Fraser Island Trip Report

[jonathan_k]

Thought I would write a little trip report on our recent trip to Fraser Island. I’ll just talk about how the van went as you can watch bikini clad backpackers on YouTube to see what the island is about .


We have a 2015 SWB T5 4motion with 7 speed DSG, raised King Springs and 235/65R17 tyres. Fitted out as a hybrid work/camper. I'll do a separate build thread soon.


The forum has been a wealth of information to help build up our van and I'm thankful for everyone's info.

Short version is that we went right through to Sandy Cape and crossed the island several times on different inland tracks with absolutely no dramas. Conditions were good and we took it easy. Although there are plenty of soft roaders getting around on Fraser, I don’t think the old dak dak van is seen over there judging by the attention. Fist pumps, HEAPS of double takes and craning necks.

I'm super impressed with how the van performs on sand and wouldn't hesitate to go back, regardless of the conditions. I'm fairly certain that this van could cross the Simpson Desert French Line relatively easily (early in the season, before the track gets smashed). Wouldn’t be surprised if someone has taken one across already?

Longer version…

We had 4 weeks and hadn't specifically decided where we were going when we left home but had Rainbow Beach and possibly Fraser Island in mind. I knew we'd run some north coast beaches for sure so I threw my set of MaxTrax on the roof.

I'm experienced with real 4x4's and have spent a lot of time travelling remote parts of Australia. Had general recovery gear in order: tow strap, snatch strap, compressor, tracks, familiar with recovery points (front tow point inadequate for major recovery but that's a different discussion -- just don't get badly bogged!).

So we were all rigged up and had hit some soft sand beaches on the north coast and knew the van ran sweet.

First stop on the Sunny Coast was Teewah which I knew from Murphenzo's reports was OK. The cutting onto Teewah was pretty chopped up and soft so I figured it was a good place to get stuck if it was going to happen. With 18psi the van just idled off the beach. We spent a few days there and saw one other T5 -- a tour operator maching up the beach at low tide with a full bus!

We had no trouble on Teewah on the soft stuff at the back of the beach, with any cuttings or the Leisha track which is well boarded and gravelled compared to last time I was there. Rainbow was perfect with minimal rocks exposed and 2 wheel conditions. This left us confident that we wouldn't have a problem with the beaches on Fraser. We didn't just want to run up the beach and back though, we were keen to head inland as I'd done a rushed trip before and wanted to spend more time in the rainforests and at the lakes.

Next stop, Inskip Point to wait out a few days of rain. The weather was still fine when we got there and the dry, chopped up tracks into the camps and out to the barge landing weren’t in great shape but we had no issues. It was reassuring to notice that some other vehicles were dragging in the deep ruts that we still had clearance over.

Then, rain it did… and it blew 30 knots for 3 days. It was great to hang out in the comfort of the van for the worst of it, I don't think we would have waited around without it! We knew the rain would mostly work in our favour over on the island anyway. I even got a kite surfing session at Inskip while my wife was hiding out in the van.


Finally the day came to head over, I let the first barge go over and watched through binoculars to make sure things weren't too hectic.



We got off the next barge last and enjoyed running behind a few other vehicles as we could see what was up ahead. I was running 30psi which was a bit high to comfortably come around Hook Point though we just gave it a bit more gas.

Tooloora Creek came out of the mist and the first cars were going through, the creek was pumping tannin stained water into the ocean. It was still blowing, the surf was 6-8ft and pushing up into the creek mouth. Troopies were bouncing through the salt water and the whole scene was looking pretty crazy. OK, we better just let those guys go on and pull up here and assess what we're doing! We still had a couple of hours until low tide. The creek itself looked really nice with water lilies and such, walked up to the edge… quick sand up to the shins… noted not to drive near the creek edges toward the back of the beach. Then I had a walk across the creek which was just under knee deep, swift but the bottom was quite hard. Not as crazy as the other vehicles made it look! Aired down to 18psi, waited for a lull and bumped across with a bit too much momentum. It took me a couple more creek crossings to trust the van and stop over-gassing it.

We got off the beach at Dilli Village and used the inland track past Lake Boomanjin through to Central Station.





Next day, my wife rightly made me turn back on a minor trail called Northern Road as there were some awkward tree roots that we couldn’t pass easily and it wasn’t really the place to be working out the vans nuances. It was a good reminder that it’s not a real 4x4. Those that have vehicles with a diff lock consider yourselves lucky!!


There were some tricky sections heading back over to the east coast and Lake Wabby side trip but nothing that careful wheel placement couldn’t overcome.

Couple of days in the sand was drying out, we dropped to 16psi over Indian Head and around Champage Pools tracks to be safe. Heading over to Waddy Point had a massive F250 up my ass so I pulled off to let him past into a particularly gnarly section just to show that we weren’t slouches. The guy stopped next to us, wound down his window and said “Is that thing four wheel drive!?”. “Yep, whadya reckon of it??”. It was going alright he reckoned and we had a good laugh with them.





