June 2013 pt 2 - Current Planned Route

Well I have been working through some maps and web sites and have decided on the third planned route so far this year, so it will probably change yet again, though it would be great to be able to go with this one as it covers areas mostly that I have not seen before, rather than travelling over roads that I have already done in the past (admittedly not necessarily in The Count though). I have checked out a few forum groups and some other information on the web and it seems that all the routes I have decided on so far are actually fairly much all sealed roads, besides people tow caravans over the roads so I think a Morris Minor should be able to make it as well. This is the proposed route

(sorry the quality is not the greatest, will have to try another scanner and replace it later if it works better) Currently the total distance works out to be approximately 24,061 kilometres (14,950 miles) and it includes some back tracking points, but worth it for the experience and seeing lots of "otherwise never going to get there" places. Given that it is possible to try and figure out what it will cost in fuel and such working with a few random guestimated input data, thus: Supposing that The Count has a 22 litre tank and that it is running at 8 litres/100 kilometres and that fuel is averaged at 172cents/litre it would be working out at: Total Litres - 1925 No: of Tanks - 87.49 Cost - $3,272.00 AUD So given that I can play around and come up with various figures that range from a cost of $2,695 to $6,256 for that cost of fuel for the whole trip by varying the average fuel consumption and the cost of fuel at cents/litre. Certainly is an interesting exercise

June 2013

Well here we go, not much at all has been happening, though have spent some time reviewing the planned route and where I want to go and see. With a better idea of where I want to go this has led to a revision of the distances to be covered and even to a proposed projection of what the fuel for the trip may cost. Give the variable cost of fuel I have worked it out at various cents per litre amounts just to see what I should be budgeting for, surprisingly it isn’t actually too bad (well from this end of the trip anyway) so that is something. I have redrawn the line around Australia and through the north south middle that will be the proposed route and have come up with a new total distance to drive just the trip as planned of 21,725 kilometres, so that is only 13,500 (ish) miles. 

Have to say the kilometres total does sound more impressive, though as the speedo is in miles I guess its best to have both figures. The speedo will require a re-calibration though as it only reads about half the actual speed and as such the “mileometer” is well out unfortunately. This distance of course doesn’t include any “off route excursions” so it is just a general guide, though I have amended the route plan to include getting too and from Uluru and going to Longreach as well. Oh and down to Port Lincoln rather then just taking the direct route to Adelaide from the Nullarbor. I am sure though I have not added even half of the things and places will end up wanting to see and do, thus there is no doubt the distance and fuel cost will climb.

 I have also been looking at how to get The Count down to Melbourne and been pricing having it freighted, the costs for which vary and it is between $650 and about $1650 with various companies. Some figures will permit the car alone, not carrying anything inside it and some will allow items to be in the car. There is of course the option to get a vehicle permit and drive The Count down to Melbourne, which isn’t a mad as it sounds as I have to have the car running and brakes working etc before it could be freighted, so why not drive it anyway and it can be a shake down trip for the drive to follow. I have of course got top level breakdown cover with the motoring organisation and they assure me it will cover me for any vehicle I am driving so that is good if it works. 

I would prefer to drive it down to Melbourne myself as it is much more interesting a prospect that loading it onto a truck and waiting for it to arrive at the other end. Time will tell I guess, one needs to be able to get insurance cover for it first or it won’t be driven anywhere and with it not actually being registered yet that can be a hassle for a permit drive of such long distance (across three States, all with different police forces and vehicle registry authorities!). Anyway time will tell. 

 I was actually looking into registration in Victoria and what rego plates I may be able to get on the car. Since Victoria had started to issue plates commencing with a “Y” I was actually hoping that I may actually be able to get the “Victoria” version of the plate The Count used to have when it was registered in the ACT. Back in the day all of the States had a block of letters that registration plates in their territory could start with and the ACT had “Y”, so if you saw a plate that started with the letter “Y” you knew it was a vehicle registered in the ACT, which made things so easy. 

