Towing a Trailer along the French Line West to East

James.

Its a much more enjoyable trip not towing a 1 to 2 ton anchor across 1100 sand dunes.

Of course its is possible with a CT , but its puts a lot more stress on your tow vehicle .

You should also consider if towing the damage you are doing to an iconic track .

The authorities strongly suggest not to tow.

Whatever route you take CT or not enjoy the trip.

Cheers

James,
The last dune on the Rig Rd before the K1 was 32 meters high and it took the turbo 80 series a few runs to get over it. Tyres deflated more for each attempt. That was a few years ago. I certainly couldn't have got a trailer over that without help. I think the French Line would be easier.

Good Luck,

Jim, as mentioned if is rough any way you go, and with a CT you might find the going slow, considerable recoveries needed (for any of your party towing), and if damage to a CT or tow vehicle, recoveries are $$$.

2015 Patrol, do you have the V8 petrol ?
If so, you have some grunt there for towing :)

So much depends on your camper build, if a really good genuine offroad, name / build then you'd probably be ok, not easy, but it should survive if taking the speed right where needed.

If you deflate tyres on the tow vehicle and CT, you can be all right to drive straight through with enough momentum etc, depends on how bad the sand is, hot / dry and it's deep fluffy (afternoons esp), damp from night cool in the mornings and it's a lot easier.

French Line is very undulating, so yes, I'd avoid that towing.
Also complicating the rather slow track is it will be very busy then, and multiple hold ups of recoveries with both people towing and non towing, makes it a slow drive.

We did FL all the way on a July trip this year, so much traffic, we couldn't tell who was Arthur or Martha on the radio calls, most couldn't tell you where they were (!), you just had to keep a good lookout.

WAA Line is sort of a mini French Line, but a good line to drive generally, less used and not as chopped up.
I did that April 2014, so can't tell you what it was like this year.

Just the last week of October gone, I did Rig Rd from Warburton X entry on the BV Tk all the way to French Line, then out via Dalhousie and south to the Ood Tk.
It was considerably easier than French and WAA Lines, but does have a couple of fun dunes, and just as many (but smaller in size).

The K1 track up to Peoppel is pretty good, generally following the corridors, but then you still need to get through QAA and that has some decent dunes and lots of traffic.

The drive out via Warburton is easy, so maybe you could go out to the BV Tk, and up to the races from there, then do trip out from BV to Poeppel without the CT, and have a crack at Big Red on the way too ?

If you left BV very early, you could do Poeppel Cnr and back, approx 350km, but of course some of you route is slowish . . . 40km of that is pretty fast 80k's out to Big Red and back, between some dunes you can crack 40ks, a lot of the driving is 30ks or so.

Time to air down and up, half an hour to an hour at Big Red, Poeppel another half hour, probalby looking at a good 10 - 11 hour day.

I take it from BV you'll be driving home to NSW via the east to better roads (via Windorah), or maybe down to Innaminka and out via the corner region ?

Going up there, some advice on the route to Dalhousie.
If going via Mt Dare, take Bloods Ck route back to Dal, the more direct looking route could break your rig, tyres, or CT.
It's a boulder field going direct, up to soccer ball size, the rest are at least cricket ball size, be warned.

If ok for fuel ex Oodnadatta and going from Hamilton to Dal direct (Hamilton has diesel but pricey ~ $2.45 from memory), take the same route, up past Eringa Waterhole and left, or try Pedirka Tk.
Pedirka is usually very rough, but it was well graded when we drove it out in Oct, and we managed 60 to 70k/hr in some places.
Lots to see down there, from the south Pedirka siding ruins, Cherrikana Waterhole (careful not to scare animals here), Dalhousie Ruins, Dalhousie Srpings proper lookout, then of course Dalhousie for a swim.

My trip report here covers that crossing the other way to your travel, but might be of interest . . .
Rig Road Simmo report
There is reports before that covering my drive from Brissy across if you want road report via Walker X, Innaminka, east to SE QLD.

Of course it might rain and all your plans will be really knackered then !!! :)
Anyway, the planning side of things is great, enjoy the next 8 monts or so and have a back up to get there and back.

Hi James L8
We drove whole length Rig Rd. from east to west, not towing with V8/4.5L Troopy that is upgraded to max performance front & rear diff-locks. Of cause deflated tyres to suit a terrain. Yes, we didn't have to winch or go on few attempts, but we talking about different vehicle to your. I would not tow going that way even with our very capable Troopy.
Traveling all the way from Bv to Mt. Dr. or Mt. Dr. to Bv. (as B1B2 written some dunes are 32 meters high). Some dunes are higher than Big Red. Sometime the height is visible only when you reach about 3/4 of a dune, as a blown sand makes another dune on top. Those ridges are very high and soft. Then we must remember the clay that use to be wonderful thing, but now is broken and undrivable so only solution is to bush-bash your own track.
The Rig Road use to be easy way to go, but these days is probably hardest way to go. Definitely harder than French Line, to bush-bash all the camps on Madigan Line or Hay River Tk.
It would be good idea to call Birdsville or Mt.Dare before you go to ask for their opinion.
Good luck anyway
Cheers Dana

HI James, here's my 2 bobs worth. Two rigs both towing campers. We did Rig E to W in Sept and thought we could shorten the trip by heading up to the WAA Jn to go west. Got 3 km and turned back as it was simply too hard towing a trailer.No clay capping and so all soft sand. Wasted a couple of hours but no big deal and returned to Rig Rd and went via Lone Gum as it was the sensible option. Have a look at the pix in Rig Rd Dune Dilemma and other places along the route to see what it's like. We got bogged 4 times between us where we needed to use a snatch strap and a couple more where we reversed out and had another go at a faster speed. All fabulous fun ... W

James L8
We are doing the Simpson next July and will be taking our Camper thru.
Why not, it should be easy enuf, and weight spread over 6 wheels is better than a heavily laden vehicle only. (and safer too).

It's all about tyre pressures, and not hurrying, thus avoiding damage.
Do your homework, double checking everything on your vehicle, and Camper, then double check it all again.
I have done heaps of desert tracks with our Camper Trailer, including the Canning, and never had an issue towing up and down sand dunes.

Check out some of my posts from the Canning trip in 2009, that are written up.

I actually followed our camper trailer through the Simpson in 2005, and loved the way it handled the rough stuff, so I struck up a deal out in the middle of the French line, with it's previous owners, and brought it off them..

As far as the rest of your questions, I cannot answer them, but we will be doing the Rid Road, the WAA line and hopefully to the Geographical Centre, provided floods don't hamper the trip.

Just have to wait and see

Cheers
Bucky