'ESCAPE TO THE CAPE - 2009' Product Evaluation Trip
Escape to the Cape - 2009 (Part 1) Brisbane to Bramwell Junction
Escape to the Cape - 2009 (Part 2) OTT to Fruit Bat Falls
Escape to the Cape - 2009 (Part 3) Sams Creek to Seisia
Escape to the Cape - 2009 (Part 4) The Tip to Daintree
Escape to the Cape - 2009 Slideshow
THE BLOG
8th June 2009
Just wanted to let you know that we are shortly off to the Cape, testing a number of products including the new innovative HITCHMASTER 3.5 tonne Drop on coupling AKA DO35.
We are taking two trailers kindly lent to us by Danny at Pacific Aluminium Trailers and John at Lifestyle Campers. Both of these will be fitted with independent Coil suspensions and we will be trialling some new shockies and spring combinations as we go.
The crew will be Deon van Deventer our Senior Project Engineer, Andrew Goddard Engineering Undergraduate and Peter Cooper. Peter is the owner of a Kedron Caravan with over 60,000 kms of dirt roads tamed by its CRUISEMASTER Air suspension. He will be the resident expert on the trip making sure we don’t drown at any of the creek crossings.
We have been planning this trip for a couple of months now and the cars will be leaving Brisbane for Cairns on the 22nd June driven by Pete and Andrew with Deon and I flying up on Thursday the 25th ready for a start on the next day. Our plan is to drive up quickly getting to Seisia late on Sunday having travelled via the Developmental Road and hopefully the southern part of the Old Telegraph Track.
The two towing vehicles we are taking are a 2000 Landcruiser 100 diesel and a Prado 120 VX with 2 inch lift. Final preparations include fitting a bullbar, winch and snorkel to the 100 series and some new treads and a drawer system for the Prado.
In order to stick to a reasonable budget the bullbar was purchased off Ebay for $150 and the winch bought from Aldi. We have heard from a number of sources that the Aldi winches work pretty well. The bullbar has been sent for powder coating at AVG who powdercoat the trailing arms for the CRUISEMASTER suspensions. It should all go back together early this week.
Tyres for the Prado haven’t been so easy. Most tyre shops we visited had little technical backup. Everyone has a favourite and probably all of the better makes would do the job. However with the amount of towing that we do we wanted a true LT rated tyre in the correct size (265/65X17) and the only one we can find is the Bridgestone 694. This seems to have good write ups on the 4wd forums so these will be purchased next week. During our search Bridgestone technical assistance were also able to answer some questions that we had.
Drawer systems are particularly expensive and so we decided to manufacture one ourselves pinching some boxes from the factory as a starting point. We are just waiting for the fridge slide to finish the unit off.
Current issues that need to be resolved are whether or not to take a sat phone. We believe that TJM have just started to rent these so we are going to have a look this week. Also the conditions of the tracks and creeks which we are hearing are still pretty full. That reminds me I have to buy a tarp in the next couple of days.
We found a great ‘Off-road’ first-aid kit at BCF which has the lot for $135. I reckon we will be able to perform brain surgery at the side of the road, let’s hope we don’t need it.
15 June 2009
One week to go before the cars and trailers leave for Cairns. Bought the 694’s and they look pretty good.
The cars went in today for their pre-trip inspection. Prado needs some brake pads but the Landcruiser needs a new header tank and some suspension bushes and the steering pump has sprung a leak. Lucky we did the checks, easier to fix here on the ramp than at the side of the Old Telegraph Track. Still need to fit the snorkel but the Bullbar and winch are looking good.
Found this morning that the fridge slide doesn’t quite fit the drawer system so tomorrow will be spent making a few changes.
The Lifestyle trailer is nearly finished and the Pacific should be back to Danny tomorrow. These will need to be picked up and brought to VC to fit the suspensions we want to test.
Promotional material, T shirts, hats and stubby coolers have been ordered and are promised to be ready Friday.
