Destination: Fraser Island ( Just off Hervey Bay QLD )
Origin: Melbourne
Vehicle: KK Limited CRD
Requirements:Car Permit and Camping Permit if not staying at an accommodation venue.
Changes from stock to the KK: Factory Skids, GME TX3440, Freedom Pack (Nudge Bar, Side Rails, Factory Tow), Rhino Rack rails and tray, Direct Power run to the Rear Jack compartment, Rear tow bar recovery insert, Pirelli Scorpion AT Tyre's, swap of the mud guards to the Deluxe splash guards, Front Air Dam removed & two stubby holders to replace the stock drink holders.
The Trip:
Well it is a family tradition to make the annual or bi-annual migration up to Queensland and Hervey Bay to escape the Victorian winter. This year was no different, however it was the big catalyst to upgrade to our first Jeep and be able to drive over onto Fraser Island for ourselves. My family has always had Jeeps so I am used to the 'Why a Jeep' stigma and as we all say It's a Jeep thing and it was only a matter of time till we had our own.
We had the car fully packed the night before ( Engel 40L Fridge, 2 suitcases, fishing gear, recovery gear and enough other items to fill the car) and headed off on our two day convoy trip up North nice and early time 5am in the morning and making it all the way up to Narrabri in northern NSW. The Jeep handled well and the ability to copy all our music from home onto 3 DVD's in MP3 format meant that we had somewhere in the range of 3000 + songs to choose from. By four o'clock on the second day we had arrived into Hervey Bay, ready for a feed at the Boat Club and and early night ready to go over onto Fraser the following morning.
Arriving to be first to line up for the Barge at River Heads, I was a little nervous for my first trip to Fraser in my own vehicle. I had two things playing on my mind -
1. How would the KK handle the sand as I had read far too many things about the traction control hindering sand performance and the fact that I had 18 inch wheels that are not designed to have the tyre pressure let down too far
2. The condition of the Eastern Beach after cyclone Hamish earlier in the year had removed up to 10 feet of sand on the beach meaning that rock crossings and bypass tracks were more than likely needing to be used.
My decision after getting on the barge was that we would leave the tyre pressure for the trip over from Wanggoolba to Eurong, but I would switch to 4WD Auto and press and hold the ESP button to fully deactivate traction control at speeds under 60 KMH. The KK handled the trip across easily, but this is one of the easiest tracks on the island.
After arriving at Eurong we lowered the tyre pressure to 26 PSI to ensure that we wouldn't dig in anywhere and left them at this until we left the island. On the recommendations of the tyre guys that were selling the Pirelli's that at the 18 inch size that he would only take it down to 20 PSI if absolutely necessary, but you would have the risk of rolling the tyre straight off the rims ( so if we do get more into the off road then maybe a second set of rims are in order ).
On traveling up the Eastern Beach you could see that most of the dunes that came down to the beach had been eroded away to leave sand walls instead and Poyungan Rocks was a mandatory bypass and at 3 hours till high tide we had to bypass Yidney Rocks as well. Heading further up the beach we were able to navigate around Chard and McLaughlin rocks which sped our travel time up the beach. On a trip up the Eastern Beach it is always exciting to get to and cross over Eli Creek where many a car has come unstuck and I am happy to say that we didn't travel much around it at any where near high tide, so it was a fairly basic water crossing.
We stayed in cabins this time at Cathedral beach, but we plan to next time bring all the camping gear. Cathedral Beach is just up from the Maheno which is another one of the landmarks on the island.
There was three major trips that we made whilst on the island:
Indian Head / Waddy Point / Orchid Beach
One of my biggest aims was to see how the Jeep would go through the crossings to get around Indian Head and Waddy point. I could tell I was nervous as my legs were a bit jumpy as we approached the entrance to the track around Indian Head. To get a feel for it we pulled of with all the other 4WDs that all park to the edge to watch the others try to attempt to go through. I have to say that it was the most clearly defined two tracks in and out that I have seen and the bigger hassle was coming back in on the northern side. We headed up to orchid beach and ventured right down to Waddy Point as we wanted to see the gutter that they launch all the boats from.
Wooralie Track to Western Beach
This is rated as a one of the harder tracks on the island and I was a bit worried about the Jeep at stock height how we would go and I have to say that we did seem to plow along on some areas of the track. After going across here I have permission from the other half to invest in a lift kit when a full suspension and spring option becomes available. I believe the hardest part of this track isn't to far in and you are heading up to the big sand blow and our convey of three happened to catch up with another 5 cars waiting on the track. As it would happen a group of back packers had pulled off to the edge on a hilly section as they saw 5 or more cars coming at them. In fact they were coming down hill so the convoy should have probably given way to them, but this had all transpired before we got there. After sitting for a minute our lead car decided to get out and make the walk up ahead to see what was going on. With the landcruiser off to the side it only left the smallest passing margin on an uphill climb in the softest sand that we had been on. The first car was a personalized tour operator in a black Sahara Landcruiser and he had already had two unsuccessful attempts to get past and then planted the foot on his third attempt. After this the message came back down the line to pick your line and keep your speed up. Wanting to make sure of traction I put the KK into low range for the only time on the trip and pressed the for the mirrors to come in and picked my line to go past the backpackers. (Question is there a way to manually lock the mirrors in ?) As when I hit 5-10 kmh the mirrors came back out and repeated presses didn't help. Needless to say I had a call through on the CB to let me know how close the mirrors were. I have to say that this track is well worth the trip over to the Western Beach.
Cornwells Break Track to Kingfisher
Our last major trip across the island was back for our three day rest stop at the beautiful Kingfisher Bay. This is one of the most relaxing places as the rest of the world seems to just go on without you, until you return to the mainland. For all of those making this trip in to Kingfisher all I can say is wait until you reach the final hill. It is pretty good traveling over and once you get off the main tourist track of Cornwells Break you get less traffic and less of a need to find somewhere to pull off. But I had been told to get ready for the last hill and now I know why kingfisher is a resort as that if you hit oncoming traffic heading up this hill then you will need a couple of days at the resort afterwards.
All in all I cannot be happier with the KK. We seemed to be getting pretty close to 600 km per 70L tank with the Diesel and this was with the AT tyre's, Roof Rack and a fully loaded car. There will be a lift kit added to the Jeep as soon as I can though.
Where have you been in your KK lately
TJ New project and third Jeep!
FJ
EJ
HD
After a much appreciated recovery it was all good. 
