Vehicle recovery

Being a member of an Automobile Club, such as RAC would be a start. A fat wallet would be another need. Yellow pages for each of those towns may help you.

Motherhen

HF radio and membership in VKS-737 or similar would be a great advantage.... if you got into strife a call to a VKS base would probably see another VKS member in your area come to your assist if they were able to do so.

Vehicle recovery by a business would see you parting with a very thick wad of cash....!

FJB

My take on your question is that if you have to plan for contingencies such as you suggest then you are not prepared well enough and need to go back to the drawing board and rethink your strategy.

Any outback recovery will cost mega-bucks so the only option is to be very well prepared and make sure that you have necessary tools and expertise to handle most events. Driving to conditions and correct tyre pressures shouldl see you through without dramas. Always carry a spare set of shockabsorbers for your vehicle when out in that country.


Cheers

How many vehicles and have you done any training?

For what it's worth FJB I fully agree with your approach. I doesn't matter how much planning you do Murphy can always rain on your parade. I can't help with telephone numbers in the area but suggest you give the local coppers in those towns a quick call and my guess is that they will not only put you in the right direction but also give you a 'pat on the back' for thinking ahead and beyond the normal we'll help each other out approach.
Enjoy the trip and may see you out there sometime...we leave Canberra 27 Jun and will be visiting some of those places.
Cheers
Pete

Halls Creek, while not on your list, has a recovery business covering the northern section of the CSR. It is the garage that has the RACWA contract, and also happens to be the Toyota dealer in Halls Creek.Halls Creek Toyota is at 137 Duncan Road, phone 08 9168 6150, fax 08 9168 6202 and email hallscreektoyota@yahoo.com.au.

When I spoke with the mechanic there in 2005 he mentioned having recovered a vehicle from the CSR at a cost of around $20k.

Hope that helps.

Bruce M

FBJ
Capricorn Roadhouse just south of Mt Newman recovery cost is $100.00 per hour

regards Jock

My 2 cents worth.

I forget the proper name of the hill but I think it was out past well 29, it is like a pimple in a flat land, very steep and high. We drove up to take photos in a Jeep Wrangler 2008 model 4 door turbo diesel manual with diff lockers. A 4.2 TD Patrol GU did as well and did his clutch. Dead in the water so to speak.

The only way out was to tow out back to Newman for repairs. Now, he should have done his clutch before he left as he had 130,000km on the clock and never changed it which we didn't know about. So, believe it or not, the Jeep towed out a fully laden Patrol wagon and the Jeep was loaded too.

All I can say is take your time, make sure there is no one on the other side of the dunes before you hit it flat out. We were thinking we would be winching the patrol over each dune but we didn't get to that. Used a HELL of a lot of fuel, I think it was about 75.0L/100km out to Georgia Bore then onto Newman. We ended up blowing the front diff in the Jeep (not built tough enough) right at the end.

If you have three vehicles, you will be fine. Make sure all your recovery gear is up to scratch and if you have to tow over dunes, do it first thing in the morning when the sand is cold. You will be surprised what a difference it makes.