OK.
The reason we only had a short drive on that day was.... in the morning, my tug batteries were totally dead!!! Even using my jumper leads on the Bus batteries did no good so D&G & Catriana jumped in the bus & headed towards Ceduna to either get reception on the phone or get the RAA in Ceduna to come to our rescue. As it turned out there was an RAA bloke 9klm back up the road - had we known!
Anyway he turns up & says... "G'day... how ya goin' ?"
I says... "That's the problem, I'm not!"
So we had a bit of a chat for five minutes then he gets his humungous set of jumper leads out of his truck - must have been 5-6m in length - & clamps them onto the Cruiser starter battery then onto his F250 truck & we continue with the chatter for ten mins. Then he starts his truck & we continue with the chatter for another 5 mins when he says...
"Start her up Chuckie boy."
So I did & t worked real noiiiice.
Just then the Bus crew returned from their little jaunt & we thanked Mr RAA & finally got on the road around 1130 instead of 0930. Head into Ceduna to get new batteries from Auto Pro on the corner of the roundabout near the big Shell servo... & that takes another 2 hours as all the crew have gone to lunch!

Around $440 for a starter & a deep cycle battery set... the pair that were in the Cruiser when I bought it had obviously been changed at some time as they were much smaller - physically - than the pair I now have & apparently both were starter batteries.
Explains quite a few strange things that have happened over the last few months which, by themselves didn't raise any queries but put into context now it was obvious then that the batteries were R/S.
Still, all's well that ends well... well apart from the $440 unexpected dip into the back pocket.
The runs so far has been just as Dot mentioned - all good - the bus leads out & we tag along to make sure no more mongrel truck doohickeys try to run her off the road. Settled into a driving pattern now... I start off in the hot seat till we stop for a cuppa then the Navigator takes over for the run to the lunch break then it's back to me for the final run to our overnight spot.
Weather has been really good the last couple of days as we started on the Nullarbor ... the last thing we needed was head winds but it has been a slight norther yesterday & a beaut easterly today... couldn't ask for any better.
Cya's when we're lookin atcha's...