Great central road.

Hi Warren,
We crossed it in June of 2006 with a CT. We saw several vans and they did not appear to be having trouble. There was nothing that a van with reasonable clearance and A/T tyres would be troubled by.
The WA section was better than the NT section at that time.
We did Yulara to Laverton in two days easily.
Jon W

Hi Warren

We travelled the GCR last year in July in a 19'6 Supreme Territory towed by a Hyundai Terracan. We were very inexperienced at the time and failed to reduce our tyre pressures sufficiently. The road was very wide and the vision clear however there were a number of corrugated sections which certainly gave us the shakes. The road conditions vary considerably depending on the weather and graders. A semi offroad caravan with reasonable suspension should not have many problems just drive to the road conditions and drop your tyre pressures and speed. The WA side was definately better.

Hi Warren

We have, coming home from a trip which included the Gibb River Road, including to Kalumburu, to Alice Spring via the Tanami, and touring around Central Australia including the Mereenie Loop and to Chambers Pillar. The only breakage occurred on the Great Central but wear and tear in the preceding months needs to be included. It was only bolts holding a caravan spring, but when you are a long way from anywhere the consequences of any breakdown can be major. We were lucky that we were able to back track and find the brackets (on a road littered with flotsam from vehicle as a testament to its roughness) and that we found in our spares the right sized bolts.

As said, conditions vary greatly; week to week even day to day, but there will always be good and bad sections. If tackling a remote road like that, you need a good off road caravan and to be self sufficient and resourceful in case something does go wrong because of remoteness.

My 2008 blogs include the GCR, and my 2009 blogs the easier but more remote Gary Junction Road. Both are lovely drives; particularly the Gary Junction.

Motherhen

Hi Warren,

We did this trip in July with our Quantum, a full offroad van. We had zero issues but upon our arrival in Uluru we met a couple who had towed a Jayco and they had several issues related to the corrugations. Unsure what tyre pressures they ran, but it was vibration damage they had. Ground clearance is not really an issue, unless you have a super long, low slung mammoth. Basically if you can easily mount a large kerb in K mart you will have enough ground clearance.

Here is a link to my blog of the trip, note how unusually wet it was.

Our Uluru trip Blog



Cheers

Captain

Hi Warren,
As everyone else has mentioned - tyre pressures and also, reduce speed.

We have BFG T/A all terrains, highway pressure in the off road caravan 45PSI

On the GCR, 25. Same in the car. Stuck to 60kph and no problems at all.

Cheers

Thanks for the replies guys, we have a 21' crusader h/duty axles, roller rocker suspension, with shockers, lifted 4'' and 15'' rims and off road tyres. we picked the van up on a friday and left on monday went to turlee, mungo, menindee, milparinka, wari gate, noccundra, innaminka, strezlicki track and flinders. had no problems at all so now i reckon that the van will be ok. and yes motherhen i do follow your blog and read your posts. its good to get info from people who are out there doing it rather than writing about what they have read.
warren