Well Martin has got his car and at the moment we are trying to get it ready for the big trip.
First job is to get the 12' punt to fit comfortably on the roof rack and we have come up
with a system where no ropes or straps will be needed to sucure the boat to the rack.
It is prooving to be somewhat more difficult then I first thought with the boat going up
on top and getting some mesurements and so forth, then coming down again for the welding part.
First attempt proved to have things get in the way and was difficult to load up top.
I have modified it and now hope it will proove easy to put up and down.
Meanwhile Martin has successfuly fitted the driving lights, and the cb radio.
With the rain coming and giong and with doing the conversions in the open it hasn't really
been easy.
Went to start the car today and move it under a bit of cover, and the thing cranked over about
5 seconds and that horrible GROWLLLLLLL of a flat battery was greeting us.
not to worry we will simply jump start it as we have plenty of batterys here.
NO GO even with 2 batterys connected and my rover at 2000 revs the thing still wouldn't start
of course after a few attemps the jumper leads would get hot.
OK I have the main battery on charge and we will see what happens, when we connect it back up.
This all happened before I done any welding on the car as I wanted to move the car
and disconnect the batterys before any welding to the car.
Next job after the rack for the boat is finished will be a swing out rear spare wheel holder for
one if not 2 spares. Then the rod holders for front of bull bar, then placing the high lift jack
on the bull bar, and some water/oil/fuel containers will be thought of but these may have to be put on
back order if Martin wants to get going on his trip. Or simply use the old jerry can system.

Condensation Strange that it wouldn't start and the leads get hot. Sounds sinister to me, but I have trouble finding where the petrol goes.

Hey Frank you better fit a Bunyip Detector to the car for Martin !

We dont him being eaten in his travels

Odd that the Battery just died like that just do the norm & check the contact points of the cables you know the drill

Frank, it would appear that the battery in question has a broken joiner plate,
or a badly sulphated cell,
the reason that your jumper leads are getting hot is that the starter battery is not accepting any power feed from the jump battery ,
therefore all of the cranking power is being drawn through the leads instead of being shared with the vehicle battery.

Charged the battery overnight put it in this morning and within a couple of turns the motor was purring like a kitten.

Boat now sitting on rack and all bolted down.
Next job, spare wheel holder.
Photos to follow.

well done frank that good of you for offering all this for martin plus he now has a boat free of cost to borrow and give back it really good your a good bloke frank

Frank,
I'd check that battery in a day or so especially if you have a cold or frosty Morning, if it has a cracked joiner plate
it will do the same again.

Well another days work and it's getting close to launch.
I would like to take this oppertunity to thank JASON Storms 72, for coming down today and helping with getting Martins car up to scrath. It just goes to show that we can set our differences aside and get on with what is important, and that is getting along with each other and pitching in and giving a hand wherever possible.
A few little odds and end tomorrow and Martin can start his journey, may have to pick up a motor for the punt along his way.

Well Frank, after much reading and fence sitting on my behalf... I am flabbergasted(spell) :fan: Good to see you and jas sort your gear out...Great work on getting Matin up and running as well

Nothing to be suprised bout.....Frank and I had our run in and spoke the other day bout what happened before he left SFF and all's cool, I may be a bit stubborn but certainly am not that silly to get too worked up bout what happens on a web site.....

Frank is a true gentleman, all he's doing for Martin and today Frank sorted me out with an outboard for my boat....Yeah I rarely post here(won't mention the last time as it needs be left in the past) and don't want to sound too sucky but this reply is solely for Frank....Theres few around like yourself mate it is a pleasure to know you!

Was good to have a chat today Martin, great to see your 4by is almost done and I hope you have a great time travelling mate!

Sumo....Both Martins batteries seem to be holding good charge and visually appear intact, the prob may have been a positive wire from the looms behind the stereo earthing out, it was carrying very little voltage but Martin said the starting prob happened after his work on the CB and stereo could be the cause of the battery drain prob and following that the jumper starting prob!

Jason

I want to know if the Bunyip Detector works ????????????????

Or is Martin going to be eaten

Bunyip detector was working fine-bits still needed for the drop bear trap but its almsot there....Frank is still to install the speed ball to keep the boxing kangaroos busy!

Good stuff!
Hope to see you on the water soon jas!

