luck is behind you now. Drive safe and keep the shiny side pointing up

Gary

Thanks guys!

We travelled the Bloomfield track yesterday, very rough going! Ended up at the lions den overnight (beaut counter meals there)! We are currently in cooktown fueling up (just because), off to Laura via Battlecamp rd today.

No issues with the P38 at all, hasn't used a drop of coolant or oil.

Cheers
Keithy

Well here I sit on the beach at Punsand Bay (the tip of oz)! It is day 9 of our trip now and what a beaut trip it has been!

We travelled through Lakefield National Park up to Princess Charlotte Bay, had some very close encounters with a 4m salty, we travelled the Telegraph Track (over 2 1/2 days). It was very rough, none of the water crossings gave any grief for our convoy of 2, however, a few Nissans put engine fans through radiators and a brand new triton drowned at Nolan's Brook (Bridge Creek). I used the tarp and forded every crossing without drama.

The developmental road is quite corrugated but nothing in the P38 has rattled loose at all!

It has developed the nickname "cow bell" as any high foliage that hits the snorkel makes a cow bell ding as it goes past!

Off to cook tea now, will update again after the frenchmans track!

Cheers
Keithy

It's that time again - not without drama, but not P38 drama!

We left Punsand Bay a few days ago (I've lost track of what day and date it is!), travelled the bypass road around the tele track. I would strongly advise against taking the northern bypass road as the corrugations are bigger than Woolies shopping car park speed humps.
My mate in the classic was traveling along the table drains at 30kmh for most of it and I simply overtook him and sat at 85kmh on the corrugations. God bless airbags - still, take the northern section of the tele track both north and south and save yourself the bounce!

The southern bypass is a smooth dirt highway. The first 20km are bitumen, the next 20km is a bit hit-n-miss and the last 80km odd is 100kmh and great!

We pulled up at Bramwell Junction for the night then headed south to begin the Frenchmans track. 5km before the turn off the classic lost his front driveshaft (bolts had snapped), we spent some time putting it back together and got down to driving again.

About 10km into the Frenchmans, we pulled up to air down and noticed oil under the classic! Luckily I had a spare oil filter in my kit, there was a hole in his oil filter, so he put my (only) spare one on and borrowed some oil too, then we were off again.

The Frenchmans is slow, not hard in my books, just slow. Crossing the Wenlock was easy, just a matter of picking the right line. More slow going and eventually you get to the Pascoe River crossing (we had a bt50 join us for the Frenchmans by the way, he was going to do it alone), a slippery walk down to the river had me quivering! The water was bonnet depth which I didn't mind, it was the rocky base and the fact you had to idle across in low 1st that had me worried.

We packed heaps of rocks on the northern bank as there was an ifs 100series with camper trailer on the south blocking our way so we figured we'd hurry his progress up. He decided against crossing, but then had the hour long task of reversing the camper trailer back up the bank (which requires a good dab of traction control to drive up forward with no trailer on its own).

Once he moved we crossed slowly and without drama. I should add, the only time on this trip that I've used my locker was at Palm Creek on the tele track, have not touched it otherwise.

We finished Frenchmans and camped on the Wenlock river.

Next day we were planning on getting to cooktown so we could do the CREB on the way back. I passed another P38 just south of Coen (this is yesterday by the way). Got the wave from the female driver! It was a fine specimen too - I could see the timber highlights on the steering wheel as she flew by!

We travelled back through Lakefield National Park as the developmental road is hardly worth calling a road.

Once we hit the tar at Laura is when the fun began (literally). 20km into the bitumen the classic lost his engine. It went bang! No signs of trouble, just a big puff of diesel from behind (I was tail end Charlie at this stage and I coughed it up)!

Long story short, I towed him to Lakeland Downs where we pulled up for the night, then I pulled him all the way to Mareeba where we then hired a car trailer and I towed him down the Kuranda range (with brand new brakes on that are not very new anymore), and to a Landy bloke in Cairns.

Anyone want to know how a fully loaded P38 goes towing a fully loaded classic? 80kmh is too easy! Could have sat at 100kmh but we didn't for safety's sake. I was planning on putting a dirty great diesel in my P38, but now I'm sticking with my 4.6! Didn't rev over 2000rpm unless we were going up a steep hill. Not bad! Then you add a 1.2t car trailer into the mix, still the same. More torque below 2000rpm than I can find a use for!

Some of you may have seen, I put an SOS on the general chat forum yesterday to see if we could get a replacement 200tdi close by but to no avail. Cairns was the closest, so 350km or thereabouts I towed the classic for, and she loved it!

Enough rambling, sleep time, I've got an engine to replace in another vehicle tomorrow so we can do the CREB track!

P38 - she'll do anything mate!

Cheers
Keithy

Just because, ill add some quick stats!

Highway at 100kmh where possible, I averaged 14l/100km.
Dirt highway with 30psi average tyre pressure and hilly terrain, 16.2l/100km.
Telegraph track (slow, lots of creek crossings and an average speed you could beat on a push bike) 21l/100km.
Towing a classic Rangie and a 1.2t trailer (still fully loaded mind you), 20l/100km.

I have used 500ml of oil, zero coolant, no anything else...

As soon as you leave the bitumen you lose the right to Premium Unleaded, so those dirt numbers are on regular ulp.

Eftpos is everywhere too, perhaps the only place it's not is the Jardine ferry, but you'd be silly to buy it there as the rumors have it that fuel there has stopped a few vehicles this year.

The most I paid was $2.55/litre at Bamaga (only put 35l in there to get me back to Bramwell Junction).

It gets cheaper as you go south. Musgrave Roadhouse was $1.95/litre, Bramwell was $2.20/litre.

I only used my Jerry can because I could, I did not need to take it, the standard tank was sufficient.

If its the same Landy guy in Cairns, ask him if he came across a blue 96 P38 about a year ago? He'll have a photo of my vehicle when I stopped there with minor radiator issues. He loved the snorkel as much as he'll like the one on yours. Nice bloke, will help anybody out. If I remember he was located in a semi- residential zone with a part supplier next door.