Tanami niggles

[dpetersen]

G'day guys! Made it through the Tanami today to Halls Creek, only a couple of hours to go till I get to my new job at El Questro.
The car went really well today, very happy with it.
For anyone who doesn't know me, the names Daniel, I purchased a 2003 patrol wagon about a month ago, 3L turbo diesel, 280000ks, manual.
So iv done about 4000ks since leaving Melbourne, stopped in Alice Springs for a few days and out to Kings canyon to visit some old work mates via the Mereenie loop then back via the Giles track. Only issue I had to that point was the alternator, belt and tensioner.
I filled up in Alice yesterday and stayed in Tilmouth well last night and topped up there.
I visited as many sites on the web as I could, called Yuendmu police station and both information centers (alice and halls creek) before I left and the best road report I could get was "use caution". Even the bloke at Tilmouth Well said he had no idea what the track was like. All I was told was not to take my little 6x4 tradies trailer. Anyway I thought bugger it she'll be right. I dropped my tyres to 25psi all round and 22psi on the trailer. The track itself wasn't too bad on the NT side, pretty corrugated and soft on the edges but that was expected. Plenty of signs when there were washouts ect ahead and signs showing distances to the next place. Had phone reception at Yuendamu and while passing the mine. Just a heads up, avoid Yuenduma and stay at Tilmouth. Once I got to the WA side things changed, no signs with distances or when there were hazards ahead, and there were plenty of them. Washouts and potholes most of the way. Anyways from Tilmouth well to Halls creek was about 860ks and took me about 12 hours.
As for the little issues I had;
I cracked my rear door window pretty badly, the smaller one. It hasn't blown out yet, I think the window tint is holding it in. What's a new one worth?
Only other issue, my temp gauge has played up since iv had the car, it'll be fine then shoot strait up to boiled, I tap the dash and it goes back to normal. The guy that I bought it off said it needs a new cluster but is it cheaper to just put another gauge in? The reason this bothers me is because I ran the car for the full 12 hours today without turning it off but I noticed when I pulled over that the temp seemed to rise and then cool down when I started to drive.
Apart from those two issues everything else was pretty good, can't say I'd want to do the track again in my own car but pretty stoked to have made it without doing any tyres or anything like that.
Cheers