Cape York or bust May 2012

[derek11 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close derek11]

cant wait for your full report with lots of photos, wise chose on Nolans, nowing what i do now thats what i would do.

[Brett1979 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Brett1979]

Mate, the report's coming I'm sifting through over 1800 photos on the laptop and then will figure out how to post them on here, etc. I've only posted pics once before a couple of months ago when selling roof racks in the form of links. The Palm Ck pictures were taken from the ledge above on the left so don't justify just really how steep that 2nd drop in is but we've got a lot of other good ones including winching out of Ducie because we took the far right exit out due to the fact we didn't have lockers. I've got many pictures of cars stuck in Nolan's. I have to say, I was really happy with the camp site on the north bank of the Jardine River. Geez it was nice there. We were lucky enough to have quite a few camp sites to ourselves though.

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

I'll try and get to my report (and photo's) done soon but it's footy season and I have been out and about following my mighty Manly Sea Eagles these last two weekends and just no time.

As I mentioned when I first came back, we did the OTT and one of it was that bad (parts were hairy but you would have to expect that) but we certainly backed away from Nolans (and in fact even before we entered at Palm Creek we had pretty much decided that Nolans was a no go).

I guess if I ran an old 6 inch lifted 80 series, with a winch I'd give it a crack, but there was no way I was taking my 150 anywhere near the middle of that place....full stop!!

By the way I did make a comment that the PDR was bad, really it wasn't too bad (very corrugated), I ran the tyres about 24PSI and stuck with no faster than about 85 Kms and it wasn't too bad, I have been on worse.

By FAR and AWAY the worst was Bamaga- to the Tip...that was pretty crook, and the run across to Somerset wasn't exactly the Hume Highway either!!

We did Battlecamp from Cooktown to Kalpowar Crossing and then over to Musgave and to be honest it was fantastic!!

We went out to Chilli Beach (nice spot...yes windy but still a nice spot) and the last 20-30 Kms was very beautiful, but due to the rain forrest type vegetation that part of the road had LOTS of potholes...slow going but again not too bad.

It's a great spot, so pleased to say I have done it...so that's the Simmo (2011)...tick...the Cape (2012)....tick

Next....the CSR.....July 2013 bring it on!!

By the way Brett and I must have similar photographic habits, I too have 1598 photo's to sort through!!

[Brett1979 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Brett1979]

Nice one Mark. Yeah Battle Camp Rd was so smooth! It was a welcome relief. All of the roads and tracks in Lakefield NP were of a really good standard. I was really surprised. But the 15km track we took to 12 Mile Waterhole also had the worst bulldust we encountered on the trip. You would've had a rough ride at 24psi. I ran 24psi for the first 40km of corrugations at 70-80 km/h north of Laura and so did the GU Patrol I was with. It made the ride too coarse for both of us, so we aired down to 18psi and drove at 90-100km/h and the ride was considerably smoother. We then drove on into the night all the way to the Archer River RH. We arrived there at 11:30pm because we stuffed around in Cairns for too long that morning. We'd never used Shoo-Roos before this trip and can vouch that they do work. We fitted them to the front portion of the roof of our cars just on dark because of a close call with a 5 foot kangaroo. We forgot we had them until that incident. We then pulled over and fitted them and they're excellent. The roos either crossed the road well in advance or bolted from the side of the road back into the bush. No late dashes across the road in front of our cars like you'd expect. We felt comfortable doing 100km/h in the dark for hours on the PDR.

I thought the same as you on the OTT. It was pretty easy, but some parts needed care. We too decided well in advance before doing the trip that Nolan's was to be bypassed. After seeing 20 approx cars drive it in 2 days and only 3 getting through on their own without getting stuck we knew we made the right choice. Those 3 cars all hugged the left bank when facing north. One of them who made it through drove it heading south. Talk about gutsy. He had to wait 3 hrs because of a large 4wd tag-along tour group crossing it in the morning. The tour guide plunged in first straight up the middle... Got stuck and sat in the water for about 3 or 4 minutes before a fellow camper pulled his car around and towed him out. His car filled with so much water. He didn't prepare well enough for the crossing, didn't even have anyone ready on the other side in case he got stuck, and didn't even have someone ready to pull his winch cable out to the tree. He just sat in his car and waited. Then a camper whipped around and hooked up a tow. We took half a dozen pics of his car alone.

Great trip though. Next we're considering the Kimberley. We'd also like to spend a month alone exploring more of Lakefield NP.

I'm not too far away from the trip report. Just figuring out Photobucket, etc in the meantime.