Now those rules have changed and all of the States seem to be going off in all directions relating to rego plates, which is not a bad thing, though it would have been good if my old ACT number was still available in Victoria. Doesn’t matter though, it isn’t as though it was a special number, it is just the first number it had from the time I owned it, just a bit of nostalgia. Victoria now has a whole range of different types of plates available, as well as the old standard size, so I will have a look through those and see what is available. Hmm maybe some euro style plates would be the go, at least they should fit into the plate mounting on the boot lid, unlike the standard type plate…

May 2013

Oh well here we go, another month and things progress slowly.

Going back to last month I have passed up on getting a gearbox and will probably just aim at getting the original reconditioned once the car is here and I am at the rebuilding stage. It’s the original so it may as well stay in the car, and yes true there is so much that has been changed already for later model and other parts it’s probably silly, but what the heck I have it and know it, so it may as well stay. To be honest I probably don’t need to do anything to it to be able to undertake such a drive, though with the jumping out of third under acceleration being annoying….

On the radio front I am mostly looking towards the Oricom UHF300 5W UHF 80 ch. mobile transceiver, though not really sure. I don’t need something with all the bells and whistles as it isn’t like I will use it constantly, it is only a just in case measure (as in just in case a massive road train needs to let me know it is about to run over me) so realistically it just needs to do the job. Thus mainly I am being driven by price, though I am reading reviews of different units from different suppliers and will continue to compare then to identify which one will work best for me. Space is also an issue and being small and easily able to mount it out of view so as to not spoil the interior look would be good. I have toyed with the idea of getting a hand held item as it would certainly be easier to pack away and would definitely be portable, I just think that mounted in the car will be less hassle and more practical and possibly have a slightly better range, though I may be mistaken on that.

I have lately been looking through a variety of sources of information on places to pitch a tent and camp along the routes I plan on taking. It is amazing just how many different resources there are out there that you never hear about, unless you actually start looking, though I guess that is true with just about any subject. There are a number publications that look particularly interesting to me , I am looking at WikiCamps Australia , which is an app (there is one for everything isn’t there!) at the moment that looks like it would be fairly useful. I have also found out about “Camps Australia Wide”, Version 7 (http://www.campsaustraliawide.com/ )   which looks like the best source of information for me, free and budget accommodation that’s just the price range I will be looking for, so that looks like it will be quite the useful investment indeed. Not that I plan on only looking for free accommodation places, I have a Youth Hostel Association membership as well which will no doubt come in handy.

On the car front, well it is still not in Melbourne so everything is still limited towards actual hands on processes. Sometimes it feels like there is only so much planning that I could possibly do and that everything has been covered, then something else will crop up and get me to thinking again. This is probably a good thing really as it would be quite tiresome to get part way through the trip and suddenly be in need of, or wanting something that could have been available if only a bit more thought had gone into the process of planning. It’s not that such a situation isn’t likely to occur anyway, but it is nice to think everything has actually been covered before hand.

I have been fine tuning the lists of items that I think  the car will need, hoses, brakes, head gasket and the like, that will need to be done before the trip can start and additionally the list of items that I will need to take as spares. Further I have a list of items that I will need to take along, tent, cooking stuff, etc. and a list of tools that will be useful to have, lets face it there is no point taking tools I don’t have any hope of using and no point not taking tools that I know I can use and may actually be useful. So I check them every now and again and add items and then take some away, what I actually would like to achieve is being able to fit everything into the boot as that is the tidiest and most practical way to be getting along I think.

Down on the farm

April 2013

Ok so having seen a reconditioned 1000 gearbox on e-bay for a good price I am now back to wondering what to do with The Count.
The Count still has the original box in it and it has never been opened up, worked on, etc. since I have owned it, and it is seriously going to need to be looked at before the trip. The car started jumping out of third under acceleration quite some time ago, though it doesn't really throw the lever out in any really forceful way so it is easy to hold it there before changing to forth, and it is somewhat of a noisy thing too. It doesn't make any unusual sounds though it is more just that it has been doing the job for a fair amount of time now and it could use a recondition.

