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Post by Jake on Apr 12, 2017 12:16:27 GMT 10
We have reached Darwin and we are taking today off as a lay day. This is Day 29 and to date we have covered 8971 km at an average of 345 km/day (excluding our three lay days). We are not camping – we are staying in caravan park cabins, motels and dongas at roadhouses. I have camped in the past out of my previous URAL but, with two of us travelling, we would not be able to carry anything larger than a small pup tent and we are simply getting too old to crawl in and out of such a tent at the end of a day, particularly when it is stinking hot. We budgeted $120 per day for accommodation and I think that will be pretty close on average over 2 months. Some accommodation is much cheaper, particularly in the larger towns – for instance, here in Darwin we have a motel apartment at $65 per night. But some of the remote roadhouses are very expensive – the most expensive has been $175 a night for a tiny room (with ensuite) in a donga at Nanutarra Roadhouse in Western Australia. We are finding the sidecar arrangement is very good for travelling long distances day after day. My wife, Jan, also drives – I do most of the driving but she happily takes over for anything from 20 to 100 km to give me a break. If you do this on a conventional motorcycle, the pillion is in much the same position as the rider and using much the same muscles and similar bum position. This is nowhere as restful as climbing into the sidecar which has a comfortable “armchair” position with the legs stretched right out, using different muscle positions and giving the bum a rest from the solo seat we have. It is also pleasant to doze off in the sidecar without any fear of falling off. While in Darwin, I dropped into Darwin Motorcycles and had all the oils and oil filter changed – this is so much easier than changing oils on the run and the boys there were very helpful and efficient. The main problem I find with changing oils myself on the trip is how to catch and dispose of the old oil. You can just drive into the bush and drop it on the ground but I feel really bad doing that – it does not seem very environmentally responsible. Last time I was in a caravan park and I used a casserole dish from the kitchen to catch the oil then poured it into the empty 4 litre oil container for disposal – but that resulted in a lot of work to clean up the casserole dish afterwards. The URAL continues to run well. We had steady rain overnight in Darwin and the outfit was parked in an open carpark all night. This morning, it started on only one cylinder but cleared and ran on two cylinders after it had been going for about 1 minute. It may have been that some water got into the carburetor on one side. Cheers for now, Jake (David Jenkinson and supportive wife, Jan)
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roscoau
Life? Don't talk to me about life!
Posts: 838
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Post by roscoau on Apr 12, 2017 19:52:03 GMT 10
Thank you for the reports, it's great that you're have such a good time!
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Post by Jake on Apr 15, 2017 20:42:53 GMT 10
Well, today is Day 32 and we have now covered 9996 km. We are staying overnight at the Three Ways Roadhouse and tomorrow we head off towards Mount Isa and Townsville. Yesterday we had our first flat - a rear tyre, about 20 km north of Mataranka. I had a good spare wheel, a scissors jack and all the necessary tools, so the replacement job was straightforward. However, when we got to Daly Waters Pub that night and I set about fixing the flat, I found: 1. All the spokes were considerably loose - every one. 2. There was a 70 - 100 mm long crack in the rim of the steel wheel. 3. There was another crack in the steel rim at the base of one of the spokes. 4. The wheel had gone flat because the valve stem had sheared off the tube, presumably because the tube had tried to rotate on the rim. I tightened all the spokes as best I could (I had no way of checking for runout of the wheel to make sure it is still round), put some duct tape over the crack on the inside of the wheel just as a precaution in case any slivers of steel from the crack try to find their way to the tube, fitted a new tube protector strip and a new tube and put the whole thing back together again. I am keeping it as a spare wheel only, hoping not to use it unless I have an emergency. What caused this failure? A new Heidenau tyre was fitted by URAL WA in Perth and the wheel was balanced and spoke tension checked at that time - I watched all of this. The wheel has covered about 6000 km since then. We are travelling slowly (70 - 75 km/hour) but we are heavily loaded (660 kg - 50 kg over the recommended maximum) and weight is biased towards the back. My thoughts are that a crack developed and allowed the rim to flex, so loosening the spokes, All this movement allowed the tube to move relative to the rim and the valve stem sheared off, causing deflation. By the way - while is was at the URAL dealer in Darwin, they mentioned in passing that they have (in the past, sometime) had a rash of cracked steel wheels - apparently someone at Urbit reset the wheel assembly machine and it was overtorquing the spokes. I would much appreciate any thought you may have. Cheers, Jake (David Jenkinson)
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roscoau
Life? Don't talk to me about life!
Posts: 838
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Post by roscoau on Apr 15, 2017 21:00:34 GMT 10
I've had two cracked rims in 60,000km. I still don't know why unless rust on the inside was a factor.
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Post by Uralee on Apr 16, 2017 10:24:25 GMT 10
Dave , the steel rims are just crappy steel that rusts easily and they are very roughly welded. With the loads applied to the rear wheel........they will eventually crack.....its just a matter of when. The alloy wheels are not the perfect solution but are much better. Replace your cracked rim with an alloy one.
Hope you skipped Mataranka .......and Mt Isa aint much better. The best part of Mt.Isa was the lake. You should go there. The best part of Mataranka was what you saw in the rear view mirror....!
