Plenty Highway

Hi Loris,

Lived in Alice for 2 years (about 5 years ago) & drove the Plenty Plenty of times. Its no different from any other track. Qld side until tobermorey is a bit rocky but from there on is very well maintained. Actually doing it again early July. Just depends on your vehicle, your tyres & the way you drive. I think 'avoiding it' is a bit harsh.

Cheers & happy travels
Jason

Ioris.

On the Plenty you will get to experience most forms of dirt road driving.
I think the biggest problem is too much speed.
Plan to take your time, carry two spares and you should have few problems.

Regards

Loris,

It's a few years since we drove across the Plenty but we didn't have any problems. If you do what has been advised by the others, take your time and drive sensibly then you will be fine.

We enjoyed it, hope you do too.

Viv

I did the Plenty last year and was amazed at how good it was. Some parts were better than our local tarred highways (NSW that is). It changes with rain but I towed a CT and never had any blowouts. I don't know about 3 spares. You would have to be pretty unlucky or not driving to the conditions.
Cheers
Fred

Not recently, but we did the drive in 2004 towing a van, just slow down, drive to the conditions and run softer tyre pressures and you should have no problems. Back in 2004 We were about 1/2 of the way across travelling (east to west) met 3 vehicles towing campers going west to east, they were flying along, they'd had 3 tyres blow so far, and warned us of the shocking road we had yet to travel and that we'd need to have plenty of spare tyres with us, I told them the road east wasn't too bad and away we went. For the next hundreds of km's I was waiting to come across the 'bad' road conditions, when we got to Gemtree I said to the Mrs, well I wonder how they were getting along as this west half of the road was pretty darn good, far far better than the east section was. So it's all a matter of perception, slow down and enjoy the trip.

Did it this time last year and was amazed at how well the local shire/NT Govt had improved the road. The only time to be wary of punctures is just after it has been graded (creating those little sharp fragments). You beat this by staying around 80 kmh and lowering your tyre pressure to about 30 psi - tyre dependent of course.

Now remember that this is the Plenty I'm talking about. The Donohue, which precedes it, is nowhere as nice (Boulia Shire council where are you spending your Govt money?) but still easily navigable.

Enjoy the trip