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CANNING STOCK ROUTE
The following is a brief report on a CSR trip undertaken in June 2010 in my VX V6 petrol Prado’ with emphasis on preparation and useful info.
WHEN:
Departed Yulara on 3/6/10; 3/6 departed Wiluna; exited at the top end at Bililuna on Friday 25/6, a day early due to lack of problems! Trip finished in Alice Springs on Sunday 27/6, a day early.
WHO WITH:
Great Divide Tours with tour guide Wayne Desmond who was on his 6th or 7th CSR trip so really knew his stuff, campsites, and mechanical skills and was a top bloke to boot. The cost is about $4100 and worth every cent for the organization of permits, planning and timing of the trip. Days began with 8.00 AM departures followed by easy stages with regular stops for morning tea, places of special interest that others would zoom past, lunch etc. The company plans to spend 20 days on the CSR between Wiluna in the south and Bililuna in the north.. This meant only about 120-130 km per day and days that rarely went beyond 3.30-4.00 as well as a few rest days. It was this easy and flexible pace that drew me to them. Some companies do the 1800 km in 10 days. This would involve long days, more chance of breaking something and seeing bugger all. If you are not too sure of yourself in extremely remote areas like this one this is a good company to go with. In fact I plan to do another trip or 2 with them to similarly remote areas in the future. They give you detailed parts lists, car preparation suggestions etc.
THE CAR: late 2005 VX, V6 petrol auto .BFG All Terrain tires [5000km old by the time they hit the dirt] with the 2 spares [unused] being 12000 km old Grand Craps; OME medium springs and the new OME Nitro-Charger shocks; Sovereign Bull Bar; Safari Snorkel, Ipod connector for the 6 stacker, tow hooks [the ones from this forum] IPF driving lights [20 years and about 250000 km old]; wire roof basket[15kg] [ fitted to 4 standard Toyota roof bar on the standard roof rails; 60000 km service done a few months before leaving Sydney. Both the middle and rear rows of seats were removed [saving 90kg] and a home made set of shelves [40kg] and cargo barrier [10kg] made from ARC Weldmesh fence secured by the 3 rear inertia reel belts and bolted in 4 places to the shelves which were in turn secured to the 4 luggage tie downs in the back
SPARES:
radiator hoses, serpentine belt; fuel and air and oil filters, engine oil; ATF fluid [about $ 50 !] oil for diffs and transfer case; 4 shocks, usual recovery gear of straps, bridle; tire repair gear; first aid kit ,tools etc. nuts ;bolts; race and electrical tape; fuel and radiator repair kits..
THE LAYOUT:
shelves and barrier in the back [They will fit with the middle row in place]; 6x20l jerrycans and 1x 20l water ratchet strapped to floor using brackets on the floor seat belt mountings where the middle seat was, with 2x 15l water containers in front of them on the driver’s side [one on the floor]; 39 l Engel fridge strapped down behind the passenger seat crossways; and the ABR second battery box and 100 ah battery behind that , in front of the cargo barrier; second spare in roof basket]; all tools, spares, oils etc on bottom of shelves along with the stove ie. All the heavy stuff in plastic crates I wouldn’t need to access, other than the stove which was right at the back and accessible by the drop down door for the bottom shelf [ no drawers yet and unlikely now because this was lighter and worked well]; food in plastic crates on top shelf along with 4kg gas bottle[I know….I started the thread!] strapped down and covered with the sleeping bag or clothes bag; sleeping mats, table, tent on top of jerrycans and tied down along with another clothing bag; chairs and recovery gear down beside the shelves on each side at the back with an elastic net over the lot in the back to stop the top stuff floating around.
All this actually took a huge amount of planning time, much more than I thought it would but it worked so well that I changed the setup and location of nothing for the whole trip.
The 50 l of water I carried from Sydney for drinking etc. As the 20 l water jerry and one 15l was emptied they were refilled with water for cooking, washing etc but the last 15 l was still filling my drinking water bottles until I got home [with 5 l left!]
The fuel jerries inside the car [I know, I started that thread too] were left empty until Wiluna when 4 only of the 6 were filled. This was after all of the high speed stuff and the start of the low speed stuff. All 6 were filled from the fuel drop at Well 23 and topped up at the store at Well 33. This was the only time fuel went into them. The last one was emptied at Rabbit Flat on the Tanami Track. They were progressively emptied every day or two along the track to get the fuel out of the car and to keep the weight as low as possible.
