Thread: Cape York, here we come

Nice. Hope the wench enjoys it.

Looks great!
Got a sand anchor? MaxTrax?
Dont forget to Air down before you hit the beach at Inskip,

And above all have an awesome trip!

Half your luck Tony, very jealous, wish I was heading off the FNQ this weekend! All the best and enjoy! Cheers

Hi Tony, looks like a great set up that should stand you in good stead. Did you fit a Long Range Tank, or did I miss that? Assuming that you have fitted a dual battery system, something that caught us out is the speed at which the (AR fridge emptied the battery when stoping for longer than overnight. Something that a solar feed would help avoid. Something I found useful and took for insurance was an IIDTool, as well as enabling me to read and reset any errorcodes, I could override the standard airsuspension settings, which is useful especially if you are travelling on a track with a high crown and want to exceed the speed limit on the off-Road height setting. You can also lower the standard height which on tarmac can reduce fuel usage.

No Long Range Tank, just 2 jerries in the Camper Trailer. ive had a chat to a mate just back, he said just top up everywhere thats open and will be fine.
No dual battery on the car, i am taking the camper, its an ultimate and it has its own batteries etc so all ok there. The Ulti is a ripper unit, 1200ks fully loaded and full of water so easy to tow anywhere reasonable.

Counting down now, will post a pic on Sunday all loaded up !

The distances are not actually that great up the Cape, so just top up regularly and you should be fine with a couple of jerries.

I got back from The Tip just over a week ago, and I carried only 1 x 10l jerry. Its still in the van boot full!

I didn't do the full length of the Tele track, but with all the back tracking I recon I would have used about the same amount of fuel.

By the way, diesel is cheap enough up to Coen, then OK at Weipa, then expensive ($2.00) up to Bamaga where its cheaper, $1.30ish.

My D3 went fantastic, after I replaced the old radiator at Bundaburg, and the aux battery at Mareeba.

Towed the van with ease, all the way to Bramwell Station, then up to the Tip in comfort. Had a play on Sam and Cannibal creeks and watched the shenanigans at Gunshot.

Dropped the D647 tyres to 30psi all round and kept speed down to 80kph. No problems at all.

Spoke to one bloke who had blown a tyre and he couldn't understand why, as he had his tyres at 35psi, but he was driving at 110kph on the bitumen bits.

Best campsite we had was the aboriginal reserve on the way to Chilli Beach. Much better run than the National Parks, pay when you get there NOT on-line, hot water, flush toilet, and the ranger delivered firewood to us each day. Go through the top area to the sites down on the creek.

Have fun, you'll love it.

Regards
Trevor

I'd second that. Don't believe the rubbish about going fast to skate over the corrugations - it doesn't work. Drop your tyres and slow down. It isn't a race and there are no prizes for coming first.
We really liked Chilli Beach. Also the Loyalty beach Caravan Park at the top. The daily boat trip to Thursday Island is also a good experience.