It was another monthly gathering of Toyota FJ Cruiser Club Australia members. A chilly morning but a clear sky as well as a good turnout promises another great day out.
After a couple of hours drive around Serpentine water catchment through Jarrahdale State Forest and visiting a WWII POW camp, around noon we drove to "Cafe on the Dam" a local Cafe at Serpentine Dam for lunch and socialising.
Our little one enjoyed bush-walking, flowers and playing with a beautiful Dalmatian dog.
On the way back, just before intersection between Kingsbury Drv and South Western Hwy, a stone launched from an oncoming vehicle hit Calimero's windscreen leaving a quite big bullseye crack. The dashboard camera recorded it as it's happened.
It was a long wait for my shipment to arrive from US. Five Toyo Open Country MT tyres in 295/70R17 size mounted on Mickey Thompson Sidebiters alloy 17x9 rims. Wheels were already balanced and ready to go. I was really surprised to see how little weight these big tyres needed get balanced.
After fitting them and having wheel alignment done again, went to Nganguring area just east of Mundaring to double-check wheels clearance during articulation.
Wanted also to play with tyre pressures and try to find the best compromise between the comfort and the maximum traction with these 3 ply sidewalls, 7 ply on thread and 128P load/speed rated tyres.
They are quite strong for 2.5T FJ Cruiser but that was exactly what I was after for the coming trip to the Red Centre.
Running 0 offset on these 17x9 rims made me worry about the extra inch new wheels were sticking out comparing to factory 17x7.5 with +15 offset.
Luckily there were no dramas as both front and rear wheels cleared guards in the few suspected tight spots under the articulation.
These tyres provided a great ride comfort with plenty of traction when aired down to 24PSI on tracks with gravel/small rocks type of the surface and speeds between 30-50kph.
This was one of those famous last moment
decision trips. Just a day earlier after checking weather forecast we packed up camping gear and decided to drive north
to Shark Bay for a couple of days.
Although we had
visited Denham and Monkey Mia (Peron Peninsula) previously at least five times, we never explored Edel Land and Henri Freycinet Harbour before. Following a quick research about where to stay for two nights and recollection of few recommendations from other people, the choice was made in favour of Tamala Station. We've got in
touch with owners Brian and Joke who managed to slot as in Huts Beach on such a
short notice.
It was a while since
we did camping last time and a good opportunity to try out few recently
bought camping bits.
We wanted to reach Shark Bay in a day so an early start was a must. Also a decision was made to go via Brand Hwy. Yes it is quite boring to drive but still the quickest route from Perth to Geraldton. We hit the road just a little past 5 am and lost a part of the early start advantage just 30 min out of Perth. There were Great Northern hwy closure due to a serious car accident. The de-tour cost us around extra 45 min but nothing we couldn't compensate along the way.
The first stop was in Dongara for fuel and breakfast. The next stop was our friends place in Northampton for a quick catch up and cup of coffee. We reached Tamala Station late afternoon and still had enough time to let our little daughter to play with little goat the owners let out to entertain her. After taking the gate's keys and driving few kms through a narrow sandy track down to Huts beach we had just enough time to setup the camp before nightfall.
Those few days we stayed at Huts beach were really relaxing. There were few campers on the main beach but took us just a 15 min driving along a local track to find a small beach just for ourselves. The weather was almost perfect with daily max of 26C and night time temperature stayed above 18C.
There are no many mainland places where you can watch both sunrise and sunset above the ocean from the same spot, Tamala Station's Huts beach is one of them.
On the way back we decided to go via Scenic Ocean Drive as it seemed like a more interesting
option and we were not concerned about being late and driving few night time hours close to Perth.
All in all, this trip proved once again that least planned and expected trips tend to bring the most of joy.
Below are few photos
of a small beach at Huts where we stayed at.
Another great turnout with 17 Toyota FJ Cruisers lined up for the April's FJC Club Australia WA chapter monthly run. The destination was Julimar State Forest and Avon River. Weather was perfect and we managed to drive almost 200 kms of local tracks before concluding this great day in Bullsbrook.
It is not a secret that there is always something new to learn regardless how much 4WD experience someone already poses. Add to that having a new car that has just been introduced in Australia that nobody knows really how (good) it performs in challenging situations.
I also wanted to get my wife involved more in 4WD-ing so thought that a training course might lift her confidence and boost enjoyment of the off-road experience.
I booked a bush driving course with one of the local well established training providers. It was a full day training course in the hills east of
Perth that included bush driving through some rough, rugged, steep and loose
terrain. That was a perfect opportunity to safely play with all
available traction features in FJ Cruiser.
The course covered :
4WD Systems & Selection
Gravel Road Driving
High & Low Range selection & use
Automatic & Manual Techniques
Rutted Tracks
Uneven Rocky Crossings
Mud Tracks (I'm not fan of cleaning the mud afterwards so skipped this one)
Steep Ascents
Steep Descents
Wheel placement techniques
Using Spotters
4wd vehicle features (Where Fitted) including Axle Diff Locks, Traction Control & ESC
We all met in the morning at the petrol station next to the turn-off to York at Great Eastern Highway.
There were around 10ish cars. Almost all popular brands were represented ie. SWB and LWD Jeep Wrangler, new Mazda BT-50, two Toyota Hilux-es, Mitsubishi Challender, etc.
After a welcome speech by two instructors and a short overview of the plan for the day, we departed to the famous Powerline Track. We stopped at a flat ground with few dried ruts used to demonstrate clearance and basic bits about traction control. This was really an easy start.
Heading into bush via some local tracks which are not normally publicly accessible.
The first serious obstacle was a rutty climb where we supposed to test how the vehicle behaviour differs when different traction features were used.
FJ Cruiser done this so effortlessly that almost spoiled spectators enjoyment and expectations to see some struggles.
The next obstacle was used to demonstrate importance of having a good spotter when driving over large rocks.
We continued into bush and stopped at a dry but very steep gully. I estimate side slopes were a bit over 40deg. This was something that I was personally looking for as an opportunity to push Calimero and see how the car and tyres will perform. I dropped tyre pressure to about 22 PSI hoping to get most of traction out of Mickey Thompson STZ.
Early afternoon we stopped for a lunch at a nice spot in the local woodland.
It was a nice day out and fully justified the money spent. FJ Cruiser was undoubtedly one of the most capable vehicles on that day and did everything with so little effort.
