Thank you all for the feedback.
Understand 6 months may not be considered enough time but it is the amount of time we have. On the long side we may be willing to stretch to 7-ish months but we definitely want to be back in the US by Christmas 2024. My wife has set her limit at home by American Thanksgiving (~3rd week of Nov). So her stated limit right now is 6 1/2 months.
We'll play that by ear somewhat but the 6-7 months is a hard limit.
Certainly aware that I will have a LHD vehicle in a RHD country.
I am putting some amount of trust in the Carnet CPD process that Australia is signatory to. I have received Concessional RAV entry and import Approval from the Dept. of Infrastructure and Transport for the trailer. Since I made the trailer myself, I was most concerned about getting that approval.
Interestingly, my application for the Jeep was refused but not for reasons of being LHD or any other mechanical issue. It was refused because I am not an Australian citizen or permanent resident and thus not eligible for import approvals.
We will be essentially trying our luck as we travel through states if their local restrictions do not allow our vehicle. I guess if that restricts our available travel ranges to just states that do allow the vehicle, then that is where we will be travelling to....
Getting insurance is a very current issue for me. Yesterday I contacted RACV by phone, who had told me via email that they would be able to assist me but I needed to call them on the phone, only to learn that they said they could not help me once I actually got on the phone with them
They did refer me to the Insurance Council of Australia who I also called and got numbers GSA and Eternity. GSA said they could not help and Eternity took down all my info and plans to call or email me back.
So I wait to resolve that right now too.
The challenge RACV had was that I would not have a residence address in Australia.
I do have a contact and friend of a friend that I met this past Dec whom lives in the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane. My last resort, if needed, is to ask her if I can use her address as my stated residence for the purpose of getting insurance.