Crossing the Simpson Desert

Hi Philipp,

You are right, the French Line is the shortest route.
You are also correct that the more difficult dunes are to the East, so by the time you get to the WAA Line the worst (or maybe best) is over.

The track from Dalhousie to Mt Dare on the Western side is rock strewn but driven sensibly will not puncture your tires.

As for travelling companions, you may be able to form a relationship with other 4WD's at Birdsville or early in the trip. However, you will hardly be alone as there will be plenty of others driving across during August, including myself.

There are other forums but they tend to deal with specifics such as vehicle matters or caravans. No other forum has the diversity of subjects (and opinions, lol) than this one. Try Googling "touring forums".

Hi Phil

Please do not believe everything that you hear.

Yes the dunes are bigger in the east, but if you know what you are doing, are prepared to drop your tyre pressures down to a safe 14 psi, the trip is not hard at all, and in fact is my preferred crossing of the Simpson, taking the French Line all the way from the junction of the K1 Line. You will have crossed the largest dunes on the QAA Line section anyway, with the dunes getting smaller in size the further west you travel.

As for the next false facts about lots of punctures on the western side, if this is the case this tells me two important things....

Firstly they have their tyres over inflated

Secondly travelling way too fast.


Cheers



Stephen

On *average* the dunes do get easier as you head west but there are some quite challenging ones on the WAA line, less so on the Rig rd which has many clay capped dunes. The French line's biggest problem is that it so heavily used it is chopped up more than the others. If you are having trouble let the tyres down a few more PSI which can make the world of difference. One good thing about going W-E is you get a training course as you go along and the dunes get more challenging.


The roads on the west can be quite corregated, other than that they are ok.

Just back from crossing the Simpson west to east. Did French Line to Colson Junction & then down to the WAA Line to Knolls Track and back up to the French Line, Poepple Corner and then out via the QAA Line to Big Red.

Being just after the school holidays the French Line track was pretty much cut up. Camper trailers and high tyre pressures doing the damage. The western side of the dunes were like climbing an escalator that had been turned off.The steps or whoopsy-dos as we called them where painful causing us to stop at the base of most dunes and go back to 1st High and crawl up. Had to back down a couple and start again where I stayed in 2nd gear or was travelling too slow. In the main with our pressures we had no problems. We travelled in the main at about 20Km per hour and getting up to 3rd gear happed only for short spurts due to the continual whoopsie-dos.

Those travelling from the east generally had a long shallower gradient to climb but if the sand is soft the whoopsie -dos will make life interesting, so tyre pressures will need to be a lot lower than what we used.

The tracks running parallel to the dunes are a diddle and a pleasure to drive and even allowed 4th gear.

Oddly enough we found the dunes in the station on the east side of the Simpson NP softer and steeper, one in particular caused me to lower my tyre pressures right down. And we only saw camels on the station and none what so ever in the Simpson.

Ah Big Red, took 4 attempts with tyre pressures down to 10 front and 12 back and 4000 revs by the time I hit the top in 1st High. If that had failed I would have stated to play with low range.

Loved the crossing and had some fantastic camps. we only needed to use our own fire wood at one camp due to a lack of suitable coal building timber.

Fuel used between Coober Pedy & Birdsville (801km) was 150 L for my 1999 75 Series Troopy.

Cheers

Dunc

G'day PGU.
Just got back 2 hours ago!:
Eastbound travellers in School Hols, (towing campers??) have cut up the western approaches on dunes on the QAA and French Lines but approach from the East is very easy. You won't have any trouble.
We went down K1 and Rig Roads - you can land a light aircraft on parts of the Rig Road (just graded to bring in another Rig). Still in excellent condition.
Take Bloods Creek section of track from Dalhousieto Mt Dare, as the direct route from Dalhousie is badly chopped up. (BLoods Creek track to the windmill and then into Mt Dare is only 14kms longer but excellent condition all the way)
We then went back to Oodnadatta via Eringa Waterholes and Mt Hamilton. Passed the grader on the way: the road is better than most freeways from the north of Hamilton Station down to Borefield track (which is also in excellent condition). Only occasional patches of dust where we had to increase distance between vehicles.

As the lady who served me a beer in William Creek said:" The only "4WD" thing about the Oodnadatta Track these days is all the bloody 4WD's on it!"

Perfect weather and bugger-all traffic now School Holidays is finished.
9 whoopies and 2 bikes, 19 blokes, 3,500kms and only 4 tyres (rocky patches on the Birdsville track) and no "yikes": a great trip!

(I have softer-wall Bridgestone Desert Duellers, and on 18 psi still managed to take 2 rocks through the side-walls (we weren't travelling fast ; nor were we overloaded) whilst the mates on other tyres, at 25+psi had no trouble with traction or rocks.)

Cheers and have a great time;
Dr Hook.