Deon and I are off to Melbourne to visit a couple of customer’s tomorrow afternoon flying back the following day. Time is starting to run out to get all the jobs finished. Watch this space.
21 June 2009
Trailers finally arrived last Thursday/Friday. Suspensions were changed to put on the ones we want to test.
The Lifestyle will have a Cruisemaster Coil and the Pacific an Economaster. This is a lighter no frills independent currently only available to OEM trailer manufacturers. Economaster offers an independent entry level product for lighter trailers up to 1500kg.
Promo material arrived on time thanks to DPMA at Brendale.
Spent the weekend finishing the work on the trailers and packing up. Which tools do we take and what spares might we need. Had no idea how long all this would take. Cars are finished now and it's now pouring with rain, hope this doesn't spread too far north.
Tomorrow morning (Monday) Andrew and Peter will leave at 6:00 am and head North ready for a rendezvous at Cairns on Thursday afternoon. Decided to renew the tyres on the trailer which we had swapped from our test trailer as there isn't too much tread on them. This will have to be done in Cairns.
23rd June 2009
After leaving Brisbane on Monday in the rain the weather started to clear up shortly after Gympie. The night was spent at Marlborough a small township located 106 kilometres north west of Rockhampton.
An early start on Tuesday was marred when Peter experienced a violent pull from the steering wheel in the Landcruiser. Upon inspection it was found that the panhard rod bolt had come loose allowing the axle to shimmy. Luckily the bolt was still hanging on and was retightened. A full inspection of all the suspension mounting bolts was made later in the day.
A bit of research found that this can be a problem if anti-sieze is used in this one area as a hydraulic lock forms on the bolt which stops it from being fully tightened.
Once on the road the two cars passed through Carmila, Bowen and drove through to Townsville for the night leaving only 300 kms to go before arrival in Cairns tomorrow.
9th July 2009
We all met up in Cairns on Thursday afternoon and decided to get new tyres for the Pacific which was using some wheels and tyres off the Vehicle Components test trailer which were looking pretty ordinary. We stayed the night at Crystal Cascades, a wonderful campsite and had a great meal of double lambshanks at the Red Beret pub at Redlynch.
An early start on Friday had us setting off down the 250 kms of bitumen to Lakeland to join the Peninsula Developmental Road. We made good progress, due to the recent grading of the road, rravelling through Laura to the Musgrave Roadhouse where we stayed the night. The only casualty that day being a broken UHF aerial.
Saturday saw us passing through Coen, stopping for Archer Burgers at the Archer River Roadhouse and on to Bramwell Junction to make camp for the night, knowing that first thing in the morning we would be starting off on the infamous Old Telegraph Track.
The Telegraph Track literally starts as a small track from the roadhouse, it is not long before you get to Palm Creek, the first major Creek crossing. This was an uneven muddy track with relatively high sides leading down to the Creek. It wasn’t long before we had crossed wondering what the rest of the track had in store.
As we followed the track we started to look for relics of the past and soon we were spotting the old telegraph poles themselves, the reason why the track was made in the first place. We soon got into the routine of stopping at the crossings, walking, looking for holes and slowly and carefully driving across.
Crossing a number or creeks, traversing over some uneven parts of the track with the trailers performing faultlessly started to give us some confidence. Inevitably we arrived at the junction of the Gunshot bypass. It was decided to give it a go and so with some trepidation we took the track to Gunshot Creek.
At Gunshot there are three tracks. The original Gunshot with its near vertical drop and every chance of doing permanent damage to the vehicles as they strike the ground from a drop of about 5 metres. Next to Old Gunshot is New Gunshot, not quite so steep and with a large deep muddy bottom before getting to the Creek itself. Thirdly, is the ‘Chicken Run’ a longer still steep run with a sharp left hand turn into a deep hole, a mud run and then to the Creek. To make it worse everything is witnessed and judged by a group of sightseers sitting on chairs in the Creek waiting for things to go pear shaped.
