An old friend rang me about 10 days ago from Central Australia to say he would drop in for a cuppa on the way past to his home on the east coast. He dully loped in here on Friday evening driving his every trusty 1982 HJ47 Troopy. When he phoned me though, he had said that he was tired and and the Troopy was tired.
Now, my mate is a tad eccentric, and maybe one day I should write about his life experiences. He has travelled the world by 4x4 and probably much more than I have in this fair country. He does everything the opposite way to what we 'modern' travellers do. Just throws everything into the Troopy and on to the roof rack, fuels up and goes. Something invariably breaks along the way but he gets keeps the Troopy mobile until he find a mechanic somewhere in the bush or an old wreck with a spare part hanging off it.
The Troopy is mustard in colour, and as it has never lived in a garage, it has moss growing on the bonnet. Every skinny radial is of a different brand. My mate has no tyre repair kit and carries three spares on the rack together with a 60lt fuel
tank and some milk crates etc etc. He has an old 60lt Engel fridge sitting in the back and has a 3 battery setup which doesn't seem to work so
well. Everything on the old Troopy seems to be tied on with old fencing wire or electric chord or held on with ockey straps.
I said, as he was pouring some oil intoi the engine, "How often do you change the the oil?
"Oh every now and then" was the reply.
He bought the Troopy in 1985 with around 400,000km on the clock and reckons it has now done 1,356,000km or thereabouts. In the days gone by he used run private tours with the old bus. He has trouble getting the 'pink slip' in NSW, so he has registered it in Queensland where he owns some properties. The Troopy starts after the 3rd Glow Plug prime and blows copious amounts of white smoke. It then rattles as if it is going to fall apart at any moment but eventually quitens down and the engine tones down to the famliar diesel clunk as it drives away.
I suggested that it is time to buy a newer one, but my mate is tad reticent about that. Its not the money he says, and he has a bit of that, it's just that he will miss the old girl so much. So I have suggested an engine de-sludge and new Glow Plugs and he seems quite taken up with that idea.......lol
He left again yesterday morning and should be at the coast by the end of the week.
He's not in a hurry......................
Cheers