Plenty Highway

Hi brack1936,

We travelled the Plenty in September in an 80 Series. The Donahue Hwy wasn't too bad, minor coorugations and pockets of bulldust, but once in NT, the Plenty Hwy was extremely corrugated with lots of bulldust. On the Plenty I had one puncture (easily fixed at Jervois Homestead for $25), one stuffed shocker (due to crappy rubbers), bolts holding the stabilizer bar sheared off (re-welded in Alice for $30) and I lost the magnets for my cruise control. Fuel at Tobermorey is expensive ($1.50 per litre), Jervois reasonable ($1.30 per litre) and Gemtree OK ($1.23 per litre). I only need $20 worth at Gemtree to get me to Alice. I enjoyed the drive, but it is tiring and long. As long as your suspension and tyres are ok, you run the right pressures, you don't carry too much weight, and drive to the conditions you will be fine. They do grade the road fairly regularly I believe, but all we saw were road trains.

Contact the Info Centre in Boulia and they will send you mud maps and give advice.Just Do It!

I'd be going soon big boy, your starting to head in towards that lovely wet soon. I try to plan to be through there by mid Nov. normally to aviod early surprises. If your not going till December I would take enough gear for contingencies. Just my opinion though I'm sure others will disagree.

I too am thinkng about trvelling this road in December. As a rough indicaton of the quality of the road how would it compare to the dirt road between Burketown, Lawn Hill and Borroloola which I just drove a couple of months ago ?

The problem with giving road conditions on the Plenty is it's so long, the conditions vary so much over it's length, depending on where they are grading. I would liken this job to painting the Harbour Bridge, when you finish, you go back and start again at the other end. Bearing in mind it covers two states and two incorporated areas too.

IMHO, It would be risking it to go over in 2WD towing anything, but solo should be OK. A Subie will be no problem. Getting dry bogged in bulldust or recently graded soft section would be the biggest hazard if it's dry. Corrogations are no better or worse than similar roads. Slow down for the grids which tend to have a rather large "ledge" on either side due to the road trains. When I went over last in '02 there was a bloke we heard about as far back as Marree (going anti-clockwise) who had blown four tyres at once by hitting a grid real hard, right in the middle of Jervois and Tobermory. 120K or so trip each way in the mates car to get them fixed!. Anyone want to own up?

Regds

BillAll aboard!

Hello brack1936
You are right, lots of people don't know what they are talking about, especially about the difficulty of outback roads. But, Glenn(VIC) has got it right. With good tyres, reasonable suspension and the self control to take your time, there is no reason to consider the road anything but a pleasure. I was also on that road recently and had no problems. I only wish I had the self control I recommend, but at least I know what I should do. Enjoy your trip.

Go slow. Keep weight down. Look out for turkeys hammering towards you that don't slow down. Visit and use the fuel stores along the way so you don't have to carry the extra weight of fuel yourself. Take an additional spare wheel, pucture plugging kit and a means to inflate tyres.Bob

We went across In september this year 2003.
The road was in what I would class as reasonable condition.
We had no problems.
I think If Car and tyres are in good condition you will be ok

THE BIG ONES ARE SPEED AND WEIGHT

slow down a bit and keep the weight down.

The prople we talked to that had problems had lots of excess gear and also were trying to drive at 90KMH +

We spent a couple of nights out on the plenty.
camp by the side of the road.
Have a look at harts range

Peter S