road training from wa to queensland

[cwolf]

okay haven't had much in the way of phone reception my fault for being with optus i suppose.
day 3:
so got going out of willmington about 5.
Must say it was i nice quiet peacefull night in that road train bay not a sole in all night really
didn't wanna get up that morning.
Traveled on through broken hill,willcania and to cobar with intentions on going straight through to bourke only to discover the road was closed due to water over the road.
Only after driving through the town (about 3 or 4 turns) did we find this out, another semi was in front of me doing a u turn when i came to the signs.
Luckily there was just enough room to get the road train around.
Detoured to nyngan to get to bourke but alas the water was over the road there as well.
Only found this out while driving through byrock from the other semi driver.
They closed it at nightfall and where reopening it at 7 next morning so parked up for the night in byrock.
1110 k's acheived for the day.
I was only going to get as far as bourke anyway so no big deal
except i couldn't get away as early as i would have liked.

Pictures to follow soon

 

[cwolf]

day 4
slightly later start left byrock at 6 to be at the water as soon as they open it up.
And timed it just right got straight through.
Through bourke and onto cunamulla.
Needed fuel so dropped the trailers in the parking bay and went into town to
fuel up only to be told by the owner that i could have brought them in and parked
on the road as they have an extra long hose on the diesel bowser especialy for road trains !
I'll keep that in mind.
Not far out of cunamulla had to spend an hour fixing up the load as i had a little bit of a run in with a sharp unexpected rise in the road resulting in a bit of movement and everything coming loose on the rear of the dog.
No harm done just a pain wasting more time.
On through charleville,morven,mitchel,roma and just short of miles to a place called dulacca.
Parked up for the night.
868 k's done which leaves less than 500 to do tomomorrow to get to destination.

Once again i'll sort some pics out soon. Taken so many and gone thrrough so many new towns i'm starting to loose track.

 

[KraftyPg]

Gotta love the load shifts, I dunno how many people used to tell me that it's a sign of bad driving when loads shift, yet none of them truly understand just what happens out on the road and that it can be anything from bad driving to bad roads. As long as the load doesn't come free too bad I say. Carting bread is always a bugger for a shifting load, strangely enough it's not a very forgiving product when it comes adrift in the back of the truck. I once lost a bread dolly out the back door when the cargo bars gave way heading along a rough suburban road.

Good to hear your not running into any trouble, people can rag Euro trucks (or any truck for that matter) but they still do the job and there is plenty of them out there doing it every day.

 

[cwolf]

exactly people don't realise the stresses that your load goes through what with lumpy roads and the flexing of the trailer etc.
i've never had anything fall off the back and plan to keep it that way.
As far trucks go they col have their strengths and weaknesses. trick is to pick the right one for the job you're doing. Too many people make the wrong choice then blame the truck not themselves.
i'll try and get this updated tonight when i'm in brissy, gonna try visit a mate whilst i'm there.

 

[KraftyPg]

I like the title of picture 3 in the above post. pretty much sums up 90% of what is in any photo out there.

 

[Boosted]

I'll toot if I see ya coming through Gladstone

 

[cwolf]

I'll toot if I see ya coming through Gladstone

i didn't actually need to go into gladstone went to boyne island to the smelter.
I'll be in brisbane for the next couple of days getting one trailer loaded while the boss tries to find a backload for the other.
As the other one fell through.

 

[KraftyPg]

Hope for the bosses sake he finds you that back load. There is always a few empty trucks doing the paddock crossing but in most cases it really must hurt to run and empty load that far.

 

[cwolf]

i think what back load we have got is enough to make it worth while.
but obviously the more the merrier.
Probably be the difference between him being keen on doing a trip like this again or not.

 

[KraftyPg]

I've did a trip (3 up) from Gippsland to Townsville in a IH ACCO with an empty float to pick up a D9 Dozer about 17 years ago carting long distances empty sucks, but atleast you've got something. Never know the boss might let you stay a few days if he can find a good load.

 

[darwind22]

used to cart cotton bales (105 bales24.5T for memory)from north west NSW to sydney warehouse in taughtliner no straps just close the curtains.never had any problems of load moveing....If you have enough weight for the suspension to work it's all good. Also brewery at Yatela (Qld) would recomend not to tie the pallets of cartons if you didnt have gates as this would break the glue bond beetween the ctns and thay woul shift...Yatla to sydny via Pacific hwy about 11 yrs ago. have a good trip back.. cheers

 

[cwolf]

thats a god example of the huge varation in load restraint requirements between different types of freight.
Haven't updated this much it's proving rather more difficult than anticipated due to a glitchy nokia that cuts my internet off at the worst times. usually when i try to post something and it then dissappears.
Very frustrating but i'll keep trying

 

[KraftyPg]

Yeah I'd be screwed doing a daily journal on my trips across, most times because of where we do stop for the night the reception is barely enough to get an SMS out and I'd be too lazy to go looking for a signal. I'd just write it all down and do a big post when I got home

This is still making for a good story though!

