wow, so we were very lucky in our trip .....
We left
Perth on the 15th of July and went up the same roads all the way to
Timber creek, then to Top Springs, Dunmurra, Boorallola,
Doomadgee, Burktown,
Normanton, Dunbar/Kooltah, crossed the
Mitchell river, across to Musgrave and up to
Weipa and up to
Mapoon ............. where we now are working for a while .....
All was done In our stock standard 105 petrol and a cheap $4200 camper trailer (GIC) ....
BUT .... before we left
Perth I did a few things,
well a lot over 2 months, replaced the rear springs as they had sagged, with s/h std springs, replaced all shocks with s/h std toyo units, removed tailshaft and replaced both rear unis, started on engine by replacing the belts, that developed into replacing the radiator,
water pump, all belts, all hoses, all idler pullys, fan hub ..... and the radiator was "ok" but original and after much hair tearing out I just did it anyway, even the
water pump looked like it was not that old, but just did it as it is easy to get at with radiator out, did the idler pullys as
well only because I could, they looked fine ...................
At the time I kept asking myself .. why ... as it cost a fortune, but in reading what you guys had happen I am so glad I did, we by the way never had any problems, even the so called "cheapey" camper was faultless, yes we are probally lucky but I still think it is good investment just to replace it "just in case" .... as the headaches down the track are what makes or breaks a holiday or trip ...
Glad it all worked out in the end