What to bring for a Cape York trip?

[Mudnut]

Well I'm off to Cape York in Aug, and want to know if there is anything that I should make sure I have with me. It will be myself, along with my 6 year old navigator. The TD5 Defender will have just passed a 40k mark, and will have had a dealer service. What is fitted:
Bull Bar
Snorkel
Roof Rack (with steps on the rear)
Rock sliders
Roller drawr
Compressor
BFG mud terrains on disco steel rims
ECU remapped by Tombraider
Cruise control
GME UHF radio
GPS
Fridge
Plan on doing some sound insulation to the car

Thats all that I can think of, but am concerned about shocks, and springs (the roads should be nicely corrogated by Aug.)

I am well set up for camping, but have not done much long distance touring. Have also not been camping in Far North Queensland

Any help would be apperciated.

Thanks,
Ken

[camel_landy]

A sense of humour.... :D

Those corrugations do wear you down!!! ;)

M

[camel_landy]

OK... Here's what I'd suggest.

Bushes - Make sure they're in good nick, especially the radius & panhard rod ones.
Shocks - Make sure they're all ok (they will take a pounding).
Insulation - Don't bother. Didn't work on mine. Just get a louder stereo.
Rims - Consider something slightly heavier, maybe 130 rims.
Tie downs - Make sure you can anchor your luggage. There's nothing more annoying (other than the corrugations) than something rattling as you're buzzing up the corrugations.

Finally, go light. Those roads do give the car a pounding, do it a favour & think about what you pack.

BTW - This is what happened to one of my 130 rims when I did the trip to the top...

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/01/1524.jpg

M

[Blknight.aus]

been through there in big red, the mags handled it nicely and with stock suspension i got away with nix damage, but then I dont mind going slow,

Id take a set of suspension bushes, brakes pads tho, my standard pads got hammered..

Im fiarly certain that I have all the suspension bushed in my stash at the house and if you dont want to fork out for em I'll look into doing a travel box up for ya with most of the common parts in it..

you dont use it no cost, you break the seal you pay for or replace what you use.

[camel_landy]

Id take a set of suspension bushes, brakes pads tho, my standard pads got hammered..


Good point... Forgot the pads.

The rear pads take a pounding as the dust kicked up from the front tyres get on them & wear them down very quickly.

M

[LandyAndy]

Dont know if it applies to the Cape York corrugations.But watch for the "off line" where nobody travels and the dirt gets thrown.The loose dirt can sometimes be driven faster and smoother than on the bumps.
Andrew

[Mudnut]

Im fiarly certain that I have all the suspension bushed in my stash at the house and if you dont want to fork out for em I'll look into doing a travel box up for ya with most of the common parts in it..

you dont use it no cost, you break the seal you pay for or replace what you use.[/QUOTE]

This sounds like an excellent idea.

Thanks,

Ken

[DRUT]

condan or barrett hf or sat phone.....or epirb... you never know if things will go pear shaped very quickly so think ahead. help will be hours away for sure.:D

[Dinty]

G'day All, Well I had a bo peep at where you live and I reckon you should take ME, I will strip out my Codan radio out of my 110 and fit it into yours for the trip LOL, everyon4e seems to have covered what I would take have a good trip anyway cheers Dennis:wasntme:

[Gavin]

I'll let you know what the roads are like as i'm going in june/july

[crump]

my Fender survived no dramas on original suspension, admittedly I picked it up new and drove it straight up there, just take your time and ignore all the knobs travelling at 100kmh. Beware the bulldust and approach each DIP sign with caution.Travel as light as you can and you should be right.I took a bike to the tip several years ago and was regularly passed on the dirt when doing 120kmh to get out of the dust,morons.:mad:

[cartm58]

First rule is do not think you need 1/2 the stuff you actually end up taking with you, you tend to over estimate what you really need and what is really useful to you.

I would sit down and really think the trip through as to how long you got to do it in, how long is the journey going to take, where you are going to stop and for how long, what you really want to see. Normal day driving of 8am to 5pm, not driving at night pulling over and setting up camp and cooking while you reasonable daylight.

Then l would prepare my menu for the entire trip, breakfast, lunch and dinner, then break that down into the ingredients for the meals and then pack each meal into a bag and box it in order of consumption. That way you are not shuffling through your boxes looking for something to eat or wasting food.

