RMAC67
Member
Extra Details of Trip:
Tracklog of where we went:2018 Vic High Country Triplog
Link to move photos: 2018 Vic High Country Google Photos or here: 2018 VHC Photos and Videos
Total Distance:4278kms
Fuel used: 630.12ltrs
Economy: 14.7ltrs/100kms (Towing Trailer)
Vehicles:
'95 Landrover 110 Defender Tdi300 Wgn (mine/towing)
'11 Landrover 130 Puma Defender DualCab Ute (towing)
'97 Landcruiser 80's Wagon TD/IC (not towing)
Maps of Where we went over the 2 weeks:
On this trip there was supposed to be 3 vehicles leaving together, but due to other circumstances, they were not able to leave with us and said they would catch up with us in few days’ time, so we ended up leaving Home by ourselves @ 2.45am and made our way to our 1st stop - Goondiwindi for Breaky. When we hit the Western Fwy, I noticed that I was getting Speed Wobbles - Not a good Start to the Trip. Reached Goondiwindi in good time to refuel and have breaky at Maccies. From here we pushed onwards stopping @ Narrabri for morning Smoko. Pushed on to our 1st night’s camp - Parkes Showgrounds.
Distance & Time: 1040 kms/11hrs 37min
A Landy moment
Up early to start Day2 and headed off, noticing a bit of a squeak/squeal coming from the front of the Landy. Stopped and couldn't find anything obvious. Noticed noise disappeared when I put my foot on the clutch but couldn't understand what it might be. We decided to push on and the noise seemed to disappear at Hwy speeds. Made good Time to get to Wagga Wagga where I was to find out what squeak was to be.... I started to get a bad vibration through the steering wheel when accelerating from start. I stopped to check what I thought it might be and I was correct in my thinking - a failing Rear Uni-Joint on the Front Drive Shaft Made a few calls to RACQ/NRMA and got the Mechanic out to inspect what I already knew. He removed the Front Shaft for me and said nothing could be done until Tuesday due to the Public Holidays... Luckily I had 2 spare Uni-joints on board and made a call to a good Landover Mate that I trusted and he took the time to help me as much as he could over the phone in the method of replacing the Uni-joint on the side of the road by myself. I also put out a SOS on the AULRO website that I greatly appreciated at the time, knowing that there were other Landy owners willing to help us out. After quite a few hours I managed to replace the Joint and headed off to our nights camp where I planned to regrease/refit the front drive shaft back to the Landy. Reached camp and decided to try and grease the uni but without success. Again, more phone calls to my mate and posts on the SOS Aulro Post and the decision was to refit the shaft the following day and drive for a bit and then try to see if we could then get grease into the uni-joint. A few hours later, the 2nd car/family of our group of 3 cars/families arrived in time for dinner/dinner and a quick catch-up before calling it for the night.
Distance & Time: 304 kms/3hrs 40min
This was to be my very 1st UJ change and on the side of the road too..... at least it was outside McDonalds - kids were happy
Early rise to continue refitting the Front Shaft with one more unsuccessful time in trying to regrease the shaft. Fitted the front shaft and packed up and heading into town to buy a few Food & auto spares (grease, grease nipples, etc.). Hit the road and headed for Beechworth to meet with a fellow Landy Owner before continuing onwards to our next stop - Myrtleford where we refuelled and headed down Buffalo River Rd to our nights camp near our turnoff into the VHC - Manna Gums Campgrounds. This is also where the 3rd vehicle/family caught up with us to make our group whole again.
Distance & Time: 260 kms/3hrs 48min
Just checking my workmanship and to try and get some more grease into the UJ
Nice little corner store
Nice little creek behind the Town of Myrtleford
Our RIG:
A quick pack up and a quick look over the vehicle/trailer & lowered our tyre pressures down (25psi Front & 28psi rear) before we hit our 1st VHC track - Dandongadale-Buffalo Trk. This was to be an interesting start to our VHC Trip with the track graded as a ""M"" & ""D"" by hema. The 1st few hills had me wondering if I did the right thing in bringing the trailer along as the poor old Defender really noticed the extra weight behind it. It made it up all the rocky loose hills as long as I applied a bit more right foot before hitting the harder/loose parts. Out of our group of 3 vehicles, there was only 1 that wasn't towing a trailer and we made him take the lead just in case my Defender needed a helping hand to get to the top of some of these steeper sections of the track. We followed Dandongadale-Buffalo Trk then onto Dan Buffalo Divide Trk & onto Lake Cobbler Trk, then to an apparently a ""H"" rated track Abbeyard-Lake Cobbler Trk before joining up to Lake Cobbler Rd. This section of the road is where things went wrong for the lead vehicle. A couple of young Nissan Patrol drivers came flying around the corner way too fast and couldn't stop quick enough and slid into the mates 80's Cruiser. We stopped and checked out the damage and he exchanged vehicle details before they continued off - still at their high speed, obviously, they hadn't learnt their lesson.... The damage wasn't too bad but would result in a new B/Bar and possible new bonnet/guard. We made it to Lake Cobbler to rest a bit and calm the nerves and grab a bite to eat before continuing our way to our night’s camp along King River/Hut. The road down into the King River Hut was slow going with the trailers on as it was quite rocky and loose. Made it to camp with daylight to spare, so the decision was to made to help make up for lost time was to head out and do the circuit drive to ""Craig’s Hut"" then back to camp via the loop to Pineapple Flat Camp and then along King River back to our camp.
Distance & Time: 109 kms/5hrs 49min
The Crew:
Cobbler Lake
Cobbler Lake
One of the most photographed Huts in the VHC:
The 2 Defenders..... What a difference in drivability in my old tdi300 when not towing.....