Cheers, lee
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Post by maccaoz on Apr 16, 2017 16:31:06 GMT 10
What a bummer with that wheel Jake but at least you had a spare. Reading the reports on SS you aren't on your lonesome with cracked rims.They even had a bad batch of alloy that were put down to too much tension on the spokes.The best of luck with the rest of the trip. Mataranka hot pool is a ripper, dunno why Lee didn't like the joint ,could be the clientele the park attracts Both times I have been there the luxury campers were a bit off to say the least. I can't knock the Isa ,I flew into there in a Flying Doc plane after a little whoooops on the Plenty Hwy, nicest helpful people you could hope to meet. I have fond memories of The Isa. The KLR made its way to the Isa with the local station people from the Plenty.Im not sure exactly how but it ended up being on a Toll Transport truck to Brisbane,all glad wrapped and on a pallet with everything that was on the bike still attached,not one thing missing. Bloody good people out that way 👍
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Post by Uralee on Apr 16, 2017 20:40:29 GMT 10
Macca Bathing in a tepid sulphur smelling pond on a 38 degree day is not my idea of pleasant, but each to his own. If Mataranka has anything else to offer......I missed it. As for Mt.Isa, I had wanted to go there for many years. Perhaps my expectations were too high. There is a hill on one side of town that has a reasonable view, although the condoms and panties along with the rest of the rubbish tainted the experienceand. The lake that is the town water supply is a very nice spot. Other than that I am afraid the Isa is just a hole in the ground (a mine) with the necessary suporting infrastructure apart from sufficient appropriate accomodation. Hundreds live permanently in the caravan parks, many in sub standard conditions. Unfortunately, permanents and travellers do not seem to mix well in caravan parks. Maybe it is all the noise of people off to work at 6:00am or maybe it is the junk they surround themselves with ( I have lots of junk also but it is hidden in my garage). I am not bagging workers. Just saying the mix does not work......different agendas...! As for the people.....in general, Aussies are a great bunch all over Oz and your bike arriving home intact does not surprise me at all......when you need help, it seems you don't have to ask an Aussie.. I know not every town is a tourist destination (except in Tasmania) but having travelled Australia wide, Mataranka and Mt.Isa are well to the bottom of my list.
Cheers, lee
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Post by Jake on Apr 16, 2017 20:53:17 GMT 10
Hi roscoau, Uralee and maccaoz - many thanks for your comments on the cracked rim - it is great to get such advice and support when we are so far from home. I am keeping the repaired cracked wheel as an emergency backup at present. I imagine my best next place for a proper repair is Brisbane - I will email the URAL dealer there (I do not know him - yet) and see if I can get the wheel rebuilt with an alloy rim and new spokes (as a precaution, since the old ones were very loose and probably chafed). Life takes strange turns. I needed no help to change the rear wheel but I was really annoyed that about 100 or more cars drove past with no one even stopping. Even worse - several slowed down to get a good look at the fact that I really was broken down and then speeded up and headed off. And about 50% of these cars were 4WD with dual spares, Max Trax on the roof etc - the vehicles literally screamed out how competent the owners were at off road and other bloksey stuff - but not one stopped. What has happened to Australian mateship? In Tassie in the past 12 months: 1. I had a flat and a young lady stopped to ask if she could help, 2. I came across an old guy from NSW with an elderly wife and another chap in a separate car and I changed his wheel, 3. My wife and I came across a Harley ridden off the road - a chap had already stopped and was trying to winch the bike back onto the road. We attached a second rope and the next car coming past joined in and we all got the bike back to the bitumen. How come this does not happen in the Northern Territory? I was most unimpressed. Then - along comes Roothy in his old Landcruiser - see the photos. He was John Rooth and he had a camera crew with him - he makes videos of off road excursions etc and is also a motorcycle tester (visit www.roothy.com.au - you will find it interesting. He offered all sorts of help and laughs - I did not need the help but the jokes and the company were great. He restored my faith in human nature. We need more motorcycle testers driving old Landcruisers and less 4WD posers travelling in air conditioning. Maybe I am getting too old. Perhaps no one stops to offer help anymore and I am just out of date. Cheers, Jake (David Jenkinson)
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Post by Piper on Apr 16, 2017 22:25:56 GMT 10
Hi Jake, Excellent adventure and your reports I look forward to reading, I wonder if those that passed you and failed to stop were not local NT , maybe the city 4WD would not have a clue brigade, amazing but a big 4WD and no mechanical knowledge so they keep going and hence fail the Aussie mateship test.
Cheers
Rob
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Post by Uralee on Apr 17, 2017 9:46:09 GMT 10
Spot on Piper.....the locals are great and the occasional tourist is too but most of the 4x4 brigade are posers. I happen to have a 4x4 of sorts and keep an eye on the forum. No end of posers saying they need a 3 inch lift, big wheels, snorkel, bulbar, winch, recovery points, rear bar, high lift jack and sand tracks for their big trip to Cape York....you could drive your grandmothers Hyundai to the top without issue........I towed my outback caravan with my Ural on the back of my stock standard, highway tired Colorado right round OZ, with more than 30 water crossings and many thousands of sand, gravel and rocky roads and tracks........all it took was care...!
Jake, ring Bruce at Townsville SideCars. He is a Ural dealer, a great guy and knows what he is doing........and you must meet "spanner".
Cheers
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