is 4x4 necesary for kite/hike trip around oz

Hay all, i really need help decideing on what vehicle to buy for a year long trip around australia.

I will be living in it and itll be used to get me to all the hiking gliding kiteing spots around oz.

I know 4x4 is necesary for north wa and norther territory

but could a hiace lwb get me from cairns clockwise around to exmouth. keeping in mind i wish to camp for weeks at a time in national parks.

I have alot of scuba kite and paragliding gear and im worried a delica simply wont be big enough space.

Factors i need to consider due to budget are cost of fuel (under 10l/100kms) and being "stealth" so i dont have to pay accomodation costs)

Main objective of this journey is to find a beutiful place where i can buy a small apartment that is nearby to great hiking gliding diving and kiteing.

Allso i feel like i need a damn project manager with all the details to work out, whats a more productive way of streamlining and manageing all this information so i dont go insane. I have been researching for years about this and it is driving me crazy.

I just want to make a decision on a vehicle and to get working on it allready.

My budgets going to be around 15k$ cash but im aussie and can work as i go if i must.

Thanks for any and all your input.

Yes, you need one of these...


or



And if it doesn't stop raining

It has not taken years, but about 2 weeks ..
and have bought a delica and am going to
get a small trailer or camp trailer..to go with it..

I picked a price that I wanted to spend on the delica....
and slashed that price (in my head by about 2 to 3 grand
for getting the motor to a standed I wanted) and thats
the price I paid for the delica.

So if you want to spend $15,000 buy a car for $12 and
spend the rest on getting the car right.

I wont pay more than $2000 grand for the trailer..
but will always carry a tropical tarp with me as the
canvas on a cheap camp trailer is usually rain proof to a point.

I went around Oz in a camp trailer...
and love it..but will only tow one now
if I have a need to stay in a camping ground. (trailers are not very stealth )

You'd be surprised how far you can get without a 4WD.
We used to take a Holden Stato on the "Gallows" track south of Yallingup 20 years ago when it was pretty hard core.
Also dad would pack us up each August school holidays in the EH in the 60s for a road trip to Sydney when alot ofthe Nullabor was unsealed.
Often wonder how much "off road" a lot of the Landcruisers you see up north really experience.
I remember the TopbGear guys going across th Gobi desert in a **** heap just by deflating the tyres.

Was fairly Griswaldian, Gypsy and of course you can only play Eye Spy for so many thousand miles before it gets a bit monotonous.No I pads in 1966.
I was a pup but my older bro traded a big bag of sweets (choo choo bars black cats etc) for some really cool spears with some indigenous dudes.
My youngest (7) is on at me to get one happening......must have made some of the stories sound a little too tall
I think he's just looking for a 5day test match of "Car Cricket"

Its a hard one because you may only need a 4wd for a few trips but from past experience and not been able to get up a track to a spot can do your head in.

Landcruiser troop carrier on gas would be ideal for space and keeping a lid on fuel costs.

Can build a bed a slide a lot of stuff under.

If anybody is looking for an "Around Aus Car", I have this one.

97 XH, 5 speed manual, power steer, air con working well, one tonne rear axle, 145,000 klms and full service history. Gets up to 600 klms from a tank of fuel.

I bought it off the first owner a year and a half ago. $7,000 including the dome.

^^^ Yup kiting is pretty soft Mark, not like some of the windsurfers around here who absolutely must park right next to some manicured grass and not have to walk more than three feet to rig up and another 20 feet to the water.

Over the years I've bashed all sorts of cars up and down the coast on some pretty rough tracks. They don't have to be 4wd but it certainly helps.
Get something with good ground clearance and most of all, HIGH PROFILE TYRES not those stupid low profile things. They are a waste of time off road and you might as well wrap a piece of black electrical tape around the rims for a tyre.
Something like 14 x 195 or 15 X 205 run down at about 18 psi will paddle you over almost anything once you're moving. Run them normally at about 25 psi for a nice soft ride over rough roads, and about 20 psi over sand tracks. Only let them down lower than this in an emergency, that is, the last few kilometres down a sand track when you don't want to give up.
If you get bogged at that, 18 psi down to 12 psi minimum for a few hundred metres will rescue you.
Don't go down a deteriorating track at 12 psi becasue if you get stuck then you can't let any more out to rescue yourself.
Lower than 12 psi the rims slip inside the tyres and you are suddenly left with flat tyres. Take a good high volume compressor to pump them up, not one of those $20 things.
Let them down early. Don't get it bogged down to the belly pan before you let them down because by then it's too late, and it makes it very difficult for someone else to pull you out.

