caravan on gibb river rd

Please read thread # 104349. just before yours.

PeterH

Hi Nev
The Gibb is not for caravans unless you want to wreck it. Most of the stations that have camping such as Home Valley have workshops doing repairs on broken under carriages of vehicles & trailers. To get a repair done you hand over your credit card details & wait in line for your turn.
Daz

Hi Nev

While you will get tales of people who had no problems, my advice is for anyone without a dedicated off road caravan, take a tent and do a loop with the highway, taking in Geikie Gorge at Fitzroy Crossing, and Purnululu where you can't take a caravan anyway. While the distances are not great, and the road usually not as bad as some other longer corrugated inland routes, bear in mind the the following:

If you take your caravan and have a breakdown, be prepared to pay between $10,000 and $20,000 to be recovered from remote areas. Is it worth the risk? Motoring organisation roadside assist policies will not pay much towards large amounts. Even if all goes well, every corrugation is doing damage which will show up eventually – maybe while you are somewhere else remote.

Google “Should I take my off road caravan on the Gibb River Road?” for the full story.

Motherhen

Hi We have a Geist 485 which has a similar build to the Jurgens exept BPW not Alko, which has been taken thro' kakadu, Oodnadatta track & other rough tracks here in WA do have to keep the speed down <20kph, also have airsafe hitch yet to try dropping tyre pressures for hard corro' expect to be able to get up 40kph. No chassis problems, few loose screws inside so keep checking & take it easy. Cheers

Thanks everyone for your reply's. Think we'll store the van somewhere & tent it. Sounds a lot safer:)

The Alko rubber torsion bar suspension is a cheap and nasty suspension that has very little suspension travel, and this setup is designed for good sealed roads only.
I used this style of suspension on my work trailers and fuel trailers a number of times back in the 1970's and 1980's, and it has no durability at all on rough roads.
I went back to spring suspension with greased shackles - proven, simple, repairable, and durable.
If you want a durable suspension for rough work, it has to be a robust suspension, solidly mounted, and have long wheel travel.