TIRES:
I had BFG AT 265/65 x17- one puncture, a nail picked up on The Great Central Road- fixed with a plug. No tire trouble by anyone on the CSR. 3 cars on BFG AT, 3 on Coopers and 1 on Bridgestone Desert Duellers. All tires worked without trouble but pressures were carefully watched.
I ran 40psi on the tar, 32 psi on the Great Central Road,[I would go down to about 28 next time] 24psi on the lower CSR [rocky, muddy]; 18 psi front and 20 psi rear for most of the sandy CSR and back to 24 psi on the Tanami, as well as on the Finke rd, Chambers Pillar rd, Oodnadatta Track, Flinders Ranges and the road south to the east of the Flinders beside Lake Frome..
FUEL CONSUMPTION:
All with roof rack, roof basket and spare wheel on roof
Sydney-Cobar at roughly 100 kph -16 l/ 100k
Cobar- Broken Hill into howling headwind –at 115kph on cruise control: 20 l/100k
Broken Hill-Port Augusta into howling wind but cruise control off at 115 kph: 17 l/100k
NB on these 2 days a D4D Hiluxe used 14 l/100k as did a 100ser turbo diesel so the petrol doesn’t look so bad.
Port Augusta-Coober Pedy at cruise control 115 kph and less wind but it is uphill! 16.5 l/100k.
Coober Pedy- Yulara at 115 kph cc and no wind- 15 l/100k
Yulara-Leonora at 80 kph but all [good] dirt- and some tar -12.8 l/100k
Leonora-Wiluna-tar-80kph but windy-14 l/100k
Onto CSR! Wiluna-Georgia Bore near Well 22-via Rudall River national park [about 400 km return] and 148 dunes to date: 1 jerry used before fuel dump at Well 23 where a further 200 l- ie the whole drum ordered was taken on for about 19 l/100k for the 1100 n+ km to here.
Well 23 – Well 33 or Kunawarritji—about 300 km of the worst corrugations and a further 32 dunes-19.85 l/100k –topped up here with132 l at $ 3.20 /l +GST = $422.40!!!!!!!
Well 33-Well 46- 5 jerries emptied for 425 km of 248 dunes for 23 l/100m- a very good indicator of fully laden sand dune consumption.
Wolfe Creek-last jerry added
Well 46 –Rabbit Flat 123 l in total for 16.8 l/100k for 677 km of decreasing dune height and a lot of flat good dirt-16.8 l/100k
Rabbit Flat- Alice Springs-100kph 16 l/100k
Alice Springs-Mt Dare-17 l/100k-slow and lots of slowing and accelerating
Mt.Dare to Leigh Creek- lots of slowing into dips and accelerating out- 18 l /100k
Leigh Creek- Broken Hill at 120+kph from Yunta and dips and bends through the Flinders-19 l/100k
Broken Hill- Bathurst at 115kph on cc-17 l/100k
Bathurst- Sydney [downhill at 90-10 kph-13 l/100k
No!!!!! I haven’t added u[p the total fuel cost but for the diesel fanatics, a D4D manual Hiluxe used about 20% less on the CSR.
WHAT BROKE?
1 of the GME antennas with curly coil bit in the middle [after ½ hour of CSR corrugations before the bad ones started ] –one of these also broke on someone else’s car the next day after he taped it up after seeing mine- forget these on corrugations!.
1 of my 20 year old driving lights cracked its base going out to Rudal River- the lens was removed from it and the light welded up when I got home.
1 crush/crash can on the bull bar- LHS –cracked badly by the top of CSR but not all the way through and I got home without fixing it as the bull bar was still attached but moving a bit on the LHS – the RHS was fine. Also the support bracket going out to the LHS broke and was welded up at home. Welded up crash can when I got home but I subsequently got 2 2nd hand ones so now I have one good spare and one welded up pone for the next trip
A Troopy had some electrical trouble where nothing worked except the motor and which defied the efforts of an electrician and a top bush mechanic to find it but didn’t stop it
A defender 130 broke one rear shock which appeared to be old and the wrong one anyway
That is it for 7 vehicles in the roughest, long distance part of the country’ We were all very careful to nurse our vehicles
TRICKS/TIPS
The water drums as above so you have good drinking water
A simple plastic hand pump so you don’t have to lift the water drums out all the time .