[toddy Member Find all posts View Profile Close toddy]

Brett and Mark, we may have crossed paths at some point and not known it. I went up and back last week also. agree with all your points on the rough stuff between bamaga and the tip, crikey!!!

I ended up going through Nolans, took me 23 seconds and I bogged in the middle. But had three snatches to a hilux on the other side, so when it started bogging down he pulled me through. The water came in through the doors so anything in the pockets were damp. So I only had a little water on the mats.

Another side note, I made a table and drawers for the rear and have found that the handle of the drawers is out just far enough to not let the rear door put enough pressure on the seal and so dust was coming in the back. One to look out for in the future.

It was an awesome trip that I would happily do again in an instant. I thought Frenchmans was a fun track and the Pascoe crossing was one of the best.

Cheers, likewise photos coming soon I hope and videos.

[derek11 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close derek11]

I'm not too far away from the trip report. Just figuring out Photobucket, etc in the meantime.

Hey Brett1979, I posted my pictures the way it tells you in the Rules section, it worked out pretty well for me.

[Brett1979 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Brett1979]

This a test picture before I post my Cape York trip report in a new thread.

This is the Great Divide Tours tour guide who sat in the water motionless for a few minutes before being rescued. He drove straight up the guts of the crossing where everybody else who also did the same got bogged down just as they hit the incline. Some cars which kept the loud pedal down after getting stuck dropped up to 4 inches approx in ride height as they dug their way down into the soft sand further. It took him and his tour group 3 hrs to cross Nolans.

[Brett1979 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Brett1979]

Brett and Mark, we may have crossed paths at some point and not known it. I went up and back last week also. agree with all your points on the rough stuff between bamaga and the tip, crikey!!!

This is what my car looks like if you saw it. It's fairly recognizable with the TJM Equipped sticker on the windscreen. I also had a wheelie bin bag on the rear tyre though it was always covered in dust might I add. I've included a shot of the silver GU Patrol that I was traveling with. People and cars we saw at Eliot Falls we also saw at Seisia, and also in the Daintree Rainforest and Port Douglas. We even passed Mr 4x4 himself in his white Patrol, Pat Callinan. He was traveling north through the Daintree as we were heading south and we passed at a creek crossing at crawling pace. He had a camera car with him so was on his way to filming another episode of his show.

[rally1 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rally1]

When i was up in there July/Aug we came across a different tour group to that but same people running it same story 7 of the
10 cars including the tour leader got stuck in nolans .One chap i was talking to was in a 150 towing a cross over van car got stuck
in the water in it radio had stopped working electric brakes had a mind of there own etc. very iresponsable i think. One thing we
did to the prado,s in our group was tape the drain holes up in all the doors .It did 2 things reduce the amount dust coming into the
car to next to nothing and stop water getting into the doors .

[Brett1979 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Brett1979]

I actually took blue-tak up in the driver's side door pocket to block the drain holes for deeper water crossings for the "just in case factor because we didn't know what depth to expect the water to be." It never occurred to me to use it to reduce dust ingress. That's a brilliant idea. I'll be doing it next time for sure. That's such a brilliant idea and I thought I had all my bases covered! The dust circulates inside your doors, especially inside the rear door and also especially when there's bull dust.... Then it makes it's way in through every little opening possible. I had so much dust getting in through the little vent where the jack is kept, as well as the little crevice where the rear washer bottle is stored. It never even occurred to me to actually block the drain holes to reduce it. Brilliant idea, rally1.

After 15km of a bull dust track at approx 15 to 20km/h to 12 Mile Waterhole in Lakefield NP I had dust pooling and collecting in clumps and piles on the carpet in the boot just near the door. It was crazy nuts and never saw anything like it.

Did anyone have any shock absorber problems or failures from their trip? I only discovered it when I got back and washed the car but the front driver's side shock absorber had leaked a lot of oil from underneath the top shaft and down all over the strut at the bottom where the shock absorber bolts on. I used 2 cans of degreaser to clean up the mess and then washed the shocky and spring with car wash so I could see if it was going to continue leaking over the next week, but it didn't. I guess it lost most of its oil already or just never heated up enough on the way to and from work to lose any more oil. TJM were only too happy to replace it under warranty though when I explained the issue. They were really helpful. We even pulled over on the side of the PDR occasionally for a while to let the shocks cool down.

My friend had issues with his new Koni shocks fitted to his GU Patrol originally along with new Dobinson springs at the same time. This was done months before the trip. He rarely drove his Patrol during this period as he drives his work car everywhere. One day he found it had been leaking oil through its seal. He had all 4 Koni shocks pulled out and got EFS shocks fitted and yes he did have a problem with one of them too. I'm sure a shock absorber problem wouldn't be an uncommon occurrence up there.