If your going to the Cape, beware and heed this warning, corrugations will make everything rub against whatever is surrounding them, labels on tins will come off, eggs will crack, beer tins will leak. Precautions can be taken like wrapping everything individually in newspaper or putting carboard or carpet in between items, write on top of tins with marker pens.

Chech your wheel nuts every morning that they are tight.

If you can manage it, don't take a roof rack to carry things, the corrugations either crack the welds of the roof rack or the roof rack acts as giant tin opener on your gutter mounts.

Take off your spotties the corrugations vibrate them loose and they fall off.

Unless your mechanic, no point in carrying a vehicle of tools and spares, keep to the essentials like tyre puncture repair kits, replacement fan belts and fuel, oil and air filters.

Don't forget the fishing rods and lures

Trip to Torres Straight and Thursday Island Tour were good value

Beware of the Crocs, dont assume that becasue you dont see them they aren't there, they are

Stay at Fruit Bat Falls on way up, they are the best falls in the region

[Reads90]

I'll let you know what the roads are like as i'm going in june/july


We were up there last june and i think we were a day behind the grader. Smooth tracks all the way to the top. 100-110k's all the way. Not one set of corrigations and lovley trip. The tracks were better than some of the roads in Brisbane.

But everyone in Cairns and on the way up , was telling us and everyone that it was closed and really bad. People who belived them and flew up to the top were lived when they found out it was a lovely trip up
There was freelander up there when we were there too

[jwb]

Young kids need entertaining on the long days and can only bear so much looking at the scenery.

We always take a portable DVD player, their game players, books, drawing materials etc.

[Ace]

how often are the tracks graded? Is it at the begining of every season, or is it done mid way through aswell. Matt

[Mudnut]

Thanks all. Keep up the suggestions. Anyone know if an ERIB can be hired in either Cairns, or Cooktown? Great idea about thinking about what food to take, and mark all cans. Have done a fair bit of sailing, so know how interesting it can be to cook with cans with no labels. (Two friuts, and whole tomato cans look the same when the labels are missing). With the number of road houses, I'm assuming that meals can easily be purchased along the way too. My son is a good one to seek out icy poles.
Keep them coming, as I still have plenty of preparing to do. And the offer is still there if anyone wants to tag along.

Cheers,

Ken

[Reads90]

Thanks all. Keep up the suggestions. Anyone know if an ERIB can be hired in either Cairns, or Cooktown? Great idea about thinking about what food to take, and mark all cans. Have done a fair bit of sailing, so know how interesting it can be to cook with cans with no labels. (Two friuts, and whole tomato cans look the same when the labels are missing). With the number of road houses, I'm assuming that meals can easily be purchased along the way too. My son is a good one to seek out icy poles.
Keep them coming, as I still have plenty of preparing to do. And the offer is still there if anyone wants to tag along.

Cheers,

Ken


First of all. It like a highway there are loads and loads of people going up and down so don't worry about a ERIB. we did not . More worried about cars coming speeding around the corner. Had the UHF on scan as it gave you a warning when someone was coming . As for food, we just went from roadhouse to roadhouse (inculding camping at night ) and they have food and al the stuff you need (within reason). Had all the stuff to do it ourselves but could not be Ar**d most of the time

[Grizzly_Adams]

What Reads90 said. I was up last August / September and even though there was a lot less traffic (according to the locals) than in previous years - apparently due to Cyclone Larry scaring people off - it wasn't unusual to pass a vehicle coming the other way at least once every 30mins => 2 hours at most..

... and yes there are plenty of roadhouses along the way, but the roadhouses often only have cooked meals. If you want to have anything fresh (salad / fresh meat for BBQ / etc.) then your best of taking it yourselves..

[90]

Mmmmm, this has got me thinking now

I'm leaving Perth in one weeks time, to go down to the southwest cape then up to Cape York.

My planning so far is:

Get back from the Pilbara on Monday.
Find my car. I left it with my Father in Collie a few weeks ago. He is now in Canada, bugger knows where the car is, but it must be somewhere in WA.
Go to the servo on Tuesday and fill the car with diesel (by a map if they have one).
Pack into car: one sleeping bag, one credit card and 'borrow' my Sat Phone from work just in case (although I would have no idea who to call). May pack the girlfriend's sleeping bag if she remembers.
Wednesday head off, maybe go something like Cape Leuwin to Hyden somewhere, up the Holland track to Southern Cross (whatever the Holland Track is), up the Mt Jackson road to Laverton, up the great central road to Alice, then up Cape York.

