Transporting 4WD and CT Melbourne to Darwin

[DannyG]

have you thought about doing the family tourist thing and driving up as your wife suggested, fly the family back, you stay and instead of transporting on truck or train and boat just find a back packer that is desperate to get from darwin to melbourne and are willing to pay some of  the cost in fuel - just go shotgun 14hrs + per day driving. I suppose it is also getting the extra 4 days time off work, and not cutting in to your family holiday time that may also restrict this suggestion, but the trip both ways is far from boring. When I was driving from Darwin to Perth back packers were always after a lift offering to pay.

yeh a swedish back packer....or better still 2 of them good idea, i like it. We can discuss it on our next camping trip..........in private of course!

[DannyG]

Nearly forgot -- There is also "Ceva" http://cevacarcarrying.com.au/  -- They are very quick with their transport  -- might be worth while to get a quote from them as well.

 

Hey just seen this thread and my name mentioned on it. I dont work for the company(CEVA) anymore as wife couldnt handle the interstate stuff being away from home so gave it up. Anyways i'd still ring them. They have a truck and trailer for any kind of transportation need aus wide. They do have express b double and road train runs too darwin on a weekly basis. car would have to be put on the flatbed be double from melb to adl then on another truck to run straight north. They were moving 4wds and there camper trailers on a regular basis so i know they do do it.

Thanks gents I just got off the phone to them, very switched on, easy to deal with and so far the cheapest!! well done.

It is looking very much like we will transport it from Darwin to Melbourne and when it arrives in Melbourne myself and my wife will fly over, make a weekend of it and bring it back on the boat. Its only $250 to bring it over on the spirit if your with it.

So now the net spend is around $1200 over and above our holiday but this would now give us at least 6 nights more holiday and save a 4000k drive down the highway. Hmmmm very very tempting. It would also give us another weekends 'fun' in Melbourne about a month or so after our holidays

What would you do?

[GeeTee]

This is a good thread as I wish to drive to Darwin in 2013.. and not drive home!

[BLKWDW]

Thanks gents I just got off the phone to them, very switched on, easy to deal with and so far the cheapest!! well done.

It is looking very much like we will transport it from Darwin to Melbourne and when it arrives in Melbourne myself and my wife will fly over, make a weekend of it and bring it back on the boat. Its only $250 to bring it over on the spirit if your with it.

So now the net spend is around $1200 over and above our holiday but this would now give us at least 6 nights more holiday and save a 4000k drive down the highway. Hmmmm very very tempting. It would also give us another weekends 'fun' in Melbourne about a month or so after our holidays

What would you do?

Glad we could help. I've always thought of buying a small truck to transport such vehicles but is there really a market for it.

I take it. Sometimes the cash outlay is easier then the stress of knowing how far you have to drive and the risk of something happening to car or trailer along the way.

[BigJules]

I've read the whole thread wondering how I could arrange to take my wife and kids to Darwin and drive it back for you.

[DannyG]

I've read the whole thread wondering how I could arrange to take my wife and kids to Darwin and drive it back for you.

And what did you come up with mate? LOL

[cyberess]

Sounds like your well on the way of getting your trip to Darwin organised.

What has been learnt here.

• Best to ship vehicle and CT out of Darwin (It's about 1/2 price to ship out bound)
• Ceva transport is a excellent option (That's who ship my vehicle into Darwin when I purchased, and were no issue at the time) http://cevacarcarrying.com.au/
• There are options of using the train -- Could also be fun if you wanted to travel the Ghan http://www.greatsouthernrail.com.au/site/travelinfo/motorail/unaccompanied_motorail.jsp
• It is possible to drive half the trip and fly back on the return

Keep us posted on what you end up doing, sounds like your in for an excellent time.

 

[fishfinder]

yeh a swedish back packer....or better still 2 of them good idea, i like it. We can discuss it on our next camping trip..........in private of course!

male backpacker , female backpacker ? maybe we should discuss around the camp fire with other people

[ozbogwam]

There used to be a group of grey nomads that would shuttle vehicles around Australia. Just don't know if they are still around

[DannyG]

male backpacker , female backpacker ? maybe we should discuss around the camp fire with other people

LOL I was thinking more along the lines of young blonde FEMALE Swedish back packers....but each to their own mate

[DannyG]

Sounds like your well on the way of getting your trip to Darwin organised.

What has been learnt here.

• Best to ship vehicle and CT out of Darwin (It's about 1/2 price to ship out bound)
• Ceva transport is a excellent option (That's who ship my vehicle into Darwin when I purchased, and were no issue at the time) http://cevacarcarrying.com.au/
• There are options of using the train -- Could also be fun if you wanted to travel the Ghan http://www.greatsouthernrail.com.au/site/travelinfo/motorail/unaccompanied_motorail.jsp
• It is possible to drive half the trip and fly back on the return

Keep us posted on what you end up doing, sounds like your in for an excellent time.

 

That pretty much sums it up mate, thanks very much for your input. I haven't booked anything yet and wont until the new year so other options may come up between now and then, at this stage I am pretty happy with the sums we have done and it is viable in my eyes.
And even more viable for mainlanders to do a similar thing, Bass Strait is a very expensive piece of water at the moment to ship freight. Subsidised accompanied travel on the Spirit of Tas is the only economical option for moving cars over to Tassie.

I am 99% certain we are going to have our setup transported from Darwin to Melbourne and then my wife and I will pop over to Melbourne one weekend and grab it and bring it back on the boat.

