I came to a land down under

[Redman]

Ausies love their Troop Carriers...

Spotted this one when the Fortuner went in for its last service...

Colleague of mine recently took delivery of his new Troopy...

Queensland police have good taste in vehicles as well...

[Redman]

Just came back from a great trip to Moreton Island.

Moreton Island is the 3rd largest sand island in the World so basically spent the entire week driving on a beach. Most of the travel on the island is done on the beaches, with a few closed off areas. The Island is 37km long and 10km wide at the widest point, with over 70km of beach driving. There is also a lot if inland and bypass tracks.

We've had a lot of rain the past few weeks. Although it helped with a few tracks it did not necessarily make the sand travel any easier. Most of the creeks spilled over so had a lot of water crossings. Especially on the Eastern Beach.

One of many spilled over creeks:

One of the bypass tracks.

Some nice steep sections on the inland track

Chilling in the shade. Unfortunately the rain doesn't bring any relief from the heat. 80%+ humidity not helping at all

South Eastern side of the Island

Norhtern part of the Normamby Fairlight wreck

Another angle of the Normamby Fairlight wreck

Great oysters to be found in this earea. Southern tip on the Western beach

[Redman]

Sunset on the Western Beach close to the Tangalooma Wrecks (wrecks visible in the pic)

4X4 Action Group with wrecks in the background

In the queue for the MiCat ferry.

The MiCat Ferry. The nice thing about the Island is that the amount of vehicles on the island is purely determined by the capacity of this ferry. C

Spotted on the ferry. Seems like a nice guy

[Mad Manny]

very nice Redman. Thanks....

[jakeslouw]

Awesome. 4x4 and the sea, my ideal dream combination. Has Graham contacted you?

[Paul#25]

Thanks for sharing. It really looks great

[Redman]

Awesome. 4x4 and the sea, my ideal dream combination. Has Graham contacted you?

It's a good combination. Drive to a nice and secluded spot without having to carry any stuff from a parking lot and with no other people within 100's of meters sometimes kilometers.

Downside is the sand that goes everywhere. Especially with kids, but still worth it.

Graham? Recently located to Perth Graham? Haven't heard from him yet.

[Redman]

Starting to see the new Cruiser at more and more dealers.

[Redman]

2024 National 4x4 Show @ Brisbane Show Grounds:

Headed to the Brisbane Show grounds for the 2024 show last weekend. The size of the 4x4 community in Australia is huge and this show was another great one. The outside area of the showgrounds used to be a test cricket stadium that later got replaced by the Gabba. This area is used for Caravans and Trailers as well as an off-section where they do some demonstrations.

There's enough in this section to keep you busy for the entire day.

From off road trailers, forward folding campers and small caravans.

All the way to 3.5t twin axle caravan monstrosities

And then hybrid trailer/caravan for the toys

[Redman]

The Troopy is very popular down here. There's been a lot of them on display, too many to photograph. But nice seeing one with a South African product on it.

Also some very interesting 79 Series builds on display. They had one or two that has the tinny (Aliminium boat) on the roof. These generally weigh around 60 - 100kg and are very popular amongst the off road folk

My favorite 70-Series on display was this 79 from Norweld. 2.8 Auto build.

[Redman]

Lastly just a few other interesting things spotted at the show...

Most off road trailers/caravans are fitted with these DO35 couplings

It wouldn't be an Australian show is there wasn't some sort of SUV that they chopped and turned into a Ute, Bakkie, Pick-up etc.

Four seater 70 Series conversion

The gents from 4WD247 were there again. Much less of a fuss this year and almost no line to the meat and great. Had the privilege to meet Graham at this years event, and he really is a nice down to earth guy. My son scored a Snatch cap from him.

Specially for Ian. A 6x6 Patrol. Tried a few times but could not get a clear picture of the vehicle only, as it was quite popular

Then just as in 2023. Ineos was the only car manufacturer at the show. I actually just wanted to take a peak again, but ended up spending 45 minutes talking to the team there. They are really different than other OEM's. No salespeople in sight that just want to sell you their vehicle. All of those on the stand were from the Ineos Australian Office in Melbourne. Very willing to share info and listen to everyone's feedback. Sales for Australia looking pretty good and they currently have over 1,000 on the road down here. They have sold more than Wrangler and the Discovery 5 in 2023, and with some good orders still in the pipeline.

Apparently you will be able to order your Grenadier with a 2 inch lift through their order system in the coming weeks. This makes them probably the only OEM where you can spec your vehicle ready to use off the sales floor.

[Bugger]

Yip.tje guys down under just do it differently

[Redman]

So did a trip down to Melbourne last week for work... One of our dealerships there had this 60 Series on the floor. Not restored but still new. They have a few Toyota dealers in a different division and have a few older Toyota models that they've kept over the year.

[Paul#25]

That is really nice
It must be worth a bit to a collector.

[Redman]

Since the veils have been lifted on the new Patrol in the past week I thought I'd share some pics of the rigs down here. The Patrol has a cult following here in Australia especially the Y61. There are also quite a few Y60's around, but not nearly as popular as the Y61. They sold around 104,000 Y61's in Australia (+-5,700 per year). Same as with most markets only the diesel models were available initially with the 4.2 and then the 3.0 as well.

So thought I'd share some pics of a Patrol or two and then some other interesting stuff from down here.

The next door neighbor's Patrol. He uses it to mostly tow his boat and town-house on wheel...

Y60 Patrol from down the street. This was quite a nice one to see how the owner slowly restored it into quite a great condition for it's age

Vehicles like this are a common sight down here. A Patrol in Brisbane is like a Fortuner in Pretoria Oos...

6x6 Ford Ranger spotted on the highway. I've seen a few 6x6 Land Cruisers here and then of course the 6x6 Land Rover Perentie's, but not really sure what the story is behind this 6x6 Ranger...

Same as in RSA, the Toyota Hilux is the go to farm bakkie

There's a few companies down here that do these 4x4 conversions on mini busses. I know some taxi driver in Gauteng will be able to drive in the same places with his whitewall tires than this one

Then once you start heading out of the city into some rural areas you start seeing a lot of these things on the road. Quite impressive especially since they are traveling at similar speeds than you in the car...

Just for those wondering, on the above truck, the bill cost to replace all the tires on the truck and trailers will be around $60,000 AUD.

Then Qube Logistics is currently busy with a trial in double stacking containers on some short distance routes around the harbor complex.

Life is tough down here but we manage to cope...

There is a local brand of bird feed here that they've named after Manny!