Kia Kapers

Submitted: Tuesday, Jan 23, 2007 at 16:14

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IanM (Vic)

We have returned from our tour of the Snowy River - although no real 4WDing was done we had a great time. The Sportage towing our new camper trailer performed beautifully - our progress up hills, as expected, was 'relaxed', to be generous, but other than that we had no trouble at all.
A couple of nights at Buchan (nice caravan park, freezing cold pool) then on to Willis after a side trip to McKillops (great swimming, disappointing camping so we did not stay).
We got smoked out of Willis so went on to Thredbo Diggings which is a very nice spot to camp - after a couple of nights we had a day at Thredbo and conquered Australia's highest mountain (have to pump it up a bit) then on to Geehi.
This was our favourite spot - great scenery and swimming holes. This was where we did the only 4WD of the trip - Geehi Walls as described in the Lewis/Savage book.
After 3 nights we decamped and after a long day arrived at the Tarra Valley (south of Traralgon) for a week.
We were blown away by the scenery along the Barry Way and will certainly head back there again.
Our only real fright was on the one lane section of road to McKillops - an "L" plater coming around a blind bend at a fair rate of knots only just pulled up in time - judging from the look on his face he got a fair fright himself!
On the advice of Mike Harding (and others) we did not go south of Tom Groggin but stuck to the main roads (such as they are) - thanks for your help guys.
This trip has really whet our appetites so rest assured there will be questions in the future (including those about a bigger car - although the Kia performed faultlessly we have always known we would need something bigger in the future).
IanM

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Reply By: GaryInOz (Vic) - Tuesday, Jan 23, 2007 at 16:44

Tuesday, Jan 23, 2007 at 16:44

For a laugh, my trip moving from Melbourne to Townsville (borrowed and edited a bit from other entries on othe forums) towing a 12 x 6 x 7 foot furniture trailer loaded up to 2 tonne

Left 06:45 Melbourne on Sunday, drove until 20:00. Stopped Coonabarrabran.

Left Coonabarrabran 06:30 got to Marlborough north of Rocky at 20:30 (Qld time)

Left Marlborough 07:15, arrived TSV at 13:45.

What I learned on this trip:

Two litres and two tonne trailers aren't necessarily a good mix.
Throttle bodies are pointless when towing.
Right pedal only controls the rate of deceleration, gravity is the only method of acceleration.
Density altitude (38 degree C, several thousand feet elevation above sea level out around Dubbo, NSW) decreases the available air for combustion to laughable levels.
2nd gear flat chat for 100 kms is OK, really......
3rd gear flat chat for 600 km is a bit better.
Revving the rings off it does no harm, apparently...("Itallian tune up")
Good thing about people that cut you off when you have 2 tonnes behind you is the possibilty of testing their brakes.

Believe it or not, for about 2/3 of the trip I was quite able to do 100-110km/h depending on the speed limit. Took about two minutes to wind up there but it would get there eventually. Spent pretty much the entire trip with the foot flat to he boards, averaged 20l/100km.

Was planning to take about 3 1/2 days, ended up taking 2 1/2 days driving like a man posessed. In some places was down to about 60 km/h , 2nd gear, 5000 rpm for 1 1/2 hours at a time.

All in all a faultless performance, temp guage never moved above what it normally would have gotten to in the cooler climates in winter.

Total time from picking up trailer, packing it, driving 2600 km to having it offloaded into a self-storage facility was one week and two hours (Wed 10:30 to Wed 12:30), all of it in 30+ degrees and a fair amount of it in 35+ degrees.

...........but yeah, don't think I will be doing that again in a hurry.............................

AnswerID: 217269

Reply By: Redback - Tuesday, Jan 23, 2007 at 17:58

Tuesday, Jan 23, 2007 at 17:58

Sounds as though you had fun, although you should of done Tom Groggan Tk over to Buenba and over to Corryong and camped for a while and explored the tracks Wheelers Cr, and did Mt Pinnabar, Mt Anderson, Mt Gibbo all easyly done in the Kia.

Then over to Buchan and the tracks there.

We did all of the above including McKillops which we didn't like at all and not a prob.

Should of listened to ME.

Baz.

AnswerID: 217286

Follow Up By: IanM (Vic) - Tuesday, Jan 23, 2007 at 19:16

Tuesday, Jan 23, 2007 at 19:16

Baz

This leads to an interesting question - a couple really.
Who does one believe in matters like this? You have said that we would have no trouble, others would not tackle those tracks in our car (I would err on the side of caution, particularly with a camper in tow as we really do lack grunt in getting up hills, but in low range first we would maybe make it?).
This time out I admit I was a bit nervous about the Kia, given some fairly dire predictions by others on this forum, but as I said in my first post it was totally trouble free - if we were closer to home I would have been a bit more adventurous.
Do you have any pics of the hardest bits you did so I can have a look?

The other question is do people underestimate the Sportage because it is not a "big" 4WD?
As near as I can tell it has all the attributes of a 'real' 4by, just scaled down (separate chassis, rear LSD, locking centre diff, locking front hubs, low range etc) and with ATR tyres has about 240mm clearance.
So far the thing has got us to the places we want to go without any drama (and is an economical small second car, which was the other thing it needed to be)- and I am keen to keep stretching its (and my) capabilities in the future.

IanM

FollowupID: 477769

Follow Up By: Redback - Tuesday, Jan 23, 2007 at 19:51

Tuesday, Jan 23, 2007 at 19:51

The Tom Groggan track is only steep for 500mts the rest is fine, i have no doubt you would have no trouble even with the camper.

Yes i think people do under estimate the Sportage or any 4WD if it's not the mainstream models (i think you know which ones)

Go and try some things, i know you will be surprised at how well it will go.

I will have a look at some pics to see, but most photos don't do some of the tracks justice.

The track up to Pinnabar and back via Mt Gibbo we did without the camper, it was a good day drive, Shadey Cr Upper tk to the top was brilliant and not a drama, i'm absolutly positive the Kia would of did it with ease.

Baz.

FollowupID: 477776