 

[tatty]

Wait, what the hell is the secret?
In the Nulla I've only seen the wind tunnels, caves, telegraph, fowlers, bite, whale sightings, plenty of viewing spots, that's about it. I need to make a stop at cook, and do some of those 4x4 roads that take you to awesome mountains and hiking tracks.

 

[KraftyPg]

It's at Wirulla but I'm not giving it away incase some people might still have a sense of adventure and want to find it for themselves.

 

[cwolf]

hi all small update and a quuestion
due to my phone being a bitch and coverage issues with optus i'm
gonna wait till i get home and sit down in front of the computer to finish off the
story.
But currently just leaving broken hill after finding a safe place to park one trailer
and the dolly.
And now heading into victoria, my question is for the vic locals what would be your recomended
route to get to Sale from mildura.?
Thanks in advance.

 

[KraftyPg]

If you're in broken Hill you need to go Mildura to Sale wouldn't you?

Either way it's easier in just about every vehicle to use the main highways. Calder Hwy from Mildura to the city, City Link (Monash Freeway Toll road) to the other side of town, don't turn off to Phillip Island go towards Warragul, keep driving about 200 odd ks to Sale.

Wave to me when your not far from Sale.

Are you headed into Sale for a backload or something?

 

[KraftyPg]

Sorry I read the above wrong, you are going Mildura to Sale.

Still the best way is the way I described any other way and it's too many gear change, too many hills or too many side roads, don't worry about an Etag, ring the boss and tell him to get an etag online (citylink.com.au), he's got three days to get it after you travel and he'll need one for each direction. I can't remember the costs for a semi but it's his credit card so who cares.

Your GPS will pretty much show the main roads as the way to go.

Calder Hwy Mildura to Bendigo (you can go around Bendigo and Kangaroo Flats) most GPS's know it and recommend it. It's about 4 hours or so from memory and you'll go through towns like Ouyen and Whycheproof.

From Bendigo head to Melb, there is a BP Truck stop at Calder Park raceway, if you need fuel get it because there is nothing easy for trucks until the other side of the city. Follow the Calder into town and pretty much past the Tullamarine Airport. Follow the signs to City Link, once on citylink follow to the Bolte Bridge then not far after that you need to follow the road to Dandenong or Warragul, (I can't remember what is on the signs).

Once you do the big sweeping left hand turn to Dandenong/Easter burbs you follow that into the tunnel. Pick a lane and stay in that lane through the tunnel, us truckies get a bad enough name from those whinging fuck wit car drivers who can't handle the road with trucks to give them more ammo to whinge. Keep an eye on your speed, I think it's 80 all the way through but it's also down hill and they frown upon speeders in the tunnels.

Out of the tunnel and follow the Monash Fwy out of town, about 25ks or something out avoid the left lanes to Philip island/South Gippsland and follow to Warragul. Warragul is about 40mins to an hour but you go around it. Just keep following the hwy through Yarragon and Trafalgar, bypass Moe and Morwell, get stuck in Traralgon because of all the traffic lights then eastward for 27ks to Rosedale. Left at the Rosedale Pub (following the highway) and Sale is 27ks further on.

If you need instructions for getting around Sale let me know 4 years of delivers in that crappy place gave me a fair knowledge of the place.

Rinse and repeat to get back out of hell.

 

[cwolf]

that's awesome krafty just what i was after
getting info outta the office is like trying to pull teeth with tweezers.
Heading down there to pick up 2 sea containers ones a work shop.
Will Definately need fuel for the return trip so that 's gold.
My brother lived in sale in the 70's and now lives in ballarat
he pretty much said the same as you
thanks again mate most helpfull !

 

[KraftyPg]

With a single trailer your best options are probably BP Calder HWY, both in and outbound, and depending on what sort of economy you get it's about 300ks to Sale from Calder. There is also another 2 BP roadhouses (East and West) a bit east of Berwick (the highway bypasses Berwick so don't go in there) which have room for trucks and they also sell food which might be a bit better than the dimmies and chips you get at some places. I haven't used the truck facilities there because it's too close to home but I believe they will be fairly good.

Sale to Berwick is about 170ks so if you fill up at Calder there is a good chance you'll get to Sale and back to Berwick before looking desperately for fuel, if you get further even better.

Sale hasn't changed since the 70's, it was shit then and its shit now, avoid talking to the locals as much as you possibly can and watch the roadworks coming across the bridge into Sale, they've had mobile cameras out there recently and it's a 40kph limit 24/7 I believe.

Have a good run if you get in any shit give us a yell on here and I'll try and help you out.