Heavy stuff and stuff not likely to be used-pack down low.
A 5 l hand sprayer with a little detergent in it makes a good fire extinguisher to use on spinifex fires under the car [ we didn’t need it but there are 4 burnt out cars on the CSR .] I had 2 other extinguishers as well.
Hand cleaner, gloves; wet ones for the days you don’t get a shower or a swim and need a wash.
Mesh for grille if insects or spinnifex a problem [weren’t for us but 3 weeks earlier the first cars down would have needed it]
Easy to erect tent-4 pegs-1 pole- I bought one when I got back!!!! My dome was light but a PIA to put up and down every day.
Tape up all nuts on roof racks – if they do come loose you wont lose them-tip from bloke at Roof Rack City. Also the tape stops them coming loose in the first place.
WHAT WOULD I CHANGE?
The medium OME rear springs were not up to it so the car was bum down nose up so some Polyairs are definitely going in. To be fair, with 120 l of extra fuel and 50 l of water + all of the other stuff there was a lot of weight[ I know how much but I am not saying on here and I weighed everything and packed as light as possible] The car didn’t ground anywhere but I was VERY careful not to top out the front shocks with the nose up attitude- slow and steady everywhere means nothing broke.
Everyone had shock fade on the corrugations but the rears on mine were most affected and the fronts not at all. A short break had them cooling down rapidly and working again .On the Oodndatta Track they were perfect and suffered no fade at all and worked perfectly on all of the dips and small corrugated sections. Highly recommended are the Nitrocharger Sports..
THE TRIP:
Fan bloody tastic!!! Just do it!!!! The Great Central Road is like a smooth dirt super highway-you could tow a van with no problems although Yulara to Docker River on the WA/NT boder is a bit corrugated [let your tires down]. The WA section is great.
The CSR is VERY demanding and challenging. It has every driving condition you will ever encounter except snow and ice! Mud, sand, creek crossings, 663 dunes by my count but some are steep, some gentle, some sandy, some rocky some both,. Most dunes have 90 deg bends at the bottom so no run up. At each stop we would say” we have never driven on stuff like that before” and at the next stop we would say it again – it is that variable. The highest dune I measured with my GPS was 20 m but most were about 8-10 m high.
There is plenty of info out there on camp sites, water etc. so I wont go into that side of it.
WE camped at : Yulara; bush camp on GCR; Tjukayria Roadhouse; Laverton; Wiluna; Well 3; Well 6; Well 12; Durba Springs [2 nights];Lake Disappointment; Georgia Bore, Desert Queen Baths, Rudal River NP, Georgia Bore; Well 23; between Well 27 and 28; Well 30; Well 33; Well 36; between Well 39 and Well 40; between Well 41 and Well 42; Well46 2 nights; Between Well 50 and Well 51; Wolfe Creek; Rabbit Flat. Alice Springs.
GENERAL;
With the auto I found that most dunes were done in high range, first gear at 1500 rpm. The transmission was driven like a manual on most of the CSR ie. NOT in drive. There was NO transmission overheating doing it this way.
The only real difference between the petrol and the diesel is that you have to carry 300 l of petrol v. 250 l of diesel ie. About 50 kg.
Weigh everything you take out and put in – you will be astounded at how much you are carrying.
Only put the extra fuel in when you need it to save carrying it long distances in the car at higher speeds-pay the extra to put it in as late as possible and to keep the weight out as long as possible.
Go slowly to save your suspension and especially avoid topping and bottoming the suspension out- easy if you go slower. If you go fast you WILL break something and damage tires in country like this.
You are only likely to do this trip once so do it at leisure and see all you can so go for shorter daily distances. There were plenty of camper trailers on the CSR but they are mad track buggerers who are flogging their cars [ and the track, especially on the 663 dunes].
Don’t let anyone tell you that deserts are boring- these will be the same people who fly through in minimum time and boast about how quickly they did it. Go slowly ,stop frequently, finish the day early to set up camp and find wood before dark and you will have an unbelievable trip experience. Start planning for 2011 NOW. Neil
The following is a brief report on a CSR trip undertaken in June 2010 in my VX V6 petrol Prado’ with emphasis on preparation and useful info.
