Fraser Island 4x4 access

I would say the limiting factor is your lack of experience.

Join an Xtrail club or 4WD club and do some basic training.

You will need to fit front and rear recovery points, carry a snatch, have deflateors, compressor etc before going there.

My suggestion would be to head up somewhere like Woodgate beach where you have about 8 km of wide beach to play on, drive down on the hard packed sand and see how easy it is then try drive on the loose deep sand up next to the bank and see the difference.

Graham, I wouldn't be totally comfortable to take the Xtrail on Fraser, especially if you plan to load the vehicle. It'll be fine on beach driving at low tide until you have to go on a heavy trafficked inland track or hit a boggy bypass, then you'll probably struggle with the ground clearance further reduced by lower tire pressure. This is my opinion and is based on a direct experience with that car on sand. You may be lucky and get perfect conditions on the island with tracks and beaches with nicely compacted wet sand and get away with, but you could also arrive and find erosion, forced to drive on soft sand and super boggy tracks then you'll damage the car underneath plastic shields bit 'n pieces and put a big stress on the engine. A bit of experience in sand driving and dealing with salt water issues would help a lot.

Just to be sure ... is your x-trail the "4wd" version?

Many of these softroaders including the x-trail now have a 2wd-only option.