Safe travels...looking fwd to lots of updates

 

thanks Steve, I will be struggling to keep up with the calibre of the reports that usually appear here.

 

Good choice both in tyre and size, I believe that the LT's is the only way to go when heavily loaded and doing long distances on some very ordinary inland roads.
They will do the job for you!

Tony

 

Good on you Ragman! And all the best on the Gibb, its an awesome experience and part of Australia!
How are the tyres on road, noise and in wet?
Btw we had a great run across Gibb but got two flats in the last 70km section coming up to el questro

 

the tyres are quiet on the road Singh, but they are brand new, as the tread is not extreme I'm hoping the noise doesn't get intrusive.
First rains for a while are expected tomorrow or Saturday so I'll find out then what the wet grip is like.

Were your flats side wall stacking or punctures? what tyres were you running?

 

Hi mate,
One was sidewall and the other one right in the middle

 

I recently had dual punctures in the right front which forced me to move to the LTZs earlier than i expected.

 

I blew the sidewall out of a Goodyear Silent Armor (kevlar) on the Gibb. 265/60R18
My fault - travelling (with camper trailer) too fast, which can be a problem with a Treg, especially a V10.
Nev at Imintji Roadhouse (sold tyres) said for dirt roads, 80kph and 32psi max. Never had a problem after that.
May be worth keeping in mind. Dub

 

Interested to know how your tyres go. We ended up with one puncture after none on the Plenty, none on the Tanami and none on the Gibb and Mitchell Falls road. Towards the end of the dirt on the Savannah Way near Hells Gate.... small slice on the side wall which I had repaired as an emergency spare. Finished the dirt now (2500+ kms) with black top all the way home. Some is luck, like Dubby I ran mine around 30-32 rear and 26-28 front.... on the Mitchell Falls road we went down to 25/23 psi which worked well for better comfort and puncture proofing.

Avoiding rocks and keeping focused on where you're driving obviously helps a great deal. Trying to do that for hours upon hours is difficult, and some roads are very rocky. Mine are Michelin Latitude Cross (not LT)... and we saw many LT tyres punctured and destroyed out along the Gibb and Mitchell Falls road in particular. But, light truck has typically another ply than non-LT in the side wall (some more), so there is better protection with light truck. Best protection in my opinion is lower pressure and slower speed... and focused driving to minimise potential dramas. Btw, I agree light truck version tyres are best for these type of roads.

See below.... light truck all-terrain Bridgestone. But this guy didn't know reducing tyre pressure helped? He also said with modern cars you can't feel when you get a flat?

Cheers Paul.

 

Agreed Paulm57, driving technique is probably the most important factor. I hear plenty of stories about people ripping past at 90 - 100 kph only to be found up the road with tyre or suspension damage.

We will be taking it very easy.

 

Hi Rag,

Are they VW rims? Where did you get them? Cost?

Cheers

Chris

 

yes VW rims I got them from Carid in the US. about $320. I could have bought a lot cheaper but I wanted matching wheels to my others.
ie plenty of Porsche 18" rims on gumtree.

 

Hey Ragman whats the brand of your cargo platform?

 

do you mean the roof rack wigdog? its a Ironman the dealer in Osborne park Totally 4x4 were really helpful with fitting bolts etc.

its a steel flat rack for a prado but I sometimes wish I'd lashed out and got the ali unit which is a bit lighter.

 

Gibb river road

Ragman, have a safe trip and enjoy.
do love the colour of your car ( same as mine) wonder if it will be the same colour when you get back
:wink2:
Cheers Brent

 

As it was fine weather I took a bit of time of work this morning to fit the drawers and cargo barrier.

 

Nice job Rman with the fitting the cargo barrier and drawer system.

I looked at doing the same thing but was put off by the weight of the drawer system (I think from memory it was over 100kgs) as I did not want to exceed my GVM.
So before doing anything I decided to check my tare and consequently my payload by obtaining an actual weighbridge reading and comparing that to the GVM of my V6Tdi, (2945kgs).
Tare weight was 2660kgs which included myself, full tank of fuel, full size spare, tool box, compressor, fridge slide (no fridge), 2nd battery, tow hitch plus other minor bits and pieces which leaves me a payload balance of only 285kgs for passenger, food, bags, water and other gear and if towing anything, the BALL WEIGHT of the trailer needs to be factored in.

