OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum Off Topics The Great Road Trip Finally Takes Off!!!

Well, after a number of failures to launch, the great BlumTy road trip to Melbourne has hit the road!

I'm writing this from my phone about an hour past Yass, and while the 2 hour search for a lost fuel card has put us behind, we are now rolling on strong in a V8 AU pulling car trailer that, with some straps, ropes ans planks, has been loaded with about 25 mowers, one ride on, and near 18 catchers!

Hopefully soon i will work out how to load pictures from my phone,but for now,we must roll on with the volume up and a full play list of Jeffreys 80's hits.

Are we there yet?

Joe, I just got back from Rodeobob's place, where the dealing has not yet begun - in fact the unloading has not yet begun. They didn't arrive until 6 a.m. this morning, and were a bit unenthused when I turned up at noon as arranged. By the time I left at 2 p.m., they were starting to talk about unloading Jeffrey's trailer.

I left a couple of mowers there, one of them your 1976 Impala. Ty immediately pointed out that its Z-fold handle is missing one of the two chromed hooks it should have at the base end. I've always thought it was only supposed to have one. I think they probably won't go home via Wagga, there was talk about going straight to Canberra tomorrow morning when they leave Bob's place. If it turns out that way, Ty plans to take the Impala to Wagga sometime soon.

Hi guys, the plan at this point is to pick up a stove which we are on the way to now, then get loaded and ready to head off in the morning, back home, we should be able to do a hwy swap on the way, or I can work something out next weekend (headed to Batlow) or i can come out to yours or Wagga in a few weeks.

we indeed got in quite late, on top of that, our 4 legged friend, Abby, snores like a drunken sailor with a good amp, so my sleep was a Little fractured and came after 8, Jeffrey is a Little more conditioned to his own dog so he got a Little more.

The plan to come back with less is not going so well...

Good stuff mate, I might have to push my planned trip to canberra (was within the next couple of weeks) back a little, somone dropped off a car yesterday wanting an engine conversion done, will take a couple of weekends.

Well, we had so many people tell us that our plans to return home with less than we took off with were plans made for failure, and to them, we say, yeah, alright, fine, so we couldn't do it)

In fact, we got so many, even we're concerned!

But we have just hit the road, and there's no turning back now!

Oh, and Joe, get your excited face on, I think you're gonna be a happy fellow!

Anyway, photos to come when were back!

I am intrigued Ty, any chance of some pics? either by pm or in here?

Some of it for sure Joe, but some is a surprise!!!

Home now, got back to Jeffrey's at 11, and from there I got back here 5 minutes ago. by memory the return load consisted of 34 mowers, I think it's 12 to me, 17 to Jeffrey and 5 to Joe.

I have photo's and video to go up from the trip, and there will be clear shots of the mowers once they are off the trailer!

have fun! and post heaps of photots

Bloody hell that was hectic.Fantastic to finally meet Bob and grumpy.Thanks Bob for your hospitality,that's up there on the top shelf.I'm not sure how it happened that we came back with more than we went with,but I guess oh well we did.Not sure why Ty thinks sleeping in the same room with Abby is like a drunken sailor.I wouldn't say that.For someone who hasn't slept near her I would say it's more like sleeping next to a tropical cyclone.Yes she is pretty [Censored] noisy,I guess I have just gotten use to her noise.Joe I think without counting numbers there would now be at least 10 mowers here for you now.I and the mowers would appreciate a speedy pick-up as I really don't have anywhere to put them.So they will have to sit down beside the house in the whether.Some of them are just to good for sitting in the whether.We will just see how you go with that.I am very glad that that trip is over,it just seem to get harder and harder to get it done.Thanks to all,for your worries and concerns.We did it and safely as well,nobody got hurt or injured.Just some lack of sleep.Now just need to recover.

Well done Ty and Jeffrey, you handled the tough chores for everyone, and were good-humoured while doing it. Hope you made a Youtube record of loading that stove, I've been wondering how you did it. (I'm also wondering how you loaded all those mowers around it once it was on.)

Sadly, there is no footage of the actual loading of the stove, however, it can be explained:

The driveway at the house we were picking it up from (in coldstream) had a relatively steep driveway, down to the street, so the trailer was backed to the top, making the incline of the ramp quite manageable, once the stove was on a dolly, with all it's plates, trays, and doors removed, it was rolled up the ramp between 3 people, and then gently guided down the tray into position, with the help of gravity, as the trailer was sloped down the driveway, from there it was secured, positioned centrally between the two axles.

Once the mowers were loaded it was realised the stove needed to be positioned behind the axles to have enough board space for the mowers (as the boards did not extend the full length of the trailer, therefore leaving a central gap at the rear that only the stove was wide enough to bridge) so once enough mowers were loaded to the front of it, it was moved back, off the planks. This did leave the trailer a little heavier at the rear, but it was a calculated risk, and with the combination of the offset of mowers to the front, and Jeffrey's careful and experienced driving, the trailer was kept in control well during the return trip, and the level of 'bounce' from the rear-heavy trailer was not excessive.

And by my memory, here is the list of return cargo, with a couple of Joe's surprises left secret.

