Cape York

[MartinBrisbane]

Would you tow a Jayco of road camper trailer to the Cape??

Those who have done it please let me know your experiences

Martin

[Richo]

Yes, but you may come back with bits missing. Lots of bits.
The question is, would you?

[wrangler2010]

I had the Coromal version PS451. It used to rattle apart on the bitumen, so I would hate to think of one of these off road.

[BennyC76]

Just be extra careful!

I've posted this before, but it never gets old.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbojfun27pg&feature=related

[xjrob]

I towed an off road camper to the Cape, however, at Bramwell Juction we met an old fella with a Jayco Swan, he goes up the Cape every year, has been doing so for 22 years now, the last 4 years towing his Jayco, he said the trick is tire pressures so you can see a quite noticeable belly in your trailer and 4wd tires, and travel between 75 and 80 kph, slow down a bit if the corrugations are really bad. He is a welder by trade and each year when he calls into friends that run Brawwell Station he often welds up off road campers that have cracked and more often than not it has been caused by too high pressures in trailer tires and or traveling too fast over corrugations.

So take it easy, let your tires down and have a great trip, remember preparation is the key to a trouble free enjoyable holiday.

[glend]

The corrugations were particulary bad this year. I think it was Hunty that measured them at 200mm deep in a few places when we were up there. Personally that popular idea that going faster is better and that 80kmph is the sweet spot, just doesn't work in practice as you won't have any control at all, especially in corners and braking/acceleration areas. I could often see daylight under the tyres of vehicles travelling at high speed going the down the Dev Road when we were going up. We found the best technique was often to just get off to the side of the Dev Road and drive on the shoulder or sand when the bush allowed it.

If you do take the Jayco, try to go right after the graders have been through early in the season and stick to the Dev Road, that and lowering the pressures as discussed above might get you through OK (were found that 25psi was as good as we could get it, lower and the heat build up in the tyres could lead to failure and higher was transmitting too much shock into the vehicles and passengers). It won't matter that the creeks and such are still up early in the season as you'll be sticking to the Dev Road (I hope). Make sure you go before Qld School Holidays at the end of June as the traffic going up is pretty bad then and they chew the heck out of the Dev Road. So aim for that window between the grader work and the start of the last week in June and that's probably as good as it gets.

[junglejuice]

I was talking to the people that run the Croc Shop at Bamaga when I was up there and the lady in the shop was telling about some people complaing that the road was terrible and it cause their camper to flip, she then went on to say that they were doing 125 at the time!!!!!
I found that around 75 was a reasonble speed to maintain some resemblance of control though my trailers springs didn't cope well, they both broke BUT they were on the trailer when I bought it secondhand AND they were only rated at 1100kg, my trailer loaded weighs in at 1000kg, also my trailer started life as a deep sided trailer so who know what sort of weight and conditions it was used in.
I bout a new set of 1300kg springs at Weipa on the way home and it was much better to tow on the corrugations after that, I also believe that shockies help in those conditions.
Lastly as xjrob mentioned, tyre pressures, they are extremely important and don't listen to people with 'cruisers and Patrols that say you need to run "X" psi as the Xj is about half the weight.....