Planning interstate road trip

[thommo]

Mate and I are planning on flying to Melbourne to bring a car back to Perth. I've seen a few of you have done this.. Anyone got some good tips and places to see along the treck across? How long did you spend doing it?

Its said to take 40ish hours of driving, we would only be doing a max of 10hrs in a day between us.

[Stealthed]

The Great Ocean rd, Amazing drive!

[Ryan1080]

+1 for Great Ocean Road, although it will pretty much take a whole day, coz you can't go too fast on it.

[TJ]

Atm parts of it are shut due to landslides.

If you are tight on time dont do it, if you arnt, its a brilliant road.

[cplagz]

Black Spur and Reefton Spur are great drives too.

[summoner]

Be sure to have plenty of spare fuel for the adelaide - perth leg. The national hwy 1 is a piece of shit as well. No mobile coverage for most of it. Better off just sharing the driving and smashing it out in 1 hit, 1 sleeps the other drives.

[thommo]

Cplagz What area are those places ?

[thommo]

How much spare fuel you talking? We planned on taking 2-3 25ltr jerrys with us as backup

[[Jacek]]

1 sleeps the other drives.

Problem with this is that generally the driver will begin to feel sleepy too if the passenger is sleeping.

[RELEASE]

How much spare fuel you talking? We planned on taking 2-3 25ltr jerrys with us as backupDepends on the car
Norseman is your last decent stop for fuel - BP servo
from there its 1200km to ceduna on the eyre hwy and realistcally you have a couple servos from norseman to ceduna but best to keep going.

Worst case there is a servo at the border of WA/SA

I did Perth to Adelaide & back again a couple years back.
4 x 20L jerry cans is all we took, bring some tools and spare parts depending on the car and its condition.
Try and do the ceduna to to norseman in the day so leave early from ceduna as just past the border inside WA there is a fuck load of kangaroos at night

[thommo]

I'd hope for it to get 500km too a tank. It's a modded s15 so who knows :-/

We gonna avoid any night driving purely for the kangaroo factor.

1200 is a fair way would just need octane booster aswell incase no 98ron

[Stealthed]

I went across in november coming back from an around australia trip on a KLR650
everyone I spoke to told me kangaroo's aren't as bad as there was a big drought recently and most of them have died off, Also I never had an issue with fuel coming across, the bike holds about 22ltrs and I could get around 350km's with no wind, otherwise around 240ish with bad wind. there were plenty of servos along the way, however I don't know what you will be driving so if you are unsure then allow yourself enough spare fuel for 100+ km's

*Edit* Just seen what you are driving, maybe allow a bit more then haha.

[RELEASE]

Ceduna has 98ron fuel and also the border of SA/WA...thats a short stint of a couple hundred km.
the border to Norseman is about 1000km so run the 3 25L jerry cans plus a couple bottles of octane boost just incase you fall short

cant help on the melb to adelaide bit as havent done that but the adelaide to perth is 2700kmish where the melb to adelaide is 700kmish so not such a major stint.

[mitchy]

i discovered the hard way, to make sure the torque converter is firmly attached to the flex plate.
lol :(

[thommo]

Think I'll try get hold of a decent map and mark out all the servos and the 98ones just to get basic calcs on when and where to stop

Atleast that first section is short and can take our time looking at stuff.

Anyone done/seen that golf course you can play one hole one town and trail along to the next town and play on etc ?

[Tre-Cool]

shouldnt need octane booster if your cruising anyway, unless you try and overtake in top gear.

A Few years back i did Perth to Port Augusta in 1 hit by myself. 2600'ish km's in 25hrs, so with 2 people should be quite easy, just beware of the wa piggies as you come in to w.a they like to patrol between the bp servo at the sa/wa border and eucla.

[thommo]

i discovered the hard way, to make sure the torque converter is firmly attached to the flex plate.
lol :(

Lol that would have been an experience in the middle of no where. Lucky for us it's manual haha only drama we will have is tyre delamination

[thommo]

I happen to know a cop at eucla so be funny to run into him.

