The Trek to Tassie

Been a bit quiet of late - that's because we are gearing up for the great trek - from Cuballing in the Great Southern to Tassie with all our worldly goods loaded into Bertha, the Ford D1211. It will be a long haul (especially with that wonderful top speed you get with the D1211 6.2 litre diesel) but we are prepared to take her gently.
So, if you see an old black and white D1211 horse truck with WA plates between WA and Tassie between May 31st. and June 14th, wave, flash lights and say g'day.
If anyone's interested, will try to chronicle the trip with some pics and progress reports if I can access the net!

Nucky, yep, good on ya mate, a few photo's and any story will be greatly appreciated by all. Don't know if you're going the right way though at this time of year, getting B Cold here in Vic at present. Have a good trip mate & a safe one. look forward to your comments, cheers Tim

Safe travels, mate.

What part of this wonderland are you heading to Nucky ??? I get about so theres a chance we'll cross paths somewhere

werkhorse...

Looking at the Southeast - possibly around Forcett/Sorrel area but not discounting round Deloraine.

Shall we begin?
Are you sitting comfortably?
Some of you may have followed the saga of Big Bertha on the Restoration Thread when we first bought her on eBay and then drove her home to WA from Melbourne.
Since then, there's been some work on getting her licenced in WA including dealing with the inevitable rust

Once that was done, as well as getting every single light working , came the proud day that she went over the pits and came home with new plates!

Our initial aim was to take our 2 horses with us on our move to Tasmania. Some research (plus the length of time it took to make the journey from Melbourne) caused a change of plans. The plan is now to load our whole household of furniture and effects into Bertha and take her to Tassie. The horses will now travel in style with professional horse movers! (Anyone who disputes this logic - get a quote to move 2 horses from WA to Tas and compare with a quote from furniture removalists to shift a household from WA to Tas. Horses are cheaper!).
So, after more work getting a bed put into the living quarters and getting our old gas fridge hooked in, we are starting to load her up, ready for a May 31st. departure.
The flight deck is ready!

So.. watch this space!

Ahh good old Deloraine.......I spent a lot of my youth hanging around there.

Dammit!
Have hit a snag and so far can find no reason.
All of a sudden, within a few days, both batteries on the Ford D1211 go completely flat.
Have had no previous problems but did get some welding done recently and wonder if the welder disconnected the batteries before arc welding. Don't know how damaging this can be as there seem to be as many opinions on it as there are forum contributors.
She goes in to the auto electricians today for a check but he doesn't seem to think that the welding will have done any harm - reckons it's more likely that there's something draining the batteries.
Once jump started, she seems to be OK and will start again in the short term but, leave her a few days and both batteries are flat as!
Any ideas????

Nucky - First thing to do, is to check that the alternator is charging properly. If you have a crook diode in the alternator, it reduces output to a level where the battery/batteries aren't receiving enough charge.
A faulty diode hardly shows on the alternator warning light, it just barely glows, and can't be seen in daylight. Welding on the truck without disconnecting the batteries can damage alternators.

The other thing to do is turn everything off, and remove a battery terminal. A quick check to see if current is still being drawn from the batteries, is the spark test by touching the terminal to the batteries .. however a multimeter gives you the accurate reading.

Items that draw current and aren't immediately seen, are interior lights, glove box lights, and other compartment lights.
Fitted accessories that have been wired in direct to the battery, and that have bypassed the ignition switch are another area to check.

Cheers - Ron.

The welding would be unlikely to cause your woes, unless the bilermaker put the earth lead directly on to and alternator terminal, again very unlikely. I've got a few biolermakers work for me, and I've never had to pay for an alternator yet (i've just touched a bit of wood), I've had to pay for heaps of other stuff and repaired about a thousand airlines though. It might be just cold weather too mate, I've replaced the batteries in 3 vehicles in the last couple of weeks. Ronnies tip about taking the battery terminal off is just about certainly what the Auto elecky will do, then just start working back from there.