Thread: Simpson Desert in the mid sixties

Originally Posted by 123rover50

they were using aircraft tyres on widened rims so they would have a bit of bag.
Keith

This sure is a great thread.

Some of the locals on Fraser island back in the late 60s,and early 70s,used aircraft tyres on modified rims,on different brands of vehicles.

A plumber I knew had an Inter 4wd truck with aircraft tyres. To avoid an accident, he ended up off a bridge, into Saltwater Creek, in Rothwell. People were wondering how to retrieve the truck, but John just drove it out.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Yes, you are right, they had some sort of wide aircraft tyres. These were the only sort of "sand" tyre that was available then, and exactly what we had, although by the end of the first year we had realised that radial tyres with very flexible sidewalls that enabled the footprint to lengthen rather than widen were better in sand, despite the vulnerability of the sidewalls. But radials were rare, and very expensive when available in those days, especially in truck sizes.

9.00x16 was a common size. I knew a RAME Major who bought ex-military Land Rovers and prepared them for beach ready sale, in the mid-70s. He fitted 9.00x16 aircraft tyres, also ex-mil IIRC.

The little pocket camera I had back then was a Canon Demi Half Frame. It meant I got 40 slides from a 20 exposure roll of film. I have boxes of slides I have not looked at for 50 years but I found an envelope of some I must have got printed . No more of the Simpson but Ayres Rock is close and may be of interest.

View from the top looking at the car park. One Tourist Bus and a couple of cars. There was a painted dotted line to follow climbing up and I think may be a chain to haul on up the steeper bottom bit.

rock 01 by Keith Cree, on Flickr

We drove around it and camped the other side. Rained that night.

Raining on the Rock.

Rock 03 by Keith Cree, on Flickr

Rock 02 by Keith Cree, on Flickr

The Land Rover was an Ambulance from Woomera, came with one stretcher. My mate slept in that and I slept on the fold down back of the bench seat with the bench cushion on top.
Bought it from Carthy Motors in Melbourne for 1700 pounds and it had done 13000 miles. As part of the deal I got him to put an extra petrol tank on the LHS. Served us well and later I took it up to Mt Hagen in PNG when I got a job there.

Keith