Madigan's Line with AJ120

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

Just a few pics of the terrain which was often changing, but we travelled for the best part of 2 days crawling our way through burnt out country like this.










Cheers Andrew

[ntp Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close ntp]

The awning looks the $$$ and certainly seems popular on a hot day!

[Trekrider Banned Find all posts View Profile Close Trekrider]

But I have the bragging rights as the only vehicle that never got beaten by an obstacle, everyone else had at least one time they had to give up, most of them at Big Red; but more on that down the track.

Cheers Andrew

Isn't that more a reflection of the driver?

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

Although a permit is needed to travel the Colson Track and we didn't have one, in an emergency to get a dead vehicle out this was one of our best options, the pajero was was a worry; so after crossing the Colson Track we only went over a couple of dunes before camping and attending to some of the war wounds. The Pajero needed a tyre removed, repaired and a tube added. The Challenger who had lead all day had punctures in both front tyres that needed a bit more attention, stakes had gone straight through the thickest part of the lugs on his Mickey T MTZ's. When the bonnet was lifted to access the compressor on the Challenger they noticed they had cooked the battery and it was bubbling and boiling and had spewed a fair bit of acid out. I thought I had got away lightly for the day but a slowly deflating front tyre was found a bit later on.

The Colson Track






Pardon my french but it was bloody hard work fixing the tyre on the Paj in still 40 degree plus heat.




And that was our First Day in the Desert, the next day things started to get really challenging!

Cheers Andrew

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

The awning looks the $$$ and certainly seems popular on a hot day!

There was a decent North wind blowing most of the time so pretty much any other awning would have been a pain to put up and down. From all the discussions I have had with foxwing owners I am pretty sure they would have needed poles and guy ropes and pegs or else they would have blown inside out and buggered the support arms.

I actually took the gear to make and put on guy ropes but never felt the need. One night it actually got really windy and I got up in the middle of the night and folded it up, I think it would have handled the strong winds but like any awning or tent the flapping was annoying me.

Isn't that more a reflection of the driver?

I had thought it was more the Prado than the driver, but on reflection I am pretty sure MLC wouldn't have made it up Big Red, so you must be right Trekky

Cheers Andrew

[MidLifeCrisis Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close MidLifeCrisis]

I had thought it was more the Prado than the driver, but on reflection I am pretty sure MLC wouldn't have made it up Big Red, so you must be right Trekky

Admit it old man, you missed me on the trip!

[WOZCLEAN Member Find all posts View Profile Close WOZCLEAN]

We had a varied group, a V6 Challenger, A Pajero 3.2TD, a Nissan Patrol with the 3.0lt hand grenade TD, a Hilux with the naturally aspirated 3.0lt diesel, a 105 series Landcruiser with a 4.2TD and of course the Prado! I hadn't met the owner of the Pajero before and after we introduced ourselves and he had a drool over the Prado he pointed to his rig, "its not a Pajero, it's a Vagero" he told me.......... that's because it is a C#%T of a car, his words not mine! He was spot on with that statement as it had its fair share of troubles on the trip.

To be honest all of the vehicles handled the condition pretty well, even the Pajero with its droopy suspension and engine troubles and flat tyres. But I have the bragging rights as the only vehicle that never got beaten by an obstacle, everyone else had at least one time they had to give up, most of them at Big Red; but more on that down the track.

A Pajero is definitely not designed for this kind of 4WDing (if any at all) as stated by Mitsubishi themselves in a letter to a Pajero Owner. This letter was published in a 4WD Mag (?4WD Overland) and I'd love a copy of this to send to my now estranged father who was constantly telling us "a Prado wasn't designed for 4WDing" and that "a Pajero is a Prado recovery vehicle".

I know, I know, I know!! He is so wrong and Andrew your trip has proven beyond a doubt that a Prado was designed for 4WDing just with a little... oh hang on... a lot more comfort!!

On this trip we also were running a fines system for anyone that did anything a bit stupid on the trip, $1 for each misdemeanor with the proceeds going to the RFDS along with a list of the offences for them to laugh over. The first dollar was raised when the Patrol was late arriving, which was made worse by the fact that the meeting point was 300 metres from their front door. Having a "comfort stop" in front of the Prado with the Gopro still running at one stage cost me a dollar, someone forgetting they had a fly net on and trying to eat was another fine. The fine to beat them all though was when despite having a million square miles of nothing in the desert the big 105 managed to run over the only thing within cooee.......... one of the Madigans camp markers (all fixed and no real harm done). I haven't heard the final figure but I think we might be sending the RFDS a donation of around $100 or so.

