Back from Simpson

iMusty,

Melbourne to Cameron Corner is around 1350km...
Normally a 2-3 day trip, but we were driving from 9:15AM
till 10:30pm with 1 hour total for stops, cruising at 110km/hour
the rest of the time...

The road from Broken Hill to CC is about 50/50 sealed/unsealed and
you should have no problems getting there in the bus in dry
weather... The roads turn to mud in wet weather so if you get
stuck I am not sure if someone will want to pull the bus out...

Hope this helps,

Stan

Hi David,

Most of 5.5K were relatively trouble free. We met with Darren's group
on the Big Red and then traveled with other LCOOLers from Birdsvile to Cameron Corner and then ended up stuck in Tibubarra Pub for
2 days :).

The tally so far:

1 x stuffed MTR which only done ~3000K. By the time I realised that it is flat the tube trashed the sidewall...

While crossing Simpson on the French Line a small distraction on my part seen the front of the Prado flying up and landing it's nose very hard on the ground, which resulted in cracked Windscreen on the passenger side. I wonder if I can claim it from Toyota under warranty...

Other than that it performed excellent. Still need to work out what the fuel consumption was like, but the Oodnadatta - Birdsville part it
used 150 liters of unleaded fuel...

Geez,

You must have hit hard tyo break a windscreen. For it to break I would suggest the fender has pushed into it so it might have something else bent. I remember Joe hit sand hard some time ago and Darren had to do some straightening. Would be worth a good look over to make sure.

Hmm.. You might be right David. The steering wheel was pulling to the left a bit and when I looked at the wheels from the front the left wheel is on a bit of angle (| /) which is notisable... Been in Toyota dealer for a service today and asked them to do the wheel alignment and the LH wheel is still on the angle... I'll probably have to wait till Darren get back to get it fixed properly.

120scruiser,

Thanks for the info. After doing the Simpson trip I think the ARB bull bar
will be more suited if I go there again, with all the kangaroos and emus
trying to run under the truck....

I know what you mean.
I am heading out there on the 17th September. I am just waiting for my ARB bar to be colour coded. Should be here any day now. Funny thing is I had the bar ordered 2 weeks before I bought the Prado.
Oh well I have had it for 4 days now so its time to play. In goes the lovells etc $$$$$$$ Oh it hurts.
These things are so expensive on after market bits.
I was talking to Toyota today as when I read my owners manual it has a spot in the dash for a factory diff lock switch. Toyota can supply the switch but there is no diff lock. Great aren't they.
Catch ya

Hi John,

It certanly was fun drive. We were the first group to get out of town after they opened the roads. On some section of the road to Broken Hill all cars there doing the huge eights... Two prados actually run off the road (if it can be called a road) probably too much power, LOL.

Stan

Andrew, how much water was in that big claypan between CC and Tib, that's if you came down that way.

Andrew,

Yes, there was around 14 cars from LCOOL at Birdsvile on 5th of July.
10 of them thent back to Poeppels corner and then through Hay river,
which by this time would have water in it after all the rain...
We then travelled with the remaining guys to Innumincka and
then made a dash for Tibooburra for the hotel rooms as we knew it is going to be a heavy rain overnight and some of them had 2 y.o. kids...

Stan

Mad Dog, if its the one I am thinking of, it was about half wheel height, most of the way across. It was a huge expanse of water as we rounded the corner. It was nothing compared to the bore track a few days prior, now that was wet.

Stan, we also spoke with the SA Land Cruiser club at Poeppels corner, they have just come down the same route from memory.

Andrew

Hi Andrew, good to see you and the other Overlanders got to Camerons Corner OK. We chatted at Peoppels Corner and had just come down the Hay River. We got out of the desert just as the rain was falling.

Cheers
Phil

We travelled from Innamincka to CC on theSunday that the roads were opened then CC to Broken Hill on the Monday. The lake in the middle of the road between CC and Tibooboorra was big then and at least half wheel height. The Hilux followed by the 60 (?) series LC that tagged along from CC and naturally the GQ did it well. The LC ( petrol) did have a bit of a problem with water in the engine bay.

Mrs Slave