That is the point of the deliberations about the situation, do I pay over $1000 to have the gearbox reconditioned, being original the to the car 803 box with the three foot direct shift lever, do I just get another second hand 803 box, do I get a second hand 1000 box or do I get a reconditioned 1000 and then just change the gearbox cover for the 1000 item and change the handbrake lever to the 1000 item as well so the remote lever can sit in there nicely. I am sort of torn between the two as being the original box I would like to keep it, though the 1000 would have better ratios and lets face it the original engine has long gone, it's been a 948 ever since I have owned it and even that has been replaced once.

I would like the later box as it would be nice to have better ratios and syncro all round, though I rather like the handbrake lever as the way it is supposed to be. Changing gears after chasing the gear lever about the passenger side of the car though would probably be something that I wouldn't miss too much as the lever currently flops about all over the place even when in gear, though it is easy and direct enough to use. It would be like driving a completely different car though I think, maybe it will all come down to availability of iems and their cost when the time comes.

I am though sorely tempted to get the reconditioned gearbox on e-bay though. Damn you e-bay!

I have to work out what I have done with the mechanism in the passenger side front door too as the locking jams up when the window is wound all the way up. This is a problem as unless you "waggle" the inside door handle the locking pin won't engage properly and as such the door is prone to opening iteslf when cornering, which can be a little disconcerting so the passenger. You could of course just wind down the window an inch or two and all is good, but it is not an acceptable situation. I must have put the thing back together the wrong way around, so I guess just a straight forward strip down and reinstall and see how it goes time will tell...     

MAR 2013

CB Radios

Who knew that things had moved on so far since I had the old AM unit in my first car. It was a flash jobbie for its day, Uniden with a main box and all other controls remote on the hand piece, so it could be installed all tucked away out of thieves line of sight. That of course moved on with that car and I “upgraded” to a single side band AM Electrophone beast that attached solidly somewhere always in sight and was a good reliable piece of kit, shame the sound quality was so awful as to make any incoming message almost impossible to understand. Mind you that one did make a progression through a variety of cars, actually it has even been in The Count on a previous occasion many years ago, well it was in there till I figured out it was for some reason providing a constant drain on the battery even when it was turned off. AM was the beast to have though, cheap and accessible, UHF was the new kid on the block and was expensive and no one had the damn things

I am now looking through all the information I can, thanks to Mr Google, and there sure seems to be quite a few changes in what is around, new legislations and laws and a whole lot of new channels available on UHF CB’s, now with 80 channels. Poor old AM seems to have taken the back seat, old tech and whilst still available, doesn’t seem to be popular any more like it once was. Seems you have to remember what all the channels are used for as otherwise you could get yourself into a bit of trouble. Oh and how’s that the manufactures have been given a stay of introduction so that they can go all out to try and sell the old 40 channel units to poor unsuspecting folk that may not have checked into things too carefully! Not that hard to research though so perhaps people need to pay attention a little.

So here I am now searching through the ACMA (Australian Media and Communication Authority) website looking at the new regulations and laws and at the ExplorOz and UHF CB Australia web sites to see what they recommend and what the new regulations actually mean in normal person language. I guess it all comes down to how much and what features you want on a unit, same as anything else a person wants to buy, and while there doesn’t appear to be that many manufacturers of UHF CB radios there seems to be a heck of a lot of models made by each of them. I am currently leaning towards the Oricom UHF180, though that is fairly much price driven. 

The research continues…….

And the winner is:

another Uniden - UH7700NB, tiny, takes next to no room, easy to fit and comes with an aerial, so we'll see how it goes.

FEB 2013

Well happy new year to everyone that may be reading this, if anyone at all is doing so, it’s late, but well you get that don’t you.

Things are progressing slowly and I have picked up the occasional part here and there for the car, so I should have everything I need by the time that I bring the car down from Queensland to Melbourne to get everything ready for the trip. I have been scrolling through all the part suppliers web sites both n the UK and over here and if I see something that is too good to pass up well I would be mad not to get it, wouldn’t I!

There are still lots of bits to get though and the good news is that I am going to be at the Beaulieu Auto Jumble, so hopefully I will be able to pick up a few items while there and hopefully I will be able to pack them into my luggage to get them home again too. Never had the opportunity to attend the Beaulieu meet before so really looking forward to seeing what it’s all about and what bargains may be there to be had, hopefully there will be heaps of bargains. Doesn’t hurt to hope does it?