What about his Automated Dufeesing set up ?????????????????

good to see you guys wrk together to get the job done ... thats awsome helping out martin good on you guys ... all the best martin

Frank if there was an award for top bloke of all time you would get it.

i double that coops

Thats the auto-de fuseing huntsman.....-gave hime some shock therapy, trained him to do backflips, change fuses and most important to chat-up swedish backpackers named Inga! ....Think he did the wiring on the stereo too!

The Bunyip deflector was a bit tricky but is now in place and we will have to wait and see if it is succesful or not.
I guess IF martin gets through his travels, without being eaten by a bunyip, I would say it works.
And I might put a patent on it. ( who knows some people might even buy it, ( well who's going to prove it DON"T work )).
With a bit of luck and good management Martin should be ready after today ( or at least his car will be ) to start off on a journey that I and millions of others would love to be in the position to partake.

Sumo. The batterys appear to be OK and took and are holding charge, ( crappy leads maybe ) will have to re-clamp all joints.

SOUNDS GOOD TO ME ...HAPPY TRAVELS MARTIN AND ITS GOOD TO HEAR THAT WE CAN HELP ONE ANOTHER FOR FREE....FOR ONCE THE $$$$ DONT GET IN THE WAY OF FRIENDSHIP .........................................WHICH IS A BIG PROBLEM NOW DAYS ......NICE TO HEAR TOPICS LIKE THIS ONE ..KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK BOYZ....

Well I have done all I can to make Martins journey more comfortable and memorable.
A bit more time and I could have done a bit more to the car, but he wanted to get on the road so I hope everything goes well for him.

Hey guys,

Will keep this one brief for now as I'm over Jumpy's place and he's cleaning up and I'm a bit worried he might sweep me up and chuck me out with the trash

All I can say so far is Wow. Everyone has been doing so much for me already since I arrived on this side of the pond, between Jack, Haji and Jumpy taking me out and setting me up and now the amazing work Frank has put in on the car, with honerable mention for Jason of course

Frank, I can't thank you enough mate. Lending me all the gear and spending bloody five days in a row getting everything sorted, it's just amazing and it'll make my trip that much better knowing we put that time into making the bits and pieces and fitting it on. Well mostly you, I just pottered about and played with the dog most of the time

Jumpy took me to see a mate of his who runs Sea Sea Marine here in Sydney and I got a nice 2 stroke 6hp outboard from him. Its a newish one ('05/'06) and it's just been pulled apart and put together with new parts so starts and runs like a beaut. With that I'm now all sorted and it's up to me to rearrange all the crap in the car and of course to get into some decent fish!

BTW Sumo I did give your mate Bill a ring but he didn't have any second hand ones atm and at the price I could pick up this yammy it was too good to pass up anyway.

Once again, thank all you guys for helping me out and Frank, you're a legend mate. I was almost sad to leave but I really am keen to start moving.

When I get myself sorted out and settled down a bit, I'll write up a new blog entry and it will have the pics of all the stuff we did to the car.

martin, have one hell of a good time and a safe trip

P.S. WATCH OUT FOR DROP BEARS AND KILLER POSSUMS

good luck with your trip sounds like a good run and i may have to something like that one day!

yep yep martin.. Stay safe and enjoy yourself

The amazing thing about the internet is that all you need it to connect to it and when you do that you can speak to people.

So Martin you might be located in X location but once you are online you are a lot closer.

hey guys,

Just a quick hello.

I'm in Byron Bay at the moment, taking a bit of time off from camping to meet some people to travel with.

It really is a small paradise here. Beautiful women everywhere, haha! There are some great guys in my room and we're bumming around a bit during the say, surfing and all that and then going out at night, good stuff. Some of them are quite keen to get out on the water in the old boat as well so I'm sure we'll give that a go pretty soon.

The women and the beach are calling me some I'm off again. Have a good weekend!

lucky bastard.....

Your surposed to cover the last word to not make it so bad.

Like say instead of what you said you might consider something like

lucky guy.

See this says the same thing.

He Frank !

R U sure that you fitted the New Beaut, Ridgma Didge Bunyip detector to Martins car ??????????????????????????????????

Cause I reckon the Bunyips ate him

He's disappeared, gone , kapootsaka, vanished

He is alive and well, has been partying hard in nimbin and byron with all the hippies up there. Made it to brisbane and is now planning to do some work I believe.
He updated his blog just the other day.

Jack

Looks like he is having a good time, playing up and doing what backpackers do.
Hope he doesn't get himself into any trouble.