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Trakmaster van trek to Marble Bar

Submitted: Tuesday, Jul 03, 2007 at 16:53

Member - RnR (NSW)

Just a brief rundown on the past 6 weeks..................

On the 19th May 8 trakmaster off-road vans and 2 Ford F250’s with Trakmaster slide-ons left Hawker in South Australia and drove the Oodnadatta Track to Alice Springs and then left Alice on the 25th May to drive to Marble Bar. Drove along the Tanami until reaching the Gary Junction Road and proceeded along this crossing the CSR at well 33.

Of the 16 travel days only 3 days were around the 300km mark. The shortest day being only 110 Km’s. This meant lots of late starts, early finishes, long smoko breaks and long lunches. The whole trip was very civilised.

My van was the 2nd smallest at 14’. The others all measured between 15’6” and 17’6”. These are internal measurements. 3 of the vans including mine were single axle the others were all dual axle.

Most of our camp sites were just gravel scrapes beside the road. We spent 2 nights at Jupiter's Well. You need a far bit of space for this many vehicles so some nights were very friendly eg: vans almost touching.

We all carried enough fuel for 1000 km’s just in case of unforeseen problems. We fuelled at Papunya on the first day out from Alice at a very reasonable $1.66 per litre and again at the Kunawarritji community near well 33 on the CSR at $2.80 per litre.

Problems were few and far between. They consisted of one broken 4wd rear window and four flat tyres. The tyres were all on the rear of 4wd’s. The vans handled the conditions without any problems. Bulldust is almost impossible to keep out but here again not a major problem.

Everyone was heading their own way after Marble Bar. On the last night we raised $650.00 for the RFDS. My wife and I were fined for having similar christian names and causing lots of confusion (We are Ross & Ros)

We left Marble Bar and took the Shay Gap road to the Great Northern Highway. Highly recommended…it’s very scenic.

We only had limited time to get home to NSW. We stopped in at Barn Hill Station for a night and will definitely be going back and spending at least a week or longer camped above the beach. We stayed a few days at Bell Gorge and several at Windjana before hitting the Tanami. We camped at Woolfe Creek crater ( and no I have not seen the film). Fuel at Rabbit Flat was $2.08 and they are open 7 days a week till November.

Across the Plenty to Bouila, Birdsville, down through the Cordillo Downs road to Innamincka and home through Western Queensland.

I had several reasons for doing the trip. Even though our van was 3 years old, work commitments had not allowed us to get away for more than a week at a time. I was also interested in knowing how the larger vans would cope with the conditions and if we would buy a Trakmaster van in the future or look at another manufacturer of off-road vans.

We will definitely buy a Trakmaster when we purchase a bigger van.

We drove 10,467 Km’s with just under 5,000 k’s on dirt. Total litres used 2132. On dirt tyre pressures were 28 front 34 rear and van tyres at 30psi. I did not sustain a puncture.

I have added some photos from the trip into my photo gallery.

Regards


Gary Junction Road


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AnswerID: 250592   Submitted: Tuesday, Jul 03, 2007 at 20:46

ddr replied:

Great report Ross. Any more pics going online?
Reply 1 of 6
AnswerID: 250607   Submitted: Tuesday, Jul 03, 2007 at 21:39

Member - colin J (VIC) replied:

What a brialliant trip.
Thanks for the report, my heads in overdrive as i think of when i can tackle something similar. The maps open beside me and my partner sitting nearby is saying we can't go on another trip for awhile yet.
Looks like a cuppa tea for her in bed tomorrow, as i start the long process of breaking down her reluctance of yet another outback trip.
What a great country we live in !
Regards from Col.
Reply 2 of 6
AnswerID: 250616   Submitted: Tuesday, Jul 03, 2007 at 22:14

Motherhen replied:

Nice report RnR. My son came back from Alice Springs a couple of weeks ago on much the same route. Some of the group got punctures. He felt it would be no problem with our 18' Bushtracker. So much of our fabulous land to explore.

Great fund raising effort too - well done.
Near the Stuart Highway NT
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AnswerID: 250618   Submitted: Tuesday, Jul 03, 2007 at 22:21

Andrew from Vivid Adventures replied:

Great report RnR - and nice pics.

I love the shot with the burnt boabs just around the corner from RAAF Boab on the tunnel creek road - lovely spot - when we were there in late April it was still smokin' so we stopped on the other side of the road to you and set up cameras in the light of the setting sun.







and wasn't the Tanami looking a treat? I'd guess you probably had flowers out but it was looking just fantastic anyways, without them.





Cheers
Andrew who now knows why there were too many Trakmasters... oops, I mean so many Trakmasters on the road last month!
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AnswerID: 250622   Submitted: Tuesday, Jul 03, 2007 at 22:39

Gone Bush (WA) replied:

Makes me very impatient. We pick up our new Trakmaster Nullarbor in the 1st week of August. Now I can't wait.

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Reply 5 of 6
AnswerID: 250665   Submitted: Wednesday, Jul 04, 2007 at 09:18

Member - RnR (NSW) replied:

Many thanks for the kind words...

Yes the country was looking great including the Gary Junction road after recent rains. We passed 1 Bushtracker and saw another 20' Bushtracker near Woolfe Creek crater that had rolled onto one side. People were okay but suspension and left hand side of van demolished. They were waiting for a truck from Fitzroy Crossing. No injuries to occupants but their holidays were ruined.

You will probably see more Trakmasters out and about. The club runs up to 5 trips yearly and are currently doing an east west crossing from Byron Bay to Steep Point.

Regards
Ross


Barn Hill Station sunset


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