Hay River track

Hi,
The easiest way out from Poeppel Corner would be the K1 line to Warburton crossing then onto Marree or Birdsville via the BT. Went through a couple of years ago & very thankful for "goop" paint protection on the northern end of Hay River section. I don't tow but don't think that route would be difficult for an experienced driver.
Mike.

I have a 200 and a Tvan and went south on the Hay River track about a year and a half ago.
It is very easy and between dunes except for a section about 70k north of Poeppel Corner in the shotline. It is hard to get a run up there. I had the tyres are 15 and could not get up it. I was snatched the last 20m or so. I would have got up if I let the tyres down a bit more.
We went out through the Warburton track which is very easy. Though it is often closed. It is closer to Birdsville than Mt Dare, but the dunes are bigger than to the west. I think the dune on the shotline was the worst so just go whichever way suits you I guess.
Also the best advice I can give you is to take your time on the Hay River track. We did it in a week ( from Alice to the corner) and really needed a few more days. If you go to fast it gets monotonous.
You will scratch your 200.

QAA is possibly going to give you some heartache towing, all the larger dunes are on the east side . . . but K1 to Rig Rd junction, then west to Dalhousie / Mt Dare along Rig Road should be ok, it's the easiest route by far at the moment.
From Warburton well into the desert it was graded and dunes right along are very little to give you bother.
We drove it in late Oct on a crossing that way, it's very easy going.

Once you hit French Line again, you will have some dunes to conquer, but not as many going FL or WAA, FL especially is very hard going, did that in July, so many undulations.

Just drop vehicle and trailer tyre pressures to say 15, and if necessary lower, you should be ok.

Take plenty of fuel, at least double what you'd use on sand driving, 200, possibly best to take at least 200lt, I'd be taking a bit more in case of detours or turnaround.

If it rains, you'll probably have to abandon a crossing, as all of them are pretty boggy in the east, and detours around big claypan lakes.
Mid year you should be ok, as most rain is in the summer from the tropical systems up north.

We have done this twice. The last time was in May 2015.

We travelled from south to north both times, which judging by the dunes we covered, is much easier than coming the other way.

We came across a party of three vehicles, coming the other way, that had taken an hour to get over one dune. That dune was no where as difficult as some we had already crossed. One especially has a sharp right hand turn at the base of the dune which causes a loss of momentum.

We also came across a group of 7 vehicles near Batton Hill that were doing the track north to south. They had a couple of camper trailers in their group and looked to be well prepared. I suppose the moral to the story might be that many hands make light work.

The track itself is quite narrow and winding.
This is caused by the small trees that you have to drive around. Its a bit like slalom skiing on wheels.
Unless you go bush and make your own track, which I do not recommend, they are unavoidable. This might present a few problems if you were towing a camper.

We to had a form of adhesive contact that we put on the sides of the cars to minimise the scratches from the small trees. This worked really well.

It is a great track but you need to be well prepared.

You may have all ready seen it but there is a good video on YouTube of a Navara towing one of those South African ( I think ! ) camper trailers and a 70 series towing a jayco. Think you just have to put in hay river to see it. Cheers.

Maxum

We had a well prepared proper off-road trailer with high clearance. Did the Hay North to South.

Each day became progressively harder, but as others said the Hay itself is much easier to pull than the connection you will have to make from Poeppel to Birdsville. That is where your question need to be aimed at. If you can do the QAA then the Hay will be easy.
As we did it N-S we were much lighter when we reached the Simpson (fuel, water, beer) which then made that part easier. If you do it S-N then you will have the QAA with full load, again if you make that then Hay will be easy.

Take care of the track with your trailer, low (really low) tire pressure is the key

CJ

Good day maxum II,On my 4th trip on the Hay I was with a small party of 3 campertrailers starting from Birdesville .Two famous name campers and a converted garden trailer all weighing in at approx 1 tonne .They had absolutley no problems on this trip including the QAA E/W . Vehicles were petrol 80 series ,non turbo 105s and a stock 2011 pajero. Even the the intersecting dunes near the Eagle nest didnt impost a problem non the sandy bed of the Hay