Gordon posted:

Big John, I am also planning my first Cape York Trip (July). When you say "keep tyre pressures down" I presume there must be some soft sand. Previously, my overall impression has been that there is also some mud and alot of corrugations. I am tossing up whether to go with skinny tyres (7.5R16's) or fats (31x10.5R15's). The fats are better for soft sand but I was planning to take the skinnies because I thought most of the difficult driving would be through mud at the creek crossings. The skinnies are not so good at low pressures. Your thoughts would be appreciated. Regards, Gordon.

Aoife posted:

Thanks for the reassurance. One other question - would you recommend a 4WD camper or just a straight 4WD? Is there enough places to stay and camp without a camper?

Thanks,
Aoife

Big John (QLD) posted:

Gordon, The low tyre preasure is more for the corrugations. It makes for a better ride but more so reduces the shock load to the suspension. You don't have much of a staking problem on the cape but be carefull of sharp rocks in river crossings. As for tyre choice Probably 6 of one, half a dozen of the other, though the larger the diameter the better they roll over the corrugations. There are a lot of sandy tracks on the cape but it is easy driving sand unlike the powder sand on Fraser island.

Regards John.

Gordon posted:

John, thanks for the reply. You've confirmed my previous understanding of the road conditions. I have a different strategy to yours over corrugations. I try to minimise the heat build-up in tyres and minimise the chance of staking by running very high pressures (Front 40psi, Rear 50psi). In fact I do this on all outback roads other than soft sand. We had no tyre problems at all last year after a total of 10,000 km of outback roads (mostly dirt) including the Gibb River Road. I'd rather let the shock absorbers do the work they're designed for, but still, I've also heard that many people run low pressures for a softer ride like you do. Each to his own I suppose.