I have done the sums properly and if you also take into account 6 nights @ $40 a night ($240) and food etc for a week for all of us (around $300), approx $900 in fuel and the extra $600 on the boat to bring us all back = a touch over $2000. (granted we will be spending the food and accommodation money on the holiday anyway)

To do what we are proposing of transporting the Patrol and camper to Melbourne, flying all of us back to Tassie and then Myself and my wife popping back over to Melbourne and bring it back on the boat is going to cost us $2970.

So the net spend is around a $1000. I have put quite a bit of thought into this and personally I think it is a small price to pay to spend an extra 6 nights or so up the top end in the warm weather. And to be able to jump on a plane when its time to come home and be sitting in our own lounge room within hours of leaving is just too appealing to not do it!

We are all going to sit down this weekend as a family and toss around all possible scenarios including driving back and making the drive back an enjoyable part of the holiday, but I know which way Ill be leaning towards. And lets face it the kids will do as they are told and the wife agree's with me so its a no brainer. 

Does anyone see this as over the top? Are we taking away the adventure aspect of a holiday by not doing the long journey home? It could be seen as a bit modern, or ancy pancy for some I guess? In some ways I see all those things in what we are doing but I just think with limited holiday time and the top end being so far away from Tassie it is a great option for us

We could always take an extra week off work with no pay to allow us to drive back and save all the messing around? hmmmmm (that thought just popped into my head!) That option probably wouldnt cost us much more actually...........Ill get back to you's after the weekend LOL

[Bird]

So the net spend is around a $1000. I have put quite a bit of thought into this and personally I think it is a small price to pay to spend an extra 6 nights or so up the top end in the warm weather.

$1000 is the best part of another holiday.

[cyberess]

<snip>
We are all going to sit down this weekend as a family and toss around all possible scenarios including driving back and making the drive back an enjoyable part of the holiday, but I know which way Ill be leaning towards. And lets face it the kids will do as they are told and the wife agree's with me so its a no brainer. 

Wow that's some communication!  it's usually the misses that what's to cut things short.

Does anyone see this as over the top? Are we taking away the adventure aspect of a holiday by not doing the long journey home? It could be seen as a bit modern, or ancy pancy for some I guess? In some ways I see all those things in what we are doing but I just think with limited holiday time and the top end being so far away from Tassie it is a great option for us

Over the top not at all -- I think that you were saying a $1000  -- I think it may actually be less -- fuel costs are extremely high driving down the centre and then their is the family etc ..  and time factor for working family,  just do what works -- the fact is your talking and planing this with whole family is excellent.

 

[lov2getaway]

We used this company http://www.opsl.com.au/ to transport our 4wheel drive from Bisbane to Perth and found them to be excellent. Not sure if they go to Darwin but worth a call. It was money well spent to save us driving over there. We only had 5 weeks holiday and wanted to travel up yhe WA coast and back via GRR.
Cheers
L2GA

[deepop]

What about leaving the setup in Darwin and when you want to start using the tug and camper again at home, fly up, pick it up and drive it home then?

Talk about brilliant!

[DannyG]

We used this company http://www.opsl.com.au/ to transport our 4wheel drive from Bisbane to Perth and found them to be excellent. Not sure if they go to Darwin but worth a call. It was money well spent to save us driving over there. We only had 5 weeks holiday and wanted to travel up yhe WA coast and back via GRR.
Cheers
L2GA

Sadly 3 times the price of most of the other quotes and that was with no insurance! I guess it sometimes must be more about where a transport company deals the most and some just dont do much out of Darwin, hence the silly high price?

[DannyG]

What about leaving the setup in Darwin and when you want to start using the tug and camper again at home, fly up, pick it up and drive it home then?

Talk about brilliant!

LOL That would be brilliant, if only it was that easy

[DannyG]

Wow that's some communication!  it's usually the misses that what's to cut things short.

Well she is apprehensive about the time we are spending away from home, with kids missing school, 18 yo son looking like he wants to stay at home and house sit (party the house down more like it), pets to look after etc but one thing I do know for a fact, when the last few days of the holiday are approaching and we get that depressing feeling that its all over and we must now go back to the normal old grind for another year, she will wish it was longer!

Over the top not at all -- I think that you were saying a $1000  -- I think it may actually be less -- fuel costs are extremely high driving down the centre and then their is the family etc ..  and time factor for working family,  just do what works -- the fact is your talking and planing this with whole family is excellent.

 

We try our best to involve the kids, I like them to share the anticipation of a great holiday and it is also important that they understand there might be a couple of days sitting in the car doing some big kilometres. They have done it all before and they travel pretty good on road trips, electronic gadgets and DVD's help. But as you would know on trips like this it is a compromise between doing adult things such as nice walks into gorge's and general site seeing which may not be exactly what the kids are there for and doing kids stuff like animal parks, swimming etc so we like to make sure everyone knows what they could be in for.

For me the planning is also a fun aspect of a big trip although this one is so big it is difficult to plan too much in the sense that I am not booking anything if I can get away with it because I want us to either stay longer or move on depending on how things are going. Obviously the boat over and the transporting of the car back will have to be booked but even then Ill try not to book an actual date to transport the car back Ill line it up so I can just drop it off at a depot when we are finished.

Anyway back to researching and looking at beautiful photos of the places we are going to visit

[fishfinder]

Agree a good plan is to not restrict your self on a strict itinerary and having to be at some place at a certain time as you have pre booked and may lose a deposit, my family have done a few big road trips and we may stay at one place with an intention of a couple of nights stay over but I decide that the beer tastes good here and we should stay longer, and it also go's with the kids if it appears they are having the time of their life at a certain spot I let them keep going on enjoying them selves as I have no bookings or restrictions.

and female swedish backpackers also need to be mud wrestlers as at least they will not complain about getting dirty if they have to change a blown tyre