outback trip

woops, leaving May 23th

sounds great but i will be in ceduna between april 25 and may 3rd, this is my week for going fishing by myself, then off on my trip to birdsville on the 30th june. are you going to get any fishing in at ceduna?
cheers shane.

HI JD, yes have stone a guard, have taken the van on some rough stuff before and it handled it ok. have also tow it through the sandhills at davenport creek out past ceduna. (hence photo)
we are very happy with the rapid, dust ingest is not a problem. have on of those vents in the roof to pressurized when traveling. its just the wife and i now so it is a perfect size.
the Cordillo route, is that rough because of corrugations or just rough in general?
cheers shane.

Hi again Shane

Cordillo route varies quite a bit. But generally speaking, Qld section is a quarried material surface for much of it and hence stony, corrugated etc (bit like Strzelecki). In SA section road is cut into natural surface and soft so depending on grading, rain, it has lots of loose bulldust sections. In places, creek crossings very rocky, and there are occasional deep wheel ruts .

I have probably overstated the Bushtracker thing a bit - hard to say. When I reported in to VKS on the Cordillo route they asked how was it and I said ok (e.g. speaking of 4wd not van) but just drive accordingly. But they said I was less concerned than others who had reported in during the preceding days.

Be good to hear a few other opinions.

Thanks for your words about the Rapid. I'll look forward to your trip report. Cheers JD

thanks mate.

Hey Shane

I did the Strzeleki a week and a 1/2 ago, I towed a camper trailer at 75 kph more for the fact that I was looking after the back window, I could have gone faster but just enjoyed the scenery.

Mind you The camper has a 2.2 tonne rated axle on it.

Cheers Steve.

thanks Steve, mine is 1600kg with independent eye to eye leaf springs.

thanks Trevor.

just looked at photos, thats a lot of stone damage. did you have a stone guard? we have had one made, its the one that goes under the a frame from the tow bar. i think i will put some of that rubber tread for around pools under the front half of the van. man that a bashing, was yours an off road van?

Hi Shane,

Yes it is a serious offroad van and yes there was some serious stone damage to the water tank shield but that is what it is there for....to protect the tank and it did this admirably. The whole front of the van has sound proofing material across the front (about an inch thick with solid material inside it) and this really did protect the front of the van. I would suggest looking into something like this for the front of any van doing this sort of trek. It is hard to see but the following link is a recent picture of my van and you can see the bottom half front of the van and how it is protected by this sound proofing material here.

There is a million rocks per square inch out there and they all get sent back toward the van at a serious rate of knots. The back window in the car was protected by cardboard attached with duct tape and this worked fine for me also. I added it to the car when it was shiny clean before our trip and did not remove it until our return and the tape marks just wiped off with meguiars paint cleaner before a wash.

If there is anything else I can help with please ask away. Plenty more pics of the trip if you want anything in particular just ask.

PS plan for a stay at Farina if you haven't been there before, I was amazed but did not have enough time to fully explore the abandoned township (2-3hrs just skimmed the surface for me I loved it).

Cheers, Trevor.

very impressive Trevor, i think the stone guard i have will protect the back window( i might be wrong) but still might put some thing on it.
i think the hardest part of the trip is getting the wife excited about it. we normally go south in the cold and rain, but i lived in darwin for years and don't mind the out back. showed her some photos from you guys and the comment was, there is nothing there, why are we going there? she is mad on birds, this is the reason for the lakes and water holes.
going to join 4x4 club this year with the hope of getting out more.
cheers shane.

thanks for reply Darian, there are some good photos in your collection. surprising how much the surface changes. looks like you have been around. i think most places could be tackled with the van, its all about the speed and the way you drive.
cheers shane.

Amen to that (how you drive) - amazing how our 'luck' with tyres improves the slower and more careful we are.