Plane and Bus Bogged on Fraser Island

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Dunno Les, the report said....... "the bus tried to tow it out, without any luck. The plane managed to get out, but the bus became stuck."

It says the bus failed but the plane got out..... probably under its own efforts.
The bus driver may have been eager but not capable.

True, very often planes can create enough airflow over the wings to get lift, maybe enough to get it out.
STOL planes are a joy to watch land / take off.

Still the bus got into trouble, and although the company is likely insured, and probably get some decent publicity as well, it will likley still be a hit to the pocket in some ways.

Fraser beaches are so unpredictable, won't be the last vehicle lost over there.

The beach is the main road on Fraser. The inland tracks are slow, narrow and bumpy. Cruising along the beach at Fraser on a nice day is very nice indeed.

Generally you can drive them fairly safely, washouts and shelves are probably the main natural risk that people "run into" on Frasers eastern beach.
Especially so when the weather is windy.

Also a lot of people don't pay attention to tides and creek crossing depths, and after spending some considerable $ getting there, ferry over, bookings etc, take a risk instead of waiting.

Planes regularly land on Fraser, this one might have hit a quicksand patch, they are supposed to be reasonably common there (wet patch people don't see before hitting it).
I've not ever met one of these, but am always wary and stay as reasonably high as I can on most beaches in QLD, NSW, SA, so far.

The reason people drive on the sand closer to the water is that the wet sand is firmer.

The hard packed sand is easier to drive on and gives less stress to the vehicle compared to the soft sand higher up.

Anther reason for staying low is that birds (Plovers) sometimes have their nest in the soft stuff.

Is beach driving is magical? Yes.

Paul

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Yes Candace, driving along Fraser Beach can be a "magical experience".
When we visit, Roz takes the wheel, winds down the window and heads up the beach with the wind blowing her hair.... Wheeeeee!
I only get the wheel when it's hard going.

But, as said, there are precautions to be taken. The sand is most firm where it is still moist, but not wet. Close to the water has risks, obviously. Sightseeing planes operate using the beach as a landing strip. They need a smooth firm surface but this one must have misjudged. It is the first I have known to get bogged.

Hi Candace, no offence, but it is obvious you have never been to Fraser Island. The only way to travel up the east coast of Fraser Island is on the beach. There are no roads that run the length of Fraser Island from South to North & vice versa. Most of the internal tracks on Fraser Island cross from east to west, or wind between certain locations. The eastern beach as well as being a gazetted highway, is also the gazetted landing strip.

Macca.

Indeed, I haven't been there! As far as I know, none of the companies that hire 4WD's allow their vehicles on Fraser Island. :)

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Yes Candace, there are 4WD hire companies dedicated to Fraser Island.
Here is just one, and there are others. Google "Fraser Island 4WD hire".

Mind you, it ain't cheap!

I think there are a few specialised companies that hire for Fraser, and certainly many years ago I hired a troopy at Kingfisher Bay, after a trip over from Urangan on private boat, we swam / waded ashore :)

Had a great days driving covering a lot of the highlights, but have always wanted to go back for a good 4 - 5 days, mid week, and avoid the SE QLD weekend idiots.

It's not what it was. Today it's over populated by tourists, over regulated and over commercialized. It has to be that way now unfortunately. Another 20 years will probably see a tar road up the middle and driving on the beach banned.

Whilst it's certainly busier now then 20 years ago, if you visit in Winter the place is practically a ghost town. We were there last year during the July school holiday period, I was amazed how dead the place was, can only imagine how it would have been when what few people were there went back to work and thier kid's to school the following week. Have heard from people that were there this year for the same period, they reckon it was pretty quiet again also. Got to say i preferred it back in the day when we could have fires at our camps on the beach, sadly though the idiots wrecked that... the last several years fires were allowed, every time we were there a scrub fire was burning on the island somewhere. The island was looking old though on our last visit, it looked like no infrastructure maintenance had been done in a pretty long time.

