Cape York Trip

[jasonmcc]

Hi Everyone


My girlfriend and I are doing a Cape York trip in about a months time in my 97' GQ 2.8TD LWB Patrol. I wouldnt mind taking my little dinghy up there so I can fish at a heap of spots. So I sort of need a roof rack or off-road trailer to carry it. Where do I get a good priced roof rack? I see them advitised in 4wd monthly on the double paged add from '4wd systems'. Has anyone bought anything from them is it good quality.

Or should I get a good strong off-road trailer and take that up there and not worry about a roof rack. How is a trailer going to go up there?

I also need a snorkel and some more fuel capacity. What long range tank do I get and from where? Again I see a really good price long range tank from 4wd systems in 4wd monthly. Are they any good? I also see they have good price snorkels?

Also what do you guys use to store water in for big trips, especially you guys with wagons?

What sort of extra vehicle prep do I need to do. I got new TJM suspension. Should I replace all the wheel bearings or just check them and carry a spare?


Cheers


Jason

[vompie69]

Hi Jason,
We did a trip up to the Cape last year in our GQ Patrol, we towed a trailer quite easily along all the tracks. And we picked some interesting ones. We didn't have a long range tank, but had two jerry cans. A snorkel is a must to cross some of the creeks up there. If you are looking for a long range tank, contact TJM in Darwin, we sell Explorer fuel tanks to them, they are quite a good tank and reasonably priced too. There is plenty of water available along the way, most creeks have good drinking water, we took a 20 lt drinking container for 5 of us. There are many options with carying water, bladders are available for a reasonable price too. In my opinion, it would be easier to take a trailer than it would be to unload a boat from a roof rack if it is just the two of you, unless you set up a roof rack with boat slider etc and the corrugations and rattling of a boat up top would drive me crazy. We had 7 cars in convoy, and not one of us had trouble with bearings, and many in the group have been quite a few times and not had a problem in the past either. Carry plenty of spares though, cause they are as dear as poison up the top, and make sure that everything is ship shape before you leave and you should have an enjoyable trip. Ron & Viv Moon put out an excellent book, in it it tells you where there is water and fuel stops along the way which helps in planning a trip of this nature. Hope this is of some help.

[rockcrawler31]

hey there mate.

I'm not really keen about saying summat unkind about a retailer in public so give me mail and i will give some of my experiences with them

with regards for the bits and mods you think you will need, i have found that you get what you pay for. some of the stuff for your trip/truck you can do yourself, but some things will actually cost more and can be a pain in the ass if you do it yourself.

the fuel tank is a great idea, as fuel can get pretty hexy up there. you will use a bit more fuel per mile while the long range tank is full, but it will be outweighed by the fact you are not paying the grossly inflated prices in the more remote areas.

my 2 cents

[bogged]

www.exploroz.com.au for best info

[jasonmcc]

Thanks for the reply. Did you not have any problems with any of the tracks since you were towing a trailer?

Do you reckon it would be worth taking a boat? Im from Darwin and a keen fisho.

Thanks

JAson

[BundyRumandCoke]

To give you a bit of an idea, I paid $1.36 a litre for diesel at Musgrave about 3 weeks ago. Thats as far up the Cape as I got. The corregations are really bad up there at the moment, especially down through Lakefield NP. Bulldust also really bad. They have not had any decent rain for a while, and I was told the wet season was pretty poor.

Check the suspension of any trailer you plan on taking. Only run full shackle suspension. There was a fairly decent box trailer abandoned on the side of the road about 3km north of the Lakefield Ranger station. It had slipper suspension. This had been trashed, worn through on the sides. All the leaves broke, as did the axle when it all let go. If you do tow a trailer, have some other way of carrying the load, just in case you have to abandon your trashed trailer. Also check carefully your coupling, and towbar mounts. Any movement at this point will be greatly exacerbated by the corregations, probably leading to some sort of failure. Last time I towed a trailer to the top, te towbar cracked the chassis on both sides, needing a serious chassis rebuil at Archer River. Time and patience are also needed. Dont be in any rush to get somewhere up there.