we have been going through all the things we normally take on our adventures and have been culling the list time and time again, this is to make our load as light as possible, no canoe, no extra freezer, no backup battery ,no annex ,very little extra food, no prospecting gear , little fishing gear ,water tanks empty (but extra empty tank added to tug to collect water when using camp sites or Hipcamps, getting the van serviced made the booking early August first available slot late Januaary , (leaving late FEB) glad i did not leave that too close to departure, i do most of my own services but an extra set of eyes before a big trip has alway been a wise investment for us .Booking the ferry has to wait until October ,when complications with a hospital bookings has been sorted (BIG PAIN) we have a map on the wall with many stickers on it and a travel plan starting to form and at least the price of fuel is starting to drop!!
TAS 2023 Tassie trip,
- Thread starter poor but proud
- Start date
In all the years I have rarely used the single spare let alone needed two of them, even with the tug I have rarely used the spare, more often than not just plugged the hole, carrying a compressor as well as repair gear a must, mind a few years back on the Colorado when a cattle grid ate a tyre there was no question of trying to fix.... Regular tyre kicks and pressure checks is the key................
Spot on ,our booking will include a return trip , leave nothing to chance , we are taking our van, So to make it worthwhile we are planning a 12 week trip in tassie
I have travelled outback since 1968 the only reason we carry 2nd spares is so we do not end up with a mix of mismatched tyres when off grid , you can always buy tyres at an inflated price in the bush but you can not always buy tyres that match the other shoes on your rig leading to issues later on, this trip has smaller distances so getting the brand of tyre we need should not be an issue
Not wrong there, when I ripped the side out of the Colorado tyre it was pot luck in town for a tyre, luckily I ran a common size and managed a tread that was similar but once I got to the smoke I ended up throwing a new set on and the bodgy became a spare, any excuse........... with the Jeep if I throw a new one on while the others are half worn then it can have a hissy, like most modern AWD type set ups and having city wheel sizes would be asking for trouble as well if touring, I reckon you would be pretty safe in Tassie though................... No way I could accomadate the extra weight nowadays.
ah! its time to realise i am living in the past , our habit of taking two spares goes back to the good old days????? when we only had tubed tyres, carrried tyre irons ,used vulcan patches and clamps, had to pump tyres by hand or if you were very modern you had a spark plug compressor .some of the old timer vehicles had more patches than tube.to get a new tyre could easily take three weeks by the time you got to town to order it ,transport from the big smoke, ,then get it onto a weekly mail run . no satallite phones or internet in those days ,it was a past era where we had to be self reliant
I don't know how I would go with the tyre irons nowadays, back in RAAFie days on exercise out west, it was repair the days blow outs before sun went down on the camp, I thought bugga that, put stuff called AOK (early Slime) in my tyres, would just see a few green dots in the morning, I also checked my pressures more than the others and would adjust so never had a blow out from heat just big stake jobs though the slime meant new tube as unable to patch............ Used to carry the irons and rubber mallet around but that finished last century when i got rid of the split rim wagon ..... Changed the tyres in the shed on my old 14.44 the old way, too lazy to drive the 30kms to tyre shop, decided back then I'm too old for that stuff............ It was a lot damn easier with split rims, pop rim throw in new tube, refit rim, pump it up and away you'd go.......... Slime and plugs are my friend now........... Spark plug pump or lecky job none of this hand job, on trucks it was just plug into tank of course, though I did see this huge hand pump at back of transport hanger once for the trucks, sent a shiver down me.
Had a bad trip in the early days when aerosol slime first came out,workmate ran over some fencing wire and flattened two tyres , spare already flat. Had a couple of cans of slime pumped it in but did not read the bit about driving to spread the goo around, next day all the goo had settled to the bottom of the wheels it was like driving over railway sleepers, when we got to town the only tyre guy would have nothing to do with fixing those two tyres because of the sticky mess if I remember he ended up getting a couple of wheels off a wrecked car
If you pumped them back up and drove like a demon down the road it would often sort out.. the slime should stay slimey and cures in the hole, that way a new puncture will get filled, too much though will settle like a brick...................................
I find pre-slime all the tyres then you can see where the flat might have been by a green dot, the Hi Lux and boat trailer has it in their wheels as a flat at the boat ramp would really be annoying.............................. I used to carry a can of Finilec in the motorbikes saddle bags, worked a treat to pump up a flat tyre and fix the pin hole...
I find pre-slime all the tyres then you can see where the flat might have been by a green dot, the Hi Lux and boat trailer has it in their wheels as a flat at the boat ramp would really be annoying.............................. I used to carry a can of Finilec in the motorbikes saddle bags, worked a treat to pump up a flat tyre and fix the pin hole...
Off tomorrow for four nights at Broawater CP, half an hour down the road. Daughter is taking her 2 boys there and going to the Gold Coast show and asked if we would join them. Park is full so won’t be a lot of fun but it gets the van out and I will be happy to plant my butt and read a book for a good bit of the time. 33 years on the Goldie and have only been to the show once but never been to the Ekka. Too old and cranky to fight crowds.
I would suggest that any grand plans I could put in place before the big event will be vetoed , never get in the way of a soon to be grandmother!!!! Possibly get away for a couple of weeks in November just before the silly season , then replan the big trip for spring 23 instead of autumn 23 which was our preferred season , time will tell if I can tear a clucky new grandmother away at all ???
Your doomed now and forever more, most of our trips require an itinery to include Canberra........................ there are grooves in the road from our place I reckon... It will be an exciting time for sure though...... Your life is taking a big change as well....
All Mrs CR’s grandies are local but, with 6, there is always a birthday or some crisis that will throw any plan into the wind. Good luck with future plans.