2400Km in 25 Hours

G'day.

My Son and I Just did a quick trip south. Left after work on Tuesday (1-4-14)and arrived in Victoria the following evening. The trip computer was reset upon departure and was about to tick over 25 hours running time on arrival. We were on the road for 26 hours, just stopping to fuel up and toilet breaks. We had food and drinks in the car fridge.
Set cruise control and just keep moving with lightning stops to swap drivers and vent bladders.

The trip home a week later was a little more relaxed. we took an alternative rout through the Southern half of NSW and that added 50Km, also stopped for food. On the return trip we took 28 hours with 2.5 hours of non driving time.

Note to anyone thinking of driving through the less populated areas of Australia. Take extra fuel.
Drove into Cunnamulla at 6:30 am to discover lightning had taken out the fuel bowsers (an electrical fault). We probably had less than 4 litres left in our tank. Fortunately I carried an extra 80 litres. On the way back (about 2am) the 24 hour card only servo at Charleville was out of order (out with the fuel drums again).

Good report.

Last time we went to remote areas I took 60 litres of diesel & 10 petrol for the generator. I didn't need to touch the diesel and have since questioned taking such a large volume on the off chance. We did however fill up at almost every opportunity.

Guess it's good insurance. Wifie would be none too happy if we ran out.

How was your fuel consumption?

That's a flying trip, excellent timing for such a long distance.

We put a long range tank in to make sure we could avoid problems like this, but it sounds like that won't be enough. I've been wanting to buy a 5th jerry can - I'll go and do it.

NSW law (and I can't see why this would be different elsewhere) allows me to carry up to 250 litres of fuel (the limit for passenger vehicles, obviously trucks and buses can have more). I think for long trips in the future - especially in outback areas - we'll sit on that limit.

When we went into Central Australia we went via Port Augusta and the Stuart Highway. There were several service stations on the way, all of which were staffed (Glendambo BP, Woomera's independent, Coober Pedy's Caltex, Marla and Erldunda's Shells).

I hadn't thought that weather might cause damage - looks like outback Qld is a little less inviting, so on goes the spare fuel! Thanks for the tip!

That's a good effort!

I did Cairns back to Sydney in a Camry in January. Similar distance and took 7 hours off to sleep. Would have pushed through if it wasn't for the fact I had my parents in the car!!

G'day
We probably could have found fuel if we spent time hunting for it. It was just quicker to use the 'Spare fuel'
The fuel usage was around 9.8km/L. I spent several hours driving very slowly around some paddocks so that affected the average a little. (I was moderately successful, but nothing for the ice box).

Did Perth to orange in 36 hours years ago. Slept 4 hours then drove to Armidale to do some "extra " uni exams that I hadn't quite mastered during the previous semester.

Did Melbourne to an hour or so past bathurst with an empty car trailer, about an hour to put a car on the trailer ( dud battery and no fuel tank, just a jerry can )and headed back with a one hour sleep on the way back, usual fuel/food/toilet stops about 21-22 hour trip.

I done Warwick to Toowoomba in 6 hours!! Done the Condy, H&J, Cri and Uni before leaving town then done the pubs at Allora, Clifton, Nobby, Greenmount and at that stage it was getting fuzzy from there... Was an Apex inter club visit but we turned it into a pub crawl...

Oh we are talking about quick trips... I'm an ex truck driver and done a fair bit of express in the early days so I've done the odd quick trip....

Shit Brisbane to Townsville wore me out these day's I take it easy 600ks top.

well you can't do 25hrs stright driving in nz unless you have a boat or drive around in circles!

tweak'e said:

well you can't do 25hrs stright driving in nz unless you have a boat or drive around in circles!

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Sure you can, you just drive really really slow.

A few years back we did Melbourne to Townsville in 2 days on our way to the Cape. Slowed down a little bit after that.
Melbourne to Goondiwindi on day 1 then on to Townsville on day 2.

Jase V9X said:

A few years back we did Melbourne to Townsville in 2 days on our way to the Cape. Slowed down a little bit after that.
Melbourne to Goondiwindi on day 1 then on to Townsville on day 2.

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That's a lot of driving bet you slept well afterwards.

On a recent trip from Newcastle to melbourne ( healsville)
My trip meter read
Dist travelled 1089 klm
Trip time 08hrs 39min
Avg speed 109kph

2 lightning fast fuel stops and a few stints at over 100mph, overnight run, radar detector and monitoring ch 40
I love that hwy

sparra04 said:

On a recent trip from Newcastle to melbourne ( healsville)
My trip meter read
Dist travelled 1089 klm
Trip time 08hrs 39min
Avg speed 109kph

2 lightning fast fuel stops and a few stints at over 100mph, overnight run, radar detector and monitoring ch 40
I love that hwy

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That must of been in the f6 or the skyline, that's a bloody quick run sparra.

Just thinking back about interstate car travel after reading this tread. The days of really fast trips are gone. The Roads now days are just to busy and to well patrolled and probably just as well.

I remember doing Sydney Adelaide in under 12 hours . That was 34 years ago. Wouldn't even contemplated the thought of it now days. That's 1,400ks at an average of 120 Kph! To average that sort of speed... put it this way if you got caught now days you would be wasted

Tappet said:

Just thinking back about interstate car travel after reading this tread. The days of really fast trips are gone. The Roads now days are just to busy and to well patrolled and probably just as well.

I remember doing Sydney Adelaide in under 12 hours . That was 34 years ago. Wouldn't even contemplated the thought of it now days. That's 1,400ks at an average of 120 Kph! To average that sort of speed... put it this way if you got caught now days you would be wasted

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same here.
days of cruising at 150kmh are long gone, which is good cause we also got people smeared all over the roads to often.
plus no point even doing the speed limit. all you do is catch up to the back of the queue quicker and wait longer.
they even had to reduce the speed limit in places because people couldn't help themselves. they just wanted to meet the barrier at speed.
they replace the barriers on rotation because they can't afford to replace it every time it gets hit!

happy john said:

That's a lot of driving bet you slept well afterwards.

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Like a baby

Another reason for having spare fuel is that sometimes the town's servo doesn't keep early hours. We were stuck in Ivanhoe, NSw to 10am(?)waiting for fuel. Wll actually we had to wait to pay for the camp spot as well, otherwise I could have just dropped 20l top up into the tank and gone on.

A third reason is to cut the refuelling $$$ a bit. It might only be a saving of $10 max/20 litres, but dropping 20l jerry into the tank before you reach the servo will save in those places that charge like a wounded bull. Sadly the brain didn't click to this trick until we were out of the expensive fuel area out the NW.

Our days of the long trips(900kms+) are well gone. We start looking for a camp site afte 300 kms now.