A MAN who drank 50 cans of beer before getting behind the wheel is pleading with others not to drink and drive.

Ken Renshaw, from Rutherglen, in the country's southeast, admits he was a "bloody idiot" for driving home after downing more than four dozen beers in less than 20 hours on a fishing trip, the Herald Sun exclusively reported.

The 52-year-old father of three said his life had been turned upside down.

"I was shattered," he said. "I was the idiot, and I'll admit it. It shouldn't have happened."

The drinking session began about 10am on December 5 last year and lasted to the early hours of the next day.

He drank about two cans of beer an hour.

After a brief nap, he drove almost 200km home to the small town of Rutherglen. Minutes from home, a tire came off his trailer, sparking a bushfire.