2600km in 25hrs is a massive achievement most I've done is 1200 in a day Perth-karijini

[JNR man]

My old man travels back and forth regularry from Adeliade to Perth. it normally takes him two days with no night driving. He left here the other day and got severe hail damage on the nullobor from Yasis left over rage. He's pissed at all the dents but doesnt think many can share his story. He has got a navman that tells him where the next servo is, but also carries 4 gerry cans of deisel usually 3 are empty when he gets to town. Happy travels

[Tre-Cool]

yeah, i was royally rooted by the time i got to PA. booked in a hotel at 9am and slept till 6pm. got some kfc for dinner. came back to hotel. realised i wouldnt get any sleep. paid the bill and continued to drive to central qld.

was awesome driving at night on the country roads. only trucks on the road and very little traffic. downside was i should have stopped in broken hill for a fuel stop but kept going. luckily my 20lt jerry can got me outta the shit.

[ryanr32]

Check spare tyre and all gear to change a tyre is there and in good condition. Doesn't hurt to have a can of tyre inflator for if you get in the shot. Also check if bigger brakes are fitted the spare still clears them. Also carry spare water for if you break down/ lose radiator coolant ect.

[thommo]

That spare tyre over brakes is a good idea!
Yer having 20ltr water for us and a 20ltr for car I think.

[AGIT8D]

Mate just drove this back from Syd:

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/hs062.snc6/167198_10150090450932194_565337193_6259625_2321958 _n.jpg

Looks like there is a Caltex at the SA/Vic Border?

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs911.ash1/181974_10150090454262194_565337193_6259655_472370_ n.jpg

[thommo]

How long he take to do trip? Is that a bit of a sleeper ? Or genuine calais

[AGIT8D]

I haven't asked him any questions about it yet, he's pretty flat out with work, I can look into it and find out exactly which way he came home and get some details if you want?

[4A10SHN]

VLT runs 10.50, has full manualised VL turbo box. Picked it up for a steal

[Rhys]

Done this trip about 17 odd times now and U98 can be hard to get depending on how far the car can go between refills. I would allow 3 - 4 days to do the trip which allows you to get decent sleep at night.

After you leave Port Augusta your next stop for U98 is Ceduna which is 468kms away.

After this you have Cocklebiddy Roadhouse that has U98 as Border Village DOES NOT have U98. This stretch is 763 kms.

You then have Caiguina which has U98, this is 65 kms (start of the most boring stretch of road in Aus, 90 mile straight)

Then is Balladonia Roadhouse which has U98, this is 129 kms.

Next is Norseman which is 242 kms and has U98.

Now you either head into Kalgoorlie or Kambalda that have U98 as Coolgardie hasnt had U98 for quite some years now.

After this stretch its rather easy to get heading back into Perth.

Things to see along the way. Would deff try and do GOR. And there is a lookout just before Nullarbor roadhouse that takes you out onto Great Australian Bight.

I wouldn't recommend doing all nighters as i did this with Daisy and it kills you if you cant sleep in the car. Any number of the roadhouses along the way are fine to stay at and aren't that expensive.

Kimba, Kyuncutta, Wudinna, Poochera, Penong, Nullarbor etc.

You just need to get a map and work out how far you wish to drive per day and stay at the nearest Roadhouse/Town

[thommo]

Far out that's a decent rig haha

[DISTRBD]

I'd hope for it to get 500km too a tank. It's a modded s15 so who knows :-/

We gonna avoid any night driving purely for the kangaroo factor.

1200 is a fair way would just need octane booster aswell incase no 98ron

Stock suspension or on its ass adjustable coilovers ?

As for the Skippys you can get them during the day along with other live stock and sleeping drivers . When we drove to Alice Springs we had 2 camels wonder out onto the road :)

[Rhys]

forgot about suspension as bart noted. If its slammed its going to be fuking uncomfortable.

And agree with the wild life they arent picky on night or day.

[thommo]

Cheers Rhys that's a good game plan you have done there I'll have to take note and copy your trip.

Bart it's got adj coilovers so hopefully the spring rate is not super firm

[urabus]

Fly to melbourne. Drive to adelaide and put it on the train and fly back to perth? Bugger driving a modified car that you can not get any spare parts for that you dont know the history of all that way. Epic potential to end in tears.

I bought a brand new truck out of melbourne and drove it back to perth in 3 days. Melbourne to Port Augusta. PA to Norseman. Norseman to perth. There is shit accomodation etc between port augusta and norseman so my logic was just push on hard through.