4 vehicles left Berri, we caught up with the Hilux in Burra and the 105 who's owners I had not met either eventually caught up with us that night after dark 20kms short of Coober Pedy where we camped. We were supposed to camp somewhere a bit sooner but our trip leader missed the spot, that cost him a dollar!

A fines system sounds like a good idea for the SA 2012 GTG with RFDS being more than an okay charity to donate to.

This naturally would have to be put past everyone planning to attend. And wouldn't be able to include the need to be recovered as a fine because from what I've been reading it would cost MLC a small fortune!!

Oops, now I just gotta hope that as novices we don't have to be recovered too many times, if at all or else MLC might have just a bit to say about it!!

A bigger lense for the Nikon is also on the list of things to buy!

Your problem might not just be the lens... IMO you can't go past the original and the best... a Pentax, and then an Olympus. These guys always have really good deals going that get you a standard lens and a zoom, though DH wants a telephoto for at Clipsal.

The Challenger was also having heat issues and the engine was running a little warm, driving without the aircon on helped and I believe they spent significant portions of the trip with windows down and aircin off, likewise the Paj eventually had to run without the aircon as well. I was feeling pretty bad for these guys so in the spirit of taking one for the team I upped the setting on the climate control from 23 degrees to 23.5 degrees lol! They didn't see the funny side of that though!

It's okay Andew, even though we personally don't have climate control (like others who don't have a Grande) we get the funny side!!

During the many heat related stops, as well as lunch breaks; under the Ostrich Wing awning was the only place to be, I reckon I set it up 3 -5 times a day every day. There were 4 other awnings on the trip and the combined total times they were set up whilst in the desert was 3! Love my Ostrich Wing.

Your Ostrich Wing not only sounds great but looks pretty awesome. But, I don't think I want DH to read this otherwise like me, he might just want to put an Ostrich Wing on our wish list.


Once again thanks for such a thorough report and we can only live through your experience at this point in time. It will take us quite a few years me thinks before we'd ever contemplate something like this. It would be a fantastic experience, although you might be right with regards to the greenness of everything and the amount of water around, and that it may not be like this again.

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

Admit it old man, you missed me on the trip!

Yep, didn't get to use my Maxtrax or winch once!

A fines system sounds like a good idea for the SA 2012 GTG with RFDS being more than an okay charity to donate to.

I am one step ahead of you already, its on the agenda (which I am yet to finalise) for the next meeting.

madigans is considered one of the toughest desert treks in Australia, so yes a few years experience is needed. You better not bag the Pajero too much either, the owner works in Murray Bridge and if you need his services you want to be on his good side!

Cheers Andrew

[DGW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close DGW]

Fantastic report, thanks for sharing it with us.

Dave

[Hpycmpr Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hpycmpr]

Mate, awesome report, and sounds like a great adventure.

[WOZCLEAN Member Find all posts View Profile Close WOZCLEAN]

You better not bag the Pajero too much either, the owner works in Murray Bridge and if you need his services you want to be on his good side!

Just our luck we probably either know him or know of him. Although... we've only been here in the Bridge for 5yrs this year and have kept to ourselves for the most part, so maybe not.

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

The morning saw us once again working on the vehicles, a few assesed the situation with the Challenger and despite the owner considering returning to Mount dare on his own and giving up on the trip we were all keen for him to continue, especially as he organised the whole thing and had been talking about this trip for 8 years! The decision was made to remove a second battery from the Nissan to run the Challenger and the Nissan would survive with only 1 battery and if a jump start was needed we could handle that down the track.

In the meantime I had removed my flat front tyre and was searching for the leak, after much effort and soapy water we were unable to detect a leak so I pumped it back up to pressure and reinstalled it for the rest of the trip. I never changed the tyre for the rest of the trip, just added air around once a day and drove all the way home with it. I have since checked it out and despite thinking I had found the microscopic leak and fixing that it still continues to go flat over a few days........... hmmm will have to try harder to find the leak.

We all headed off travelling over much the same country crawling, sometimes it seemed; inching our way towards the next camp and after some 50 odd kms of this travelling we managed to find a yellow star dropper in the middle of the Simpson Desert following nothing but an imaginary line on a GPS







Its funny the sense of relief I felt when we found that star dropper, despite the fact that it offered nothing in the way of respite from the harsh conditions and in reality all it meant was that we were now even more remote we had previously been. Once again the temperature was soaring and this was the hottest day of the trip. At one stage it hit 47 degrees.




