Hard to believe it is four months ago I wrote the preceding post to this.
[A warning that will surprise no regular reader. This post, it’s a bit lengthy...]
When we are leaving to go on this trip is probably, in theory, around four or five months from now.
In all honesty it doesn’t feel like I’ve got a hell of a lot done, and all of a sudden it doesn’t feel like there is that much time to do it all. However that’s probably just a natural response, a bit of exaggeration and a bit of anxiety, when you plan to be away for an extended period of time.
So I suppose it’s about time I wrote a bit more about what the trip is...
Ever since we came back from our little European excursion, back in 2015, I’ve been thinking about doing a proper trip. As in, pack up the truck and GO. See where it takes you and not have think about coming back for...? Who knows, a couple of months? Six months? A year...?
Sounds like a good plan for retirement hey? Sure, but I want to go whilst we are still young and fit enough to comfortably explore as a solo vehicle, wherever we want. Remote terrain? You know it. Difficult terrain? Sure, if that’s what we find. It’s not a wheelin’ trip, but I don’t want to turn around at the first bog hole or tricky climb either.
So, we’ve kind of been geared towards this since we came back from Europe. Saving money since then. That will get us started. We also managed to keep our first house and rent it out when we bought the house we currently live in. So the plan is to sell that later this year and that will provide the funds, pt 2 - hopefully...
Our Best Western trip last year, was kind of the prototype for this trip. Both of us living for a longer period than just an extended weekend or whatever, out of the truck.
Not to mention the prep, and kit changes beforehand, it also helped with getting realistic about how much you spend before the trip vs how much you spend on the trip.
There are no fixed destination/s. We will aim to get up to northern Australia, which means fitting in with the dry/wet seasons of the tropical parts of the country, and Tasmania in the middle of winter will probably see me camping on my own, whilst N is on a plane home... In all seriousness the plan is just to take it not much more than a few days or a week at a time and see where we end up.
We will probably head to central Australia initially, then head south before it gets too hot.
Anyway, I feel like I’ve waffled on enough, how is all this prep going?
Camping gear:
Not many changes as you would expect, it all worked pretty well last trip. Just a few minor tweaks.
https://rufant.com/2018/03/25/packing-the-truck-part-1/
https://rufant.com/2018/03/29/packing-the-truck-part-2/
I’ve got the Nemo shower and some pillows sat in Phoenix, AZ (always wanted to write that like you US guys do, now I just need to weave ‘full disclosure’ into something!). Which will come over once my long lost All 4 DVD’s make their way back to Tim’s place :).
Sorting the hand brake on the Cruiser:
So, no doubt we’ve all heard Ronny Dahl complain that he has a Land Cruiser handbrake and therefore doesn’t have a handbrake at all. Well, mine was bad, but I knew where the trouble started.
Slipping and sliding around in the mud, in the dark, trying not to slide into a tree. At some point I drove the truck in low range with the handbrake (aka e-brake, another great American-ism!) on, easy enough to do. Think of the torque at the wheel as opposed to in high range. It was noticeably in-effective after that. Another muddy escapade finished it off.
You can see one brake shoe had totalled its mounting hardware and spring that keeps it in place. I cleaned the shoes up, replaced the mounting hardware on both sides and adjusted the shoes out to the drum till they were just dragging, and wound them back a fraction. I had a handbrake again, but it was still not great.
So with the back axle part of its operation adjusted as finely as I could get it, meant only one conclusion for me. I had stretched the main handbrake cable too, therefore I was getting too many clicks at the lever before anything happened. On many cars this part is adjustable too, not so on the 105, so a new front cable was called for.
The manual says you have to take out the front seats to get the centre console out... Yeah? No.
Yuck.
Yuck!
Better.
This is my highly scientific proof, that the cable was stretched.
All refitted back up, it was better.
More adjustment and it was better still. Quick test-drive, then more adjustment. Now it actually felt like a hand brake, not the best hand brake I’ve ever set up, but way better than it was. It will hold the truck against a small amount on throttle in high range, that’s good enough.
I can’t believe Ronny hasn’t driven his truck with it on at some point, with all the off road he does. Or maybe I’m just an idiot... The thing is I’m almost certain I’m going to do it again.
Dorkel.
So yes, the Safari Snorkel is on. Fitting was mostly straightforward, although taking a 4.5 inch holesaw to anything never gets old...
TPMS.
The BFG’s are currently off the truck while it is just driving around on bitumen, so I haven’t installed this yet. Seems like a nice enough bit of gear though.
Riddle me Lockers...
So I thought this one was easy. E-Lockers seemed a straightforward choice for me, whilst not cheap, the come from a respected manufacturer and I didn’t want to put an air operated system on.
Then I watched Stefan’s video and all of a sudden it wasn’t so black and white.
