Gunbarrel Highway

Some will probably say yes you can. I wouldn't in a million years, its badly corrugated especially between Hunt Oil Rd turn off and Heather Hwy.

Here is a pic of a CUB Drover Off road camper - on the Gunbarrel - shaken to bits - wrecked due to corros.

A lot will depend on what type of van it is, the physical size of it and the type of springs in it.

It is the 100% serious type of off road van like a Kedron or Bushtracker? Many are sold as “off road” but leave a lot to be desired when the going gets tough.

There are some sections of the Gunbarrel that are so hopelessly washed out that people have made their own tracks bedside it. In heavily wooded areas these tracks are narrow and winding. They could present overhead clearance problems for big vans.

A lot of vans do shake themselves to pieces on rough roads. This is one of the reasons why.http://caravanersforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8614&p=426874#p426874
Read the forth post up from the bottom. He said in other posts that he was a Chrysler suspension development engineer back in the days of the Valiant.

Do you know anything about the suspension design of your van?

The section between the Carnegie track and Everard Junction was fine back last July but it looked to deteriorate after that. The Gary was a bone shaker all the way to the Talawana. Nice to have all the comforts of home with you I suppose but personally I like the freedom of a camper or tent.
Enjoy the trip anyway.
AlanH.

As already written there are a lot of sections that will have vegation scrapping both sides of your car, I remember at times seeing quite large branches wizz by!

We did the Heather, Anne Beadell, Connie Sue and Garry highways towing a Vista, others had TVAN's they all received bush pin stripping. The corrigations are servere and unless the van has a good suspension and is well put together it will most likely receive some damage. We had one vehicle break a leaf spring, another the rear tyre carrier fatigued, and I had an antenna base mounting nut shake loose and it had a lock nut on it, both were still done up tight but had unscrewed together on the bolt!

Personnally I would not attempt it with anything larger than these vans, ie wider than the track of the average 4X4 unless your not worried if it incurrs some damage.

I have a suspicion that our friends might have to make this journey without us. I don't want to ruin our van. In the pre-van days of Toyota and roof top tent we wouldn't have hesitated. Thank you all for your advice.

Hi Sheryl

If you ask on the Bushtracker Owner's Group you may find if others have done this, or not doen so and why. I recall Grumblebum and Dragon did (19' BT), but can't find anything on it so I may be remembering wrong. On another thread someone said they did it without their BT and there were areas that scratched the Landcruiser that the BT would not have fitted through.

We took our 19' Bushtracker over the Gunbarrel in 2010 - tyres down to 22 psi cold and drove to the conditions. No problems. We had no problems with vegetation brushing the van - couple of places that were a bit 'closed up' it was just the soft ends of new growth Mulga - just push through slowly.

Fantastic trip

John