Jardine River Crossing

[marko66]

Hi All


I have some video - unfortunately not mine - of a sand Iveco 4x4 dual cab tray attempting the Jardine crossing from North to South on about the 15th September 2014 .


The thing that I find difficult still is that with 36 or 37 inch tyres and locking transfer and axle cross locks and 24 forward gears he got stuck and was towed out. The water was relatively shallow where he got stuck but the sand is REALLY soft.


To me the point is it is still possible to have all the gear and no idea. I never talked to him but I guess he might not have had his tyres pressures low enough and I think that he was going to fast and probably pressed the accelerator when he should have left it alone.


So please think about what you are doing and if you don't know ask a few people, good techniques on a reasonable vehicle will get you a lot further than all the best gear and not knowing how to drive it in a lot of cases


Regards Mark

[workingonit]

Keeping busy?

Haven't been on the cape yet. Thought you had to use the car ferry - if this is the place you are talking about?

[Chops]

Link ?

[marko66]

Hi All


Yes Rod


Not my vid so not posting it


Regards Mark

[Chops]

So who is going to post it ? :D

[marko66]

Hi All


If it was posted the one of the standard hj75 on 31x10.5x15 with no lockers or other traction aids a few days earlier should go up too - but it won't for political reasons


Regards Mark

[ramblingboy42]

Hi All


Yes Rod


Not my vid so not posting it


Regards Mark


don't ya just hate that?

[edddo]

Hi All


If it was posted the one of the standard hj75 on 31x10.5x15 with no lockers or other traction aids a few days earlier should go up too - but it won't for political reasons


Regards Mark

Political reasons? Cars in rivers?

[spudboy]

What is the point of posting this thread if you aren't going to put up the video?

[goingbush]

It didn't happen unless photos / video are posted

[Ancient Mariner]

The Jardine crossing just after the wet was very soft which became easier with more traffic as long you stayed in the wheel tracks I would think the Iveco was hampered more by a wider track than anything else assuming the crossing hasn't changed much in nearly 50 years:D

[spudboy]

It didn't happen unless photos / video are posted

Haha - I thought that might actually have been you Don!!

[Judo]

Great thread.

[goingbush]

Haha - I thought that might actually have been you Don!!

Not me, If theres a perfectly good working ferry I'd be using that. :angel:

[spudboy]

Here's a picture of an Iveco going through a river if that helps:

http://static.commercialmotor.com/big-lorry-blog/assets_c/2011/02/133012-thumb-448x298-115825.jpg

[101RRS]

There was a time when you had to risk the Jardine but you do not have to these days. Why would you risk your vehicle 1000km from a major repair center unnecessarily just to say you have done it.

I am one of the first to get in and have a go but in a vehicle that it doesn't matter if it gets damaged and normally with a couple of hours to somewhere it could get fixed.

Driving across the Jardine in a $100,000 vehicle 1000km from safety when there is a ferry available does not make sense.

The same as gunshot - if you want to do it - tow an old Suzuki up and do it but not in your new D4 with camper and the missus in the passenger seat and three sprogs in the back.

Different if you have no options but there normally is an option.

A time and place for everything.

Garry

[marko66]

Hi All

I Agree with Gary, or you have to pay to play. If someone can post pictures i can send you one to post - it's fairly self explanatory :)

Regards Mark

[goingbush]

Here we go, photos courtesy of Mark

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/09/740.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/09/741.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/09/742.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/09/743.jpg

[ramblingboy42]

just a question.....does the Jardine have salties in it?

[Mick_Marsh]

just a question.....does the Jardine have salties in it?
Yep.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/09/732.jpg

[Landover]

just a question.....does the Jardine have salties in it?



You bet it does. When we were crossing on the ferry it's gearbox self destructed and we were stranded in the middle. There was no way in hell the ferry driver was getting into the water. We had to cast our fishing lines to drag ropes cross to pull the ferry to shore.

[scarry]

just a question.....does the Jardine have salties in it?

Sure does,we camped at a remote spot on the north side of the river for a few days,not far from the old crossing,a fantastic spot,about 70m from the river.
We slept in the car both nights.A 4m salty was patrolling the area and we saw it out of the water on the first night.Stepping out from our campsite to it's tracks in the morning,it was 40m away.

We were lucky to see it,i thought i would have a look around with the hand held spotlight about 9pm the first night and spotted it out of the water.

As for crossing the river,one of my brothers has done it a couple of times.Can't get hold of him ATM,it was either in a series three,or his mates old 3 speed patrol.

Edit...It was in neither,it was in another mates MQ SWB patrol.

[ramblingboy42]

yeah, I thought so....I notice no one is keeping a lookout while the vehicle is being recovered

[marko66]

Hi All


Alesh a Czech tourist actually took them so the credit must go to him :-}




There is apparently a big saltie that goes from Elliot creek - upstream - to past the old crossing but I haven't see him yet. We took the the boat down for a look everytime we were playing there but after a successful play we aren't going back now for a while.


It is a long crossing and is REALLY SOFT in the centre - not recommended for anyone without a bit of support and of course electronics are a no no


Regards Mark

[Yorkie]

Friend of mine did it many years ago, have a read of this.

http://www.mr4x4.com.au/index.php/reviews-a-editorials/85-the-way-we-were

[Ancient Mariner]

Couple of crappy pics taken off the movie on the computer of our 1971 trip to the top A bit of a story and some even worse pics if anyone interested

[NomadicD3]

Yep Gary's thoughts X 2.
$130 rtn for an 80mtr ferry ride Vs the damage and danger of getting stuck in the river in any expensive vehicle......... Absolute no Brainer!!!!

[oldyella 76]

When we crossed it in 1980 in our series 3 there was a steel cable that laid across the bottom. When you wanted to cross you would drag the cable behind you and if you got stuck there would be a vehicle at the other end of the cable that could quickly pull you back. You never drove in another vehicles wheel tracks as the sand had been disturbed and you would get caught. The other thing that caught people was they would take all or most of their gear out of the vehicle, this took weight off the wheels as it tended to float. When we were there we camped for or 4 days and saw them all, one day a bloke came along with a little Suzy and small trailer both had wide tyres and it floated downstream we had to tie it up to a tree until we could drag it out. I can remember the approach from the south side when we drove in, the depth and the bow wave we had water 6 inches up the windscreen for about 20 feet but in the middle it was much shallower about 2 ft 6 inches. I recon you could have surfed on the bow that we created. On the north side there was a type of courdroy crossing where the logs went rightangles to the flow, the only problem was that there was a couple of logs missing. A RangeRover got hung up an was sitting on its diffs, Really a mess inside with water flowing through it. There were no snapping handbags then to worry about, there may have been but was not an issue.

[austastar]

Hi,
Crocs started to be a worry abput 1984 I think..

Cheers

[Nick S]

Aahh those were the days! Starting to sound like an old fart here. did our first trip to the Cape in 78 in a G60 Patrol. Jardine was a bit of a challenge but a bit of plastic sheet over the bullbar, let the tires down a bit (no guage) and low 2nd gear. Got across and back no problems. We did help pull out a landcruiser who got bogged half way across. The fast flowing water washed all the sand out from under his wheels so by the time we got him hooked up the thing was sitting with the chassis on the sandy bottom. Took 3 vehicles chained together to drag him out. I now cringe to think of the forces involved and the lack of safety precautions back then but as a 21 year old in 1978 none of that stuff applied
Nick

[TerryO]

Bump