Thread: Pete and Eric take on 4wd action in Coffs

So, some of you may know, but for those of you who don’t, Eric (The_109) and I spent last week in Coffs Harbour on a week long 4WD action tough trip up in the hills for a forthcoming feature.

We were slightly apprehensive when we arrived with trailer full of Krawlers attached, expecting to be the least equipped car and thinking we would be up against a gaggle of 40” tyred Patrols and so on.

In reality though we were among the more modified cars.

The readers vehicles consisted of

Geoff in his JK Wrangler CRD auto running twin lockers and 35” KM2’s
Steve and Kim in an 80 series running superior suspension, twin lockers, and 33” MTZ’s’
Lance and Brad in Lances near 500 rwhp Patrol running lockers and 33” BFG MT’s
Rod and Kev in a couple of year old twin locked Hilux
Eric and I in my 90

Also on the trip at stages as guides and so on were

Nick and Dave in Nicks single cab twin locked GQ patrol running 35’s
Sando in his Double cab twin locked GQ Patrol running 35’s

From the magazine, there were Anthony – Photographer, Brendan, and Fred. These were top guys and worked tirelessly all week to keep us fed and happy.

We got down on Sunday afternoon and rocked up into the campsite to be joined by Rod, and Steve and Kim for the evening.

The next morning we headed down to Coffs Harbour 4wd centre to meet up with the rest of the guys. We got a lift down with Rod as we had changed tyres and would be heading back to camp before heading out to the tracks.

When at the 4wd centre most of the guys ran up the travel ramp, which Geoff comfortably won with a score of over 1100 with a bit of disconnecting stuff. He got nearly a 1000 before adjusting anything.

After this we headed back to camp to let the rest of the guys set up.

So on to the tracks. The first morning was quite easy with some scenic tracks up and around the hills near camp.









Unfortunately Lance’s Patrol suffered a few issues today with overheating and also a misfire. These would cause issues all week, which was a shame as they had worked some huge hours to get the car finished and head down from Mackay!

After lunch we headed to Commando. Any one who has been there will know the track. It was apparently even more eroded than when the club went late last year. We were first up and the first half was pretty easy, but we couldn’t clear the ledge as it kept lifting wheels. We ended up winching this and then driving the rest. (This was the only winch we needed all trip)

Some pics of us on Commando:





Geoff was up next and needed to also winch the ledge, and then winch the log.

Some pics of Geoff on Commando











Nick was the last car to try this and drove it without help. The long wheelbase helped him a huge amount here.

After this we headed back to camp, for dinner.

Next morning after breakfast we headed out again to the hills. I can’t exactly remember the order of the tracks for Tuesday and Wednesday so I have just added all of them with captions where will I can remember:

Steve and Kim in the creek bypass at the base of Jeep:



Geoff heading in:



Which resulted in: (this was mainly caused by Kim standing in the way causing a loss of momemum! - the video of this has swearing )







Lance winching out of the same creek:



I had to winch Rod out of here. Only Nick, Steve and I drove it unassisted.

Me thinking:



Muddy track with step, cant remember what this is called. Anthony has an awesome sequence of the 90 going up here both front wheels in the air:























Hard Powerlines, in reverse.





This was the last of the hard tracks, one called Perserverance. Before we even got there our leader got stuck



Then so did Steve:



After this we got to the main hill, and we managed to drive it, first car up after everyone else had tried. Must thank Eric here as I would have winched otherwise but he persuaded me to keep my foot in and it drove it fairly easily.

Only Sando managed to follow us up, then Lance after some track building was done in the hole at the bottom.

After this we headed to Pebbly beach for a more relaxing day and a half:









Thanks to Eric for co driving for me. Must say it was an excellent weekend, and the car performed faultlessly. The Krawlers are absolutely awesome as well. We should get some more pictures soon which I will add when they arrive.

All in all it was a great week with great tracks, and great people

Credit for the pictures to who-ever took them. These are from all the guys and girls on the trip so far. Thanks for them everyone.

Good job pete mate, whens it going to be published in the mag?

Shamo