Victa VC-125 MKI
Victa VC-125 MKI
Victa VC-125 MKIII
Victa VC-160 MKI
Victa VC-160 MKII
Victa VC-Sports MKI Purple
Victa VC-Sports MKI Red
Victa VC-Auto Drive MKII
Victa VC-Auto Drive MKIII
Victa Power Plus MKI
Victa Power Plus MKI
Victa VC-Mustang MKI
Victa VC-Mustang MKI
Victa VC-Mustang MKII
Victa Corvette 4
Victa Monaro 4
Victa Monaro 2
Victa Impala 4
Rover 200ES
Pope Tecumseh 2
Victa Utility
Victa Utility
Victa Utility
Victa Utility
Masport Tecumseh 2
Victa Model 5
Undisclosed Mower
Undisclosed Mower
Victa Fair light
Scott Bonnar Rebel
Scott Bonnar Viking
Scott Bonnar Rebel
Well burn F100 Stove
Various Victa Cowling
Various Victa Carburettors
Various Victa Starters
Various Victa Throttle Assy.
Various Victa Air-Filter Assy.
Various Victa Hubcaps
Various Victa Catchers
Rover 200ES Base Assy.
Victa S80 Mustang Base Assy.
Box of Undisclosed Parts

Joe, I think you actually have 6 from the trip, plus the others at Jeffrey's for you, if you want to work out a way to take advantage of my Batlow trip next weekend, PM me, and we can work something out.

The problem with rear-heavy trailers that I care about is instability rather than bounce. I can recall my brother taking a load of bluestone blocks home one Saturday morning with a fairly huge single axle trailer (on truck wheels). He had laid the stones evenly over the whole floor space, and had perhaps 100 lb or so on the tow-ball, so he thought he'd just about get by, but the trailer still hunted laterally somewhat (the rule-of-thumb minimum towball load for stability is 10% of gross trailer mass, and he had about 3 tonnes back there). That could be managed, with close attention, but he got into a difficult situation. A couple of guys in front of him (on a divided road, 70 km/h limit, 3 lanes each way, heavy traffic) were holding a full sheet of plywood on the roof of their car by each having a hand out the window. As you might expect, the wind caught it and they lost it. People in all three lanes on that side of the road swerved to avoid the sheet, and my brother had to swerve to avoid the swerving cars. The trailer wagged violently and threw 20 or 30 of the 30 lb bluestone blocks off the trailer, bouncing at 60 km/h through the already out of control traffic. Pretty exciting for a few seconds. I only like trailers that are unconditionally stable.

Yes I know what you mean I've had a few near misses due to load not balanced.This wasn't a great load.Trailer did wag a bit,but I guess I've driven mongrel trailers before so it was in noway going to wag uncontrollable.I've leant how to control it and to watch for the early signs of wagging.In fact I must admit that was the first time my trailer has ever wagged.[Censored] stove.

This one was pretty well balanced out, by my estimation, there was maybe 690kg before the axles, 320kg over them and 720 behind the axles, so the stability was still reasonable, Jeffrey did have to take extra care driving to ensure we maintained control, but the only time it felt in any way uneasy was passing one particular truck, which caused a reasonable amount of wind buffeting.

Had it become at any point an issue, I would imagine moving only one or two mowers, along with the removable rear ramps of the trailer, to the front of the load would have helped to regain necessary stability.

Overall, it was not an ideal situation, but due to the way in which the boards had been constructed, they could only be used in the one position, and further to the need to maximise board space, we further found that with the stove central to the trailer, it was not going to be possible to secure it in a satisfactory way, which would have left the stove itself quite unstable, and due to its weight that would have made the whole load too unstable, with that in mind, option chosen seemed to be the best solution, provided it was done carefully to minimize the risks, maximise front weight, and that it was moved with all due caution.


If faced with the same scenario again (something that seems entirely unlikely, due to the lack of need for more stoves) I would think that when creating the boards, it would be a suitable Idea to design them to sit in both full front and back positions, or at least to allow the option of having them one stove depth back, to allow the stove to ride upfront, however when they were made, the stove was not part of the concept, it joined the parade much later.

It's all a learning experience Ty, and having Jeffrey's skill at the helm is a major advantage that you had. I think I'd have started off by making up the dunnage etc. to place the stove squarely over the front axle, and then packed around it. Non-load-equalising tandems are in any case, more stable than single axle, or load-equalising tandems. The main problem with them is getting equal tyre loads for tyre safety, rather than stability.

I owned a tandem a few years ago (rather like Jeffrey's) and never had any stability issues, even with a 3 tonne tractor on it, but I did find very early in the piece that I had to use 4 new LT tyres on it, at 80 psi, or it would throw tyre treads, and I'd then have an afternoon's work each time, repairing the mudguards. It started out on recapped car tyres, and it threw the first 2 treads (both on the rear axle) running completely unloaded at 80 km/h. Just the 790 kg the empty trailer weighed was too much for the original tyres. I've never had much enthusiasm for recaps, and after that it declined even further.

Hmm that might work, what time are you looking to get to batlow? I might be able to get to adelong as I had somone offer me some things there and batlow isnt much further I dont think..

Having the stove up the front would have been a bad idea.Would have put to much weight on the tow ball.Therefore pushing the back of the car down and lifting the front of the car.The best position would have been in the centre of the two axles where we first loaded it on.It just couldn't stay there due to the boards not going the full length.Having the stove up the back wasn't the greatest idea.I just knew that I would be able to keep it under control.Not trying to blow the wind up my own bum,but there would a lot of drivers that would have lost control when the trailer started to wag.There is this stupid saying that when a trailer wags put your foot down and pull out of it.What a crock of sh#t,that doesn't work.Manly as once the trailer is wagging it already had the momentum to keep wagging.Best thing is when wagging starts applying brakes filmy but without snapping them on and cause a skid.

I woke up to the moved stove.

Had i been up to participate in the discussions im sure i could have dragged out something that i had prepared earlier.



Good to hear you blokes got home safe.

I got the car sorted, dud coil, went and got the ride ons, filled up the spot you guys made for me.
Found some treasure too, will get some pics up.