Our Touring Past

Hi All

After much procrastination i finally caved in and bought A new Tow vehicle for the caravans.
The Trusty EH Van that has served me so well for so long is being sidelined and the Dodge D5N / 245 hemi / 4 speed is going through some reliability trials at the moment...its had a fair bit done to it over the years and starts , runs, drives and stops great... maybe a just a tad wandery in the steering but i have been told that ppl use landcruiser columns to solve the problem.

Its about 1 1/2 times bigger than the EH and is taking a bit of getting use to .. and just fits in the shed. Have never owned a Mopar before. Always like the 64 utes....
Couple more pix on the next post

Reddo

Lotsa room in the back for a motorbike...
But its a bit too tidy in there for a leaky old Norton. Might have to take up pushbike riding instead... Fuel gauge was reading 1/4 of a tank when i refilled it yesterday... took about 60 litres so i am guessing it has a 12 gallon tank.(72 litres)
Depending on how much it swallows per 100 Ks i might have to look at fitting a Supra 5 speed g/box. I have one on the bench and Dellow are asking $700 for the bell housing and associated odds and ends... then i would have to make up a rear mount and get the tailshaft modified.

The existing 4 speed has a very low first gear that i will never use. Motor is torquey so it gets up and moving OK off the lights and is hapy at 90KPH on the hwy. Just gunna havta kerb my driving habits and drive it like a truck.... or get a very big bank loan to finance the fuel supply .

I will spend the time that i would have spent on this years tour decomissioning the EH panno and getting it ready for a run on ebay. If anyone has an interest in it then they can pm me or phone me.

Regards
Reddo

Great vehicle for swap meets!!
Best to get a 318 or a 360 for it.....with aTourqueflite

Hi Humpty..

Yep.. that would be a great combo...
Gear changes are slow , well timed even when getting away from traffic lights .. a nice torqueflight auto would make things a lot easier.. even behind the hemi motor.... but would make the fuel consumption worse . the V8 / auto set up would probably be cheaper on fuel...

A turbo diesel / auto combination from an 80 series landcrab would also work well...but would rather stay with Mopar running gear .

Have had a rough quote on changing the Dana diff ratio to something in the "3:08" range.. around $2000.

Reddo

Time for a nice old non oil leaking Japanese motorcycle, perhaps a Honda. Poor old EH Panel Van, ever faithful and holder of the Reddotel trophy for longest kept wheels. Traded for a duel citizen International / Dodge thingo. Truely a sad day for lovers of old Holdens.I bet the EH looks at the Dodgee number plate and says, AH , that's about right!! And the final indignation, it looks like it has Holden bucket seats.
Now I will have to go out to the shed and tell our EH Special that Uncle Reddo is booting cousin Panno out of the family. Rattcliffe will have to have a full tank when he catches up to bless them big rims.

JD

Why not buy the Eh.. ya did once before.. then moaned when i got it...Cash is good.. take it out of the struggling shop keepers till.. he wont notice a few $12,500 dollar notes missing.. and the mutt can pee on the wheels all day long !!
As old Dennis use to say.." You blokes with those little Holdens always suffer from inferiority complexes"

You know what they say about the blokes with the big cars ???
I drive a KR200 Messerschmitt myself.

PSK.

Bullbar and visor all finished .... Just about all packed ready for The Third annual Christmas in July at Murrurundi.
Bros little 350 BSA is tied down in the back. Will be used for field reconnisence while staying at Murrurundi.. Timor caves ... pubs .. junk shops ... pubs.. antique shops.. pubs.....

gday reddo
lookin the goods mate , im impressed and envious with the bike along for the ride too

I removed the bullbar...
The front is too nice to be cluttered up with shiney aluminium.. less is more
Have refitted the driving lights on brackets through the grill to radiator support panel.

Chasing a "Dodge " script badge for lower right corner of the right side rear door.

These trucks came out with the dodge badge on the left side of the dash... but my truck has a modified dash with open glovebox/shelf where the badge was affixed..so cant mount it there.

Reddo