The ACCO, Austin and the D-Line road trip to Alice

I'd better finish this story off. It's taken longer to write than in took in real life .

We'd had a little bit of drama in Alice when Alan discovered signs of water in the oil of the old Austin. After seeking advice from experts and passers by it was decided to use Chemiweld or something similar, so Alan spent some of Saturday draining and refilling the Austin. It seemed to fix the problem and the Old Austin ran ok through the parade with no sign of more water in the oil after.

So Monday we set off home full of confidence. Basil overtook us down the road a bit, but we caught him again when he stopped for lunch

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And then he was off again.

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An un-eventful afternoon was followed by night camp just off the road near a bore

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Next day we were headed for Coober Pedy, but Alan persuaded us to take a detour just before we got there to see the Breakaways. It was a spectacular land formation and well worth the detour

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On to Coober Pedy, where we tried out the ACCO with an extra load

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And also met Rus Marshal, editor of HCVC newsletter.

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Like everyone else, am enjoying the story immensly. The bloke doing the parking was a real pain in the rectum. We ran foul of him & ended up setting up camp in the far back corner of the parking lot behind the rthof. With all the rain & mud we ended up getting a mobile home to shower in after being told that we had to walk right around to go to the toilets & showers, we could'nt cut across the paddock or anything like that, even with our entry tags on. I was driving the camper up toward our site & our parking man spotted me, he could'nt head me off quick enough. After a short discussion, we agreed to disagree & I parked behind our trucks & put a parking number on the dash, he never came near us for the rest of our stay. After the sun came out our temperament seemed to improve no end & the rest of the stay was enjoyable. keep the stories coming fellas. Cheers Tim

We left Coober Pedy and were making for our sand hill camp from the trip up, just passed Lake Hart. Along the way we stopped at a roadhouse for a break and Alan decided to top-off the petrol tank in the Austin. We were doing well for diesel so went on ahead to set up camp.

We got to our camp spot in good time and scouted out a camp site that didn't involve crossing the sandhill where we got bogged last time. Just before we rolled into camp I got a message on my phone from Alan to say he had broken a fan belt, but had a spare and would soon be on his way again. So Sarge and I got the gear out of the truck and got a good fire going to guide the others in. Half an hour later and still no sign of Alan. We got on the CB and hailed a passing 4wd, he reported that he'd passed Alan about 10ks earlier and Alan was still moving We waited another 15 mins, but still no Austin . Finally I had a brainwave, I could ring him and see what the problem was IT turns out that both Alan and I were so used to having no reception that in the middle of no where that we both assumed that the other had no reception Anyhow Alan answered his phone, he was about 4k away and had another broken fan belt (no more spares) and the old Austin couldn't cope without some water circulating in the engine.

Well be buried the camp fire and packed up our gear and went back to see what we could do. It was soon obvious that we couldn't do anything in the dark, and the place the Austin had stopped wasn't a good place to camp, so we stuck a chain on and the ACCO really was tested, carrying one and towing another back to our abandoned camp. We did see the irony in towing the Austin back into the camp it had towed us out of : .

Back at camp, Alan remembered he had RACV total care and as they had helped him out with the Austin before there was no reason why they wouldn't do it again. Long story short, he got on to the local agent in Roxby Downs who had the right belt and we arranged to meet at Spuds Roadhouse at the Womera turn-off at 10.30 the next day.

It was 26ks from our camp to Spud's, so we decided to tow the Austin there rather than running backwards and forwards in the ACCO. So next morning after a hearty breakfast we chained the two old girls together again and headed off. It wasn't a bad run, pretty slow but not too much traffic to worry about and we got there ok

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Before the RACV man turned up, this float pulled in with "the biggest grader in Australia" sure was a big sucker

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Our man soon turned up with the fan belt and after a bit of mucking about to realign the pulleys we were ready to go again.

Driving, driving, driving....

It's a long way between stops

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We had a quick fuel stop at Port August and kept going. Somehow I managed to be back in the driving seat going over the Flinders ranges again, only this time I had a clutch, but it sure was a slow trip. We made it to Burra for our final nights camp and it was raining again. In true Inter style the wipers were playing up, but fortunately they were working on the driver's side.

Next morning we drove through to Mildura where we separated the siamese twins. We stopped at the local Cat dealer thinking they might have a ramp, they didn't but were able to direct us to one down the road. After that we drove in convoy to Robinvale where we stopped for one last cuppa together and then went our separate ways

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For this trip the hero of the day has to be the perky little ACCO. Pulled out of paddock by Sarge after sitting there for 10year. Change the oil, add a battery and drive it all the way to Alice Springs and back carrying an overweight D Line tipper. Ok, so he also did some work on the injectors, clutch and stater, but it's still a pretty incredible feat for a 40 year old truck.

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We had a great time, and along the way met some old friends and made some new ones, and had oursleves an adventure.

Congrats you guys....one of the best reads Ive had for a long time.
Sarge you have to be thrilled to bits with the ACCO. Its a big haul for the old banger and she did it well.
Im sure you guys feel the same way about the whole trip as Stomper and I do.....It was all about the trip for us. The RTHoF show was just an excuse to go somewhere.

Go The Inters
Basil

Great travelogue, Dennis, it had everything.

Great story Dennis. It's great the enthusiasm that a lot of us share. I reckon Sarge's ACCO looks great, a 10 year rest in a paddock and it's away again, and you've had a lot of fun.

G'day Dennis, an excellent read, Sir! I had a grin on my face, the whole time I was reading every installment.
I, too take my hat off to the old ACCO, an outstanding effort.
Thanks for sharing it all with us.
Harleigh.

Well Dun Guys
Gr8 pix n Story

SMore pls

Q:?
Hoo twaz in charge of the work diaries n falseifying evidense
LOL

Cya
[ch9787]

New mate Rick helped out with the shenannigans of being bogged and took a couple of good pics...





It was a great road trip ....

Best moment.... driving the mighty Perkins ACCO into Alice with the D on top still makes me grin (and got all the way back home again)

Least Best.... the lack of interest shown by the RTHoF to the many travellers who brought, carried, drove their trucks to make the event what it was...
no parking, no plans, no welcome, no idea???
(The HCVC do it 1000 times better)

do it agin.... nah.. now i have had my serious trucking road trip the itch is bearable....

Recommend it ... with bells on, no regrets, excellent time was had.

Other top moment, seeing the other old girls driving around, particularly those that were working with a bit of a load or road.....

next trip... Sandown....

see ya there

(and ifn you are a glutten for photo's, my camera dump is here, unedited, flowers too)

s445.photobucket.com/albums/qq176/18719m...hole%20alice%20trip/

/me

I give in Sarge, what is this?