(plan hinges a little but on booking a flight from Newman to Perth sometime before Monday)

Kinda thinking somewhere I need to think about how to get back home, but I am sure that will work itself out.

Do you think this is OK, or should I have done more planning ?

[mudmouse]

We did it in October '05, after Birdsville. Roads were pretty good through the whole trip (3 months/10,000k's). The ongoing 'drama' (it's still through the cabin today) was the dust. I don't know how you get 'round it - some blokes taped up the rear door each day - but i guess you could check the condition of the rear side door rubbers and the tailgate. Our bus was/is a '91 petrol disco. Correct tyre pressures help the ride too. I'm sure you'll have a ball, it's a great place to explore. Oh, yeah - don't forget a mossie net. Have fun.

[Reads90]

Mmmmm, this has got me thinking now

I'm leaving Perth in one weeks time, to go down to the southwest cape then up to Cape York.

My planning so far is:

Get back from the Pilbara on Monday.
Find my car. I left it with my Father in Collie a few weeks ago. He is now in Canada, bugger knows where the car is, but it must be somewhere in WA.
Go to the servo on Tuesday and fill the car with diesel (by a map if they have one).
Pack into car: one sleeping bag, one credit card and 'borrow' my Sat Phone from work just in case (although I would have no idea who to call). May pack the girlfriend's sleeping bag if she remembers.
Wednesday head off, maybe go something like Cape Leuwin to Hyden somewhere, up the Holland track to Southern Cross (whatever the Holland Track is), up the Mt Jackson road to Laverton, up the great central road to Alice, then up Cape York.

(plan hinges a little but on booking a flight from Newman to Perth sometime before Monday)

Kinda thinking somewhere I need to think about how to get back home, but I am sure that will work itself out.

Do you think this is OK, or should I have done more planning ?

Don't forget the abo pass need for the great central track. Need to get from Kal. Takes a couple of days. we picked ours up from Laverton police station
Also the corregations on the W/a side are very few and far between if that. But cros the border into NT and it is like someone flicked a switch and the corregations start

[camel_landy]

We were up there last june and i think we were a day behind the grader. Smooth tracks all the way to the top. 100-110k's all the way. Not one set of corrigations and lovley trip. The tracks were better than some of the roads in Brisbane.

You jammy git..... ;)

[Reads90]

You jammy git..... ;)


I know , could not have timed it better :D

[Blknight.aus]

Mmmmm, this has got me thinking now

I'm leaving Perth in one weeks time, to go down to the southwest cape then up to Cape York.

My planning so far is:

Get back from the Pilbara on Monday.
Find my car. I left it with my Father in Collie a few weeks ago. He is now in Canada, bugger knows where the car is, but it must be somewhere in WA.
Go to the servo on Tuesday and fill the car with diesel (by a map if they have one).
Pack into car: one sleeping bag, one credit card and 'borrow' my Sat Phone from work just in case (although I would have no idea who to call). May pack the girlfriend's sleeping bag if she remembers.
Wednesday head off, maybe go something like Cape Leuwin to Hyden somewhere, up the Holland track to Southern Cross (whatever the Holland Track is), up the Mt Jackson road to Laverton, up the great central road to Alice, then up Cape York.

(plan hinges a little but on booking a flight from Newman to Perth sometime before Monday)

Kinda thinking somewhere I need to think about how to get back home, but I am sure that will work itself out.

Do you think this is OK, or should I have done more planning ?



Sounds about how i do it but as I keep most of my critical 4x4 gear in the back of big red anyway a short notice trip is just a case of grabbing the map discs for SWMBO to work out the route on while Im filling the tank and jerris and we're gone... (takes a bit longer now we have to pack alex's travel bag but thats usually only 20 mins)

[LandyAndy]

Hey 90
If you pass thru Williams call in and say hello.
Easiest way to find my place is find the "Williams Woolshed"(a tourist place on the HWY) my place backs onto it.Big shiny shed and BIGGER vegi garden.
YOU AINT GOING TO TIP DIESEL INTO THE RED BEAST ARE YOU!!!!!!!
Andrew