Blown motor in the outback

Dare I ask what engine is fitted.

$1800 for a 100 k tow...and here's me thinking we had seen the last of the Kelly gang.

Just a thought but would it be possible or feasible to hire a suitable tow vehicle 4wd of some sort and a car trailer in Alice. Tow the car back to Alice.
Then go back without the car trailer and tow the van back.

Cheers
Pop

"and here's me thinking we had seen the last of the Kelly gang." - it's fairly well known that remote recovery consists of:

1. a hiring fee (drivers time / hourly rate) plus
2. a per km distance rate plus
3. fuel costs

it all adds up. We came across a couple of German tourists in a high top 70 series that blew the gear-box on the Plenty Highway just past the border (see pic). Suspect it was one of those 70's that had the hilux box - could only go in reverse. A local road repair crew kindly put them up and towed the vehicle to the base camp a few k's down the road and organised for them to call the hire company in WA. They dropped them like a hot potato. The truckie was from Alice so he new the local agent who did the right thing and organised for a flat-top to come out and pick them up (under the original hire agreement) - we met the recovery guy in Gemtree on his way out - asked him how much ? - about $3500 for the effort including the above.

Ularu to Alice is a lot more than 100 Km's, it's actually about 470 kms.

Tow truck, Alice to Ularu and back is close to 1000 Km's @ $2- a km the price of $1,800- is reasonable.

OK if that's the going rate then that's it. So is it possible to hire a suitable vehicle and car trailer in Alice and do what I suggested?
I'm not familiar with what's available but when you are looking at the dollars involved I would consider all options.
Even maybe take the van to a CP in Alice and continue on to Adelaide or wherever with the car on a car trailer.
Dunno, just saying.

Outback vehicle recovery Alice. 08 89521087
Britz Alice 08 89528814

In retrospect, it would have been better if the engine had caught fire, which rapidly spread to the jerry cans of petrol stored in the car etc etc

Just make sure you have comprehensive insurance and its up to date.

Bob

It's no good if the owner puts a value of $30,000 over market value and the insurance company only pays out market value.

I suspect that right now the owner would happily accept "market value".

There was a ABC show a little while back Bush Mechanics now they are some where close to the big rock give them a ring they can fix almost any thing

video

Been there and done that. I had a ZD30 Patrol which blew just north of Sydney and about $13000 later it was on the road again.
Ken, I feel for you where you are and only hope you get it sorted out without throwing a bucket load of money at it.
We could not trust the Patrol after that and got a new 4x4 which was the best thing for us.

I'm interested in that cover. In the RAC "glove box" guide they say that regardless of which level of cover you select, outside WA you only get the basic/standard cover. I may have to ask them that specific question in writing, just in case we have a similar stroke of misfortune.

Zippo posted:
I'm interested in that cover. In the RAC "glove box" guide they say that regardless of which level of cover you select, outside WA you only get the basic/standard cover. I may have to ask them that specific question in writing, just in case we have a similar stroke of misfortune.

I think you will find Zippo that with your WA RAC breakdown policy as long as you have ultimate or ultimate plus..you have whats called an out of pocket expense limit
With Ultimate I think its $3k/year and with Ultimate plus its $7k/year and its this figure that covers the cost of your vehicle recovery from interstate. (so dont breakdown interstate twice in one year :-) )

RAC wa were excellent, they arranged a vehicle transporter to bring my vehicle back to WA to my chosen destination, it came back on a multi vehicle transporter and all cost were covered as it came under my out of pocket expense limit. (Ultimate plus)

Got my value from the policy and will definetly be renewing next year
All up from time of calling them to seeing the car again back home took approx 10 days

Nissan sel new short motors pretty cheap, local dealer should be good at swapping them over. Unless your going to repower it you will need to get it goong or it isnt worth anything much.