As you can see from these figures you haven't got a great deal of payload to work with, you may also find that with your V10 you may actually have a smaller payload due to the extra weight of your engine.

I suggest you may want to do similar checks just to make sure you don't inadvertently exceed your GVM!

TonyB

 

I took the rig over a weigh bridge last year with a similar setup and loaded up it was under GVM. I have not weighed the drawers but no way are they 100kg I guess 30 or 40kg and removing the rear seats saves 20 or 30kg. I will check it on the local weigh bridge before we go and confirm the weights.
Actually for this trip we have managed to prune a lot of unnecessary stuff in order to reduce the weight of tug and trailer.

 

Pump the tyres up till they look good, and nobody will ever notice !! TIC

 

The dimensions of the drawers are as follows:

Dimensions
DRAW SIZE: 900mm (L) x 1000mm (W) x 270mm (H)
DRAW TANK SIZE: 790mm (L) x 430mm (W) x 190mm (H) (2 tank/set)
TOP SLIDE: 900mm (L) x 495mm (W)
NET WEIGHT: 71kgs
DRAW EXTENDS OUT: 560mm
FRIDGE SLIDE EXTENDS OUT: 545mm

so...somewhere in between - 71kg

 

The dimensions of the drawers are as follows:
so...somewhere in between - 71kg

an old engineer I worked with told how if they wanted to know the weight of something he would ask everybody in the workshop what they thought it weighed.
then he would average the guesses and invariably the average would be very close to the true weight...

So what do you think the rear seats weigh?

I have not found the weights I measured last year. but with the trailer on ball the GVM was just under the 3100kg and I'm pretty sure the trailer was around 1750kg.
I took it over the Balcatta weigh bridge first I did a total and then just the trailer wheels. I have a tow ball scale at home which gave about 240kg.

We have managed to jettison a lot of unnecessary stuff this year, but that will be negated by the extra spare on the roof rack.

Probably drive through the Weigh bridge on the way out of town on Friday.

Overloading is becoming a big issue in some states I believe with road blocks to check caravans etc.
(might have to get the wife to hop out of the car if we get checked LOL)

 

All good so far. On the first day we camped at Galena bridge on the Murchison river.

 

Day 2 heading out of Carnarvon nearing Overlander roadhouse. We came across a slow moving touareg. As we went past i saw why, they had a space saver spare on the front rhs. Was not much we could do for them, hope they got it sorted. We carried on to Emu creek stn.

 

Day three was catching up with a mate in K town after a quick stopover at the Whim Creek hotel.

 

Day 4 at 80 mile beach caravan park. Very nice, but I did a boo boo. Somehow managed to lock the keys in the back of the car.... RAC wanted $900 to come a and help. We managed to feed a coat hanger wire through the rear window and drag them out. A bit of a drama.

 

So you don't each keep a key on you...?

There is a way to get into the T1 and T2 to pull the manual tailgate release but it's not for open discussion and, whilst it's not cheap either, it is a lot less than $900!

 

Somehow managed to lock the keys in the back of the car.

I have had a key cut that will only open the drivers door specifically for the reason that if you only open the rear door (boot) with the remote and leave the key in the Treg, as soon as you shut the rear door the Treg will lock and you will be locked out.

The spare is carried in a magnetic holder oon the outside of the vehicle.

If we are away on an extended trip, the second remote is carried in our luggage.

 

Yea no. The spare key is not in good shape, so we only use the one key usually. In hindsight we should have brought it any way but it probably would have been in the wife's bag which was in the back seat. Need to get a hidy hole to conceal a spare key.

 

Finally back in range at Fitzroy Crossing. All going good so far. Seen some amazing places.

 

Tyre repair Gibb style. This was on a fellow travellers hilux. Last I saw him he had driven it from Drysdale stn to ElQuestro and still going without leaks!

 

Who said you can't repair sidewalls!?