Thread: GVM, so how does this work down under anyway?

Originally Posted by prelude

Indeed there is a difference between touring and off roading. I intend to do both, just to make things interesting... For example, I am sure the winch is not needed on the csr but if youtube IS any reliable there are plenty of beautiful spots around oz (and other parts of the world) that require just that extra bit more real off roading to get to. So, yeah, the winch might be debatable. Perhaps just a high lift jack which can do both things, winching and jacking.

Any transit route such as Tanami, Simpson, CSR et al, under normal circumstances will be navigable sans winch or extreme recovery gear.
The only time you may need serious recovery kit would be on side trips that you would have with you, keen forum members to guide and assist.


Regarding a standard looking car: My vehicle will look fairly standard. It will have an ARB front bar and some standard run of the mill rear bar with wheel carrier. I did upgrade my tyre size but went from 29" to 31" so nothing that will scream pumped up car. Also, on tarmac I will choose the highway setting on the air suspension so you can't really see any lift either. I did mount fender flares (from a disco 2, modified) to keep the wheels inside so really, nothing spectacular. It is road legal down here Being a ham radio operator I will have some antenna's on the front bar and/or roofrack but that's about it. no 45" mud chonkers!

But, let me again reiterate: I intend to NOT go over GVM, with the lone exception on setting of on tracks like the csr where I need to drive 1000k's before I can refuel. 500 of those I would be pushing my luck to carry the extra fuel. So, of that distance, only the tarmac part is probably where I need to worry since that's where they can set up the weighing gear, not once I go bush I reckon. On 95% of my travels (or more?) I should be fine. Still, I would prefer not to go over GVM but buying a new truck just for a few kg's of extra GVM or different fuel type and spending the same amount of money on all that I have done to the current vehicle to get the new one up to snuff would cost something like a years extra worth of traveling in oz and around 3 in africa.

I have focused on reliability mainly, that's why I did all I did to the vehicle. The tougher axles (and cv's for that matter), rebuilt engine, all new suspension, rebuild ABS/TCS system, etc. is all part of that. I am even considering replacing part of the BECM stuff with something I can repair more easily. A roo bar is pretty much a must as I understand it in some parts of oz, and the world for that matter, and an ali one might not cut it I have been told? The rear drawer (and more) system will be made out of the lightest stuff I can find and handle. ali is probably not going to be possible but a very light type of wood with some ali angles and strips here and there will. I plan on drawing those things up and calculating the strength/weight of the system before I build it.

As far as the choice of petrol vs diesel. I have been through that very thoroughly. I agree that diesel is less flammable and that is a BIG plus, but if I look at fuel consumption of some of those (overloaded) 70 series and other big rigs I am not sure my "tiny" petrol uses that much more. Also, diesel trucks are getting more rare (the older ones) and the premium you pay for a diesel truck can pay for a looooooot of petrol. Also, my stove works on petrol The only real concern I have with my current choice of vehicle is GVM and it being an auto so no pull/push start. I NEED to bring a starter motor as spare (weight), possibly an alternator?

Maintenance, yes, I have been building this truck up for the past 5 years, dented it, put it up and down hills that I would not do again probably, and got to know it really well, including it's weak spots. Most of the work I have done myself and I have been a car enthusiast for many decades, building mainly honda's admittedly from utter scratch up to (near) perfection. I do need to go over my "must bring" spares list though, because, again, weight.

Yes, I have seen the video's of andrew st piere white, ronny dahl, 4wd traction control (or whatever they call themselves these days), sam eyles, grizzlynbear, kombilife, the road chose me (got his books too), etc. etc. and read tons of forums, blogs, etc. The age old "the more I know, the more I know I know nothing" comes to mind... In any case, both paul marsh and dan grec have already made the point that petrol is "fine" and range in most parts of the world is not the primary concern. Andrew and ronny on the other hand maintain that 1000k's range is a must. With the extra fuel tank I can manage that during the times I absolutely need to.

