More Desert Splitty Adventures.

G'day All,
It's been a while but we've been having heaps of Desert Splitty fun and adventure up here in the Desert country of the East Kimberly region of WA.
This weekend just gone (Sept 4-5-6), we drove 180 ks up the Tanami track to Halls Creek after work Friday, then Sat. went and checked out 3 Bays that I bought (now to work out how to get them home), then headed down the Duncan Highway to Palm Springs and Sawpit Gourge, a couple of nice spots to camp out. Sunday we headed further along the Duncan looking for the top section of the Canning Stock Route that is no longer used (the Canning now finishes at Billiluna where we live) with GPS in the Splitty we headed into the unknown but after 60+ks we lost the track and after an hour or so driving around the open plains looking we gave up and backtrack on the GPS and headed back to Halls Creek and on to home, total 622ks for the w'end.

The w'end before we ventured down the Canning Stock Route to Well 49 and back and saw a couple of Camels, hundreds of Brolgas, Pelicans, Swans and thousands of smaller ducks and waterbirds. The looks on the faces of travellers coming the other way when they saw the Splitty was great (especially when we told them we were heading down to Well 49 for a cuppa then turning around and heading back). We did over 400ks that w'end.

The Splitty is going really well and all the mods I did to the suspension etc while building it have worked out well without any adjustments needed so far. Allthough rear disc brake conversion is next improvement on the list as the sand in the drums is requiring adjustments every couple of weeks. The tilt steering column that I built for it is working very well and no more sore neck!!!

Cheers, Ian.


[Edited on 8-9-2004 by Desert Bug]

was wondering what you do for the air filter in the desert splitty ,are you using the oil type
david

Ian...it sounds brilliant....the Kimberley is an area of dreams for a lot of would be travellers..... I'd love to get up there one day...

Hope you have some pics to post one day....

Are you staying up there for the wet?

G'day,

David, I'm using standard oilbath air cleaner with an extension hose up into airvent, seems to be working fine.

Jenz, my motto is "DARE TO DREAM, DARE TO BE DIFFERENT", we love it up here and yes will be here during the wet. Photos soon.

Cheers, Ian.

Cool......

An excellent motto!! :thumb

cant wait to see the pics its an inspiration for me to build one similar!!
cheers
rhys

Yeah that's awesome man, keep up the good work.

More pics,
Splitty in river bed at Caroline Pool near Old Halls Creek.

[Edited on 8-9-2004 by Desert Bug]

Desert Splitty on Canning Stock Route along side washout.

Splitty in front of small lake up a track no one had been on for years.

Plaque at Well 49 180ks down CSR.

Campsite near Well 49 on CSR.

[Edited on 8-9-2004 by Desert Bug]

Another lake on the CSR.

Sunset on the CSR.

At an old Well down the CSR.

Hi Ian , looks very nice out there clean air

have you found me a Monaro out there yet ? neil

Hi Neil,
No Monaro yet but still finding new pockets of old wrecks every week. Haven't found any Splittys yet either.
Cheers, Ian.

Ok cheers

you need a plane up there .

Just a Helicopter would do!!!

Get a microlight! Cheap and easy to fly (who's gonna ask to see a license up your way?), really short take-off/landing, lightweight so you can carry it on your roofrack :-D

I love reading about the adventures of the Desert Splitty. That's one cool bus doing some way cool things.

This may be cover on another post, but what wheels (make/offset etc) are you running on the desert split now? Last post I read baout the wheels and tyres you were running Falcon Steel wheels with the PCD modded. The current ones look like alloys?

[Edited on 9-9-2004 by MikeM]

G'day,

I'm quite happy to stay somewhere near ground level, thanks for the suggestions, although I would like to get the Splitty up a little higher.

The mags are 15x7 Performance Wheels (Adelaide) Silver Lotus that were done for a Merc Vito van but stuck past the body 12mm so I grab them for the Splitty as an alternate set of wheels to the Falcon rims. I'll prob put the steels back on during the wet with Mud Terrains on the back. I like the look with the mags on.

Cheers, Ian.

The trip reports make a great read Ian! Your doing us all proud 🙂
I was wondering how much gear you carry on your trips (rough weight?)
Also how well sealed is the cabin to dust?
Cheers,
Richard

Wow....excellent pics Ian

The splitty looks good out there!!!! 😎

Great stuff desert splitty , excellent photo's. So now you have been down the C.S.R. a little bit , what are the chances of a modified kombi doing the complete trip in your opinion?I know it is suppose to be THE toughest and most remote single journey in Australia but friends I talked to who have done it a couple of times in their 3 ton old cruiser said they only used 4wd a couple of times . Now only a fool would head down the track with some pump up shockies and a jerry can or two, but I'm talking about a purpose built off-road capable machine with a minimum fuel range of 1200ks without jerries, fully modified suspension,big cooper tyres with spares, H.F. radio, recovery gear inc. winch. etc. I'm not talking about a solo crossing just a tag-a-long. What do you reckon?

looking like fun !

i love the fact u have driven out to the desert and taken lots of pics around water 🙂

:beer

Awesome Ian, great to hear from u again.. Looks awesome..

G'day dubcab,

Tag-a-long with us in 2006, June-July, with 5 Kombis on the list so far. Better still tag-a-long next year for the Simpson Desert (same group) in June-July.

