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G'day everyone,
In my last poll I put it up to the many experienced forumites to vote on whether to take 1 or 2 spares on my trip, which as per previous poll is: "Doing 7,000km from Sydney, Longreach, Plenty Hwy, Uluru / Palm Valley / Kings Canyon, Chambers Pillar, Finke, Mt Dare, Oodnadatta, Marree, Flinders, Adelaide then home. Leaving in 4 weeks." Thanks to everyone who voted and I've now settled on 1 spare tyre plus tyre repair kit. Travelling with 1 other vehicle.
Departure day is fast approaching. Leaving in 5 days.
I've had my Warn Tabor winch out for cleaning, derusting, new parts and now reassembled with synthetic rope as opposed to steel cable. I've been doing it more for enjoyment than in readiness for my trip.
I have the dilemma of deciding whether it's worth carting 20+ kilos of winch around for this kind of trip. My gut feeling is that for the locations we're travelling, a winch is not likely to be required particularly if it's dry and is only extra weight on the bullbar (therefore increased wear and tear) over potentially many miles of corrugations.
So again, I'm leaving it to the combined wisdom of the forum. If you've travelled in these locations please chip in... If you had the option (i.e. your winch was already out BUT it would only take you 20mins or so to put back in), would you take it or leave it? I've just cable tied up all the loose cables behind the bullbar and of course disconnected it at the battery.. there's a hole where the fairlead would go.. I can whack the alloy fairlead on or leave it open for better airflow.
In my last poll I put it up to the many experienced forumites to vote on whether to take 1 or 2 spares on my trip, which as per previous poll is: "Doing 7,000km from Sydney, Longreach, Plenty Hwy, Uluru / Palm Valley / Kings Canyon, Chambers Pillar, Finke, Mt Dare, Oodnadatta, Marree, Flinders, Adelaide then home. Leaving in 4 weeks." Thanks to everyone who voted and I've now settled on 1 spare tyre plus tyre repair kit. Travelling with 1 other vehicle.
Departure day is fast approaching. Leaving in 5 days.
I've had my Warn Tabor winch out for cleaning, derusting, new parts and now reassembled with synthetic rope as opposed to steel cable. I've been doing it more for enjoyment than in readiness for my trip.
I have the dilemma of deciding whether it's worth carting 20+ kilos of winch around for this kind of trip. My gut feeling is that for the locations we're travelling, a winch is not likely to be required particularly if it's dry and is only extra weight on the bullbar (therefore increased wear and tear) over potentially many miles of corrugations.
So again, I'm leaving it to the combined wisdom of the forum. If you've travelled in these locations please chip in... If you had the option (i.e. your winch was already out BUT it would only take you 20mins or so to put back in), would you take it or leave it? I've just cable tied up all the loose cables behind the bullbar and of course disconnected it at the battery.. there's a hole where the fairlead would go.. I can whack the alloy fairlead on or leave it open for better airflow.
) taking in quite a bit of what you intend to do. Very, very unlikely you will need to use a winch and even less likely there will be a suitable winch point available (except for another vehicle). At both Old Andado and at Dalhousie we heard reports of several vehicles (towing) who got bogged in long and deep stretches of bulldust holes north of Mt Dare on the Binns Track but were retrieved by light snatch and/or maxtrax. What we DID see was a LOT of punctured tyres and in fact one of my group punctured a camper tyre outside of William Creek on the OT. So in addition to a good spare and a repair kit it would be an idea to have tyre pressure monitor so that you catch a puncture early. My friend caught his when the pressure had dropped to 20 psi and was able to do a controlled stop with little damage to the tyre. The rocky tracks will quickly shred a tyre so you want to get onto it as soon as possible. I'm with spot01, I reckon if you have room a second spare is better use of weight on such a trip than a winch, because if you rip a sidewall, it won't be repairable and then you are totally dependent on your last good tyre.
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