Vehicle Preparation

When deciding to do a trip a certain amount of planning must be done to make the whole event more enjoyable. Pre- planning can be as enjoyable as the trip by collecting information from tourist information centres, obtaining maps and finding out about the area and points of interest, history of the area and so on.

When planning a trip preparation of your vehicle is a very important part of the trip, for with out a reliable vehicle a holiday could be spoilt. If you have a conventional car / station wagon the likely hood of straying to far from civilisation is remote, where as those with four wheel drive vehicles are likely to be far more adventurous and travel into remote areas of this beautiful continent.

Before setting out certain things must be undertaken to ensure that your holiday / trip is going to be enjoyable. How often I have driven up the express way out of Sydney to see vehicle after vehicle loaded up with holiday equipment and the bonnet up. Why - because they didn't look under the bonnet before they left as part of their holiday preparation.

It is not a bad idea to have your car serviced a week or so before your holiday and mention to the service centre that you intend to be going on a trip and to do a pre-trip check. Most service centres will be only too happy to do this, and point out items like brake pads, fan belts, hoses or fuel filters that might need attention and check the tyres and make sure the battery is good. An alternative is to have a motoring authority (i.e. NRMA) to give their advice or even an inspection on your vehicle, but anything that is needed to be done will have to be carried out in a service centre. It is a worthwhile investment to join the motoring authority in your state. These have agreements with authorities in other states and extended plans to cover you while your vehicle is repaired if the worst happens.

These things are more common sense to the experienced driver and are basic maintenance of your motor vehicle. If the vehicle is of low mileage then trouble free motoring should be experienced, but if the vehicle has done over 100,000 kilometres then certain spares should be carried. These include things like hoses, fan belts, points, spark plugs and leads, spare oil and water and is your timing belt due for replacement? If you are traveling west and depending the time of the year there is always the chance of encounting swams of flying insects like the grass hoppers. When I first purchased my vehicle I fitted an insect screen behind my front grill to protect the radiator from being clogged up and reducing the cooling capacity of the radiator.

If you are taking a trailer, van or the boat, how long has it been since the wheel bearings were looked at? Not a hard job to do but a dry bearing can be a problem miles from the next town and will they have the parts needed to do the repair. It's a lot easier to do jobs like that before you leave home. If you can't do it get your service centre to do it or there are mechanics that have mobile workshops that will do the job at your place. Those with boat trailers require more attention than box trailers or caravans because of the salt water.

No matter how good the tyres, you can still pick up the puncture so make sure that the spare is in good condition as many a person remembers the spare too late as they drag it out to find it flat. For those heading off the beaten track extra tyres and tubes should be carried with the equipment to enable these repairs to be carried out and know how to use it.

For those intending to head bush, it is advisable to have done a course on 4 x 4 driving. By doing a course, a better understanding of the capabilities of your vehicle and its workings will be learnt. There are a number of organisations commercially that do weekend training courses. These are on the whole very comprehensive with their training.

There is also the four wheel drive clubs that run driver training courses, in fact, to participate in club outings one has to have done a driver training course before one can do trips with the club. This is a very good way to gain from others expertise, as these clubs do a variety of trips from which you can chose to gain experience.

As you can appreciate these trips with a club can be a good way to do a shake down trip. From these trips you will have a better understanding of what you left behind to make your camping more enjoyable. Take a notebook and write down the things that are missing and gather ideas from other members on these trips. This will help in making that checklist for further outings with your vehicle. We have a very comprehensive check list available on our web site, that you can down load.

With the experience gained and having your vehicle properly prepared with the correct recovery gear and equipment, one can either get one self out of a predicament or be assisted. This is all part of preparing for a trip. Its like an insurance policy, you don't need it until you have a problem.

Winches & Recovery Equipment

Just a small bit about winches and recovery equipment.
As you will realise, a winch on the front of a vehicle will only take you in one direction, and that's forward, or recover some one in trouble in front of you. A hand winch of adequate size can be much more useful, because this is a portable piece of equipment and can be used for things like pulling a tree off the road or pulling your vehicle out of a bog from the rear. If both are available then all aspects are covered.

