Hi crew, thought I'd post a quick trip report from last year - I love that these old buses can still mix it out there in the bush. On this trip the Patrol clocked up 400,000kms.
We travelled up the Oodnadatta Track via William Creek to Dalhousie Springs, then into the Simpson Desert National Park and Reserve. We weren't planning to do a full crossing, so once the proper dunes started we went 3 or so dunes in and set up camp. On the return trip back through Maree and Leigh Creek, we turned east to Arkaroola (I'd worked there for a season 10 years ago) and spent 3 nights before heading home.
The old Patrol went fine, no major problems and the usual 13-15L/100kms fuel consumption for tires 30psi front & rear and 80-90km/hr on most of the unsealed (had tire monitors). With 140L long range tank we made fuel stops in Pt Wakefield, Pt Augusta, William Creek, Oodnadatta (Pink Roadhouse), William Creek, Arkaroola and Stirling North. The minor mechanical casualties were mostly due to corrugations:
- Picked up a bad tank of fuel in Pt Wakefield. Bunny hopped up most of the Oodnadatta track, had to change the fuel filter twice.
- 1x Rear brake backing plate cracked and eventually had to be removed
- Front diff housing started weeping oil, hairline crack next to the pumpkin and triangle weld
- Weather seal between the 2 halves of the rear sliding window fell off and had to be glued into place
- Welding on exhaust hangar to top of muffler cracked
and now for some photos:
Plenty of water around from recent Spring rains. This detour from the main track was tempting until it took us all afternoon to dig the car out. The RB30 seemed to have hardly any pulling power. Yours truly realised after 2 hours of fruitless unbogging that the handbrake had been on the whole time... We got out just in time to avoid offers of help from a convoy of dual cabs
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How's the serenity - 3 dunes into the Simpson
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Budget storage and roofrack setup - wouldn't want to make it too easy - three of us with two swags and food for 10 days
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