Cape Vehicle requirments

[wilson79]

Hi All,

Me and a group of friends are looking into planning a Cape trip in the next year or 2.

I currently have the privilege of driving a fully paid for, work vehicle to which I can use on my holidays. It is a current model Mazda BT50 with ARB Bull Bar and HID Spotties and LED Light Bar & ARB Canopy. I have also installed my own Second battery with Redarc BCDC Charger, fridge slide and Engel Fridge in the back.

As it is a work car I really don't want to have a conversation with the owners of my company telling them thanks for the use of your car but I have just drowned it etc. I will obviously not be doing Gunshot and know there is a bypass road for that section but are there bypass roads for any of the deep water crossings? or any where else you think it might be a bit sketchy taking a company car?

If I have to I will look at purchasing a snorkel and lift kit for the car and will just sell the lift kit second hand and install the original set up when the car is ready to be changed over. The snorkel I will just leave it..

Any advice would be appreciated

[Watty2975]

Gunshot is easily driven in standard form.
Snorkel definitely. Suspension preferable but not compulsory. Palm creek and Nolan's brook are the 2 main ones to check out carefully before going and both can be bypassed if need be.

Having said that every crossing is a moving feast from one year to the next.

All the best with your planning
 

[muzza01]

I think a snorkel is pretty important for a Cape Trip but there are ways around not having one.

With regards to the lift kit, replacing shocks and springs is usually done to cater for a better ride when fully loaded and to cope with corrogation. Due to the stronger and larger shocks and springs will give you extra lift. For your BT50 we are prolly only talking about 2 inches max.  Coil spacers can also be used to give a little extra lift.  I think that once you replace your suspension setup you will have difficulty selling it second hand.  Not many people buy suspension 2nd hand and if they did they would want it very very cheap.  With the labour involved it may be better just leaving the modded suspension on the ute.

At the end of the day, if you load the Bt50 safely, drive it carefully, travel in the dry season,  travel with other 4x4s and recovey gear you should be able to do this trip without a snorkel and suspension upgrade.

[Beachman]

I did the Cape years ago and back then my Rodeo was only 18 months old. I spoke to a couple of suspension places on upgrading and they all said not to bother and replace it when I returned home as by then it will be shagged. They were correct with this.

One thing you have to keep in mind seeing it’s a work car, places like the Cape ages vehicles. In that I mean it will come back with multiple stone chips and maybe even a cracked windscreen/headlights, possible small dints from approach/departure angles and some bush pin striping. Your dash will also have some form of rattle and under the car will return red from all the dust.  Also if you run lower tyre pressure, they also come back missing a couple of mm tread due to more a more bitumen sections as it not viable to stop and put air in your tyres for each section.

All just depends on how well you get along with your boss. 

[HEM19X]

Snorkel, Snorkel Snorkel, Decent tyres [no need for muddies] and the lift you speak of. You might have to bypass Palm Creek if you will get into trouble if the BT comes home with damage to the sills etc.

Take your time & have a ball.

Regards

Hem

[Fathom]

A lot of already good advice.
I would suggest a snorkel is a must if you want to traverse any reasonable depth of water.
There are bras and other options.. Deeper water though. I would use both.
I would also look into some decent front/rear recover points.

[Symon]

If you want to not have the risk of drowning the vehicle then just do the southern part of the OTL - all the deep crossings are in the northern half.

[Moggy]

Great info as I also have a BT50 & hope to do the cape in next few years.
1 question though, are those recovery hooks you slide in where the tow hitch goes worthy to use for recovery purposes?

Sent from my XT905 using Tapatalk

[Fathom]

Great info as I also have a BT50 & hope to do the cape in next few years.
1 question though, are those recovery hooks you slide in where the tow hitch goes worthy to use for recovery purposes?

Sent from my XT905 using Tapatalk

Yes.
It's the front that will be harder to sort.

[McGirr]

As mentioned it really depends what way you want to travel up.

You can do the southern OTL in parts without doing palm creek. You can enter from heathlands ranger station and stay at Dulhunty River and do Gunshot and cockatoo creek as these are not deep crossings at all.

The northern OTL is the toughest but you will need to travel part of it to get to Eliot Falls. The road here is rough and there is a deep crossing before you get there. You can continue on to canal and Sams creek, both easy and shallow crossings before taking a side track back to the development road.

Regarding a snorkel, I would say no, as you will not tackle the very deep creeks. Take a car bra for back up. With the upgrades to the suspension, I would leave it as it is unless you want to do all the OTL.

It depends what time of the year your going and whether there has been a good wet season. As mentioned the tracks and crossings change every week.

You have plenty of time to decide.

Mark

[wilson79]

Thanks for the advice, I have a few things to think about. The lease for the car will run out about 12mths after our trip so I have a few things to think about..

[chester ver2.0]

The one thing i would do is you yourself purchase some roadside assitance top cover

You you really want to ring your boss or him see a recovery invoice from gunshot creek

[wilson79]

The one thing i would do is you yourself purchase some roadside assitance top cover

You you really want to ring your boss or him see a recovery invoice from gunshot creek

Already have the roadside assistance.. and we have an agreement that any damages would be paid for by myself which is of course understandable, but still would not like to have that conversation in the first place