Roadtrip!

[dingbatt]

Hey Guys,

I recently went on a roadtrip from my home town of Perth, Western Australia, across the Nullarbor to Melbourne, and then around Tasmania via the ferry. I drove my '81 HJ47 troopy and had three other mates with me. My friend drove his Hilux and had two others with him. It was an awesome adventure, and a real pleasure to drive the troopy across the length of this big island. Only issue I had was a cracked radiator half way across the Nullarbor, had to nurse her along in the 45C (113F) heat till we got to Ceduna where we had to wait over night for a new one to arrive from Adelaide. By the way, she doesn't have air conditioning

Altogether, we did just over 10,000km (6200 miles)

Just thought I'd post some pics, and suggest that if anyone has some roadtrip pics in their 45s to post some up too.

First Fuel stop:


First camp site (after a 720km day)


Saw another HJ47 same colour as mine at a Victorian music festival - 1984, disk brake front.

 

[dingbatt]

More photos

The rain followed us from SA to Victoria





Tasmania: Queenstown

 

[dingbatt]

And a couple more

We camped atop a hill in the Flinders ranges


The cracked radiator


View from campsite

 

[Shawn Russell]

Very cool!

 

[Awl_TEQ]

Very jealous, I am. More stories must be involved with a trip that long. Do tell.

 

[Kief]

It looks like there was some good surf in the bottom pic.. Maybe a bit sharkey? Nice pics...

 

[Kief]

Do you have another picture of the added door in the rear?

 

[dingbatt]

Extra door

Do you have another picture of the added door in the rear?

Here you go:





Not sure who installed it and when, certainly not the PO. He didn't seem to think it was his POs either. Maybe Arkana???

 

[2manycruisers]

more pics of the trip, that looks great!

 

[Chamba]

Ding,

Next time you come through Adelaide, drop me a PM. I'm still working on getting a job in Tassie, so maybe I'll see you there

Did you take the day ferry or the over-night one?

Cheers,

Josh

 

[flaminbandit]

looks like you had a excellent trip

makes me feel bad leaving my troopy home for a 3000km trip im doing at the end of this month LOL

 

[dingbatt]

Ding,

Next time you come through Adelaide, drop me a PM. I'm still working on getting a job in Tassie, so maybe I'll see you there

Did you take the day ferry or the over-night one?

Cheers,

Josh

Yeah will do Josh, It would be great to meet you and your rig in person.

We went over on the day time ferry. It was quite pleasant, well apart from my drunk mate annoying me all day! But I assure you, he was fun to annoy the next day ... As you can see:



But it was such an amazing roadtrip, especially in the company of all my best friends. We had some amazing times and had many disagreements and squabbles, but we came back even better mates than ever. It was a once in a lifetime trip.

I miss waking up in the morning and climbing out of my swag, opening up the maps and deciding where the hell we want to drive to this day. It won't be long before I'm on the road again, I think

 

[DanS HJ-45]

That's simply awesome.

Your troopy is incredibly cool (especially that extra door). What a perfect use for the truck too!

Dan

 

[landcrusher909]

Great Pictures

 

[Chamba]

Ding,

Could you post some snaps of the headliner you have in there? It looks like they covered the speaker box with factory headliner; I like it.

Ah, the day ferry. Was it rough? I have heard that the day ferry is a lot rougher than the night ferry. I like the night ferry because you get to sleep on the way over, and it's like you didn't miss anything... On the other hand, having a bunch of drunk mates is its own unique brand of fun- especially with Australia playing South Africa.

Cheers,

Josh

 

[dingbatt]

Yeah that overhead console was made by the PO. Seems to be factory headliner. Its made out of aluminium, and attaches to the roof seam via aluminium rails. It can fit a bunch of stuff in it, can take a bit of weight and it has access panels at the back. The speakers were my addition.

 

[dingbatt]

Forgot to answer your other question Josh .... The ferry ride was actually really quite smooth. A bit of swell on the way over, but nothing excessive. Although, when we got onto land at Devonport, it still felt like everything was swaying, kinda felt like being drunk but without the antics.... Nah, there were still antics

Oh yeah, just backed into a pole today. I didn't even see it (obviously). Stupid mistake, I should have been more aware of my surroundings







The flaking paint has revealed the extent of the rust, especially at the bottom of the panel. I'm going to head to a panel beater for some advice now. I just want to to knock it back into shape and get that window back in place for now .... in time I'm going to strip her right back and tackle the rust properly.

 

[Chamba]

Ding,

What a great storage/speaker box- I really like that.

Pity about the pole, but it is in a good spot to be able to fix it right. As you say, a perfect excuse to fix the rust...

Cheers,

Josh

 

[NTFJ45]

Great stuff Dingbatt,

Good to see someone still racking up some adventure on the road !

Hope to see some more posts in the future and the dent fixed up

Here is a shot of my FJ45 on a fishing trip recently, I am traking down a HJ47 ute, I miss the diesel days !!

Cheers NTFJ45

 

[rotarolla]

hi have a door on the side just like yours...