Rig Road condition

Hi Trevor

Member Muzbry and I did the Simpson crossing west-to-east during the first week in June this year.

Our basic route was Mt Dare, Dalhousie, Rig Road, WAA Track, Knolls Track, French Line, Poeppel Corner, QAA Line, Big Red and on to Birdsville.

The tracks were in excellent condition and the traffic light until we hit the French Line at the intersection with Knolls Track. East of here the French Line was as busy as, with a lot of east-west traffic heading for the Finke Desert race. There were queues of vehicles at some dunes waiting their turn to cross over. Ch 10 on the UHF is a good idea.

Also, the eastern faces of the dunes were really chopped up, and much steeper than the western approaches. East-west traffic towing trailers seemed to be doing it pretty tough.

Eyre Creek was a dust bowl, with no indication that the flood in the Georgina earlier this year actually made it as far as the QAA LIne.

Have a good trip.

George_M

Thanks George
That's good to know. We are leaving Adelaide this Saturday and plan to leave Dalhousie Wednesday.
I guess the track will have changed a bit.
6 vehicles in the convoy.
Trevor

Trevor .

Crossed about 4 weeks ago West To East, did part of the Rig Rd got back on the French line via the Coulson track .
Personally wouldn't bother with the Rig Rd.
The Eastern side of the dunes were dug up by 6 clueless Porche Cayanne drivers and there support crew .
I Never get sick of Simpson crossings

Enjoy the trip .

Thanks Trevor, We leave on Monday the 16th for the same crossing. School holidays could be busy. The French line will be the most travelled and the Rig road should be OK. Give a report at the end of July

Yes we did it recently. First part of QAA was damp and easy, but the dunes got harder as they were drier further in after Poeppel corner. The knolls is not on the map they give you from desert parks, so it seems less used. Still we kept on French line till we reached the Rig rd, which we used till we reached the intersection at Wonga Junction. All good as far as we were concerned. Not too correlated, although others were saying it was bad. We did have our tyres at 15 Psi for most of the desert in any case. This was a few weeks ago, so now things could be very different.

Just completed this exact route finished 25th July. 4 days to cross , averaged 15km/hr for 4 days!! Very cut up by returning traffic from the Big Red Concert and just lots of bunny hops before most big sand hills. Just dont be in a hurry . Still found some great camp sites along the way and enough wood.

Returned from the trip last week.
Bookings for Dalhousie camp site is a farce. We went to the trouble of advanced booking only to be told when we got there that they let anybody in until it is full.
The road to Purnie bore was extremely corrugated and rough.
All of the sand hills were badly cut up but with the low tyre pressures and a little momentum we had no problems climbing them other than a bouncy ride in the 'moguls'. The problems caused by towing vehicles and high tyre pressures. Watched one towing vehicle take 6 attempts to crest one hill. Each time he got an extra 2 metres and dug himself in on all 4 wheels. He left the track in a terrible state.
Very little traffic until we reached the French line and then it was quite heavy.
Rumours have it that the SA Govt is contemplating prohibiting trailers.
It was occasionally slow going we only did 70 k one day. 3 nights, 4 days in all.
Good trip, driving was not challenging at all and I used 139L diesel, Mt Dare to Birdsville in our LC 100 TD.

Hi Bob
We travelled W-E and did Knolls Track.
The Rig Road from the turn off from the Erabena track and then north along the Knolls was very slow going.
The east side of the dunes are stepper than the west and have been cut up very badly by towing vehicles and high tyre pressures.
We ran 14 psi front and 18 psi rear and had no troubles at all.
Enjoy your trip.
Trevor