We were there in early February through the week with traffic being very light. That time of year swimming was really comfortable temperature wise and there was only only a handful of people at Lake Mckenzie.

There are a huge amount of hire vehicles in Rainbow Beach to choose from.

Well worth a visit.

Mid week, not schools holidays, avoid the crowds and doof doof culture.
I won't be going back to Teewah, Rainbow, or Inskip for weekenders again, after the last couple of trips done when up there, makes you too disappointed in people.

To clarify, I meant the companies (e.g. Britz, Apollo) who hire 4WDs on the "mainland" don't allow the vehicles to be taken over.

I prefer vehicles I can sleep inside, so that limits the options available to me. ;)

You don't hire vehicles on Fraser - you hire them on the mainland and take them over.

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Aussie Trax 4X4 Rental have an office and vehicle depot on Fraser Island at Kingfisher Bay Resort.

Vehicles can be hired from 1/2 day upwards.

I would have thought that if you have just driven off firm sand into quicksand then it would be better to pull it back on to known good ground than to to pull it further into the bog.

Diff gears are quite capable of withstanding serious power in reverse. How many gear sets do you hear of being busted, simply by reversing under power whilst bogged? Very, very few.

All automotive diff gears are hypoid (helical spiral bevel), where the pinion shaft is offset, well below the centreline of the axles.
This results in a helical gear tooth which actually slides along its mating tooth on the other gear, to a certain degree.

The hypoid diff gearset has the advantage of being stronger than a regular spiral bevel gear set (where the pinion shaft is in line with the axle centreline) - because the teeth are curved, and therefore provide more inherent strength than a straight tooth, as in a regular spiral bevel gear set.

The hypoid gearset also offers advantages in vehicle design, because it reduces the diff "hump" profile, due to the ability to utilise a smaller diameter bevel (ring) gear.

As far as getting out of bogs (and I've been bogged aplenty), you are nearly always better off going straight out backwards, rather than trying to turn around, and go out forwards.

The reasons being - going out backwards, you're travelling back over tracks you've already made (instead of trying to make new ones).
Going forward usually only means you're going further into more unstable or softer ground - and trying to make new tracks, whilst doing so.

There are a few cases where you keep going forwards - when the ground behind you is softer or more unstable than the ground in front - or when someone else is bogged behind you!

Cheers, Ron.

Ron I did say Recovering a vehicle in reverse I didn't say reversing yourself out of a bog there's a massive difference. And yes you do drive backwards if you can't proceed forward that's just standard beach driving technic rock n roll within reason till you get out nothing new about that.

I not sure where you got the idea of turning around in a forward direction when bogged if that was aimed at me I didn't say that.

Also something I maybe should have mentioned but some one with your knowledge would already know this that If something should fail in the tow line or towing point should break then it would be safer for the driver to be out of the firing line within reason. I would prefer something hit the rear of my vehicle than come through the front window but that's just my opinion.

Another good reason to pull it out backwards!

Ron, 100 series were notorious for breaking front diff in reverse especially trying o pull someone out in reverse.

They are notorious for breaking front diffs full stop....it's not just a reverse thing, plenty break going forward also, and not necessarily whilst doing anything strenuous on the vehicle.

I believe that was because some dumb Toyota designers decided to utilise a Hilux-sized diff in the front of the 100 series, though?

Toyota did a lot of dumb things from about 2000 to 2010. One of them was ignoring build quality in favour of total build numbers, so they could beat GM to the crown of the auto manufacturer that produced the largest number of vehicles in the world.

The second thing was not hiring enough engineers - and the third thing was letting a lot of experienced engineers retire early, because they were burnt out.

Then they now brag about how they've brought back all these retired engineers on a part-time basis, to help the new generation of their engineers, learn how to build things properly!

I was of the belief it has to do with the crush spacer they use (hence why people put solid pinion spacers in), over time it allows excessive movement in the crown wheel and pinion, then bang crunch equals missing teeth. I was driving forwards up a gentle slope when mine went bang...no spinning wheels, no lifting wheels, just a small slope that any 4wd should negotiate with ease.