I realize I am pushing things a bit and I certainly realize that if I were to only do oz. with my car I would probably ditch quite a bit, hell I might even swag it in stead of the rtt and I probably wouldn't bother with drawer system as I am currently setting it up (I am designing it so I can sleep on top, inside when needed) since I wouldn't need most of it. As it now stands though, the car is going to be a compromise to be able to handle west africa, alaska, south america, oz, etc. I am by far not rich enough to buy a car per continent and shipping stuff around to the parts of the world where do or don't need things is not going to be easy.

The reason I fitted 31" tyres to begin with is that I choose the most commonly available tyre size around the world that I could figure; 235/85r16. (or 7.5x16 roughly)

In other, good news, my mate just got in touch: the weigh bridge was more out of whack then I remembered so I probably have close to 480kg of carrying capacity left. That put a smile on my face for the day

Cheers,
-P

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Originally Posted by prelude

@DiscoMick I know that for students/backpackers this is an option. That's a work/travel visa but my info might be outdated. Anyway, I am over the 30 year age limit for that type of visa I have considered touring oz in such a way that after the 1 year visa expires, hopping over to new zealand to tour that for a while and applying for a new 1 year visa to get back in and finish the trip. I'll have to get more info on that somehow.

I realise it's ñot part of your master plan, but consider leaving your Rangie in Australia while in New Zealand. Both countries are pedantic about cleanliness of imported vehicles, that can be amazingly expensive requiring approved specialist contracters.
You could possibly revisit NZ after the second stint here.


@Blknight.aus I will take it into consideration. I was not planning to start my trip around melbourne-ish and I have already modified my vehicle for touring around europe so some stuff is done already but, yeah. It is a good thing to keep in mind. Starting with a blank canvas might not be a bad idea.

As far as fuel consumption goes, 40l/100 I can get when crawling trough the Welsh country side, idling a lot when opening and closing gates, and going full throttle up hills to keep up with the tour leader. I reckon that is extreme usage though and sand driving (unless soft beaches) like the simo or csr will probably be in high range at a decent speed so that should use a heck of a lot less fuel.

Don't expect to use top gear on much of the unsurfaced roads.

Regarding the trip start/end/direction and fuel prices: I figured there would be an ideal-ish route to pick. My arrival date is not yet set in stone so I have every option to change that and I got a lot of years to plan ahead it seems. I'll start a new yarn in the appropriate forum soon. Fuel prices, though lower is better, don't really scare me that much being from a country with crazy high fuel prices to begin with. I believe the most expensive fuel you can get is at bililuna at around $3 per liter or so? If I convert AUD to euro's that's around 1.80 euro and that have been "normal" fuel prices around here for years. Sure you can get cheaper but still.

All in all I do believe the extra fuel carrying capacity is a must, whether I use it often or not is a different thing.

Cheers,
-P

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So here is an update.

Since sweden was moved from orange (do not travel unless absolutely needed) to yellow in the travel advisory from my government we had the chance to do a last minute trip up north. Long story short, my girl got sick enough for us to be forced to return home so it was a short trip indeed. The range held fine, just the last minute repair that played up (naturally).

In any case, since I was back early with the misses out for the count and the car in disarray (I threw everything in without thinking just to get home) I decided to drive past the local weighbridge and check her out before I cleaned up the mess. With pretty much standard gear, nothing too fancy I was over by 180kg already (me in the car, full tank of fuel). I still need to take out the rear seats and I have a bit of an overkill on battery capacity right now so I have some capacity gains left but even with, what I would consider, relatively minimal gear I am already pushing the cars GVM.

Seems like traveling in a P38 is gonna be tough to do within spec

Cheers,
-P

PS I averaged 18.1L/100 over 3000K's of which 2K were driving up and down the highway at 110K/h. It should be noted that my tire size has increased by 10% so the fuel consumption figures of the on board computer are 10% to high as well.