punctures, corrugations and gibb river road

As John and Val say - June was pretty good last year. It gets bad very quickly when the July rush is on. We had no tyre problems at all; ran the lot on around 25 psi cold. We spent over three weeks enjoying the wonders.

Motherhen

Not 1992,I meant 2002!

There is a 80kmh speed limit on that road.
Jees I wish the cops had their radar there when you went through!!

With *sols like you no wonder the road is chopped up.

Obviously the road had not long been graded as there wern't any trenches on the approach to the creeks.

Tony

Some-one must have forgotten to advise the TRUCKIES of a speed limit

They were not worried about slowing down, admittedly we encountered most at night, they were all driving East, maybe they were empty and used the tar to travel West when loaded ???

Mainey . . .

Yes quite agree Mainy,

When it was a two wheeled track it used to be just road [cattle] trains that took care. Now it is graded alot of them tend to abuse it.
Most of the old drivers have now gone to pasture anyway.

Every one now is short on time.

Tony

Tony you are a turkey, read what i wrote. Did i say that i travelled at over 80km/h, wipe your glasses. I have travelled that road more times then you could ever imagine *shole and i can tell you now its never locals who cause the accidents. And please tell me where its sign posted at 80km/h on the Northern end. Absolute turkey

Kroozer

My appologies you are correct - my glasses are now clean.

I have travelled down there roughly 4 times in the last 6 years and overall about 20 in the last 30-35 years.[ Even when it was a two wheel track that only cattle trains and station people used it ] There have been signs down that road stating the speed limit of 80k. They were there approx 11 months ago. There were two on the northern end, cannot remember where they both were, however one was roughly 20 to 25 k before the turn off to Drysdale stn. Heading west. The other was not long after the turn-off to the El Questro that is all I can remember. I can remember though, the requests on the radio [ABC and the Aboriginal one] to reduce speeds.

Tony

Tony sorry about the rather aggresive reply, i lost a friend as a kid on that road, not far from the El Questro turn off. Travelling at dusk with his family they were run off the road and rolled over killing the young boy. Other car didnt even stop and they were unable to even indentify other car as it was on a sharp bend and it was travelling so fast. It happened right at the turn off to a favourite camping spot of mine and still to this day i can remember seeing the accident site and the devastation left on the road, plus the vehicle and it is a horrible reminder of what can happen when you dont know what your doing.

Hi Davo_60,

Your comfort and not vibrating everything to pieces is one of the reasons for reducing tyre pressures.

Slowing down is a must because lower pressures allow the side walls of the tyres to flex more which in turn increases heat build up in the carcass of the tyre. Travelling fast with low pressures on the bitumen will shorten the life of the tyres and dramatically increase the tyres air pressure (you end up running on the centre portion of the tread) and travelling fast off road will lead to a loss of control.

Slow speeds off road keep this heat build up to a minimum. Going slower also allows the softer tyre to flex and roll over bumps and rocks and stay in contact with the road surface where as a stiffer tyre will hit obstructions and lose contact with the ground as it bounces or blows out because there is no give.

Lower pressures, with a lot of off road driving, probably reduces the life of the tyres a little but keep in mind the advantages of better control and comfort. Once a tyre has damage to the side wall it's buggered whether it's new or has done 40 000 k's.

SB