western travels
Submitted: Thursday, Feb 13, 2014 at 16:08
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Ray L4
Howdy Folks, we are heading on another trip soon, has any members done a trip
Brisbane to
Birdsville and then to South Australia, ( or from SA, Bird, to Bris.), that can provide us with recent road conditions, is such a trip possible ? towing an 18foot pop top caravan being towed by our faithful 80 series diesel Landcruiser,( the best cruiser of them all ) or do we go the easy way, love to hear from someone who has actually done this .
Regards Ray
Reply By: Jon W (Toow - Thursday, Feb 13, 2014 at 16:57
Thursday, Feb 13, 2014 at 16:57
Hi Ray,
We were out that way last
Easter. So long as your caravan has decent tyres you should have no problems. The gravel from
Windorah to
Birdsville is superb as is evidenced by the number of vans, both large and small, to be seen at the
Birdsville Caravan park. We took the
Birdsville track down to
Marree and it was a breeze. We even saw a Subaru WRX on it. From
Marree south to
Lyndhurst is good formed dirt or gravel and then you hit the bitumen. However, it would pay to
check with the
Birdsville CaravanPark and Mungerannie Pub for the most up to date advice.
Jon W
AnswerID:
526368
Follow Up By: mikehzz - Thursday, Feb 13, 2014 at 18:47
Thursday, Feb 13, 2014 at 18:47
Agreed, but the gravel roads are all good until it rains. The
Birdsville track has many different faces, don't take it for granted. A Landcruiser and van with decent tyres as is good as anything though. Good advice to
check for the up to date conditions.
FollowupID:
808565
Reply By: Ray L4 - Friday, Feb 14, 2014 at 08:05
Friday, Feb 14, 2014 at 08:05
Hi Jon and Mike, thanks for the replies and the good info, we have done a lot of outback travelling,( we are big National Park fans) but nothing thru the centre, this will be our first, so its good to get the good oil from those who have" been there and done that" as they say, I have one question, "what is a good set of tyres" on the Van I am running Light Truck tyres which are a little soft in the side wall, they were purchased in
Mossman 3 years ago on our Northern Safari, no punctures so far. I remember tyre pressures were a BIG topic of conversation up north, we met folk who were running 16 psi to 60 psi most seemed quite happy with their choice, we know good tyres are a must have, so we are open to suggestions.
much appreciate the imput
Regards Ray
AnswerID:
526405
Follow Up By: Jon W (Toow - Friday, Feb 14, 2014 at 15:47
Friday, Feb 14, 2014 at 15:47
Ray, If you have run those on gravel then I would be confident that they will be suitable. We have seen travellers out west with normal road tyres on caravans and trailers and they have had troubles when on sharp gravel.
Pressures are the big issue and we used to run our LTs on our camper trailer at about 28 psi cold on gravel. This caused the sidewalls to bag out a little. Mind you the trailer maxxed out at about 700 kgs. Do your van wheels match your Cruiser wheels by chance thereby increasing your number of spares?
Jon W
FollowupID:
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Reply By: Ray L4 - Saturday, Feb 15, 2014 at 09:06
Saturday, Feb 15, 2014 at 09:06
Hi Jon, thanks for the reply, the thought of running the same tyres is a good one, but I run Kenda 275-70-R16 on the cruiser, have done for a lot of years and I have been told to put them on the van would be a tough and costly job to convert from a 5 stud to a 6, nice idea,but.
Regards Ray
AnswerID:
526496