I make a point of speaking to as many travellers that call in as I can to get a fairly broard feel about the CSR and I think generally by the time they get to us here at Billiluna they're pretty happy that it's over, tho most have had a great trip and adventure. The odd one has had a bit of trouble ie: broken spring, ruptured fuel tank, broken stub axle on trailer etc.

The busy time seems to be July-August with an average of 6-10 a day heading either way. We've had 12 series 1 Landrovers, 8 motorbikes from Vic., the Army took 8-10 soft top 6WD Landrovers down a few weeks ago, a few overseas Rego'd 4x4s and a few crossover 4x4s with buggerall clearance.

The longest section between fuel stops is about 711ks between Wiluna and Well 23 fuel dump, then approx 300ks to Well 35 Roadhouse and approx 630ks to Billiluna. I'm fitting a 130lt side tank of a truck under the bed and have a 60lt Bay tank in the back and have room up top for another 90lts in Jerry cans plus an 80 lt water tank under the bed as well.

I'm currently running 215/75x15 ATs all round and haven't got stuck anywhere yet that I can't get out of by letting the tyres down to 15-18 psi, I run 22-25 on the gravel roads and 30-35 on the bitumen. I carry a Tirfor type wire rope winch, tree protector, three 600mm long star pickets, 2 snatch straps, 2 spare wheels, a reasonably good air pump, 2 fan belts, clutch plate, clutch and accelerator cables, axe, long handle shovel, few ropes, tie downs and a fare assortment of tools also al the camping gear, Engel fridge (dual batteries) and food etc to stay out up to a week at a time.

Cheers, Ian.

Count us in, that would be an awesome trip with 5 kombi's. The dual cab will be quite a weapon by then. I've got 2 trips to victoria next year so i'm not sure about the simpson trip but i'll put it on the calander anyway just in case. Keep us posted about your adventures up that way. Excellent. Cheers Greg.

G'day All,
This w'end went out camping again (so many places to explore) with the neighbors down to Lake Gregory (Western side), about 80ks south of here. After camping the night (Sat) we dicided to continue south and drive around the lake which is supposed to be 3 times bigger than Sydney Harbour, after following a fading track for about 10ks we lost the track but decided to continue on bushbashing our way 25ks to the bottom where the GPS showed a gap between two lakes and a road across the bottom, we got within 400m of the road and found a 200m wide channel of water connecting the two lakes and no way across. The two lakes are about 7ks apart so we decided to follow up the Eastern side of the other lake and after a few ks decided to head towards our previous track so using the Gps and the dash mounted compass headed slightly East of North across country ("where no Kombi had gone before" or 4x4 for that matter) to eventually meet up with our track we made on the way down. We were travelling across 2' high Spinifex covered sandy open plains with a few dry clay pans dotted thru it and now the underneath of the Splitty is almost polished it is that clean.
The neihgbors Patrol suffered 2 flat tyres for the day, the Splitty none, went outside this morning and driverside tyre dead flat. It went out in sympathy for the Patrol.
We had a great w'end and the neighbours were blown away with how easy the Splitty travelled thru the bush.
Cheers, Ian.

yes thats why I selling my wifes Jeep !

Wow Sounding great Ian.
Andy is set up quite similar, 100L fuel (2 tanks) gives 600-800km range depending on conditions, 45L water, and plenty of spares. I run the same tyres but have 40/50 psi on road (tyres get to hot otherwise) and my flats were due to 2xvalves perished, 2xcracked rims! That's with new Merc ET39's. I have gotten stuck a couple of times in soft mud. I also added solar panels to keep the fridge going while camped for a few days.
My BIG problem was weight, GVM of 2250kg and I would have been ~2300kg for the entire round oz trip. The other problem was keeping dust out, both the engine bay and cabin.
Keep up the great reports.
Richard

Desert Bug wrote:I'm currently running 215/75x15 ATs all round and haven't got stuck anywhere yet that I can't get out of by letting the tyres down to 15-18 psi, I run 22-25 on the gravel roads and 30-35 on the bitumen. I carry a Tirfor type wire rope winch, tree protector, three 600mm long star pickets, 2 snatch straps, 2 spare wheels, a reasonably good air pump, 2 fan belts, clutch plate, clutch and accelerator cables, axe, long handle shovel, few ropes, tie downs and a fare assortment of tools also al the camping gear, Engel fridge (dual batteries) and food etc to stay out up to a week at a time.

Cheers, Ian.

Hey there, I thought that perhaps some of you might be interested in the 4x4 show, Thursday 21st October - Sunday 24th October, in Melbourne.

I've never been, but I might head in to see what's up.

I love reading about desert splitty too! Those adventures sound so cool!

G'day Folks,

We've been down in Bendigo (Vic) for a week seeing all the kids and grandkids in particular Rhett and Michelles' 6week old Brodie Cooper, who is a real Cutie. It's been great catching up with Family and Friends after three months up in Billiluna WA.

Richard, I missed your question re: dust in the cab and engine bay. We get a fair bit of dust inside, so I am going to get underneath with a couple of tubes of Sikaflex Automotive Sealant and seal up all the gaps that VW left along the Sills in particular, and relook at my door seals and looking at fitting a fan in the freshair duct so I can close the windows and put the fan on high and pressurize the the inside to keep the dust out. The engine bay needs a few small holes filled also which should reduce some of the dust.

Cheers, Ian.