Deon (now known as ‘Gunshot’) decided to try the New Gunshot run with the Lifestyle. After crawling slowly down the slope he hit the mud and managed to slide his way along with the trailer taking the path of least resistance behind. Once over it was the turn of the Prado. Having seen the 100 series struggle in the mud it was decided to take the Prado down the Chicken Run which Andrew did expertly much to my relief.
Once on the other side an assessment of damage. The full length mudflaps on the 100 series were looking very sad and there was some collateral damage to the back of the Lifestyle – who is going to tell John?
After some late lunch at Gunshot we carried on, all the time wondering at the fantastic scenery around us and the crystal clear creeks. We rejoined the Bamaga Road for a short distance before turning onto the Northern part of the Old Telegraph Track to have a look and swim at Fruit Bat Falls.
Carrying on we hoped to stop at Elliot Falls but the campsite was full so we decided to look for a bush camp. As night started to fall everybody had the same idea. We crossed Canal Creek climbing the slippery uneven claytrack and didn’t manage to find anywhere until we reached Sam Creek where we stopped. It had been a long and very eventful day.
As day broke on Monday we headed further up the track. This northern part of the track is more technically challenging than the Southern part. The log bridge at Cypress Creek was interesting but the off-camber right turn towing a trailer straight after is even more exciting, and all the time wondering if we will be able to get through Nolans brook the last of the major Creek crossings.
We rounded a corner and came across a wide and deep crossing which we did not anticipate as being a problem. This was Logans Creek which was some 750mm deep so we attached the tarps and went for it. At the exit we met some blokes who had drowned a motorbike the previous day. After trying to help we left them with a set of jump leads wondering of we would ever see them again, but they said that they would catch up with us in Seisia and give them back.
Finally we arrived at Nolans Brook, the last and possibly riskiest crossing. There was no going back, it was simply too far. On again with the bras, 100 series first, Deon was through. Would the Prado make it? There was a Disco on the bank which had drowned two days earlier, with its engine in bits, seats and headlamps out all drying, would this be us in a few minutes time?
‘Give it some’ I heard on the radio as I approached the water. Well I did, probably a bit too much looking at the video and pictures afterwards, but we got across. We had survived Nolans and tamed the Telegraph Track.
We arrived at the Jardine ferry which had closed for lunch so we took the opportunity to do the same and eventually headed off on the road to Bamaga. By now the roads were starting to get worse with corrugations which would test the ride and handling of the suspensions and couplings.
Monday afternoon we arrived at the Seisia campsite and were given an idyllic beachfront spot with front row sunset views, we decided to stay for two days as tomorrow we would achieve our aim of reaching the Cape itself.
As we turned in a crowd gathered to look at the trailers, their suspension and couplings. We seemed to attract great interest wherever we went. People were amazed ‘So you really do test your product – you get paid for this? You must have the best job in the world!’
This time the crowd was a group of camper trailer owners who had come up both Frenchmans Track and the Telegraph. They were members of a forum and so we swapped yarns of Gunshot and Nolans and compared suspensions and trailers. I slept well that night looking forward to the next day.
10th July 2009
Tuesday. The final stage. We left the campsite and got lost in Bamaga for the third time. The place is in desperate need of a few signposts. Four wheel drives wander around hoping they’ll stumble on the road to Seisia or the way to the Cape. We ended up on a small track which was a shortcut to the main route which had some of the ‘best’ corrugations to date. We put this in the memory bank to come again and do some shock absorber testing.
Passing the Croc Tent, the road starts to narrow and becomes a delightful track through the rainforest complete with a couple of Creek Crossings. From the car park a boardwalk takes you to a beach where you have a choice to go up and over the rocky headland or along the beach. We took the climb up. Soon the view opened up in front and after about a ten minute walk, which thoroughly tested Pete’s new titanium knee, we started the downhill scrabble to the Tip itself.
We had arrived! Plenty of snaps and congratulations later we took the flatter path across the beach back to the car park. Here we bumped into our drowned motorcyclist from Logans Creek complete with jump leads. It was turning into a great day.