When using a winch there is other equipment required to be able to use the winch sucessfully and to the full potential. This falls under the term of recovery equipment. When using a winch you have to be able to hook onto something like a tree. We have to be responsible when doing things like this out there in the wilderness and not to damage the tree. A tree protector is used for this purpose. This piece of equipment is a wide piece of webbing with a loop in each end making it into a sling and usually 3 metre long. This will not bight into the tree and ringbark it. It will then be there for some one else to use and be thankfull that it is there.

Shackels are another usefull piece of equipment . When buying any of this equipment make sure it is rated. By this we mean that it will have as safe working load put on it by the manufacturer and will be marked on the item. The shackles from the hardware stores are not normally rated, these need to be purchased from a supplier that carries such equipment like camping stores, 4 x 4 specilists etc.
All Camping Supplies carries a full range of rated recovery equipment

Other pieces of usefull of equipment is the pully as well as a snatch strap. With a pully one can use to increase the pulling power of the winch. A snatch strap is used between two vehicles where one is stuck and needs assistance. It is to put it in simple terms a big elastic band. The towing vehicle takes off and the the strap stretches to a certain extent until the stuck vehicle come free and moves. It is most important that the recovery points on your vehicle are rated for this type of use.

To gain the experience to use all this type of equipment one needs to do some training with a four wheel drive club or an organisation that specalises in doing this type of activity.

Four wheel drive Clubs have adopted the following policy
Take nothing but photos
Leave nothing but footprints
The other thing that you will find is that responsible club will leave an area cleaner than when they arrived. They know we all have to do our part in keeping Australia beautiful.

Electric Winches

One point about vehicle winches that work on battery power, you only get about 6 minutes of winch time before the battery is requiring re- charging and cooling of the winch. The winch motors are basically a starter motor and because of their design draw a lot of power to operate, also generating a lot of heat. If you have to use an electric winch while stuck in the middle of a creek, there is a big chance that the winch will fail after a short period, as they do not like to be immersed in water. If you are with others, get them to winch you.

One thing that is overlooked and that's the maintenance on the winch. It's a good idea to do a check on the winch especially when going on a trip or after a trip when it has been given a ducking. It is also a very good idea is to have a winch isolator installed under the bonnet, as this will stop unauthorised persons operating your winch whilst the vehicle is parked. Yes, it does happen.

Hand Winches

A hand winch will work all day. Just remember if you are using a winch, either power or hand, safety is paramount. Remember to wear the correct protective equipment and to put a dampener over the winch cable. This can be in the form of a bag, blanket of a rope looped. No matter what you use, a winch rope,( and hope it never happens to you,) that if it breaks under tension, will whip and can cause a lot of damage, if it is not dampened.

PTO Winches

Apart from the hand and the powered winch there is also the Power Take Off type (PTO)winch. This is powered by the motor of the vehicle and usually comes off the gearbox. The early Land Rover's were well known for the different items of equipment that were available to be run off their PTO unit including a capstan winch as well as a drum winch for the front and on the back you could have a drum drive to run belt driven things like pump or a large saw etc. for use around the farm because this is what the Landrover was developed for.

Hydraulic Winches

Another type of winch is the hydraulic winch. This type uses hydraulic pressure to operate the winch and uses the power steering pump to power it. The motor needs to be running for this one to be able to work but you can winch all day with it.

Vehicle Equipment List

A list of equipment has been compiled below. Some equipment that has been included as a suggestion only required when undertaking the extreme Four Wheel touring. Some items are for petrol driven vehicles and can be ignored if you own a diesel and vice-a versa and depending on how the vehicle has been prepared.It also depends the age of the vehicle and some equipment might not be compatible for use, e.g. high lift jack.

It is up to you to work out what extra equipment that you are going to carry and what areas you are going to travel in the way of remoteness
I always carry a set of fan belts and a set of hoses plus a small compressor and tyre repair kit as well as my recovery kit, screwdrivers, sockets and spanners as well as some otherhand tools.