North of Orchid Beach we saw a particularly good camp high up on the dune with deep, wind-blown sand on the track up to it. Had a first go with 20psi I think and got halfway, air down to 16psi and made it with throttle to spare. While we stayed there several other 4x4’s tried to get up and couldn’t (wrong pressures), the only other car that made it was a souped up GQ Patrol. The next day I was talking to his mate who was also trying but couldn’t make it and he said “My mate told me there was a van up there, how the @#$#^ did you get that up there!?”.

The next day we continued up to South Ngkala Rocks with the same intention we’d had all along: have a look and turn back if necessary. We were having an awesome time and didn't need to go further though we would if we could.

Got there to find a line-up of 10 cars waiting at the coffee rock cutting which is full of brown water and looking intimidating. After that there is a sloppy sand, diagonally chopped up section which the T5 hasn’t really proven to be good at and up ahead there are 2 cars bogged in the soft sand. Those cars got moving again with the right tyre pressures a bit of pushing and recovery tracks. I was able to watch one of the vehicles that couldn’t get up the dune to our camp struggle through so I knew we’d have no problems with the sand part. Then we got to watch a heap of vehicles go through the coffee rock hole, everyone gassing it for momentum like it was going to swallow them. Several cars slammed diffs and towbars, water flying everywhere. I’d already walked through it and knew it had a very hard rock bottom, no way you could get bogged in it. I also knew that we had a little more clearance than the Hilux’s that were dragging diffs. Soon the commotion died down and it was just us left. Idled through the cutting with 30psi to allow max clearance, pulled off the track and aired down to 16psi for the rest. Came out the other side to the waiting cars beeping horns. Awesome!

I have a vid of the run through which I’ll post soon.

After that we got up to Sandy Cape and spent a few days in this beautiful spot. The whole feeling of the island changes the further north you go away from the madness.





Had a huge storm come through the night before we left which washed out the bypass track at Sandy Cape. Saw a guy nose first in it, winching himself out in the morning. We got the van up on 3 wheels on the way out and a Jimny driver called me a “crazy, crazy man”. I said “Thank you”.

Later on, on another inland track a group in Toyota monster utes with 35” mud tyres who had seen us at Sandy Cape pulled up and gave us a beer. “That thing is a beast!”. Gotta love Queenslanders!!

[Bryn23]

Great report, and its a fantastic review of the 4 Motion as well.

Thanks for the photos as well.

Fraser sure is a beautiful part of of the world

[Rebuild]

Nice read.thx

[Markee]

Great read, cant wait for the video. Gives me heaps of confidence in mine, especially as we have a diff lock although it is a manual.
Jonathan your prior experience obviously counted for heaps while negotiating the tracks, what would you suggest as someone who is absolutely new to the off road scene do in preparation, i.e. some sort of off road driving course maybe? I'd much rather learn before than falling in the deep end.
Mark

[jonathan_k]

Our run through Ngkala Rocks, looks easy of course and it was!

[Umai Naa!!]

Nice work.

Have you got a front undertray fitted?

[jonathan_k]

I highly recommend a driver training course just for the confidence it will give you. I would get onto a real 4x4 course in a real 4x4 with a club like Toyota Landcruiser Club -- even if you're just a passenger. That'll give you a great idea of what is and isn't possible, recovery techniques and building out tracks. After that maybe look for a soft roader specific course which you can do in the van and learn some tricks.

Depends what your goals are as 95% of stuff called "4x4" is doable with common sense and capitalising on your MTB experience as you'll already have the ability to pick a line and that's most of the driving done!

That's awesome that you've got the diff lock, I would have loved one. My experience so far is that I can't just roll up to a diagonal step and slowly crawl up it, starts doing this retarded bunny hop thing, will play around more but it seems to need some speed which is likely to end in grief for a vehicle not really built for off road.

With the DSG I was really actively driving it, being aware of potential wear on the clutches. I could write a whole post on it!

[jonathan_k]

No underbody protection, but keen to put something on in the medium term. The fuel tank also seems pretty exposed. Is there anything available in Oz?

[Umai Naa!!]

Somebody on here had a steel belly pan made a few years back, as I don't believe there's anything off the shelf.

[Sunny43.5]

I would definitely fit some sort of underbody shield there are too many bits that could get damaged by a tree roots etc . Not sure if the newer T5.1 has the same diesel cooler under the floor but it was very vunerable on our 2005 T5 right behind the passengers front wheel and it was the only fitting that was on the underside of all the body shields that VW somehow deleted on some later models . A single stone punched a hole in our cooler after we put the pass side onto the verge on a narrow road . Result diesel spewing out across the road and at the next intersection the van did a beautiful pirouette worhty of a prima ballerina , while we waited for the lights to change unbeknown to us it was pumping fuel under the van and partly across the road . So when we took off it just went nuts sliding across the intersection sideways . Your van certainly seems to handle the sand quite well , I will post an excursion we had recently in ours later .