Food drop car hire question

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Food drop car hire question

Postby Stroller » Fri 22 Jul, 2016 10:13 am

As you already know, i think, i'm planning my hike to be in January and February (maybe into March depending) from Victoria to NSW. (originally was going to be earlier but change of plan). I plan to do it over two months.

I've just read i will need a hire car for three days. How much does it cost to do this roughly and can you recommend a good but cheap hire car company? Do i need a 4WD?

I will do the food drops immediately before i start walking. I have decided to do 8.

Would anyone else like to do their food drops at the same time and share the car hire cost?

Also Would anyone like to take my food bins for their trip later on and pick them up for me so i don't have to do it all again? I will not ask for payment for the food bins as I'm only paying $5.60 each for them and I won't have any use for them or anywhere to put them. http://www.gotstock.com.au/plastic-buck ... vQod80gBbg
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Re: Food drop car hire question

Postby Stroller » Fri 22 Jul, 2016 6:27 pm

I've now phoned AVIS who tells me that the cost of a 4WD is too high for this so i'm exploring other options.
Last edited by MickyB on Mon 25 Jul, 2016 9:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Food drop car hire question

Postby north-north-west » Fri 22 Jul, 2016 6:34 pm

Whether you need a 4wd depends on exactly where your drops are going to be.
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Re: Food drop car hire question

Postby Tortoise » Fri 22 Jul, 2016 6:47 pm

Again depending on where your food drops will be, it'll be worth checking if the hire company (insurance) allows you drive on dirt roads or not (usually not in Tassie, but I can't remember on the mainland).
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Re: Food drop car hire question

Postby Stroller » Fri 22 Jul, 2016 9:20 pm

Well i have decided that i'm not going to hire a 4WD because its just expensive. So I will make my drops where i can go without one. You don't need a 4WD to drive on gravel so maybe there are some cars that can be driven on gravel which are not too expensive. There has to be a way around all this.

I did have an offer some time back of a guy on a motorbike who was interested in making some drops for me - it would give him an excuse to go somewhere he said. Anyhow, there has to be a way. I can't be the first person who doesn't have their own vehicle.
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Re: Food drop car hire question

Postby Mark F » Sat 23 Jul, 2016 5:04 pm

The only common food drop sites on sealed roads are Kiandra, Thredbo and Hotham. While the others are on gravel roads they are 2wd accessible. You need a larger car with reasonable ground clearance to comfortably drive the unsealed roads and make sure you allow enough time. There are a lot of bends in places and more than few potholes so some sections are quite slow driving.
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Re: Food drop car hire question

Postby Stroller » Sat 23 Jul, 2016 7:24 pm

I think i get the picture but not yet convinced about the high clearance. Why is that necessary? Are there creek crossings? I was looking at the mud maps again. I've driven a lot on gravel roads too.

If a two wheel drive car can't be driven on a gravel road, i'd probably have to hire an all wheel drive vehicle, would that work? I'm not sure what model of car these are but when i talked to avis about a 4WD the other day, all wheel drives came up. I'll have a look on google.
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Re: Food drop car hire question

Postby ribuck » Sat 23 Jul, 2016 7:57 pm

I hired a car last year to visit some NSW national parks.

Of the hire car companies, Thrifty would not let me take a 2WD off the bitumen. Avis would allow me to take a 2WD on short gravel roads at the end of a trip to official National Park lookouts etc. Only Hertz would let me take a 2WD on gravel roads in general (but only on properly formed gravel roads, not on "dirt" or "farm" roads). If an incident occurs off the bitumen you are liable for 100% of the costs, as off-bitumen accidents are not covered by Hertz insurance even if you buy all the optional extra insurance cover.

So I hired an inexpensive little Hyundai i30 from Hertz and drove it around the Budawangs, Deua, Morton and Kanangra. I was absolutely paranoid and took it ever so carefully over the bumps and puddles of the gravel roads. It turned out to be a delightful car to drive. Nice and lively in the lower gears, and lovely responsive handling. It was only a few months old, with not a scratch on it, and to my relief after 21 days visiting various wilderness areas it was still unmarked.
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Re: Food drop car hire question

Postby Stroller » Sat 23 Jul, 2016 8:00 pm

Thanks Ribuck. That's an excellent post. I have jsut been looking at hire car websites and was beginning to think that no 2WD were allowed on gravel roads and that i would be forced to pay a lot of money or find an alternative. I see if i can book a hertz car. But better phone them up first i guess. The booking sites don't have much info on them.
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Re: Food drop car hire question

Postby ribuck » Sat 23 Jul, 2016 9:27 pm

If you phone them up, the sales droid you speak to may not be familiar with their gravel road policy. You can find it in their Terms & Conditions:
https://images.hertz.com/pdfs/Hertz_Aus ... s_0216.pdf

Section 5a describes the Prohibited Uses, and does not prohibit driving on unsealed roads.

Section 5c describes "Full Responsibility Uses", and says this about unsealed roads:

Full Responsibility Use: "on any road or other surface which is not sealed other than a road under repair"

and Section 5f says this about Full Responsibility Uses:

If the Vehicle is used for a Full Responsibility Use referred to in clause 5(c), to the extent permitted by applicable law, You will lose the benefit of any limitation on our liability for loss of or damage to the Vehicle, which result from Your rental or use of the Vehicle during the period of or in connection with the Full Responsibility Use, even if You have accepted MAX or AER.

With this information to hand, you can refer the sales droid to the relevant sections. Or you may prefer to skip the hassle and just rent the car from the hertz.com.au website. And, since the extra insurance won't cover you anyway once you are off the bitumen, you may wish to save the cost of buying it.
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Re: Food drop car hire question

Postby Stroller » Sat 23 Jul, 2016 10:35 pm

Actually i went and looked at the hertz site and did find that phrase. Its pretty clear. I just thought all companies would have had the same policy but i guess this is a useful point of difference. Still the car on their site isn't that cheap. Its still $80 a day plus the rest compared with about $96 for a 4WD from another company I found. I ll phone them next week to see if there are any cheaper cars.
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Re: Food drop car hire question

Postby nihil » Sat 23 Jul, 2016 11:17 pm

No joke about having enough ground clearance. I did a food drop for the Walhalla to Hotham section.

The food drop was done at Mt Skene driving in from Jameson and there were some pretty deep pot holes and random rocks sticking up. Most of the time you can plan out a flat route around rocks and holes but occasionally you just have to suck it up and go over stuff. My car was a trusty Lancer which sits low to the ground. I heard the odd big scrape and touched base a couple of times. Lucky I didn't break something. I think I saw one car the whole time I was up there. Alpine roads are different.

Anyway at the risk of sounding like a schoolmarm, I just want to say don't skimp on research and preparation. I get that some things are expensive - a big walk like this can be deceptively costly - but if you aren't set up right you will have a bad time or pay a much bigger price.

It's a wonderful walk - one of the best things I've done in my life.
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Re: Food drop car hire question

Postby north-north-west » Sun 24 Jul, 2016 5:41 pm

nihil wrote:The food drop was done at Mt Skene driving in from Jameson and there were some pretty deep pot holes and random rocks sticking up.

Many alpine gravel roads are variable depending on when they were last graded, but that road always had some nasty potholes on it. Some of them are big enough to park a car in.
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Re: Food drop car hire question

Postby MrWalker » Mon 25 Jul, 2016 8:26 am

Redspot hire cars also specifically allow you to drive on unsealed roads (look for Terms and Conditions), but you pay extra if you damage it even if fully insured, and if you are driving over 50km/hr when your accident happens then you pay the full amount of repairs.
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