Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Will likely be driving my Sierra from Adelaide to Perth at some stage. 1.3L WT hardtop with std diffs and transfer. Two tyre options:

1) Stock 205/70R15 AT's (kept them when I got the MTRs)
2) Fitted 235/75R15 MTR's

Road noise and road holding on the MTRs is fine so that's not a consideration, but I'm wondering what tyre is likely to work best with std gearing for reliability and economy travelling at around 90kph? Can hold 100kph in 5th on the flat with the MTR's (90kph against head wind), but would the 1.3 be happier doing a few more revs and spinning the smaller AT's?

Before you ask why I'd drive to Perth in a Sierra (!)... if we're moving, its about $430 for fuel vs $1500+ to freight the car and fly myself, the missus and our two dogs.

Run the stockies. It will use less fuel.

Steve.

yeah i'd go stock for the gearing too - and if you get a puncture its a cheaper replacement too.

have fun. u worked out fuel costs? but yeh should be bout rite

205s be fine and even run higher pressure maybe than normal

great - sounds like the consensus is the stockies. had figured that was the likely answer, given that factory gearing should run best on-road with factory tyres/rims.

re fuel costs - I just assumed 10L/100km @ $1.60/L. might be slightly higher but is a close enough estimate.

i reckon i'd probably start out at about 30psi for a highway trip (I run 36-40psi in my Falcon) and see how it goes.

should keep moving pretty cheap - 20ft container is $2200 door to door which takes care of all the house stuff, hopefully can fit my sailing dingy in the container too, then $500'ish for fuel and a full service.

pretty scary with the wife and dogs in the sierra for that trip! or i have i misread that???

hope they are not dobermans

on the plus side, if he makes it here without bursting his kidneys us perth guys have another guy to go wheeling with =P

our two dogs are staffies

i'd make up a low shelf for the back to sit just above the wheel arches which we can fit a couple of jerries under (I know you shouldn't, but they're kinda necessary in the middle of the Nullabor with a 400km full tank range...), chuck a few days worth of clothes and toiletries on top of the shelf, dooner on top of that and dogs on top of the dooner.

they're pretty good once they get travelling. they'll settle down and sleep for hours at a time. and i don't find my tintop too bad for travelling in - tuck a thin pillow behind the small of my back, chuck in an MP3 cd and cruise away. although the longest I've done continually in the Sierra is about 4 hours thus far - a bit shorter than the 30+ hours it'll take at 90kph!

will definitely be up for wheeling in perth. have a lot of committments in Adelaide which means not much time for the car, but moving will break most of those. finally get my lockers in and some 31's and gears on order

hey dude, a mate and i crossed the nullabor in the vit close on 10 years ago, was only running 205/75's at the time and went all good. fuel range in a zook will mean you'll be stopping at every servo to refill, not cos your empty, but you wont make it to the next one i remember sleeping outside of one cos it was shut and didnt have enough fuel to make it to the next one! Just remember they arent all open 24/7 also factor in more for fuel, it was like $ 1.30 back then when fuel in the city was 75c so i would expect it to be way over 2 bucks a litre now! Other than that its a great drive and make sure you stop to check out the cliffs along the bight. oh and watch out for the eagles on the road feeding on the roadkill, they wont move for you

When i was working out at Eucla about this time last year, ULP was $1.76 a litre. I wouldn't be surprised if it was up to around $1.80-$1.90 now. One thing to note is, if you need to fuel up at Border Village, wait untill Eucla. It's only an extra 12kms and the fuel is generally 10c a litre cheaper. Just ask the Quarantine Checkpoint staff if the Eucla bowsers still have fuel. When they run out, they let the checkpoint know

And remember, No plants, seed, soil, un-tanned hides, fresh fruit or vegetables, honey or nuts in thier shells. And make sure the doggies dont have burrs in thier fur And if the Zook is covered in mud, they'll make you clean it...

The extent of my long-distance driving in a zook was when I drove my Sierra from Adelaide to Curdimurka for the outback ball years ago.
Sounds like a similar vehicle to yours. Std gearing, 1.3l 5 speed tintop, 205/75's.
That was about 8+ hrs each way from memory. This was about 1995 so memory's a bit vague.
Got a bit sick of driving after a while, but the zook handled it ok.
Sat on 80-90k's and it was ok. Any faster would have been more tiring to drive.
Good luck Moph. It'll be a bloody long drive.
Show us some pics when you get there...

Have done Sydney to Perth in a 86 narrow track on 30/9.5r15's with a 4age bigport, towing a enclosed 8-5 trailer loaded to the hilt(dumb i know but didn't have much choice).

80kph, 400kms per tank carried 3 jerries of fuel & 2 of water for piece of mind & the eucla servo was out of fuel (lucky we had the jerries & didn't have to turn around or wait for fuel).

i think the longest stint between servo's is 250kms so its not to bad.

Take your time & enjoy the trip

Thanks for the advice guys. Have driven the Nullabor a few more times than I'd like to have as one of my sisters has lived over there for the last 10 years, and my wife was there for 3 years before she moved to Adelaide to be with me.

Servo's should be fine. Last trip I did was in a 4 berth camper and sat on 80kph ... range about 450km ... did have to have a snooze from 5am - 8am at once place until they opened, but managed to time all the others okay.

Am considering towing my 300kg sailing dingy over but am a bit worried about the extra stress on the engine. It pulls it quite happily normally, but I dunno about 2700km with that additional load. Towing it would save me major hassles in loading the container (yup, would try to fit it in a 20' container with our bed, washing machine etc!) and would let me have 3 or 4 jerries in the boat and just clothes and the dogs in the car.

would be ok i think

the boat would be more aerodynamic than the zuk =P

alien wrote:the boat would be more aerodynamic than the zuk =P

Should push the boat instead of towing, prolly save you a few kms per litre