Canning in June

Mark
Great call with everything you mentioned true.
The greatest mistakes lots of people make are listed as high tyre pressure, flogging their fourbys on corrugations, and generally tryin to cover it in 10 or so days.
We did it in 2011 south to north and found in serious corro's we stopped every 15-20 mins to allow shocks time to cool a bit.
Out of interest I stopped after 20 mins and took temp reading with a digital laser meter thingy and got a reading of 248 deg C and that told me everything, re; how much of a pounding the suspension cops.
Cheers
Flighty

what time of the year did you do the CSR and did you have to make many changes to you tyre pressure along the way and what speed did you go over the corrugated areas and did get dry bogged in the sand dunes

Flighty

What was at 248 deg c?

Phil

Phil,

I think he was referring to the temp of his shocks.


Wayne

IF that is the case Wayne then I think that something is wrong.

How hot do yours get?

We have Bilsteins on our car and I have always been able to hold them. Sure they get hot but not too hot to hold. And we tend to move along and not crawl over the corrugations. Even doing 80 KPH on bad corrugations (several tracks) and checking them after about an hour I could hold them. And on those one meter apart large undulations on the WAA line they still didn't get too hot to handle.

The worst corrugations were on the Mitchell Falls road from the river all the way to the falls. No hassles and doing around 50 to 60.

I hope that there was a typo somewhere or he is referring to something else.

Yes! Low tyre pressures as needed.

Phil

PS maybe we "race" along at such a rate that the suspension just jumps over the bad bits.

Phil,

When I had the 75 Series, leaf springs front and rear, after driving from Well 32 to Well 33 I could get out of the vehicle and put my hand on the front shocks.With the 78 series the front shocks do get hot but I can still put my hand on them.

I don't wish to scare you but 99% of shock failure that I have seen in the vehicles that I have taken on the CSR have been Bilsteins.
A 100 series EFS, had brand new shocks for the trip, less than 4 weeks old, destroyed a front shock. Didn't think that he would to take spare shocks and no other 100 series in the convey.
I had spare shocks for the Troopy but they had pin/pin, 100 series had pin/eye. The only thing I could do was to cut the eye off his Bilstien, cut the pin off the bottom of one of my spare shocks and bush weld the eye back on. This worked and he was able to get new shocks once he got back to Sydney.

It is a fine line between skipping a vehicle over corrugations and it being out of control, and people have there own theory on how fast they should go.

Wayne

We had no problems when the missus and I went down CSR in 2010 , on bad corrugations we sat at 16 km/hr & enjoyed the view ....
we took a Patrol ute with a slide on camper on back - great ..... travelled solo ...

Too true about the skipping and then you come to a corner. But unlike Lizard I wouldn't want to sit in 16 either. It isn't a set rule as well. What may be right for one track could be different for another. Anyway we shall see.

Wayne you aren't scaring me. The son uses Bilsteins in his rally car and they have held up well for more than ten years. And that is much more punishing than most would expect in their 4WDs. Naturally, they were sometimes too hot to handle. But he and his crew are happy with them.

We had a problem with one on Cape York. The shaft pulled out of the bolt. They fixed it for free. They are a bit over three years old now and have done around 100Ks so we may change them.

Lets see what the experts say. I had planned on getting them tested on Monday when the car gets new rack ends and ball joints. Just a bit of preventative maintenance.

Phil

When we did the Canning in 2012 we were sitting on about 50 / 60KPH as it was in good condition apart from the bit heading into and out of Kunawarritja sat on about 50KM/H and rode over them, of course with lower tyre pressures which will hurt your suspension if too high.

Took spare shocks, no problems - both 4wd running OME

cheers

Echo Phil's sentiments in respect to tyre pressures but be aware of the loads on the rears. Too soft for a continuous period can cause radial cracking in the wall. Be aware that the trade off for running low tyre pressures is heat. Drive easily and rest often.

A fully adjustable shock like the Toughdog Big Bore adjustable is a definite advantage. With the damper reduced it will eat corrugations and not foam the oil. We were able to maintain 50-60C temps in the Tough dogs where as OME nitro's on the same run were at 157C!

I'll enrichen phil's photo for you with some video.

Same here guys.

I plan on starting on the Tanami with 20 front and 26 rear. And leaving it there for the CSR.

We are heavy and those pressures have served us well to date. No puncture or torn tyre in 50 years. So far!!!!

But I don't think that I would like to travel at 15 KPH. It was the same in 2011 up on Cape York dev road. At times we did 80. But that may not happen on the CSR. The car travels better at a faster rate than that. I won't put a figure on it though. Not getting into that argument.

We are adaptable.

Phil

Thanks Mick, I'm totally enrichenmented now. :-)

Thanks for the videos Mick

Mark,

You will have to let me know where the "Simmo" is. I have been around a bit and I would have thought I would have touched on most deserts.

I will try and get away from camp 2 hours after sunrise, the sand is firmer in the morning which makes cresting a dune easier. I know where I want to camp for the night and if we get to camp early, time to get the camera out.


Wayne

My apologies the SIMPSON desert!!

Dunes there are much steeper (and I am not talking just about Big Red).

It depends on which route you take (and there's a few) but there's a day I remember from that trip that we were going over 17-19 Metre Dunes.

