Why you should have good front protection..........
Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2007 8:15 am
Just thought i would share my unluckiness with everyone.
After just buying my Gu ute and driving from Newcastle to NT in it i was in my last stage of the tour, i mean i had 300km to make it to my destination.
The ute was awesome, she was towing a tray full of gear and a trailer all the way sitting on a good speed, returning decent fuel figures and never once HEATING UP!
In my trip i expected to embrace the very worst as you do drive for a couple hundred kays before seeing people in spots let alone a service station, so i had all the basic spares you could think off.
I only got one flat on the trailer at Longreach. so i thought that was it, but DAMMIT.
Murphys Law kicked in 300 km out from a town and 200k to the next one.
After driving past atleast 15 consecutive road trains on the last day on the last stretch, i thought nothing of it. When you drive past that many and your whole car shakes and there is rocks and sh!# sprayed everywhere you get used to it.
When they eventually cleared and we got a free stretch i noticed the power dropping, looking at the gauges, nothing was a miss ?
The ute started dying in the arse big time, so i pulled over to every mans worst nightmare in such a remote place in NT with the missus and the dog.
There was a whole in my grill that was evident but the hissing and bubbling noise was what scared me the most.
A !@@##$ road train must of flicked a rock or bolt at me, it had smashed the grill, gone through the condensor in to the radiator and out the other side and smashed the fan shroud!
The coolant had dropped so quick that the sender unit must have been dangling in mid air (telling me in the cab that its still cool), and not having any indication of this i kept driving and cooked my 4.2TD !!!!!!!!
The UHF could not pick anyone up, obviously no mobile reception, it was great !
I ended up flagging down another Patrol driver, and after laughing at my sheer unluckiness, he was going to the next town so i gave hime a mates number to organise a tow for me.
4 hours later after lying underneath the cooked patrol for the only friggin shade, the towwy came and charged $800 to get me to my new house.
2 months later an engine came to replace the cooked one after fighting with insurance to pay up (they recon a new 4.2TD is worth $20,000 ex Japan !)
Moral of the story, if your travelling massive remote distances try and protect the achilles heal of your vehicle with stainless mesh or similar as long as it does not affect your air flow too bad.
After just buying my Gu ute and driving from Newcastle to NT in it i was in my last stage of the tour, i mean i had 300km to make it to my destination.
The ute was awesome, she was towing a tray full of gear and a trailer all the way sitting on a good speed, returning decent fuel figures and never once HEATING UP!
In my trip i expected to embrace the very worst as you do drive for a couple hundred kays before seeing people in spots let alone a service station, so i had all the basic spares you could think off.
I only got one flat on the trailer at Longreach. so i thought that was it, but DAMMIT.
Murphys Law kicked in 300 km out from a town and 200k to the next one.
After driving past atleast 15 consecutive road trains on the last day on the last stretch, i thought nothing of it. When you drive past that many and your whole car shakes and there is rocks and sh!# sprayed everywhere you get used to it.
When they eventually cleared and we got a free stretch i noticed the power dropping, looking at the gauges, nothing was a miss ?
The ute started dying in the arse big time, so i pulled over to every mans worst nightmare in such a remote place in NT with the missus and the dog.
There was a whole in my grill that was evident but the hissing and bubbling noise was what scared me the most.
A !@@##$ road train must of flicked a rock or bolt at me, it had smashed the grill, gone through the condensor in to the radiator and out the other side and smashed the fan shroud!
The coolant had dropped so quick that the sender unit must have been dangling in mid air (telling me in the cab that its still cool), and not having any indication of this i kept driving and cooked my 4.2TD !!!!!!!!
The UHF could not pick anyone up, obviously no mobile reception, it was great !
I ended up flagging down another Patrol driver, and after laughing at my sheer unluckiness, he was going to the next town so i gave hime a mates number to organise a tow for me.
4 hours later after lying underneath the cooked patrol for the only friggin shade, the towwy came and charged $800 to get me to my new house.
2 months later an engine came to replace the cooked one after fighting with insurance to pay up (they recon a new 4.2TD is worth $20,000 ex Japan !)
Moral of the story, if your travelling massive remote distances try and protect the achilles heal of your vehicle with stainless mesh or similar as long as it does not affect your air flow too bad.