Hi all
In thread 60749 I asked for opinions on extra spare tyres and the carrying of and received a lot of good feedback.
Well the trip is done and dusted so here are my thoughts to add to the collective.
We were officials on the re centre to
Gold Coast rally so we couldn't afford to take risks that might hold us up. Altogether we covered about 11,550 kilometres in 20 days.
Most of our driving was around the 100 to 110 kmh on dirt as
well as bitumen as we had tight schedules to meet.
We took two spare tyres, one on a rear carrier and the other inside the vehicle.
Tyre pressures approx 32psi on the dirt and 40psi on the bitumen.
Tyre problems Zero.
Travelled
Melbourne to Alice on bitumen, Alice to Mt Isa via the Plenty, Isa to
Normanton,
Croydon Greenvale and
Townsville on highways. Down past Burdekin dam and out the bottom on dirt before looping back through Charters Towers, Hughendon,
Winton to Longreach then down through
Windorah visiting Haddons corner and
the dig tree on the way into Inamincka.
Down part of the old Strzkecki before cutting across to
Cameron corner via the
bore tracks and oil fields, then out through Tibuboora to
Bourke and then bitumen all the way home via the
Gold coast and down the Newell
This is the tenth long distance run we have done through this sort of country and in all that time we have suffered two punctures. Both punctures were in H/T tyres and were stones through the tread while running 40+ psi. Never a problem with A/T’s
Observations
Some vehicles had major tyre problems with up to four destroyed. They were inevitably running high pressures on the dirt (up to 60 psi) or were severely overloaded.
Trailers were destroyed on the Plenty hwy due to insufficient
suspension compliance. They were too stiff and couldn't absorb the shocks resulting in breakages and rollovers. There was also a lot of tyre damage because the tyre appeared to be doing the suspensions work and some people just don't understand the importance of not overloading.
Spare wheel inside vehicle takes up too much room, on roof causes too much drag (fuel cost). Therefore based on our experience we would only take one spare next time and rely on our tyre repair equipment for backup.
We ran an 80 series cruiser on dual fuel. 80 litre LPG 90 litre fuel
tank, 30 litres in a marine fuel
tank and a 20 litre jerry can never looked like running out of fuel however the costs were scary at app 14mpg (app 20l/100k).
LPG is available more than we expected but the price was over the top meaning that sometimes it was cheaper to run on petrol.
The 30l marine
tank was a safe and convenient way to carry fuel and didn't leak or smell unlike the brand new plastic jerry can. You burn more gas.
Diesel still appears the best way to go.
Toyota troopies with aftermarket turbo's and towing trailers seem to overheat a lot where standard configurations handled it ok
There is still heaps to see so get out there and enjoy it.
Thanks for the pre trip advice and I hope my comments help.
regards
Andrew
http://www.redcentretogoldcoasttrial.com.au