Buchanan Highway
Submitted: Wednesday, Jul 29, 2015 at 10:19
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Maxine C
Any one been up the Buchanan recently. Interested in the conditions.
Reply By: The Original JohnR (Vic) - Wednesday, Jul 29, 2015 at 11:20
Wednesday, Jul 29, 2015 at 11:20
Hi Maxine, we went through with an off road van two weeks back and found it a nice drive. Soft tyres would be the only advice I would proffer.
The Buchanan has sections to travel at 15-20kph, like at some crossings, but other sections where you may get to 80kph. Just watch the road and drive according to conditions. Buchanan has nice scenery and worth the journey. If you have short vehicle combination you may like to go into
Gregory National Park. Not for our rig though on advice. Mainly station traffic but we did see occasional travellers.
We have since been on the GRR an found that similar advice for that too. As soon as we got to the dirt we dropped to 24psi hot on the Gibb. No damage or tyre issues. Quite different to some who were on 30-40psi and we saw two Mitsubishis within 3 kms of oneanother with flats.
Hard tyres and skipping over corrugations caused trouble for a number of vehicles we saw or heard of on the Gibb or side trips.
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Follow Up By: Maxine C - Wednesday, Jul 29, 2015 at 11:27
Wednesday, Jul 29, 2015 at 11:27
Thanks for that. We did the
Gibb River Road last year so that give a good idea of what to expect. Have a landcruiser 100 series and towing a Complete
Campsite hard floor camper. A broken shoulder by me cut that holiday short at
Derby and we were looking to take the shortcut across to continue where we left off.
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Follow Up By: The Original JohnR (Vic) - Wednesday, Jul 29, 2015 at 11:34
Wednesday, Jul 29, 2015 at 11:34
No troubles with your outfit Maxine. We are continuing a
Savannah Way trip started two years ago and thought no need to go through
Katherine.
Derby now. Safe travels
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Follow Up By: Dasher Des - Thursday, Jul 30, 2015 at 18:49
Thursday, Jul 30, 2015 at 18:49
We did the Binns Track south to north and found the whole track relatively easy with a few exception. Bull dust just north of Old
Andado was bad, the lower half of the Bullitta track was slow going and a short section in the middle was slow but just drive to the conditions and lower air pressures is preferrable as
well.
we were towing a Tvan and friends had a Topaz and neither had any issues except that the BT 50 towing the Topaz bottomed out in the bull dust.
It was a very interesting drive.
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Reply By: MEMBER - Darian, SA - Wednesday, Jul 29, 2015 at 14:08
Wednesday, Jul 29, 2015 at 14:08
For what it is worth, re our run along there with our offroad van, 12 months back. From the Stuart highway over to Top Springs was an ultra smooth gravel road. Top Springs to
Timber creek was much like sections of the Gibb...quite stony in
places, but no trouble at all if the usual tyre-saving precautions are taken. As I recall, roadside
camp opportunities are few along there.....we did an overnighter at a camping spot on the lower end of
Jasper Gorge....the only place we really saw.
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Follow Up By: Bob Y. - Qld - Wednesday, Jul 29, 2015 at 18:30
Wednesday, Jul 29, 2015 at 18:30
What Darian said, Maxine.
Drove from
Timber Creek, via Top Springs to Dunmara, in a Holden ute in 1973. Was just as Darian described it, even back then.
Probably never be sealed, as
Katherine might lose too much custom, as many would take the short cut to the
Kimberley.
Bob
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