We decided to take the back track to Punsand Bay for lunch. More Creek Crossings mostly with soft sandy bases. We chose our route carefully as a few people, we had heard, got stuck here the day before.
Punsand Bay was spectacular and the fish and chips awesome. In the car park was an old Subaru which we had read about on the forums. Complete with PVC snorkel it had survived the Telegraph Track only to expire at Punsand Bay, very much the worse for wear, where it was traded for some food and accommodation!
We headed back to Seisia via the Croc Tent to buy a few souvenirs. We would have a well deserved rest before starting the long trip home.
The first part of Wednesday we spent on the very corrugated road to the Cape testing. A set route was established and driven at a constant speed. Shock absorber temperatures were measured before and after the run and an opinion on ride quality was made.
A total of seven combinations of single and twin shockies was tested. At each change Deon and Andrew lay in the dust unbolting and bolting up the different combinations in temperatures approaching 38 degrees. Well done and thanks lads.
Each change had to be performed quickly as we wanted to reach the Jardine Ferry before it stopped for lunch. We made it with 15 minutes to spare.
Travelling down the Developmental Road we stopped at the Archer River Roadhouse for the night. The mornings dust was washed off in the River and a few beers were downed to make up for vital fluids lost that morning.
On Thursday we continued on to the Musgrave Roadhouse where we had lunch. Here we met one of the Wilderness Challenge vehicles on its’ way up to the Cape. These Oka trucks spend their life towing trailers on tourist runs coping with continual corrugations and even the Old Telegraph Track. This was the second one we had met on the trip.
Vehicle Components’ supply prototype and production couplings to Wilderness Challenge for evaluation. This is a great way to see if our products will survive the harshest conditions and feedback from this is used in our continuous improvement program.
While we were stopped we looked to see why the Prado bullbar had been moving so much on the corrugations. This had been a major source of trouble as the aerial had broken early on and the bracket holding on the winch control box had also failed.
The mounting brackets for the bullbar had started to crack. This mean’t that we would have to nurse the car a little more than we had wanted to. Therefore we decided to carry on down to Battle Camp road rather than venture through the Lakefield Park.
We had planned to stop the night at Eddies at Elim Beach just outside Hopevale. Due to inexperience and a lack of forward planning we found ourselves unable to enter the area because we had full strength beers on board.
So we headed for the Endeavour Falls Campsite with its beautiful palms and supposedly croc free water hole. Unfortunately there had been a recent sighting so entry into the water was strictly out of bounds.
The next day was to be a short run into Cooktown where we would try to charter a fishing boat up the Endeavour River. Cooktown is spectacular and we managed to ‘hook-up’ with Leonard who Pete had fished with before. This was a fantastic experience with two croc sightings along the banks of the river. Together we caught mangrove jack, estuary cod and a queenie.
Before returning to the campsite we made the quick trip up the dirt road to the lighthouse for an amazing view of the twisting river. Then back to the Cooktown Caravan Park for a magnificent feed of fresh fish cooked on an open fire.
Saturday morning we were back on the open road stopping for a view of the Black Mountain before tackling the Bloomfield Track with its steep slopes and tight turns. After crossing the Daintree River by ferry we started looking for a campsite hoping to stay at Wonga Beach. Every site was fully booked, until we arrived at Mossman where we pitched on two adjacent spots and went for a swim in the massive pool alongside the Caravan Park. Here we started to sort out our gear for tomorrow would be the last night before leaving for home.
Sunday we travelled the very scenic road past Port Douglas, only spoilt by hoons who threw cans and bottles at a caravan as they overtook it in front of us.
In Cairns we celebrated a successful trip with another night at the Red Beret. The trip had surpassed all expectations not only from the performance of the trailers and their equipment but also the four wheel driving, the scenery and the camaraderie.
Only one question remains. Where are we going to go next year?
All the best
Chris Goddard
Managing Director
Vehicle Components Pty Ltd
Gallery - Escape to the Cape