Tracklog of where we went:2018 Vic High Country Triplog
Link to move photos: 2018 Vic High Country Google Photos or here: 2018 VHC Photos and Videos
Total Distance:4278kms
Fuel used: 630.12ltrs
Economy: 14.7ltrs/100kms (Towing Trailer)
Vehicles:
'95 Landrover 110 Defender Tdi300 Wgn (mine/towing)
'11 Landrover 130 Puma Defender DualCab Ute (towing)
'97 Landcruiser 80's Wagon TD/IC (not towing)
Maps of Where we went over the 2 weeks:
On this trip there was supposed to be 3 vehicles leaving together, but due to other circumstances, they were not able to leave with us and said they would catch up with us in few days’ time, so we ended up leaving Home by ourselves @ 2.45am and made our way to our 1st stop - Goondiwindi for Breaky. When we hit the Western Fwy, I noticed that I was getting Speed Wobbles - Not a good Start to the Trip. Reached Goondiwindi in good time to refuel and have breaky at Maccies. From here we pushed onwards stopping @ Narrabri for morning Smoko. Pushed on to our 1st night’s camp - Parkes Showgrounds.
Distance & Time: 1040 kms/11hrs 37min
A Landy moment
Up early to start Day2 and headed off, noticing a bit of a squeak/squeal coming from the front of the Landy. Stopped and couldn't find anything obvious. Noticed noise disappeared when I put my foot on the clutch but couldn't understand what it might be. We decided to push on and the noise seemed to disappear at Hwy speeds. Made good Time to get to Wagga Wagga where I was to find out what squeak was to be.... I started to get a bad vibration through the steering wheel when accelerating from start. I stopped to check what I thought it might be and I was correct in my thinking - a failing Rear Uni-Joint on the Front Drive Shaft Made a few calls to RACQ/NRMA and got the Mechanic out to inspect what I already knew. He removed the Front Shaft for me and said nothing could be done until Tuesday due to the Public Holidays... Luckily I had 2 spare Uni-joints on board and made a call to a good Landover Mate that I trusted and he took the time to help me as much as he could over the phone in the method of replacing the Uni-joint on the side of the road by myself. I also put out a SOS on the AULRO website that I greatly appreciated at the time, knowing that there were other Landy owners willing to help us out. After quite a few hours I managed to replace the Joint and headed off to our nights camp where I planned to regrease/refit the front drive shaft back to the Landy. Reached camp and decided to try and grease the uni but without success. Again, more phone calls to my mate and posts on the SOS Aulro Post and the decision was to refit the shaft the following day and drive for a bit and then try to see if we could then get grease into the uni-joint. A few hours later, the 2nd car/family of our group of 3 cars/families arrived in time for dinner/dinner and a quick catch-up before calling it for the night.
Distance & Time: 304 kms/3hrs 40min
This was to be my very 1st UJ change and on the side of the road too..... at least it was outside McDonalds - kids were happy
Early rise to continue refitting the Front Shaft with one more unsuccessful time in trying to regrease the shaft. Fitted the front shaft and packed up and heading into town to buy a few Food & auto spares (grease, grease nipples, etc.). Hit the road and headed for Beechworth to meet with a fellow Landy Owner before continuing onwards to our next stop - Myrtleford where we refuelled and headed down Buffalo River Rd to our nights camp near our turnoff into the VHC - Manna Gums Campgrounds. This is also where the 3rd vehicle/family caught up with us to make our group whole again.
Distance & Time: 260 kms/3hrs 48min
Just checking my workmanship and to try and get some more grease into the UJ
Nice little corner store
Nice little creek behind the Town of Myrtleford
Our RIG:
A quick pack up and a quick look over the vehicle/trailer & lowered our tyre pressures down (25psi Front & 28psi rear) before we hit our 1st VHC track - Dandongadale-Buffalo Trk. This was to be an interesting start to our VHC Trip with the track graded as a ""M"" & ""D"" by hema. The 1st few hills had me wondering if I did the right thing in bringing the trailer along as the poor old Defender really noticed the extra weight behind it. It made it up all the rocky loose hills as long as I applied a bit more right foot before hitting the harder/loose parts. Out of our group of 3 vehicles, there was only 1 that wasn't towing a trailer and we made him take the lead just in case my Defender needed a helping hand to get to the top of some of these steeper sections of the track. We followed Dandongadale-Buffalo Trk then onto Dan Buffalo Divide Trk & onto Lake Cobbler Trk, then to an apparently a ""H"" rated track Abbeyard-Lake Cobbler Trk before joining up to Lake Cobbler Rd. This section of the road is where things went wrong for the lead vehicle. A couple of young Nissan Patrol drivers came flying around the corner way too fast and couldn't stop quick enough and slid into the mates 80's Cruiser. We stopped and checked out the damage and he exchanged vehicle details before they continued off - still at their high speed, obviously, they hadn't learnt their lesson.... The damage wasn't too bad but would result in a new B/Bar and possible new bonnet/guard. We made it to Lake Cobbler to rest a bit and calm the nerves and grab a bite to eat before continuing our way to our night’s camp along King River/Hut. The road down into the King River Hut was slow going with the trailers on as it was quite rocky and loose. Made it to camp with daylight to spare, so the decision was to made to help make up for lost time was to head out and do the circuit drive to ""Craig’s Hut"" then back to camp via the loop to Pineapple Flat Camp and then along King River back to our camp.
Distance & Time: 109 kms/5hrs 49min
The Crew:
Cobbler Lake
Cobbler Lake
One of the most photographed Huts in the VHC:
The 2 Defenders..... What a difference in drivability in my old tdi300 when not towing.....