crossing the simpson in a pathy

Hi RL

Firstly you will need to take extra fuel, 20 litres might be enough, but 40 litres would get you through very comfortably.

Tyre pressures are very critical and for a first time desert traveller, drop them down to 14psi and you should be fairly right. For Big Red drop them even lower, say 10psi.

If you are about to replace the tyre, then a good AT would be fine and even better in a LT construction. Do not get fooled that you need big aggressive tyre tread patterns, they might work fine for the mud and are the exact opposite for what you need for sand driving.

If you are taking a roof rack, make sure that it is a quality built rack designed for a reliable 4x4 accessories manufacturer, as I have seen 2 cases out in the Simpson from people that you could not tell anything, with cheap $70 racks that broke the second dune crossing into the Simpson.

For a first time crossing, I would travel West to East to give you a feel of what true 4x4 sand driving is all about. There are only 3 main routes across the desert, the French Line, WAA and Ring Road in South Australia and then only in through Queensland, the QAA Line. In the SA section, do a mixture of all the tracks and must see features are of course the Lone Gum and the Knolls.

Plan on 4 days as a minimum and you should have a great time. Also a tip for first time desert swag sleepers, make sure that you have the highest quality rated sleeping bags, as on cloudless nights, below zero will be expected. Do not leave any cloths or footwear out during the night, as you may wake up with one shoe gone or your pants many metres away and chewed - from the dingos, but do not worry, they will not hurt you. When our boys were little, we would use a small plastic garden rake to clear the area under your swags and next morning you could see dingo prints in the freshly raked sand and on one trip there was even sandy dingo prints over the bottom of one of the boys swags.

Make sure that you use a sand flag and the recommended UHF Channel is Channel 10, but scan so you can hear anyone that may be using a different channel. A long handled shovel is a must have and if you can find the space, a set of MaxTrax could be very handy.



If you enjoy seeing the desert at its very best, you will have a fantastic time and will be planning you next return trip.



Safe travels and enjoy the Simpson




Cheers



Stephen

RL

Probably need to carry at least 1, 20 lt jerry can of diesel.

Do you have any fuel figures for hard going ?

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Cheers
Bucky

I absolutely endorse Stephens comments.

Where to carry the extra fuel?..... well not inside the vehicle, which puts it on the roofrack, ditto for LPG bottle, so you need to check on the Pathys specification for roof loads. The swags would be good on the rack.

Water: You should allow 4 litres/day/person to cover drinking/cooking/washing. Four boys?.... well perhaps you can forget the washing! LOL. If the water is carried in jerries inside the vehicle they should be secured as in case of rollover a full jerry can impart significant injury. A cargo barrier would be good insurance.

Leave the drive in 4WD for the whole crossing. The vehicle will handle better & safer and less damage to the track.

RL Boys

I did the Simpson in my 2005 Pathy in 2010. I carried a extra 60lt of Desiel with me. When we crossed the from Mt Dare to Birdsville I used exactly 100lts of fuel. The trip across the Desert is about 550ks and we did the ring route and did 684 ks in total. So it really depends on what you plan on doing in the desert. The Pathy was great on the trip and handled Big Red no problems with low tyre pressure and 3rd gear low range from bottom to top.

Enjoy your trip.

I crossed from west to east a couple of years back in a Nissan D40 (ie a sort of chopped Pathy :-) -between Mt Dare and Birdsville I used 115 ltrs Car was auto diesel 2.5 ltr with DPF.

Thanks all for the very usefull comments really appreciated
carrying the fuel looks to be the main concern perhaps ,
will do a days run in the sand dunes around here to get a better feel for fuel use
roof rail rating is 100kgs so i guess would want to put more than 50kgs up there for a crossing and some say not to put fuel on roof but would have thought it safer than in back even inside a sealed storage case
thanks again
RL

all good advice/experience there, another liittle hint, to reduce stress on the roof (if that is where you carry it) get the fuel from the jerries down into the tank as soon as you can, for instance as soon as the gauge shows, say, 2/3 or 3/4