eKourier April 2013 -

EMU Takes a Road Trip to Adelaide

in the back of Mum and Dads Holden (caravan in tow of course) The EMU was a revelation! The shape of the body means the trailer is hidden in your wind shadow so at 110km’s there is little drag. Arriving at the ‘just listed’ home of my parents at 1pm we dived straight into loading. The EMU was surprisingly large inside, combined with the trailer we were actually spoilt for options when it came to packing. We were able to move things around, choose carefully where everything went and even emptied some of the overloading from Dads trailer. A quick bite and a good sleep and we were back on the road by 4am Tuesday. We had left Sydney 4pm Sunday meaning we were already 36 hours in. The sunrise over the SA river-land towns of Berri and Renmark was spectacular. Before we knew it we were through Mildura and back into NSW. The two driver combo and quick fuel fills meant we were past Wagga, onto the M5 and home to my house in Sydney by 6.30pm. a wash and had it back to the Centre the next morning. All up 2,800km in a little over 50 hours breaking no speed limits (honestly) and using approximately 15L/100km fully laden with trailer. From a cost perspective including full EMU, hire and fuel it was about $1,200, moving a full house with two vehicles across the country. Not a trip for the faint hearted and I wouldn’t recommend doing it every day, but easily do-able given the circumstances and an amusing opportu- nity to test the EMU and Kennards trailer. Darryl Hodgson Operations Manager NSW We off-loaded the gear, sent the EMU for

Darryl Hodgson (Looking like a Griswalds Trip) picking up the EMU from KSS Waterloo.

A fter writing the article “Better Out Than In” about trailers, in the last Kourier Magazine, I found myself faced with the ideal test. My retired caravanning parents, have decided to sell up in Adelaide and move to Sydney to be closer to the family. Comically, despite providing them sugges- tions on preferred removalists they

insisted in doing it the old fashioned way - car with trailer in tow! Knowing the amount of “stuff” they had and thinking about how I might save the situation from becoming ten trips back and forth I decided to hire an EMU and one of the new, lighter Kennards trailers.

“The EMU was surprisingly large inside, combined with the trailer we were actually spoilt for options when it came to packing.”

Those of you involved know there were a few mechanical hiccups with the EMU at the beginning that highlighted we need to be diligent with our servicing, but in the end we were on our way. A late start on Sunday meant the night ended in a motel at Narrandera. Not the place of dreams but to be back out in the country under those stars reminded me why we should spend more time in the bush. An early 5am start meant we were back on road and crossing the Hay Plain, definitely the best time of day to do this trip. Compared to my childhood memories in the 70’s and 80’s crossing the Hay Pain

Kennards Kourier April 2013

15