Brisbane to Broome via Gibb River return via Tanami Desert

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

Heading that way myself this year, towing the caravan to Kununurra, then El Questro, but returning to the tar around to the Bungle Bungles.

Leaving the van at Fitzroy Crossing and heading north to Mitchel Plateau / Kulumburu, before returning to collect the van and then doing the Horizontal Falls from Derby.

Broome for a few days, up to Cape Leveque, then back to Broome for the van and south (doing Karranjini...suggested by AJ120) and slowly down and in and out through WA before the long trip back to Brissie.

Oh the joys of being retired these days NO TIME FRAME!!

We will be in Kununurra on the 1st of June, look out for my 150 Prado (PP Sticker on the back) towing a Lotus caravan.

[Rusty62 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Rusty62]

Will look out for every one. We will be heading east - west ending in Derby on the 3-07.
White 120 VX with green / cream cover camper. White 150 GXL with galv/ cream cover camper.
UHF will be on 10.

Rusty.

[QUICKY Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close QUICKY]

It's going to be busy up there in June from the number of people I have spoken to lately. We are booked in at Kununurra on the 2nd June and have to met up with 2 other couples we did the Cape with back in 08. We then have 2 months to get across to Cape Range for the start of August for a 2week stay then we head on home to Newcastle. Undecided on which way to travel home as yet. I was going to come home via the Tanami and Alice from Broom after the GRR but that was before we decided to head down to Cape Range with the others in the group. We will be towing a Sunland Patriot with the Oztent on the roof for the spots we can't get the van into

[Rusty62 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Rusty62]

We start the Tanami road on the 9-07. Couple of days to get to Alice then Plenty - Donahue Hwy's to Boilia.

Rusty.

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

I did the Tanami (after we did the Canning Stock Route) and then the Plenty / Donahue back into Gods country in 2013.

I know that tracks differ from year to year, and even in different parts of the year BUT the Tanami & Plenty was like a 4 lane highway, we could have travelled most of it at 100 KPH but chose to let the tyres down for safety and only travel about 80 at a max.......both those were as smooth as a babys bum!!

However when we reach the Donahue I had only travelled a few K's and said to my mates on the UHF "bloody hell I don't like these gibber stones I think I'll drop some more pressure and slow down a bit", the response was "no worries seeya in Boulia.

Well, not 20 K's further the first Coopers tyre went and I came upon my group changing a tyre and said "maybe you should have listened to me"........they did slow down BUT didn't drop the pressures and bingo about another 10 K's up the road and another Coopers bights the dust.

By the way the guy at the Boulia Tyre service was very happy to sell them two new tyres at $450 each.

I'm sure you'll know better, and yes the roads can change but BE WARNED!!

[Rusty62 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Rusty62]

Seems a lot are to eager to drive fast on high pressure. Gravel for us is 25-30 and speed is 3 x psi.
Slow down, drop pressure and enjoy your holidays for me.

Rusty.

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

Talk to anyone who works in an outback servo or station that sells fuel or does repairs and they all tell you the same thing, most problems are caused by people driving too fast and/or having tyre pressures too high!

I really adjust pressure and speed purely on how the vehicle is riding nowadays, plenty of times on really rough gravel roads we will be into the low 20's, sometimes lower if the corrugations are bad, speed is reduced accordingly and we have never blown a tyre on an outback road.

Cheers Andrew

[BlakMoth Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close BlakMoth]

Yep let your tyres down, take your time, enjoy the view and get to your destination with your car in one piece.
If you feel like you need to rush then maybe don't try to do so much. Holidays are about relaxing after all.


Sent from my iPhone using Crapatalk

[Rusty62 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Rusty62]

To date (touch wood) have only lost one tyre on gravel. Side wall on the Donahue doing 60 kph at 25 psi. Freshly graded road, tipped a gibber with the front tyre and sliced the rear sidewall. We had done Simpson, Ayres Rock, Bogey Hole and the Plenty. That set had 110000 km (5 tyre rotate).
Sometimes it does happen.

Rusty.

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

I have (touch wood) never lost a tyre, some of the guys I travel with aren't as vigilant as me and so I have seen a heap blown.......I think the 3X the PSI rule on gravel sounds about right.......I did the Donahue part of that trip with 23 on the front and 25 on the back.......and sat on about 60 KPH. Of the 3 mates I was travelling with, the one on Micky Thomson's went through unscathed (even though he had the higher PSI), but the other two on Coopers lost two complete tyres and one with a puncture (repairable in Boulia)......I am 100% convinced its because they would have had close to 40PSI in.

So you reap what you sow!!

[kav Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close kav]

The common denominator appears to be coopers .

[120D4D Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 120D4D]

The common denominator appears to be coopers .

Perhaps the common denominator is OWNERS of coopers tyres - I know a few that wont drop pressures but its cost them some rubber over the years...

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

Perhaps the common denominator is OWNERS of coopers tyres - I know a few that wont drop pressures but its cost them some rubber over the years...

Look I'm not going to bag Coopers, but I do think that they have marketed themselves as being "the best tyre in the market" and people have believed that hype and from what I have seen people running much cheaper tyre brands BUT running them as they should be run probably get as good, if not better, results.

That said I do run BFG, and they aren't cheap either!!

[120D4D Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 120D4D]

My thoughts exactly Mark.

Some get lazy because they believe they have the best/toughest tyres they can get and dont treat them right - this is the same for all brands and more about the person in the saddle usually...

[Corigator Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Corigator]

Its all anecdotal.
Just to balance the comments. I've now done 100,000 km on my Cooper ST's Cape York (at 40psi because of ignorance) Simpson, Oodnadatta track, Flinders and Fraser - no problems. There are a lot of Coopers out there, so problems will show up. Drive over a railway spike and most tyres will puncture. I'm getting rid of them now because they are getting a bit hard.