WHEN:
Departed Yulara on 3/6/10; 3/6 departed Wiluna; exited at the top end at Bililuna on Friday 25/6, a day early due to lack of problems! Trip finished in Alice Springs on Sunday 27/6, a day early.
WHO WITH:
Great Divide Tours with tour guide Wayne Desmond who was on his 6th or 7th CSR trip so really knew his stuff, campsites, and mechanical skills and was a top bloke to boot. The cost is about $4100 and worth every cent for the organization of permits, planning and timing of the trip. Days began with 8.00 AM departures followed by easy stages with regular stops for morning tea, places of special interest that others would zoom past, lunch etc. The company plans to spend 20 days on the CSR between Wiluna in the south and Bililuna in the north.. This meant only about 120-130 km per day and days that rarely went beyond 3.30-4.00 as well as a few rest days. It was this easy and flexible pace that drew me to them. Some companies do the 1800 km in 10 days. This would involve long days, more chance of breaking something and seeing bugger all. If you are not too sure of yourself in extremely remote areas like this one this is a good company to go with. In fact I plan to do another trip or 2 with them to similarly remote areas in the future. They give you detailed parts lists, car preparation suggestions etc.
THE CAR: late 2005 VX, V6 petrol auto .BFG All Terrain tires [5000km old by the time they hit the dirt] with the 2 spares [unused] being 12000 km old Grand Craps; OME medium springs and the new OME Nitro-Charger shocks; Sovereign Bull Bar; Safari Snorkel, Ipod connector for the 6 stacker, tow hooks [the ones from this forum] IPF driving lights [20 years and about 250000 km old]; wire roof basket[15kg] [ fitted to 4 standard Toyota roof bar on the standard roof rails; 60000 km service done a few months before leaving Sydney. Both the middle and rear rows of seats were removed [saving 90kg] and a home made set of shelves [40kg] and cargo barrier [10kg] made from ARC Weldmesh fence secured by the 3 rear inertia reel belts and bolted in 4 places to the shelves which were in turn secured to the 4 luggage tie downs in the back
SPARES:
radiator hoses, serpentine belt; fuel and air and oil filters, engine oil; ATF fluid [about $ 50 !] oil for diffs and transfer case; 4 shocks, usual recovery gear of straps, bridle; tire repair gear; first aid kit ,tools etc. nuts ;bolts; race and electrical tape; fuel and radiator repair kits..
THE LAYOUT:
shelves and barrier in the back [They will fit with the middle row in place]; 6x20l jerrycans and 1x 20l water ratchet strapped to floor using brackets on the floor seat belt mountings where the middle seat was, with 2x 15l water containers in front of them on the driver’s side [one on the floor]; 39 l Engel fridge strapped down behind the passenger seat crossways; and the ABR second battery box and 100 ah battery behind that , in front of the cargo barrier; second spare in roof basket]; all tools, spares, oils etc on bottom of shelves along with the stove ie. All the heavy stuff in plastic crates I wouldn’t need to access, other than the stove which was right at the back and accessible by the drop down door for the bottom shelf [ no drawers yet and unlikely now because this was lighter and worked well]; food in plastic crates on top shelf along with 4kg gas bottle[I know….I started the thread!] strapped down and covered with the sleeping bag or clothes bag; sleeping mats, table, tent on top of jerrycans and tied down along with another clothing bag; chairs and recovery gear down beside the shelves on each side at the back with an elastic net over the lot in the back to stop the top stuff floating around.
All this actually took a huge amount of planning time, much more than I thought it would but it worked so well that I changed the setup and location of nothing for the whole trip.
The 50 l of water I carried from Sydney for drinking etc. As the 20 l water jerry and one 15l was emptied they were refilled with water for cooking, washing etc but the last 15 l was still filling my drinking water bottles until I got home [with 5 l left!]
The fuel jerries inside the car [I know, I started that thread too] were left empty until Wiluna when 4 only of the 6 were filled. This was after all of the high speed stuff and the start of the low speed stuff. All 6 were filled from the fuel drop at Well 23 and topped up at the store at Well 33. This was the only time fuel went into them. The last one was emptied at Rabbit Flat on the Tanami Track. They were progressively emptied every day or two along the track to get the fuel out of the car and to keep the weight as low as possible.
