Cape York Report August 2012

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

Heading back up to Cape York. We leave home on Sat 4th July for one month. It's going to be good.

[craigm Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigm]

Nice one Brett. We were due to leave last Sunday for our 21 day tour, however due to an unexpected event, are having to postpone until Sept School Hols....

[AussieAndy Find all posts View Profile Close AussieAndy]

I left home yesterday!!!!

[The Alberto Member Find all posts View Profile Close The Alberto]

Heading back up to Cape York. We leave home on Sat 4th July for one month. It's going to be good.

I too drove did my first Cape trip in 2012 and I am leaving for round 2 on the 1st September this year. I hope you are planning to write another report on your return as that would be very handy information just before we leave

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

Just returned from the one month trip. The water crossings were so shallow this time around. Almost everybody was driving Nolans with ease in both directions and it's half the depth it normally is. Logan's was the same depth as normal but all other crossings were shallow. A work mate and his P.O.S Jeep came along with us and it didn't disappoint when it came to breaking down haha. My wife told her boss a Jeep was coming with us and he laughed and said it'll take us ages to get anywhere and that we'd be towing that thing half the way up the Tele track... He was 100% spot on.

To cut a long story short, this guy owns a 96 model Jeep with 270k on the clock. He's replaced just about every part in the piece of crap but will justify to every one why it's the best car ever made and better than any newer 4wd in the world. At Bramwell Junction the day before we drove the Tele track he was knocking every other car in the vicinity. He was knocking Landcruisers, he was knocking Patrols, he was knocking Prados, Hiluxes, everything (and had his pathetic I'll-informed reasons). My 90 series and his brothers 120 series Prado entered and exited Palm Ck early the next morning and were only two of three cars out of approx a dozen that exited without the need of a winch. The bloke with the Jeep went to exit Palm Ck and feathered the accelerator a bit more after slipping backwards 3 previous times and broke his uni joint. It broke so easily. Karma bit him hard and kept biting him for the majority of our trip. He spent an hour of what would become a very regular site of him being under the Jeep fixing something and dropping the "F" bomb non-stop. He removed the tail shaft and had to drive in front wheel drive only until he got the issue fixed at Bamaga for a small fortune. His poor brother in his 120 had to tow him through most of the creek crossings.

His wife was telling me and my wife that you've got to practically be a mechanic to own a 4wd. Ahhh, no you don't. It helps to know a bit about your car but you do definitely have to know every intricate part of your car if you own a Jeep as litterally anything can and does break on them. He was breaking things in his Jeep I'd never heard of a car breaking before. It was a daily occurrence for him to be under the bonnet or under the car fixing stuff on the way somewhere or at a campsite at the end of the day haha. It got to a stage where we'd be postponed an hour every day when travelling somewhere because of his car breaking something or making some weird noise that he needed to locate and diagnose prior to driving anywhere. And for the many years that he's owned the car he maintained it religiously as his mechanical skills are quite good. He brought so many spare parts on this trip for his car and told us we needed to do the same for our Prados but we didn't worry about it.

The first of two mechanical workshops in Bamaga that he took his car to refused to work on Jeeps and turned him away. The other was pretty helpful but was extremely busy and took them a few days to get around to fixing the issue the best they could to get him home.

The 120 series Prado needed its started motor pulled apart and cleaned out in Bamaga by the other two guys and the Jeep owner was knocking the Prado because of this and said over and over and over that it's a known fault with them. It's and also my dual battery isolator stopped working during the trip but that was the only issue I had. We drove the Tele track north and also back south and exited Palm Ck heading south. We drove the Old Coach Rd as well and would highly recommend it.

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

That so funny Brett. Sounds like a fantastic trip you had all things being considered.
Be interested when you settle back in to see your stop points and trip route when you get some time.

Cheers
Robert