If you don't get a 4wd something like this thing of Cisco's would be ace number 1.
Nice big tyres, reasonable ground clearance, parts are common, and probably cheap enough.
Just don't tell him you're Danish.

Impressive ad from Ford.

You could even set one up to take one of these.

http://www.truckcampersaustralia.com.au/

You have some quality rigs there Cisco.How long is the tray on the RTV?
My ride is a 1970 VG hard top 245 hemi , however it is not that board friendly and looks terrible with racks and wife is very attached to my Hi Lux
Need something for a 10' 666er , 12'6 BoP and 9'6 LB (work in progress with war ministry).
Torts welcome!

Step one: Face the facts.

A) You want to do it all, go everywhere and take everything along.
B) You don't want to spend much cash.

Which one is it?

You can possibly do A) when you are 67 years old.

Or you can do B) and set off within two weeks.

Did a trip 2 years ago from tassie to melbourne, alice springs, darwin, down the westcoast to perth and back to tassie. Bought a toyota hiace 84 for 1800aud. Built a bed inside, heaps of storage. Under the bed. Wouldn't take a trailer with me, there is. Plenty of space in a lwb van if u are traveling by urself.
Car went well. Not even one problem.

Sold it a year ago and bought a '78 landcruiser troopcarrier. Amazing!!!

As a lot of people already said, the 2wd gets u easy around the country. Let's say 90% of the roads are fine, maybe even morebut that bit where u can't go with a 2wd, is the most amazing part of the country. That's my opinion. U don't get far in kakadu, neither in some wa national parks, u can't drive through soft sand that easy.
With a 4wd, u can explore all those beautiful beaches around the country. Up north from cairns as well.

I'd say that a 2wd will do most of it, but if its the trip of ur live and if u wanna see and go to remote areas, get a 4wd. Of course, more expensive, but that's up to you.

When I bought my first car in oz, I wasn't sure what kind of car to buy. Couldn't really afford a 4wd, so bought a cheap ****box. But at that time it was the right decision. There are always nice people on the road who give u a lift into those nationalparks, so u really don't need a 4wd, but if u can go by urself in ur car, u are the boss and u can do and stay and go where ever u want.

Traveled up the eastcoast in my landcruiser, through the snowy mountains and blue mountains in winter. And up to fraser island. There are plenty of roads u can't drive without 4wd.

As I said, a 2wd gets u around, but with a 4wd u have more options and can go everywhere. There were even some lookouts in the blue mountains, which were not accessable with a 2wd. but as i said, most of the time a 2wd is fine.

Are you able to name some of these lookouts not accessible with a 2WD?

As a 20+ year resident and employee in the Blue Mountains, and currently residing at it's base at Richmond, I have regularly rock-climbed, abseiled, canyoned, ran trails, MTB'd, kayaked, rafted, navigated, bushwalked and been dropped-off and picked up by helicopter on three occasions within the confines of the Blue Mts while volunteering for NPWS.

Between Blaxland and Bathurst, Kurrajong to Kandos, Mittagong to Muswellbrook I know of no lookout only accessible by 4WD accessible to the public. The harshest 4WD'ing is in the valleys, away from lookouts, such as the Turon National Park and the Mt Horrible State Forest, and Newnes State Forest and those near the village of Tarana.

There may be some lookouts accessible by 4WD - but these are behind locked gates and are becoming rehabilitated with strategically placed massive boulders and/or are significantly overgrown, such as the Army Trail and the Wirriba Track in the Wollemi Wilderness.

/rant off...

If you aren't a regular 4WD driver and know your sh8t a'la jack absalom (preceded bear grylls by a number of years) then a 4WD will only take you to the scene of the tragedy in a far more efficient manner. Saw quite a few of the "Brits" landcruisers buried to the axles on various beaches in the north west with the tide rushing in. 4wd drives are great for getting you out of some minor inconvenience but unless you have the backup or knowledge a 2wd car saves you from getting in the poo royally and the possibility of a long wait !
Most of Oz is accessible by 2wd and you would be better off planning your trip around wind seasons rather than transport.
Most of the tourist 4wd spots are serviced by one operation or another anyway !