After camp 6 I was asked to lead, and the fact they we could see a faint track leading away from the dropper meant that the going should be a bit easier. But the track lasted only a few short minutes until I crested a dune and the Moguls had well and truly taken any remnents of the track and destroyed it, we were not going to have a track again for the rest of the day.

Then Disaster struck!

Cheers Andrew

[wooley Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close wooley]

Andrew, I have an exam in the morning, and you end that post with "Then Disaster struck!". Now I can't continue studying or sleep until I've read the next post...

[WOZCLEAN Member Find all posts View Profile Close WOZCLEAN]

Andrew, I have an exam in the morning, and you end that post with "Then Disaster struck!". Now I can't continue studying or sleep until I've read the next post...

I agree with wooley. That's just mean... a cliff hanger... really? Come on Andrew, seriously? You can't leave wooley hangin by the short and curlys like that. He's got an exam. Good luck with your exam wooley. I have to work tomorrow night so need an early night tonight.

Will check back on the rest of your adventure soon.

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

Ok just to set the scene. It over 45 degrees, we are 3 days from Mt Dare and 6 days from Birdsville and have been pushing through desert with a couple of vehicles that are already having heat related issues. I am leading with the least experienced member of our group behind me and the other 4 vehicles have stopped to check out something they had seen in the distance so they are about 10 minutes behind us. Then my low coolant alarm goes off.......... crap! I let the others know over the radio that it has gone off and i pop the hood for a look and instantly see header tank empty of coolant, a quick look underneath reveals damage to the radiator and coolant leaking from the radiator. I turned the motor off and let the others know that I have holed the radiator.

Those that know me, and Trish will back this up, know that I am not one to panic when faced with difficulties in the bush, my natural tendancy is to become intense and focus on the problem. If ever you wanted a situation to make you focus this was it.




Covering all the P's is the key to solving this crisis. (prior preperation prevents piss poor performance)

I carried a lot of stuff with me on this trip and a lot of it I didn't use. amongst other things I carried 2 spare wheels and tyres, 4 spare shocks, hoses, belts, fuses and wires, cables and clamps, electrical ties, wd40, graphite, silicon spray, silicon, aviation forma gasket, gasket paper, stag, solder and soldering Iron, tools, tyre levers, bead breaker, heater hose, fencing wire, drill and drill bits, bolts and screws, welding rods and welding kit and the list goes on and on!

But the most valuable of all was a small tube of Silverseal that I had paid 6 bucks for! And at that point in time I would have paid $1000 for the same tube in a heartbeat. I had not used it before so given my intense focus I actually read the instructions which said pour it into the radiator with the engine running and watch the leak stop, so I poured it into the overflow bottle and then topped it up with the proper coolant that I also carried; and nobody was more shocked than me when 30 seconds later the leak had completely stopped. Silverseal remember that name and never leave home without some it is simply the most magical powder I have ever seen.

Shortly after this the cavalry arrived dreading what they might find, only to be told problem....... what problem!

So after this potential disaster was averted we continued on, and not far down the track another alarm went of in the cab, this time a low tyre pressure alarm. A quick check and sure enough a stake sticking out of the tyre. I got to a flat spot at the bottom of the dune and jacked it up and took of the wheel (still 45 degrees) to find the damage wasn't as bad as it first appeared so instead of changed tyres I put a rope through the hole which did 99% job of stopping the leak, the tyre continued to leak a bit all the way to Birdsville so I regularly stopped and topped up the couple of leakers I had.

All packed up and ready to go again when the 105 driver announced he also now had a flat tyre, a stake right through the thickest part of the lug on his brand new toyo open country tyres he had bought specifically as they had been recomended as the toughest tyre for this country. Once again a rope to fix it and ready to go again. Just as we are getting back in the car the Nissan driver announces that he also has a flat (pictured below) so another rope job and we are ready to go except the 105 driver has noticed his repair isn't as good as first thought so we attend to that again. And finally we get moving.




Eventually that afternoon we made it to the next camp where we spent the night, we had covered 25kms today!




And the following morning I made some modifications to the front bash plate to try and avoid another radiator incident, handy that I also took a piece of angle iron just in case!




Cheers Andrew