We decided to take the D-Max on its first beach run as well as test the off-road ability of the trailer and to say it was an interesting weekend would be an understatement. Broken parts, Thunderstorms, and a few repairs are in short a summary of the trip.
There hasn't been a proper blog post in a few weeks and all for good reason. As many of our viewers/readers would have seen, we have recently started a YouTube Channel to record our trips. However, as we all know, technology isn't always our best friend. After filming our Stockton adventure, the SD card in our camera became corrupted and we lost the majority of the video that we had recorded. The little bits we had left on the GoPro unfortunately wasn't enough to make a whole video out of.
On our Stockton adventure, we had Lauren and me in the D-Max towing the Camper, Mark in his 2012 SR Hilux as well as a couple friends of ours who tagged along and stayed in our swag. We were heading up there for three days so as all good trips start off, we did a grocery shop in Raymond Terrace to stock up for the trip (with the plan of not returning to town until it was time to leave). In order to drive on Stockton Beach, you must get yourself a beach permit, which you will be able to get from a few local stores (we got ours from the Metro servo in Williamtown). A permit will cost either $33 for a 3-day pass or $88 for an annual pass.
Driving at Stockton can be pretty tough when the sand is hot and soft, so before we got onto the beach we dropped the pressures in our tyres. Mark took the Hilux down to 15psi, while I went to 12 as I had the extra weight of the trailer going behind me. This however though was our first problem of the trip to overcome, as Mark accidentally removed the valve core entirely from the tyre. Luckily, I had purchased a tyre repair kit the day before which had a core tool. Once we put the core back inside, we just had to pump it up a little to get it back to what we needed.
The initial drive onto the beach is often very soft, so it was important that we were able to get consistent momentum to allow us to head towards the water. Driving along the shore as it was the middle of the day had made the sand very soft as well, so it was easier with the trailer hitched on behind that we were in low range with a consistent speed. The first bog of the trip was the Hilux, but luckily it wasn't anything that recovery boards couldn't fix.
When driving on the beach, there are a few key rules to keep in mind:
- Don't use your brakes to stop completely, it is better to slowly roll to a stop so that you don't dig yourself in
- Don't turn to fast otherwise your tyre may roll of its bead
- Stick to the left as normal road rules apply
- But if you can't stay left for whatever reason, use your indicators to tell an oncoming car which way you are planning to go. This allows for them to know what you are doing
We headed straight towards our campsite so that we could drop the trailer off to make driving a lot more fun. Camping at Stockton is very basic. It is $16.50 per person per night and is simply a 20m x 20m block of sand. There are no toilets or bins so it is crucial that you take all your rubbish (and waste) with you. For the toilet situation, we headed up to Williamtown McDonalds each morning for a "coffee"
After setting up camp, we headed out to explore for a few hours before the first storm of the weekend rolled in. We did have to do a quick repair on Mark's tyre (a different one this time) as it had a hole in the sidewall. To fix this we put two tyre plugs in it to stop the leak. It is important to note that you cannot legally drive on the road with a plug in the sidewall, so we made sure to change over to the spare when it was time to head home. Driving up and down dunes as well as along the shoreline is great fun. A big difference compared to my last beach run in the Patrol, as the D-Max has a bit more power, and being an auto, it is a lot easier to maintain that momentum.
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Probably our messiest camp but
it did the job |
We returned to camp to finish setting up so that we could put the swags under the awnings, then to cook up a BBQ dinner. As the storm began to roll in, we took down the gazebo and added a few extra poles under the camper's awning. We packed up whatever we could such as the kitchen and the chairs to reduce how much got wet. I was really impressed with both the Kings awning on my D-Max and the Rhino-Rack awning on Mark's Hilux as they did their job of keeping the swags dry and held up well in the wind. We dropped the legs on all the awnings, including the campers to allow for water to run off away from where heads were sleeping to stop water from pooling on top.
Day 2 was the day that didn't go to plan. We were able to explore for a few hours around the dunes, then decided to head up the beach to see Tin City. Tin City is a village of huts that was originally built for survivors of shipwrecks. There are still a few friendly locals who live there. Driving up the beach, we began to notice sand kicking up on my driver's side, which I assumed was because I was caught in a rut of really soft sand. As we were driving along, Mark mentions on the CB that he was going to overtake so that he could get a photo of the D-Max. Luckily he did because as soon as he was in front, he tells me to stop straight away.
Both my wheels were facing inward as I had snapped a rack end.
Where we stopped, there was a couple of families. One of the guys came over to lend us a hand when he saw us jacking the car up. Luckily he did, because we needed a spanner that was bigger than any we had, and he was able to lend us his so we could get the broken ball joint off. This is why I love the 4x4 community, most people are happy to give you a hand when something goes wrong.
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| The broken Rack End |
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| The new and old Rack End |
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Our Wheel Alignment wasn't
quite straight |
After an hour of struggling to get it off while Lauren rang every auto store within an hour and a half of Stockton, we were able to find a replacement rack end from Burson Auto Parts in Broadmeadow, who were super helpful in having all the parts we needed, including a large enough shifter we could use to tighten the new end on. Unfortunately, though, they didn't have a new tie rod end so we had to make do with the old one to get us home, which I replaced before getting a wheel alignment done. Installing the new rack end was a challenge on its own let alone the thunderstorm that was coming in. We couldn't get the lower control arm up to the height we needed as the car was lifted so high with the high lift, and the recovery boards weren't working as a base plate, but we were lucky again to get help from one of the locals up at Tin City as he lent us a board of timber that we could use as a base plate for the bottle jack to lift the lower control arm up. We did fix the alignment as much as we could however not knowing what we were doing was a big challenge in that, so as you can see our alignment was a little bit off haha.
We were able to fix the car as much as we could so that we could head back to camp for the night.
Day 3, we were all ready to start the journey home. We had a slow start to the morning, but while the others organised breakfast, Lauren and I got stuck into fixing the alignment as well as we could so that we could head home. We let everything dry as much as we could before packing up and doing a clean up of our campsite and what else was around. We headed back towards Tin City so that we could return our base plate to Robbie, (he is such a kind-hearted guy. After the worst of the storm, he drove out to where we were stuck to give us ponchos to keep us warm but we were no longer there). Speaking to Robbie, he gave us a rundown of the area and the best parts of the beach to fish on for the next time we go up. We then reached the end of the beach and aired our tyres back up to begin the trip home.
Even though the trip didn't go as we planned, we still had a great trip driving along the beach. It was another gentle reminder that 4 wheel driving is an expensive hobby (not that I needed to be reminded again), and things do break. It is the joys of what we do, but it is also a hobby that allows us to explore many different parts of our beautiful country.
It was ironic that for the trip that didn't go the way we wanted with broken parts and thunderstorms that we lost our footage, but we are adaptable people. Hope you all enjoyed the blog, Don't forget to check out our social media accounts:
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