Crossing the Simpson with a Camper Trailer

"I snatched him over every dune"
Every dune Wilko???? After the 100th recovery surely he would have reasesed his tyre pressures ;-))

We crossed with a novice family of 8 towing a heavily loaded camper during the peak touring season & they backed up 4 times in total missing Big Red by just 10 metres.! If your mate was really getting stuck that often then either his tow vehicle was not suitable, the trailer was grossly overloaded, his tyre pressures were way too high, the desert conditions at that time were completely unsuitable or he simply had no idea what he was doing. In any of those cases he shouldn't have been out there towing.
"...you can do damage to the track... " What exactly did this damage your mate do to the track while towing look like? My mate barely left a mark.
Cheers Craig............

Wilko
Leave it alone mate !

You will go blind.

Are yo ua member of the 55 lb club ?.

12-15 psi (hot) in your tyres and you will do the dunes no probs, towing.
No damage either.
All you need then is a little momentum, and keep 1/2 to 3/4 a tyre width to one side, and you will not porpose, (bounce) and the whole adventure is easily doable.

Cheers
Bucky

Hi Gents,

I run my tyres at 14-18 psi depending on loads, Agree with you Crackles, My mate shouldn't have been towing, Old mate didn't have enough power in his 3lt pootrol to tow. My mate didn't damage the track, but he could have if I'd let him.

One thing. When I give advise to people, You've got to remember that they are inexperienced and that telling them that its easy just do this and that and you'll be right is dangerous. The Simo will bite anyone who isn't prepared. Ive seen people with damaged trailers and 4wd's cause they took things lightly. If your prepared to fork out 4-5k for a trailer rescue go for it.

Towing should only be done by experienced people, If they have to ask they arent experienced enough. If you are experienced enough go for it

Bucky you must have 2 You cant be that silly playing with one.

Cheers Wilko

Do dah
Do dah
Must be !

Knew it, You seem the type.

Cheers Wilko

That post is about fuel use in a Pathfinder, nevertheless useful.
Dean

I agree with GT. It's one thing to tow a camper or plain old trailer over a dune, but it's another to try and back one down when the thing just wants to bury itself.

Take spares....hubs, wheel bearings, some flat bar, angle iron, fencing wire, portable welding plant, leaf spring etc. and be prepared to suffer breakages.

The Golden rule would be to ask "Are you prepared to abandon the CT in the bush?". Depending on if and where a breakdown occurs, it may be uneconomically viable for a recovery. Maybe get him to ring Barnsey at Birdsville Auto and enquire what sort of $$$$ he charges for a desert recovery.

Confucius say: "The probability of not making it and the damage caused is directly related to the time taken to accompish the trip and the pre-trip preparation done."

Me personally .....nope, no way. (Others will disagree...after all, you did ask for opinions).

Fab.

errr... the TD6 is one of the torquiest and well-respected 4WD powerplants ever... unless I'm not quite getting your humour...? (However the Patrol's low-range could be deeper and tall tyres make the situation worse)

"the TD6 is one of the torquiest" - Hmmm well no 114kW@3600rpm & 360Nm @ 2000rpm. Is pretty lame really for its engine size and pretty average overall.

Yeah, that's about the same as an old carby Holden V8, and less than today's crop of 2-litres.

But it's the way it ladles it out that is important, especially when towing a trailer in arduous terrain

Garry! Two good things about the 4.2 TdI, its totally mechanical and its throughly reliable.. It stops there!! And yes taller tyres and the lack of decent low gearing doesnt help.. I can imagine that Patrol loaded to the hilt and the camper on the sand dunes. He would soon wish he had left it behind. Michael

Hi Michael - I have no issues with the 4.2 it is a very low tech engine that just chugs along but tends to be put on a bit of pedestal - ok for those reasons but not because it is torquey. My brother had one for a few years and was disappointed with its performance but not its reliability.

Lets accept it for what it is, not what we hope it can do.

As far as the dunes and towing a trailer - I think it the 4.2 will do quite well as long as the driver knows what he is doing.

Garry

The turbo 6 in a Patrol is real good in first and second gear.
If they fall down its their lack of power at highway speed.
I fixed mine with an AXT Turbo upgrade.

However we did the top 1/2 of the Canning in September, from the north, and the mighty Partol (with low tyre pressures) and camper in tow, was 4.7 Tonne.
She ate the dunes, in very hot and dry conditions.

All the power and momentum you could ever want.

Would really love a v8 Brunswick diesel, but oh the $$$$$$$$

I am still a hoon at heart, but these days a slow one.

Well worth putting on a dyno, to help things along
Cheers Bucky

*with Dr Evil voice*

....Riiiiiiiiight

I know it is "you" asking Dozer but your mate really needs to learn all this from a less ambitious trip (such as a weekend beach trip) first...

Sorry fuel was mt dare to birdsville was 140l in my 80series ute running 35in tyres and that was playing on big red and running in and out from birdsville to big red twice

Fuel at birdsville was $1.74 at one and $1.70 at the ather and at mt dare it was $2.26 l for diesel

toyotarules,
I am assuming
you mean you did birdsville to mt Dare via Madigan line .
Ii also assume you did the madigan section east to west fromhay river( camp 16) to mount dare .
I 'd be pretty positive you didnt tow anything from east to west in the Qld section in fact I dont know anyone who has driven thel madigan from birdsville to mt dare( east to west crossing) because of the dunes in the Qld section.

in regard the simpson
I lead a trip a trip last year and we had a top of the line camper trailer with us and it took lots of towing and without maxtraxs as well we would have really struggled to get it over some of the dunes. the driver of the tug was basically physically drained each night while the rest of us were having a ball.this was a west to east trip.

Its do able but i dont recommend towing.
cheers
Howard

No we didn't have the campers with as and we did camp 22 right thru to camp 6 then from camp 6 to camp 2then camp 1A then camp 1 we couldn't do camp 3,4 or 5 as its in abo land and camp 23 and 24 were inaccessible due to water and camp 20 is still under water as well

Yep east to west the dunes weren't that bad

Toyotarules
I take my hat off to you ,you did well.wish i had been there with you.

we took 1 1/2 hours to get 4 vehicles over 1 particular dune between c17 and c18 and that was west to east.
Camp 20 was also underwater when we went last july.had to detour south all the way to bypass xing to getover eyre ck,
cheers
Howard

We got to with in 0.9 off c20 had to walk thru about foot off water for about four meters to get to a dry patch put no post in site don't no if the post was never put there or it's fulling over in the mud we did a bit of a walk around in the mud but nothing :(