dalhousie springs & caravans

The tracks in to Dalhousie are not caravan friendly.

You may be able to take CT or Bushtracker Van in there OK but the normal run of the mill van will suffer.

Cheers

Steve

I would'nt recommend it.

Regards

Kim

I saw one there last year. He came up from Oodnadatta. I wouldn't have liked to do it.

Vans get into Dalhousie these days fairly easy,, but they better be good ones, or you will be leaving it on the side of the raod,,,I mean with quality bits-n-pieces iinside and really good suspension, like independant coils, as you will need them from Hamilton Station in the South, or from Mt Dare, in the North

Last August we meet these people from Port Lincon, 3 couples in all, and they all had vans,, but off road vans, the only brand name I can remember was Trackmaster, and I think they were made in Bayswater ( a Melbourne suburb )

Cheers Mate
Bucky

I agree with all......Only off-roaders have a chance of making it in and out in one piece.......
one our entire trip with roads around mt dare, dalhousie and hamilton station were the worse!!!!

Good luck....

Laura

Steve,

I'm heading that way in May this year with other Trakmaster owners then through to Alice and onto Marble Bar via the Gary Junction road and the WAPET road. Will post some info when I return.

Regards
Ross

We took our small (10 foot pop top / 800kg ) van there last August for 4 days
Loved the spot and the convenience of the van of course.
It had been my intention to leave the van based at Oodnaddatta and take a tent from there.
My wife convinced me it would be nice to keep out of the wind , sun and mozzies so I ventured into the unknown after talking to a few travellers.
Dont disagree with opinions above, it is very tough from a rocky point of view (small sharp rocks everywhere and those corrugations ) So I took plenty of time-- at 30-40km/hr mostly.

The axle was loose at Dalhousie, tightened the shackles, brake & fridge 12v wiring ripped -fridge contents the usual for rough roads and the fridge was loose.
I thought it was well worth it but you would not want to do it too often.
My next van will be a tougher version. Personally I think it gets down to speed.

If you travelled at 10 km/hr you wouldnt do much damage. At 90km/hr you would write off your van and yourself-- so dont do it in a hurry?

Swimming at 7am in Dalhousie Springs - cant beat it !

Asking about taking caravans to any destination is always going to get a big diversity of answers according to peoples own driving styles and expectations.
Some people like to travel at higher speeds that would destroy a caravan and so say a caravan could not go there but in reality you can get a caravan to ALMOST anywhere if you have the motivation and travel at the appropriate speed (deep soft sand hills or hairpin bends can stop you).
We have had our 18ft normal full van into delhousie via Mt Dare (much of it in 1st gear idle over the corrugations) and out via Oodnadatta (some big washaways and soft sand) without problems and enjoyed the 3 days we spent there in comfort while everybody else seemed to arrive at 4pm and were gone by 9am next day.

Bob

I must be doing something wrong with this bush driving thing. Either that or I've owned some very tough offroad campers and caravans.

I travel as fast as I can safely go without "asking for trouble on a gravel road". This often means 80 to 90 kmh on gravel, pulling van or trailer, the aim being to get 'on top' of the corrugations and 'float' over 'em rather than hit each one.

As long as I can see "a long way" down the road that's in front of me, then I'll travel as fast as I safely can. I've had a few misses with roos 'n emus but my golden rule is: Dont swerve and if yer gonna hit 'em then hit 'em hard! They'll have a lot more damage to them than you will to your car if you hit 'em hard. If you swerve, there's a good chance yer gonna roll it. Just don't hit the brakes and don't move the steering wheel.

Pick up what's left - road kill is OK gear! A good bullbar is a must.

I've blown very few tyres and those that I have blown were "$40.00 scab tyres" anyway. I've had no extreme breakages on chassis, springs, fridges etc.

Perhaps I've been lucky for 20 years prospecting in WA but going fast over corrugations with hard tyres seems to work for me.

Bilbo