KEEPING IT SIMPLE
KIAN CHUCKS SOME NEW GEAR IN HIS CHEAP GQ PATROL PROJECT BEFORE HEADING OFF FOR A CAMPING AND 4X4 TRIP
SINCE my boxy, cheap as chips GQ Patrol was last featured in these pages (the October 2021 issue) a fair bit has happened to turn this thing in to a functional camping, off roading and all ’round usable rig on the cheap.
The GQ spent all summer carting us out to the local swimming spot on the weekends, Esky in the back and the awning providing valuable shade. After the joys of summer faded, we decided our next big camping and offroading trip would be over the Easter long weekend. The plan was to spend a good four to five nights out in the sticks exploring tracks in the Vic High Country, so I knew an Esky wasn’t going to cut it for provisions.
I started looking at a cheap 12-volt system for the GQ, preferably removable. The reason for this is, as the GQ is used as our camping toy, there are plenty of other tasks it does for me that have nothing to do with pitching a tent. I decided on a removable battery box in the car, and got myself a Hardkorr Heavy Duty battery box and wiring kit. All in, that cost around $250 (excluding the battery), and it’s a super simple system that’s removable for more interior space when the car is being used for jobs like carting kids and car parts around. I borrowed a Waeco fridge from the in-laws and job done! We had nice cool food storage for a week’s camping.
The next job was to fit a snorkel, as I’d been told our route in the High Country would involve a lot of river crossings. I did 100-per-cent the wrong thing and got the cheapest kit I could, and it didn’t take long for regret to set in. While it only cost around $80, the template was inaccurate that a halfa-day snorkel install turned in to a whole-day affair with some fabrication and trips to the parts store, completely outweighing the cost saving (you get what you pay for).
A final upgrade before the trip was a new bullbar, which actually wasn’t planned. A good mate of mine managed to score me an Ironman 4x4 winch bar for a slab of beer out of the scrap bin at a local panel beating shop, so we bolted that on, along with some brush bars I’d had sitting around. And with that, the car was ready to go.
A sudden turn in the weather deviated our plans at the last minute, with nasty rain predicted for the majority of our trip. We decided to head west from our Central Victorian starting point to the Grampians via the Pyrenees Ranges, to escape the majority of the rain belt that soaked Victoria that weekend.
The Pyrenees offers heaps of intermediate and difficult 4x4 tracks just outside of Avoca, with plenty of camping spots. After a dry first day on the tracks, the second day gave us some slippery downhill tracks to contend with, but even fully loaded with camping gear the grippy 33-inch Mickey Thompson Baja Boss M/TS never let the GQ slip out of line.
Our time in the Grampians didn’t involve any 4x4 tracks, but we did get a chance to test out the GQ’S camping
merits with three days of sightseeing and exploring around Halls Gap. With the big awning and Oztrail stretcher tent, we had everything we needed without spending thousands on a set of drawers or rooftop tent.
On the route home back to Bendigo we had one last overnight stop at Mount Bealiba, just outside of Dunolly. A bit of an unknown on the Victorian 4x4 map, it has a heap of tracks to explore that lead to High Country-rivalling views over Central Vic.
We wrapped up the trip by spending the night at the base of the mountain, and it’s there where I had time to reflect on how the GQ had done. Other than a few carby hiccups and excessive fuel usage (a given with the old TB42) it ran great, got over every obstacle with ease, and the super simple 12-volt system and camping set-up proved you don’t need to remortgage your house on camping gear to spend a week away in the sticks.