Sort of like driving up a three story house!!

Nothing like that at all on the CSR....one small section that had a couple of taller dunes but most were very easy....remember the CSR was designed to take cattle through so they picked the lowest point of each dune.

Sometimes on the CSR you drive for 4-5 kms through the swales just to find that low point, over you go, and then 4-5 kms back to begin going forward again!!

Mark,

Apology accepted.

While the dunes in the Simpson Desert are usually higher they do have a straighter run up to them.
On the CSR as you have said there is usually a sharp turn at the base. They also tend to be wider on the top similar to Big Red.

BTW the path that the cattle used is not the same as the vehicle track we use today. The cattle would have gone in a straighter line from well to well.

Wayne

Phil,

I would leave it on, but make sure every time you get out of the vehicle check it for spinifex grass build up. The time of year that you are going the grasses would have been mowed down along the main tracks.
Also check the bolts that hold the under body protection on, they have a bad habit of coming loose.


Wayne

Hi Wayne

That's how I "feel" as well. Checking the bolts is part of the normal check that this mob do for even an oil change. Car gets dropped off in about an hour. Too cold to go and sit outside the shop at the moment.

Knowing your background I appreciate the quick response. I may just see what the majority say. Not ignoring "learned" advice. Okay!!!

Phil

Hi Phil,

Given the amount of traffic the CSR sees nowadays, there is bugger all spinifex growth on the main route, so you could leave your guards on. You wont need a spinifex blind either.

cheers

Agree we had all that, spray bottles, spinifex remover, blind AND didn't need any, by the time we went through in early July any seeds on the main track were long gone.

In relation to the Dunes they are different to the Simpson, not as tall BUT for a novice can be quite challenging, often you go through a stack of undergrowth, to find a sudden turn to the left and there's the bloody dune, momentum all but gone.

I know why they say don't take camper trailers (mind you I or my group didn't have one) on the track, would have been hard at time for them.

That said, in my Diesel 150 Prado I never got into low range on the Dunes, holding in 2nd high and "tractoring" over was always enough.

I wasn't expecting to be honest the dunes to be as bad as unlike the Simpson when you go straight over (West to East or vice versa) with the Dunes running north to south, in the CSR you are running South to North (which I did) or the reverse so whilst challenging, and good fun I just didn't find them nearly as tough as the Simpson.

The greatest thing with the Canning is the diversity of the track, we had it all (following some rain down south), Mud, Rocks, Sand, Dunes, Corrugations, creek crossings (dry)....having done the Simpson, and most of the major "tracks", plus the Cape, we sort of left the CSR to last as we felt overall it would be the most challenging.

And it was!!

But probably the greatest ever 4WD adventure I have ever done...loved every minute!!

Thanks Mark

Pretty much the same here. We have been to all those other places and left the CSR until last. I am hoping for something different to what we had and from all reports it should be as expected. But I will still put all the stuff that you didn't use in the car. We normally carry even to the high country. A club trip returned last weekend from the High Country and even they had a bit of a fire. Besides the flyscreen on the full width stone guard is not just for spinifex. We have to cross the Hay Plains twice and it can be a real pain for bugs. And the spray bottle is also a safety supply for us. So it always goes in the car.

What did you mean by "tractoring"?

Phil

Ah sorry another of my little words....by tractoring I mean not taking things like a bull at a gate (stuff can get broken that way), it's knowing the optimum gear and revs for your vehicle and just cruising over without the need to get a big run up and go flat strap.

Big Red aside (and you have to do the above), I found Dunes were far easily crossed fairly slowly (but constantly).

For me and my Prado this was 2nd gear high range at about 2500 RPM, to me that's about when the most Torque is being generated.

Occasionally you'd have to give it a bit more berries, but 9 out of 10 times this would get me over without the fear of breaking anything in going to hard.

Despite being a travel agent during my working life I came from a farming background and had to use the old tractor plenty of times to get out of the black soil mud!!

By the way one thing we did have to use on the CSR was a fuel filter (not me on a Cruiser 200 travelling with us), I'd say we got a bad load when we topped up at Wiluna Traders, it wasn't long into the CSR when the warning light went on in my mates car and we changed the filter which fixed the issue.

I changed the air filter in Alice Springs (after the CSR and the Tanamai), and then again in Charleville (after we spent some time in the Diamantina National Park).I still have the spare in my spacecase that I carry on the roof, these I obtained along the way.

You'll love the CSR, its got everything AND as I say some great history and just magnificent scenary....make sure you take the time to smell the roses.

Make sure you do the Gorges in and around Durba (some fantastic Aboriginal Art to see) and also the Breedon Hills up north (we camped there a night....great spot)....it's all wonderful.

Can 100% recommend the GARD book, what we did is stopped at each well and read a little of the history out of that well (the book is very informative BUT don't take the directions in there as gospel as things have changed a bit in some areas since that was written).

I am about to head off in my caravan (7.00am in the morning) and will be away for about 4 months, I am not sure I'll have access to Explore Oz whilst away so this might be about the last communication, so all the best for the trip and hope all goes well!!

Thanks

I bought the book on line this arvo. A present for the Grand daughter who is coming with us. Easy to find. Just searched the internet and the third hit had one in a shop. Gooonnneee now.

Cheers

Phil