TIRES:
I had BFG AT 265/65 x17- one puncture, a nail picked up on The Great Central Road- fixed with a plug. No tire trouble by anyone on the CSR. 3 cars on BFG AT, 3 on Coopers and 1 on Bridgestone Desert Duellers. All tires worked without trouble but pressures were carefully watched.
I ran 40psi on the tar, 32 psi on the Great Central Road,[I would go down to about 28 next time] 24psi on the lower CSR [rocky, muddy]; 18 psi front and 20 psi rear for most of the sandy CSR and back to 24 psi on the Tanami, as well as on the Finke rd, Chambers Pillar rd, Oodnadatta Track, Flinders Ranges and the road south to the east of the Flinders beside Lake Frome..
FUEL CONSUMPTION:
All with roof rack, roof basket and spare wheel on roof
Sydney-Cobar at roughly 100 kph -16 l/ 100k
Cobar- Broken Hill into howling headwind –at 115kph on cruise control: 20 l/100k
Broken Hill-Port Augusta into howling wind but cruise control off at 115 kph: 17 l/100k
NB on these 2 days a D4D Hiluxe used 14 l/100k as did a 100ser turbo diesel so the petrol doesn’t look so bad.
Port Augusta-Coober Pedy at cruise control 115 kph and less wind but it is uphill! 16.5 l/100k.
Coober Pedy- Yulara at 115 kph cc and no wind- 15 l/100k
Yulara-Leonora at 80 kph but all [good] dirt- and some tar -12.8 l/100k
Leonora-Wiluna-tar-80kph but windy-14 l/100k
Onto CSR! Wiluna-Georgia Bore near Well 22-via Rudall River national park [about 400 km return] and 148 dunes to date: 1 jerry used before fuel dump at Well 23 where a further 200 l- ie the whole drum ordered was taken on for about 19 l/100k for the 1100 n+ km to here.
Well 23 – Well 33 or Kunawarritji—about 300 km of the worst corrugations and a further 32 dunes-19.85 l/100k –topped up here with132 l at $ 3.20 /l +GST = $422.40!!!!!!!
Well 33-Well 46- 5 jerries emptied for 425 km of 248 dunes for 23 l/100m- a very good indicator of fully laden sand dune consumption.
Wolfe Creek-last jerry added
Well 46 –Rabbit Flat 123 l in total for 16.8 l/100k for 677 km of decreasing dune height and a lot of flat good dirt-16.8 l/100k
Rabbit Flat- Alice Springs-100kph 16 l/100k
Alice Springs-Mt Dare-17 l/100k-slow and lots of slowing and accelerating
Mt.Dare to Leigh Creek- lots of slowing into dips and accelerating out- 18 l /100k
Leigh Creek- Broken Hill at 120+kph from Yunta and dips and bends through the Flinders-19 l/100k
Broken Hill- Bathurst at 115kph on cc-17 l/100k
Bathurst- Sydney [downhill at 90-10 kph-13 l/100k
No!!!!! I haven’t added u[p the total fuel cost but for the diesel fanatics, a D4D manual Hiluxe used about 20% less on the CSR.
WHAT BROKE?
1 of the GME antennas with curly coil bit in the middle [after ½ hour of CSR corrugations before the bad ones started ] –one of these also broke on someone else’s car the next day after he taped it up after seeing mine- forget these on corrugations!.
1 of my 20 year old driving lights cracked its base going out to Rudal River- the lens was removed from it and the light welded up when I got home.
1 crush/crash can on the bull bar- LHS –cracked badly by the top of CSR but not all the way through and I got home without fixing it as the bull bar was still attached but moving a bit on the LHS – the RHS was fine. Also the support bracket going out to the LHS broke and was welded up at home. Welded up crash can when I got home but I subsequently got 2 2nd hand ones so now I have one good spare and one welded up pone for the next trip
A Troopy had some electrical trouble where nothing worked except the motor and which defied the efforts of an electrician and a top bush mechanic to find it but didn’t stop it
A defender 130 broke one rear shock which appeared to be old and the wrong one anyway
That is it for 7 vehicles in the roughest, long distance part of the country’ We were all very careful to nurse our vehicles
TRICKS/TIPS
The water drums as above so you have good drinking water
A simple plastic hand pump so you don’t have to lift the water drums out all the time .
