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Old 28-10-2016
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pete 56  pete 56 is offline
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Default Blue Mountains to Uluru trip

Quick report before its to late.
During the school holidays I took the JK ('08 shorty) for a long drive from the Blue Mountains to Uluru. 14 days, a little over 6,000 klms about $1,000 worth of petrol (over $2 a litre at some places). The Wrangler did not miss a beat!!! I was a very happy Jeep owner! Cruising along with the cruise control on, windows open, music blaring was great! But I guess I'm preaching to the converted here. Before I left I put on 5 new tyres, Perelli MTR Scorpions which I choose because I got them for a VERY good price. 285/70/17 on the standard rims.

I also changed front disc pads, spark plugs, air filter, coolant, wiper blades, diff oils and transfer case oil. Unfortunately I couldn't do the transmission oil as I didn't have the tool to access the drain plug. (Apparently the tool required can be made but I don't think I am able to do that. Not sure what the tool costs, I'm guessing it's not cheap, any suggestions?)

Went with my nephew and his family, they have a Patrol and unfortunately their vehicle did not fare as well as the mighty JEEP which lost us some time and cost them about a $1,000.

I did have an oops on the way there, ran out of fuel, not entirely my fault. We passed through Port Augusta during the tail end of the storms which caused so much damage and there was no power. We were planning on staying for a night but because of the circumstances decided to push on and hopefully find somewhere calmer for the night. No power = no petrol, we did have a Jerry can with us but hadn't filled it as yet. So we continued north assuming/ hoping to find somewhere to get fuel. Well not so!

By this time it was dark, raining, cold and VERY windy and the fuel light came on. Next fuel 110klms away, no way I thought but nothing else to do but keep going! As the klms slowly got eaten up I actually thought I might make it. I reduced speed even more and kept going. At 105klms it died, as they say so close and yet so far! It could have been worse, the Patrol went ahead got some fuel and returned, all sorted.

We did the 'Rock', The Olgas, Kings Canyon, lots of walking, we did the Oonadatta track on the way back which was a breeze. Had a great time...