Brendon

[Rhys]

PS - Dont do burnout in the middle of the Nullarbor, it can only end in tears, eg broken gearbox

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[DISTRBD]

I would truck it back from melbourne regardless . Done the drive and it isnt fun at all

[Dazwaaah]

your a fkn goose thommo hahaha

come over stay here we'll hit the GOR... easily do it in a day.... i know heaps of other roads man, just havent done them with u cos aristo likes straights only lol and stuff with a 300m run up....

he better get it... got bombed set up

[marky85]

Shut up dazza! I'm getting just deciding plan of attack. Bulk meth to stat awake haha peakin!!!

[thommo]

I would truck it back from melbourne regardless . Done the drive and it isnt fun at all

This is a good point plus end up cheaper that way

[Daisy]

trip across is something that should be done tho at least once, even tho it can be boring as fuck at points.

i had fun brings back esky's evo, sent rhys off with my cruiser and car trailer to meet me near adelaide, i flew over and drove from sydney, 40litre tank and 5 jerry cans, got pulled over in all three states and nabbed at 147km/h in SA when it was on the back of the trailer, thinking fuck can they hoon law me here and if so can i back the evo off the trailer and continue on my merry way.

[skidkid]

I just did this over the weekend

Make sure you have a full size spare and a good jack, check tyre pressures at each stop, and bring a pillow/good book so you have something to do/sleep while the other drives

We drove a 1986 porsche 944 turbo back from adelaide in 2.5 days, bought sight unseen (had a guy look at it for us though). Don't bother with gerry cans, theres servo's every 1-200km (although some only have 95 not 98).

Eyre highway is shit, but you can average 110-120km easily enough as it has really long straights and everybody is nice, remember to wave to oncoming cars.

Don't worry about kangaroos or wildlife either. We saw maybe 5-6 kangaroos on the side of the road (including skeletons that had been there for a few months) and one dead wombat. We drove for an hour one night and 3 hours the next, and saw nothing, but make sure your car has decent lights, the ones on ours were rubbish on lowbeam which made it pretty scary when a car was coming the other way

[ossie_21]

I did Sunshine Coast-Perth at the end of 2006, was fuck all 98 available between Ceduna & Norseman but maybe things have changed since then. I wouldn't take the risk though & take jerry cans, fill them up when they are cheaper cos the price of 98 on the Nullabor would probably be a couple of bucks a litre or so??

* Buy a map & highlight the route you are taking, and note the servos (or approximate location of) on there as well. Work out using an average speed where you want to get to for the night & go off that for your trip. I think it was Dubbo to Broken Hill, it was meant to take about 8 hours & it became about 5/6 after we just sat behind a car doing about 170 through outback NSW for a while. So yeah, plans can change lol
* Be prepared to see dirt, and lots of it
* Don't know what the road was called but it would have been a main one as we only took highways etc, but it was heading into Port Augusta. Downhill, twisty fun :) Wanted to go back up to do it again!
* Drive in the middle of the road where possible
* Stop to stretch the legs every now & then if you need to, it's easy to get tired
* As mentioned, Great Australian Bight lookout is good. Good view to the ocean & the colour of the blue water is awesome
* Twilight is the worst time for roos as it's when they start lining up on the side of the road. Avoided night time as much as possible, but the closest I came to hitting one was through a roundabout in Northam.....around houses n shit
* For shits & giggles, keep a roadkill count in your head of the dead roos you see. Then after you get into WA, time how long it is before that number is decimated

And most importantly, drive safe!!

[TurboHead]

I just did the Melbourne - Perth drive 2 weeks ago solo in an Evo6. 98 is available almost the whole way and and if you cant get 98, they will have 95 which was fine for cruising.

Took me 59 hours total with 2 sleep overs and I went via Great Ocean Road. Was open the whole way but some areas had temp traffic lights as was down to one lane for a short distance.

[TJ]

You wont need 98 unless your belting it on boost. If your trying to stretch fuel economy surely youll be cruising around 110 in top gear most of the time.

[TurboHead]

Thats what I was doing.... previous owner fitted cruise control to my E6... just set it to 110 and away I went.

Oh and all but 2 or 3 servos were selling 98 at under $1.60/lt

[Stealthed]

If I remember correctly the people that own border village BP, also own Eucla, Mundrabilla, Caiguna and Norsman (All BP) so the fuel can be steep around there, However once you hit norsman the first stop you see is their BP but if you go just around the corner there is another few stations generally cheaper.

Also if you want a supposedly free coffee from one of the places mentioned mainly border village they will try to charge you $6.50, Not that I drink coffe anyway!