I have been putting some time into thinking about how to wire all the extra accessories into the car too. I’m thinking that I may be able to route a relay into the start switch which will power an auxiliary fuse box and then have everything, including the starter will be powered through there. Well I am not an electronics whiz so not sure if I am way off track here or not, though there is a bit of time to think it out and get it right yet. Just happy that I have already converted it to an alternator rather than the old generator, I think it is going to be necessary.

I have to locate another parcel tray for the car to, in the move to get the car from Canberra to Queensland I lost a few parts, they have just disappeared, which is a bit disappointing as it includes the original parcel tray and the original steering wheel and steering column. So I have a mini column in the car at the moment and have a Mountney wood rimed wheel in it as well, as it just give so much extra space and at 6’3” that is a reasonable consideration I think.

I have been toying with the idea of replacing the gearbox with a 1000 one rather than the original Series II box which The Count is still running with. The thinking goes that I have to have the gearbox rebuilt or reconditioned anyway so for such a long trip why not get a box that will give me a better and more relaxed cruising speed (well ok that is the diff as well, but it has to be less noisy than the 803 box surely!). Though I am not sure I am warming to this, I have considered it many times before and have never acted on it as I just haven’t been able to get my head around “changing” the car, which I guess is silly given that it already has a 984cc in it (it had one when I got it and I wasn’t going to change it back), though other than poly suspension bushes and electronic ignition kit, Rover 1.3 Mini distributor, 74 Mini Clubman inlet manifold with associated carby and the heater out of same Clubman, it is as I got it way back when, so it is mostly original to me anyway, HA! Anyway changing the box would mean changing the transmission cover panel to the later 1000 one and also changing the handbrake lever over as well, and well that is the problem, I would actually see that difference and so would everyone else and it would be glaringly obvious. Silly I know, but there you go, I mean if its not broke then don’t fix it, perhaps. This one will require lots more thought and to be honest I would be surprised if I have come to a decision by the time I get back from the trip. Mind the having to recondition the box will probably have some sway to deciding before I go. Hmmm…….. watch this space!

Dec 2012

Ok well it certainly has been a while between visits but again as I don’t actually have the car readily available it does make it somewhat problematic in actually doing any work to it so there isn’t actually much to update.

Anyway I have come up with a list of things that I know are going to need replacing and adding to the Count, though probably I would come up with a much larger list if I had the car to look at.

Going to need:

Tyres and inner tubes

Engine Mounts

Gearbox mount

Brake shoes, front and rear

Master cylinder

All hoses

Flexible Brake hoses

Brake and Clutch return springs

Clutch “C” rod connection

Auxiliary fuse box

CB

As per the discovery of moving the car to it’s new accommodation last October (I think it was) the brake system is completely devoid of fluid, probably due to the failure of some rubber part in the system perishing in the humidity. As the rubber does tend to perish so readily where the car is I think it would be best to replace all components on the car to do with braking, for piece of mind if nothing else. I already have a complete set of new brake slave cylinders (front and rear) for the Count, so the master cylinder and new flex hoses should complete the system and the new shoes will hopefully improve the brakes performance.

Other items are probably mostly for spares so that I have them to hand during the trip “just in case” and to replace some of the worn items that were replaced back when it was restored the first time. The CB is of course to hopefully contact other travellers and perhaps to know when a road train is coming so I can get the heck out of their way when out in the middle of no where as one must to do.

The auxiliary fuse box is specifically for wiring up items such as the CB, Stereo, a power socket etc, so that there are some fuses involved in the system rather than just the two standard ones for the whole vehicle. Oh and relays will need to be installed as well for the lights, going to put Halogen H4 items in instead of the sealed beams that replaced the original items that were as effective as “damp glow worms in jam jars” , so descriptive but really don’t recall who told me that one.

The car may come down to Melbourne late in 2013 so I will certainly be able to start getting things going in earnest then.

That’s about all I can think of for now, so Happy Holidays to everyone.