road training from wa to queensland

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cwolf

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Location
bunbury wa
g'day all
i've on this forum for awhile now and thought i'd share a bit of my life as a truck driver
been driving trucks for over 10 years now and have had a bit of variation in jobs.
Started out doing furniture removals then tow trucks,tilt trays semi tilts and now onto
floats and general freight including alot of oversize loads.
Mostly in the south west of WA and oover the last few years lots of north west trips.

Now i have embarked on my first trip accross the paddock.
Bunbury WA to gladstone QLD

Day 1
wed 7/3/2012
spent most of the day loading and preparing the truck for the journey.
Day 2 take both trailers to the road train assembly area half way between bunbury and
collie and hookup ready to go.
 

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day 1
left the hookup bay about 6:30am route took me through wagin,lake grace,lake king,
esperance and to norseman.
Refuel shower etc. Gotta say good service and facilities at the bp.
Then headed east for about 100 k's and parked up for the night.
917 k's for the first day.
 

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day 2
sees me going through balladonia along the '90 mile straight' (146k's no bends)
,madura eucla and across the border into south australia.
Continueing along the eyre highway skirting the great australian bight.
unfortunately none of the lookout spots are big enough to pull up in a road train.
Onwarda through yalata and pulled up for the night at nundroo roadhouse/ pub
1001 k's completed for the day.
 

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the border quaranteen station and a cheeky crow having a feed on grasshoppers splatted
on the front of the truck.
 

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What's that Volvo like to drive? I haven't driven a Volvo on a long haul for years but I drove an old 07 FH16 on a few short runs a year or so back. I don't mind them but many people bitch and moan about them.

It's funny how little some of those photos show yet to someone who's driven that road a few times you can almost pick where each photo with no real distinguishing signs or landmarks are.

Have a safe run!
 
volvo's excellent to drive this ones brand new.
had 350k's on the clock when i got behind the wheel.
it's a 540hp with the ishift gearbox basicaly a manual controlled by a couple of computers and it's awesome does it's job very well indeed.
We've got a couple of freightliners as well and i can tell you i'm glad i'm not driving one of them.
Only annoying thing about the volvo is the ad blue . . .
 
Last report I read of trucks doing the paddock run they were pretty much required to carry their own ad blue and enough of it to get from start to end because servos out there didn't have it, is that still the case or can you pick it up across there now?
 
i think you're right as far as i know.
i've got a pallet cube of the stuff in the container on the back.
A bit extreme but better than running out and derating.

Boss is looking at getting another tank made for it and mounting it above the batteries. along with a tool box and water tank.
 
volvo's excellent to drive this ones brand new.
had 350k's on the clock when i got behind the wheel.
it's a 540hp with the ishift gearbox basicaly a manual controlled by a couple of computers and it's awesome does it's job very well indeed.
We've got a couple of freightliners as well and i can tell you i'm glad i'm not driving one of them.
Only annoying thing about the volvo is the ad blue . . .

giddy up mate. sure is beautiful country out there.
 
Yeah that's how the truck I read about was handling the situation, they took more than they needed but they had it in a custom made tank behind the cab. This was about 12 months ago though so I though maybe atleast one servo out there had moved forward with the times, although lets face it they don't need too, out there they are a necessity and people pay what they have to for the service (or lack of service) they need.

Happy traveling by now you must be either at or past the Gutta, it's all up hill from there to QLD...atleast it is on my map.
 
day 3
rolled into ceduna about 8, unhooked the trailers and went to the hospital.
Had a toothache go bad, got infected and one side of my face is swollen up like
i've just gone 4 rounds with danny green !
Spent 4 hours in the hospital and at the doctors clinic.
Came out armed with antibiotics and pain killers so hopefully that'll fix me.!

Back in the truck and headed off about 12:30
passing through minipa,kimba and into port augusta about 6
broke up the road train and ran the lead and dolly out to the other side of willmington through horricks pass.
Bobtailed back to port augusta to grab the dog,fuel and food.
And out to willmington to reassemble and fill up the ad blue.
And that's it for day parked up for the night.
 

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Aw yeah, I can pick out every photo! Just went east-west a month back. It's too beautiful!

You didn't have to fill up throughout the Nulla did you? The prices are just terrible b/w Norseman and Border Village (echula seems to be alright though).
 
Eucla is cheaper on Fuel (although not accessible to anything bigger than a single trailer without effort) but I'll never refuel there again after their bullshit practices with dodgy pumps.

Next time you go through (if you don't get jack of it the first time) all that graffiti on those concrete tanks will have changed, I noticed changes every 12 months or so when I drive past them.

Aint the Horricks pass a wonderful road? Atleast it's shorter and smoother than the alternative that my GPS wants to send me on which is about 20ks out of PA.

Hey did you stop like a tourist and see "The Secret"?
 
I did that drive this time last year in my own work ute, wicked drive along the nullabore ill do that again with the missus eventually. I would never do a drive like that if I had to drive an American pos euro trucks ftw...haha
 
Eucla is cheaper on Fuel (although not accessible to anything bigger than a single trailer without effort) but I'll never refuel there again after their bullshit practices with dodgy pumps.

Next time you go through (if you don't get jack of it the first time) all that graffiti on those concrete tanks will have changed, I noticed changes every 12 months or so when I drive past them.

Aint the Horricks pass a wonderful road? Atleast it's shorter and smoother than the alternative that my GPS wants to send me on which is about 20ks out of PA.

Hey did you stop like a tourist and see "The Secret"?

i saw the signs about the 'secret' but just figured it was a tourist gimmick so didn't saw much attention to it.
as for horricks . . . . damn i so want to take my evolution lancer through there.! !
 
Oh it is a complete gimmick but its free and kind of funny enough to see and you don't even need to get out of the car, although in a truck it might be a bit tight. The thunderdome 200 metere from "The Secret" is also one of those tourist thing worth a 30sec look. Note I have deliberatly not named the secret in case someone reading this doesn't want to be told, anyone wanting to know google it and rather than spoil it for others.

How far did you get from Willmington today? Must only be about a day or so out of Gladstone by now
 
Great pics mate.

A good mate of mine is a truckie. Usually driver a FMX Volvo or a Western Star. But usually drives the Volvo rigid.

Rides pretty good for a truck.
 
Sounds like a good trip.. On cheeky crows Had 1 steal 2 lamb chops out of my frypan while thay were still sizzlig away.. gas mate cooker set up on the draw bar of the dolly on the second trailer went back to the cab to make a coffee ,and saw the black bastard flying of with the last chop on my way back...
 

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