I did hit two seperate dips in the road at slightly too much speed and the bump stops went BANG on both occasions on the way up late at night. I also had all 4 wheels a couple of inches off the ground 3 or 4 times on the PDR. It's a combination of hitting a bit of a dip in the road, the suspension compressing down and then launching the car off the ground coming out of the dip and 100km/h. It was pretty fun. I liked those bits. But those few small jumps and bottoming out on the bump stops twice certainly didn't contribute to shock absorber failure. I've had the car loaded up to the hilt many times with stock shockies on the car on Fraser Is and those tracks work the suspension much harder in my opinion.

[kav Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close kav]

hi guys , its good to hear all the stories of adventures from the cape . one thing amazes me about the stories ,,and this is not having a go at anyone . but i can't understand how all these aftermarket suposedly u beaut shockies fail dismally in the conditions they were designed specifically for , and yet my standard toyota TEMS shocks with 180 000 ks on them just keep going .

[Brett1979 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Brett1979]

I guess it's like the Titanic which was built to be unsinkable. Aftermarket shocks are also designed for off road use and corrugations. They're nitrogen filled so they're not effected by heat as much. Thicker & stronger tubing. Shafts that are strong and hard to bend & tougher against harsh conditions and they use high temperature oil. Yet if you drive on a few hundred thousand corrugations one or more shocks can crap themselves. Why? We drove the Tele Track very slowly and took it with care. People were catching up to us so we kept pulling over to let them past. We drove the PDR at 100km/h to smooth the corrugations out which meant much less stress on the shocks than driving at say 70km/h. We pulled over periodically to let the shocks cool down and still I had one overheat, breach the seal and spill it's oil all down the tube. We didn't experience any suspension sagging from hot suspension even though I've heard that too is a fairly common occurrence. My friend touched one of his front EFS shock absorbers from time to time as soon as we pulled over and he said they were hot to touch so the corrugations really do give them a workout.

[toddy Member Find all posts View Profile Close toddy]

I too had stock suspension when I lived in Weipa for 2 years and I did a lot of trips back and forth to cairns and a few up north, and while it handled the raods great, after a few years they certainly drooped and started suffering. Last year I had EFS installed and it rides a whole lot better and sits much higher. My recent trip to the tip didn't show any problems at all with the EFS. The set-up performed brilliantly over the corrugations and I don't have any leaks with my set.

Interesting that you pulled over to let the shocks cool. We did the trip up and back in 6 days so pushed the suspension hard and I've never heard of guys stopping for their suspension. We had three cars (Hilux, 80 Series and me) and none of us had problems with suspension. To me they should be able to handle that type of workload. I've never been on the Gibb River Road but I hear that is much worse with corrugations so maybe there would be worth stopping but not the PDR, its like a highway.

Just my opinion too.

Cheers,

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

I am still trying to find time to do my report (with photo's), I'll get there once the footy season is over (might be this weekend if the Cowboys beat my Sea Eagles).

Can I say that I never have had an issue with the Bilsteins on the two trips I have done so far, the Simmo in 2011 and the Cape in 2012....perhaps the CSR / Tanamai will sort them out in 2013??

Being an "older fart" than a few of you on here I don't rush. For the Cape trip we ran between about 24 PSI to 28 PSI but never went much over 80-85 KPH on the PDR and Bamaga Road, and we pulled up for morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea with time to "smell the roses" each time.

The corrugations are bad in some sections, and the Prado feels like it's shaking to pieces but if that happened we'd just pull up, lower the pressures a bit and try and find our way through the rough stuff.I can say the only really bad ones were in the Bamaga-Tip-Bamaga section, and to be honest that's when the vehicle was the lightest as well as we had offloaded a fair bit of stuff at Loyalty Beach to have a bit of a clean up.

I run Bilsteins / King Springs plus Air bags in the back and have never had an issue, yes the shockies get a bit hot but I imagine ANY set of shockies would be hot (perhaps I am wrong in saying that???) with that many corrugations.

I guess people can argue all day long about Shockies (like they do about Tyres and the usual Nissan / Toyota arguments as well) but I did a fair bit of research, and talked to a lot of people and researched a lot and am pretty happy with my choice of set up.

But to each their own!!

[derek11 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close derek11]

Video just uploaded and now available @ link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dYz0...ature=youtu.be

Note: Watch in 720P full screen for best picture

regards

Bernie

A mate has told me this is almost up to 100000 views, you might get a call from Kotchy from Sunrise Bernie, been told Kotchy rings when 100000 view happen.

Live and Learn
Cheers Derek