Fraser Island 4 wheel driving

g'day

You would probably be ok on the beach when the tide is down as it can be a pretty good drive. If the tide is high and you have to drive in the fluffy stuff you may have a hard time. The tracks inland are probably too uneven to give any guarantees that you won't bottom out all over the place. I imagine your clearance is not ideal. There are definately places you won't be able to get to.
I've seen plenty of Subaru's on Fraser Island so all-wheelers must be allowed. I would get some more sand experience in your car before making the decision.

A lot of the time its driver skill that determines where a car can go. Some can bog a Prado where a good operator can drive a Commodore.

A good place to practice is Cooloola through Rainbow Beach to Inskip Point. Conditions are similar to the island. If you have no trouble there then go for it.

Cheers

Hi Capt,

The most difficult places on Fraser are the access points on and off the beach due to the chewed-up sand.

In fact the worst part of all is getting across the beach to the barges at Inskip Point. It is always chewed-up there and if you can get across to the barge you should be OK on the island.

However, tyre pressure is the most important factor. I run the Troopy at 18psi on Fraser and recommend you go no higher. Even go down to 15psi if you are having difficulty. Be sure to drop your pressure before leaving the bitumen at Inskip before you get on the sand and keep her moving until you get onto the barge.

Remember, no sharp turns in soft sand with lowered tyre pressures! Its a sure way to get bogged and also you could just roll a tyre bead off the rim. If you do get bogged, there is always someone willing to pull you out ...... me possibly.

Have a great time on Fraser, its a great place.

Hi Capt

I second the advice above.

I have seen a Ford Territory on the beach at Waddy Point, so an AWD should be able to go just about anywhere on the Island. I have also seen plenty of X-Trails, Forresters and Rav 4s in different places.

I am not familiar with your vehicle so some key questions for you are:

Does it have traction control (if yes, then in conjunction with appropriate tyre pressures, say 16 - 18psi, you'll be right)

Does it have any sort of centre diff lock like the X-Trail? Agin a big help with correct tyre pressures.

CRITICALLY: Does it have suitable recovery point to attach a snatch strap to? (ie something solid looking attached to the chassis, not just a tie down point). Do you have a snatch strap, rated shackles and a shovel?

What is the clearance like? If its at least the same as a Forrester or Territory you should have enough clearance.

Are you travelling alone? If going with a mate who can snatch you out of the "cut up", ie dry powdery sand, you'll be right for the other 90% of the Island.

Where are you planning to go? If through Indian Head you would need to know the answers to the above first.

As the guys above have said,you'll be fine on low tide sand. And coming on and off the barge and on and off the beach to the inland tracks there are always plenty of people willing to help snatch / push / dig you out of any trouble. I once helped a bogged guy in a cruiser who just forgot to engage 4WD. He bogged it to the axles before he realised his mistake! - just goes to show there's no magic to it and anyone can get stuck if the vehicles not set up right.

Conditions will make a MASSIVE difference. If there has been recent rain and the sand is damp and well packed you'll breeze through. If the sand is dry and powdery (eg no rain for some time) you'll find the beach access difficult (as will many others).

If you can tackle Noosa North Shore with confidence, you'll be fine on Fraser. Conditions on Noosa are similiar to Fraser so if you go there near to when you want to go to Fraser you'll get a good indication of how difficult or not Fraser will be.

A long winded reply I know, but hopefully it will avoid a long Q&A for you and you find something useful in there.

Good Luck!

Ben

Capt.

Should be ok as the others have said taking the right precautions etc, but you better pray for some rain between now and your trip as the sand is so soft at the moment (especially the barge approach off the end of the Inskip Road) as there has been no rain for nearly 2 months now to pack it down. Heaps getting bogged and track chewed up.

Cheers


A

Well it hasnt rained for ages and i would imagine that you will be bogged . Make sure you have recovery points on the front . You will get stuck at lots of places .

As said, have seen AWD Territory at Fraser was fine on the beach, but was bottoming out on the tracks. Luckily they thought ahead and had the optional recovery point fitted. At one stage, they were being towed by a hilux for a while (few km) through the worst parts, just kept the snatch strap on.

Make sure you have good recovery points front and back that will take the load of a snatch strap.

As the other great suggestions...but I would also measure your approach and departure angles...traction is important but not much help if the nose digs in just getting on and off the barge!!

But good luck if you go, fantastic place!

Matt.

G'day skipper. I have a CX8 Adventra. It's the best thing I've ever driven on loose surfaces, and it tows with little effort, but on Fraser, for mine, no way. We went up there 2 years ago for a couple of weeks. We were going to take the wagon but decided against it so that's when we bought our 4runner (and took that). I'm glad we did that. As others have said, on the beach it would be fine but there's not much to see by staying on the beach. The Adventra only has +90mm ground clearance over a stock Commodore wagon so not sure about yours. I would have bottomed out in so many places and risked damaging the car. Even with 250kw & 470nm of torque it would have struggled in the deep loose sand that is often encountered. And it would have sucked so much juice they would have run out on the island. My 4runner has a 3" lift and bottomed out in places that were deeply rutted.

Would have been huge fun though. All that grunt. If only it had low range and a 3" lift kit. Now that gives me an idea....

BTW, we (4runner + Patrol) extracted a Honda AWD SUV at Inskip Point (truth be known I think my car was doing all the work. lol). It was bogged to the floor pan just 40m off the hard stuff on it's way to the barge. We nearly busted the rear end off it getting it out. But then again, this joker had 32psi in his tyres and zero in the way of vehicle preparation.

Cheers

Louie

You asked if all types of fourbies are allowed.
Short answer ..Yep!
But, as some of the other replies have said, you may have problems in the soft stuff, and on the tracks where the wheels ruts are very deep. Clearance will be your real issue. If you're travelling with mates, the contract is that you'll help each other out. If you're going solo, you'll be depending on strangers to put their clutches at risk to pull you out of the sand if you get stuck.
Ask yourself if you'd be willing to put a couple of grands' worth of clutch on the line for someone you'd never met.

Well, thanks for your detailed replys. After discussions with the missus we've come to the conclusion that the lack of sand driving experience and an under prepapred vehicle probably isn't the answer. We don't want the trip tuning into a beachside circus.

Thanks for your help.

Capt.

Just got back from fantastic Fraser, and managed to bottom out the 3" lift Prado coming off the beach at Indian Head, but you would have no problems generally on the beach - Suzuki Jimnys, Honda CRV's, and Jayco Expanda caravans/ Ultimates also. Even at high tide, the fishies were cruising along . The inland tracks are a different matter - saw a Prado and a Patrol escorting a Kluger from Eurong to Lake McKenzie, but they were not confident about the Kluger!
With the recent heat/ lack of rain the inland tracks have occasional soft and fine wheel ruts (and deep) not helped by all the 4WD tour buses. Bottoming out is the main problem as others have said. Suffice to say, we still managed to drive these roads mainly in high range 1/2, sometimes low range on a sandy hill (Kingfisher Bay road had a nasty soft section 5km out) Tyres down to 15psi here, but usually 18psi. And the tailor fishing was great!!