Great for a day trip, Old Grandchester Road offers up a fun area to test out your 4WD and practice skills.
A few weeks ago I had a fantastic opportunity to test out the capabilities of Herc, as well as my own driving, with an awesome group of girls who welcomed a newbie with open arms. A spot of camping and 4-wheeling: tough to say no to.
Old Grandchester Road is inland from Ipswich and therefor a wee bit of a hike for me. So, this was going to be a whole weekend trip starting Friday night.
Pre-packed, I jumped in Herc and hit the highway. On a good run it’s about four and half hours from Hervey Bay. That meant getting in rather late and setting up camp in the dark (again). So, I decided that there would be a little adventure stop at Lake Wivenhoe for a night of camping by the lake before heading out early to meet the girls the next morning. And oh boy, this camp did not disappoint!
Up at dawn with the ducks and roos, the lake was certainly spectacular. After a cup of coffee I tried (and failed) to put on the awning- much easier to do with two people- packed up camp and headed down the line to Laidley.
Airing down to 18 PSI after meeting the girls, my first time on the tracks was underway. It was a big convoy so plenty of time to watch the others pick lines and learn what to do and what not to do. It hadn’t rained in months so was dusty without much traction in some places.
We wound our way through the ruts and hills. I gave Herc a go at some of the tougher lines and surprised myself (and a few others). Turns out the misconceptions of Prados are exactly that and it’s really quite capable. We hit two points where a locker and more experience would have definitely helped, but that’s all part of learning.
After lunch we had a bit of a play around on a few sections before turning our noses back towards the highway, airing up and stopping in at the pub before hitting our camp for the night: a wonderful Hipcamp spot on a local farm. The owner was lovely, greeting us and making sure we had plenty of firewood for the night. We even had a few visitors through the camp (cheeky goats and pigs).
Heading back north the following day stopped in at Atkinson Dam- looks like a great spot to spend a weekend and this is definitely an area I’m keen to go back to and explore further.
I was absolutely buzzing after this trip and definitely caught “the 4WD bug”. Can’t wait to get out there and see/learn even more!
Herc’s Specs:
Stock Standard: Now Herc is a great little truck and his previous owner definitely showed him a lot of love. A 2000 90 series Prado, he is a 3.4L petrol V6 auto that just seems to go anywhere without much hesitation.
Modifications:
Herc sits on Bridgestone Dueler A/T 31’s (265,70R,16LT) with a 50mm (2″) Tough Dog Suspension lift kit and modified steering to cope with it, bash plate (thank goodness) and hydraulic winch.
Recovery: Obviously the aforementioned winch sits tucked away on the TJM bullbar. The XTM recovery tracks currently sit in the boot, and the Snatch recovery bag is right behind the drivers seat with the tool kit. The SCA tyre inflator is in the boot and is pretty handy. While I have the Hurricane 50LPM one it is possibly a touch small, gets very hot and takes a while to do all four tyres. On the plus side: it’s small, light, gets the job done, has a long enough hose and leads to easily reach, and has the built in circuit breaker and thermal shut down safety features.
Lights: The lights on older Toyota’s are a bit dim to say the least. So, Herc currently sports some of the STEI 7″ Type X Sport spotties to help with that night driving.
Comms: Unicom DTX4200XPK with the town and country antenna, GME handheld walkie.
Camping additions: Herc currently has the ARB roof rack with Kings awning on the passenger side. I also have the XTM drawer in the back and am looking to add to that set up. Kings 75 litre frigde and 12 volt battery sit on top of the drawer and the swag currently takes up the left side (including the backseat). I’m super conscious about weight (roof rating is 100kg dynamic load), and am trying to keep him as light as possible. So it’s pretty simple for now.
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