Hi all.
Well we finally made it back home to Sydney,Central
coast a couple of days ago.
Have spent that time trying to rid the Syncro of
layers of red dust in every nook and cranny.
Last email was from Carnarvon and to be fair that
was just about the end of the really interesting part of our trip.
We left the SW for another trip and headed
inland through Mt Magnet, checked out Kalgoorlie and then across the Nullarbor
and through Broken Hill to home.
The highlight here was watching 30 Southern Right
Whales and calves frolicking off the Head of the Bight.
The weather was colder,wetter and not much fun
camping, so flat out on the bitumen for home.
We did a total of 16,002 kilometres,used half
litre oil (plus 2 x oil change), half litre coolant.
Apart from those s/absorbers/CVjoint boot
replacement in Broome the Syncro performed faultlessly.
Fuel......I'm not game to add up all the dockets,
top price was $2,35 litre on the Mitchel river road.
We took all the required retrieval gear but used
non, never even used diff lock. Had it rained....a very different
story.
Anyone thinking of a trip such as
this.
Suspension is number one ....the
corrugations are a real killer ...for hundreds/thousands of
miles. New OME shocks???
I rang ABR today re our failed 6000k brand new OME
rear shocks. Answer... Unless we get a run of similar failed shocks we
don't worry about the occasional failure, we gave you 2 new ones under warranty
didn't we? Yes well !!!
Also new tyres essential.Old
hardened dry tyres will soon split under these conditions. we had no punctures
on brand new LT Kumho AT's. Many did.
Replace all suspension rubbers,
don't use hard nolathane.Remember engine mounts.
Then replace every wearing part,especialy
nylon/plastic(eg,window winder mechs,headlight mounts) .
Once your ready, just go.
NRMA Premium Care is allways on hand once you have
got to a phone. SPOT is a cheap option, we decided against one
SUMMARY ..Heaps of inspirational country north of
Alice with the pinnacle being the Kimberley Mitchel Falls and its the challenge
of getting there (and back) that makes it all worthwhile especially in a Syncro
when the only other one you see,David and Loise Beckley are going the other
way !
Thats it
Cheers for now, Graham and
Roey.