Heavy stuff and stuff not likely to be used-pack down low.
A 5 l hand sprayer with a little detergent in it makes a good fire extinguisher to use on spinifex fires under the car [ we didn’t need it but there are 4 burnt out cars on the CSR .] I had 2 other extinguishers as well.
Hand cleaner, gloves; wet ones for the days you don’t get a shower or a swim and need a wash.
Mesh for grille if insects or spinnifex a problem [weren’t for us but 3 weeks earlier the first cars down would have needed it]
Easy to erect tent-4 pegs-1 pole- I bought one when I got back!!!! My dome was light but a PIA to put up and down every day.
Tape up all nuts on roof racks – if they do come loose you wont lose them-tip from bloke at Roof Rack City. Also the tape stops them coming loose in the first place.
WHAT WOULD I CHANGE?
The medium OME rear springs were not up to it so the car was bum down nose up so some Polyairs are definitely going in. To be fair, with 120 l of extra fuel and 50 l of water + all of the other stuff there was a lot of weight[ I know how much but I am not saying on here and I weighed everything and packed as light as possible] The car didn’t ground anywhere but I was VERY careful not to top out the front shocks with the nose up attitude- slow and steady everywhere means nothing broke.
Everyone had shock fade on the corrugations but the rears on mine were most affected and the fronts not at all. A short break had them cooling down rapidly and working again .On the Oodndatta Track they were perfect and suffered no fade at all and worked perfectly on all of the dips and small corrugated sections. Highly recommended are the Nitrocharger Sports..
THE TRIP:
Fan bloody tastic!!! Just do it!!!! The Great Central Road is like a smooth dirt super highway-you could tow a van with no problems although Yulara to Docker River on the WA/NT boder is a bit corrugated [let your tires down]. The WA section is great.
The CSR is VERY demanding and challenging. It has every driving condition you will ever encounter except snow and ice! Mud, sand, creek crossings, 663 dunes by my count but some are steep, some gentle, some sandy, some rocky some both,. Most dunes have 90 deg bends at the bottom so no run up. At each stop we would say” we have never driven on stuff like that before” and at the next stop we would say it again – it is that variable. The highest dune I measured with my GPS was 20 m but most were about 8-10 m high.
There is plenty of info out there on camp sites, water etc. so I wont go into that side of it.
WE camped at : Yulara; bush camp on GCR; Tjukayria Roadhouse; Laverton; Wiluna; Well 3; Well 6; Well 12; Durba Springs [2 nights];Lake Disappointment; Georgia Bore, Desert Queen Baths, Rudal River NP, Georgia Bore; Well 23; between Well 27 and 28; Well 30; Well 33; Well 36; between Well 39 and Well 40; between Well 41 and Well 42; Well46 2 nights; Between Well 50 and Well 51; Wolfe Creek; Rabbit Flat. Alice Springs.
GENERAL;
With the auto I found that most dunes were done in high range, first gear at 1500 rpm. The transmission was driven like a manual on most of the CSR ie. NOT in drive. There was NO transmission overheating doing it this way.
The only real difference between the petrol and the diesel is that you have to carry 300 l of petrol v. 250 l of diesel ie. About 50 kg.
Weigh everything you take out and put in – you will be astounded at how much you are carrying.
Only put the extra fuel in when you need it to save carrying it long distances in the car at higher speeds-pay the extra to put it in as late as possible and to keep the weight out as long as possible.
Go slowly to save your suspension and especially avoid topping and bottoming the suspension out- easy if you go slower. If you go fast you WILL break something and damage tires in country like this.
You are only likely to do this trip once so do it at leisure and see all you can so go for shorter daily distances. There were plenty of camper trailers on the CSR but they are mad track buggerers who are flogging their cars [ and the track, especially on the 663 dunes].
Don’t let anyone tell you that deserts are boring- these will be the same people who fly through in minimum time and boast about how quickly they did it. Go slowly ,stop frequently, finish the day early to set up camp and find wood before dark and you will have an unbelievable trip experience. Start planning for 2011 NOW. Neil
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