Ok, I don’t have the budget for the amount of rock crawling that Stefan does. However, neither did I like the sound of the design ‘feature’ of the E-Locker, of unlocking for half a turn between forward and reverse. The ARB design just seems a bit nuts to me, and let’s just say their after sales support can be a bit patchy at times... Stefan did have problems with his TJM Pro-locker, installation related maybe, but they all seem to have their pros and cons...
So I watched the original Filthy Motorsports video in full.
Ok. So a lot of the lockers in here have sort of fallen out of favour in Australia. Probably due to ARB, Harrop, etc, being well connected with the Australian 4x4 media.
I like the sound of the OX Locker, although I don’t think its available for the Land Cruiser, and the Australian importer is unresponsive to phones calls and emails so it doesn’t really matter how good or bad it is.
I’m at the point where I can’t get past the simplicity, durability, fit and forget-ness of having a Detroit locker in the back and a Truetrac (Torsen) up front. Ok, the old Detroit will make a bit of noise (how noisy is noisy, anyone know?), and the Truetrac potentially needs a bit of help with some left footing if a wheel is in the air and you’re stopped. As I said, everything has pros and cons, this just seems like an appealing combination to me.
Satellite Phone. This is the other big $ consideration. However both this and the lockers will probably wait till pt 2 of the funding plan is in place I think.
I haven’t really done anything O&E post worthy, but a bit of normal camping with some friends with a caravan, weather had its last fling of summer ‘bout 33 degrees C. Hat-tip to Tim, the load restraint does work well as a shade!
Plus a bit of hiking has brushed the cobwebs off. Over Easter I tried hiking Onkaparinga Gorge. Not the first time I’ve tried hiking this gorge. I tried it a few years ago with my Dad, when he was over from the UK. We, errr, got a bit lost and ended up bush-bashing out of the gorge, getting the compass up on my phone to work out which way we should go. The gorge basically sits between the lower southern suburbs of Adelaide and the wine growing region fo McLaren Vale, so it doesn’t feel particularly remote or wild, easy to underestimate I guess...
This time I drove to the other side of the gorge and hiked down from there, doing a ‘circuit’ I had found online. The guide did say the trails were easy to miss, and miss the turn off I did.
Although along the way were reminders of who successfully settled these areas. When there English first came to Australia, of course they tried to grow the things they knew from home, onions, potatoes, carrots, etc. None of which really like this dry and hard soil. Whereas once the Greeks and Italians arrived, they knew what worked in this type of landscape. Olives, figs and of course, grapes. So this is what seeds wild and is cultivated in this region.
This was around vintage time for this area. So every now and then you catch a slightly sour whiff of fermenting grapes from the wineries.
Once I realised I had missed the path down to the gorge I called up Google Earth, to have look which of the many side kangaroo tracks might lead all the way down, and then back tracked to that point.
The track became very steep and slippery as it finally plunged down into the gorge. I regretted not picking up the gloves I had given a half look at this morning before heading out, they would have been useful here. I was wearing new Salomon boots, so at least they were gripping well.
Down into the gorge unscathed, this small stagnant puddle greeted me. Obviously protected enough by the steep walls to last all through summer. Steep walls that also meant there was no internet or phone reception down here, best not twist an ankle then...
I scurried around on the rocks a bit, trying to see if there was a more definite path than the roo track I had seen on the bank I had entered from. No was the answer, and then I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye in the water. A fish! Not some little finger sized sprat either, like something about a foot long. It disappeared into the muddy murk, then after a few minutes I saw it again (and got some not great photos with my phone).
I didn’t expect anything so large to have survived in such a shallow and stagnant pool. Anyway, if it’s lasted this long it should be good, rain should be not too far away now.
More wildlife.
So it was back to follow the Roo track along the side of the gorge. At times I was like, ‘ok, this is definitely a trail’ and then other times you knew there wasn’t really anything definite. If it wasn’t for the gorge I would have bailed, very easy to get lost like this. However being able to at least follow the gorge meant you knew where you had come from.
A few shots from the belly of the beast.
So this was the exact issue we had last time I tried to hike a different part of the gorge, the path just seems to disappear. As I’m standing on the side of the gorge, with nothing but a rocky wall next to me, I look up at tree with debris caught in it, about 2 foot above my head and then you get a sense of the amount of water that comes down here at times.
So it’s not surprising any trail down here doesn’t last. It would just be washed away, then overgrown, then the Roos make the trails they want. Which by now was what I was convinced I was following.
Eventually I got to a section that there was just not any distinct, or indistinct way through. I knew I had been suffering from ‘around the corner fever’ for a while now, but it was time to admit defeat (again) and backtrack.
Onkaparinga Gorge: 2. Rufant: 0.
I figured next time I could try hiking the other section of the loop and see where that ended up. Anyway, it’s still a fun bit of terrain. Not to mention a good workout scrambling back out again.
Sorry for rambling on... Thanks for reading.
Cheers.