Just back from Fraser.
Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2006 10:40 am
Just got back from Fraser Island yesterday. I took the Sedan ( EJ18, 5spd, locked diff etc ) and pulled a light offroad camper trailer with it. I booked a return trip from Harvey Bay on the barges and headed on up. I drove up on Sunday the 30th Sept and stayed at Harvey Bay the night then onto the barge in the morning.
Halfway between Gympie and Marybourough I broken a front CV ( inner, was dried right out ) so did a 30mins CV swap ( new personal best! ) and was on my way.
Got over the Fraser Island and drove inland to Eurong and then up the beach to Ocean Lake ( past Indian heads and Waddy Point ). The suby handled the trailer brilliantly, having troubles only at Indian Heads and it's inland track. Had some help pulling through those spots and was good.
Just before the Indian heads tack joined back to the beach the car stalled and when restarted would barely idle and wouldn't rev. After sitting for about 30mins she came back to life and I was good to go again. Drove up to the campsite and then after giving a heap of stick to get up the track to camp The engine stalled and did the same thing.
I think that I left too much fuel hose in the engine bay and when I was working it really hard it was heating up too much ( the fuel in the hose ) and boiling causing vapour lock. It didn't happen again.
On tuesday I was driving and popped a tierod end balljoint. I put the ball back into the joint and used some wire to secure it there and drove to the local shop.
Got to the shop and asked if there was any way to get spare parts to the island, and the lady said I could get it posted but mail only comes once a week. This voice pops up behind me "I'll be at Gympie at about 3:30 tomorrow, I'll get your parts"
turned out to be the guy who delivers stock to the shop. So I call repco at gympie and they can get the parts from brisbane at about 3:30pm tomorrow. I ordered them, gave the dude some cash and midday thursday my parts were there.
In true repco fashion they gave me the wrong tie-rod ends ( too long ) but there was just enough thread on there to wind it all the way in and was only about 3mm out from original position. Didn't even notice tyre whine on the drive home so was pretty damn close.
Fishing wise, I didn't really have a long enough rod for good beach fishing, but caught a few decent sized dart which I smoked in the Cobb. In total we caught and kept about a dozen Dart and 2 tailer and a flathead ( there was about 8 fishing in our group ).
Because of the trouble I had with the engine stalling and the balljoint I decided to leave a day early and drive all the way down the beach to Hook point and catch an inskip barge. I did that with no dramas and the barge operator didn't even charge me for the trip because I'd bought a return from harvey bay even though it was a different barge company.
All in all an awesome trip, next time I go I won't take a trailer, will probably get a house around the happy valley area. Also I'll never drive up to Harvey bay again, the inskip barges were heaps better, only reason I did Harvey bay was because we were convoying.
Halfway between Gympie and Marybourough I broken a front CV ( inner, was dried right out ) so did a 30mins CV swap ( new personal best! ) and was on my way.
Got over the Fraser Island and drove inland to Eurong and then up the beach to Ocean Lake ( past Indian heads and Waddy Point ). The suby handled the trailer brilliantly, having troubles only at Indian Heads and it's inland track. Had some help pulling through those spots and was good.
Just before the Indian heads tack joined back to the beach the car stalled and when restarted would barely idle and wouldn't rev. After sitting for about 30mins she came back to life and I was good to go again. Drove up to the campsite and then after giving a heap of stick to get up the track to camp The engine stalled and did the same thing.
I think that I left too much fuel hose in the engine bay and when I was working it really hard it was heating up too much ( the fuel in the hose ) and boiling causing vapour lock. It didn't happen again.
On tuesday I was driving and popped a tierod end balljoint. I put the ball back into the joint and used some wire to secure it there and drove to the local shop.
Got to the shop and asked if there was any way to get spare parts to the island, and the lady said I could get it posted but mail only comes once a week. This voice pops up behind me "I'll be at Gympie at about 3:30 tomorrow, I'll get your parts"
turned out to be the guy who delivers stock to the shop. So I call repco at gympie and they can get the parts from brisbane at about 3:30pm tomorrow. I ordered them, gave the dude some cash and midday thursday my parts were there.
In true repco fashion they gave me the wrong tie-rod ends ( too long ) but there was just enough thread on there to wind it all the way in and was only about 3mm out from original position. Didn't even notice tyre whine on the drive home so was pretty damn close.
Fishing wise, I didn't really have a long enough rod for good beach fishing, but caught a few decent sized dart which I smoked in the Cobb. In total we caught and kept about a dozen Dart and 2 tailer and a flathead ( there was about 8 fishing in our group ).
Because of the trouble I had with the engine stalling and the balljoint I decided to leave a day early and drive all the way down the beach to Hook point and catch an inskip barge. I did that with no dramas and the barge operator didn't even charge me for the trip because I'd bought a return from harvey bay even though it was a different barge company.
All in all an awesome trip, next time I go I won't take a trailer, will probably get a house around the happy valley area. Also I'll never drive up to Harvey bay again, the inskip barges were heaps better, only reason I did Harvey bay was because we were convoying.
