Round trip of Aust in the Commo

[craigvk]

Forget about the roo bar. If a roo hit you, your car is going to be smashed with or without it.

You shouldn't have a problem with gas as long as the town you stop at isn't a 1000 miles from anywhere. I'd say most half decent size towns should have gas.

 

[craigvk]

I doubt you would see a roo anyway.

 

[Stretchomatic]

yeah man just about the roos, it doesnt matter what speed you hit them at...they will do damage, i know a guy with a vs lexcen hit a roo at 140 just scratched the side a little, same guy another one at about 80 or so, damn thing went under the car and busted the front bar and buggered the exhaust...then my other mate in his old hilux with a full bull bar hit a roo doing about 70 the other night, the bullbar is now on a more downward angle, the headlight on the side that got hit was busted and the front quarter panel got a nice dent in it...so yeah..good luck...chances are you wont hit any, but a good set of driving lights would be a great help, just adjust them to the sides so u can see any roos hiding in paddocks...

 

[Pub247]

during the day you won't see any at night there all over the road cause of the heat it retains, worst thing is they're attracted to light and they jump one way you swerve then they change direction and you don't have time to react again. a horn is pretty good at scaring them away. Slim have you been out there ? there everywhere and camels gotta watch out for them too. We drove fom alice springs to the rock (450k's) at night and saw probably a few hundred along the side of the road. when i was there over a year ago petrol was $1.27 a litre so it'll prolly be around $1.50 mark gas is pretty common though not every servo has it.

 

[Reaper]

My parents wanna have a family trip around Australia, from Melbourne, to Adelaide, NT (Ayres Rock, etc), Cairns, (possibly) Brissie, Canberra and back down to Melbourne..

Do any of the NT members have any advice about NT? We're might be going about November, what's the best time to go there and is there anything memorable we should see?

Also wondering about my car. We're going to take my beast, but I'm wondering how appropriate it is to take. It's pretty low, but should I prepare the car for the trip in anyway? I was thinking a good coolant flush and carry a few spares. But any other advice about that?

Anyone else done a huge road trip like this?

Cheers

edit: I'm thinking of a car bra and cruise control definitely.. Don't wanna spoil my pretty paintwork... I've seen what highway driving can do to a front bar..

I have driven from Perth to North Qld via Melb (around the coast) and your Commodore will do it fine. The roads between Adelaide and Perth are excellent as are most in the southern half of WA. Unless you hit road works, the roads all over the east coast are easy too.

My only advise is to try and avoid driving the Nullabour at night. The Kangaroos are like flies and the fuel stops are few and far between. The attached photo was taken at the Great Aussie Bite last christmas (very spectacular but i'm not sure I'd drive 18hrs just to see it again!)

Car bra? Depends on how anal you are about the front of your car. I'd recommend plastic headlight protectors but wouldn't bother with much out (maybe a grandpa bonnet protecter to safe the front edge of the bonnet)

My SS has now done over 100,000 km, largely country driving and only has a very few chips on the front bar - wouldn't bother with the car-bra.

Reaper

 

[minux]

have fun getting the bulldust out of every inconceivable little nook and crany...i had a my taillights half fill up with the **** lol

 

[nomad]

same guy another one at about 80 or so, damn thing went under the car and busted the front bar and buggered the exhaust...

I can attest to that. I hit a roo the other month at 80kph on one of my local roads. The body damage isn't that bad as can be seen in the attached pics. Only broke the bar & pushed it back & up. You can see this under the headlight. What you can't see here is the destroyed air con condenser & radiator. Luckily I managed to get it home (50kms) with the help of a bottle of Bars Leaks but it was still leaking almost like a seive.

 

[Ripcell]

edit: I'm thinking of a car bra and cruise control definitely.. Don't wanna spoil my pretty paintwork... I've seen what highway driving can do to a front bar..

watch out for magpies too, they make a mess of ur paint and number plate at 110ks as i found out, basically wrote the number plate off rofl

 

[holdensupporter2005]

The way the sun is shining on that headlight, makes it look like a BA Ford Headlight!!!

 

[Sabbath']

What about that spray on paint protectant skin 4WDers use to protect the paint? Anybody used this?