Mt Dare/Dalhousie Roads....

[ramblingboy42]

anyone else been to these points from southern approach recently?

IMO , the worst roads I have ever driven on.

if you're planning on going there , be prepared for bone shuddering , suspension crashing, teeth chattering , almost uncontrollable corrugations , ruts , holes , ironstone rock outcrops and dust possibly as bad as you have ever experienced.

you think I'm kidding?

and guess what?

there are no plans to do any road upgrades in the foreseeable future.

that is from the mouths of rangers.

anyway , unless you have some great fixation to visit those areas give it a miss....btw....speeding up/slowing down doesn't help....it's just painful travelling.

[The Cone of Silence]

I second that Ramblingboy,

In April I drove up to Dalhousie Springs from Oodnadatta and thought it was horrific.

I tried everything from crawling along to cruising and trying to find the sweet spot. It's harder to find than a mermaid. This is the stretch of the track that you want the soft suspension of a Rolls Royce and monster truck tyres at about 12psi.

It was probably the only part of the Simpson trip in which I failed to enjoy the driving itself. Gibber is certainly not my best friend by any stretch, albeit beautiful in its own right. Its as I imagine driving on Mars to be.

Relentless, tiring, noisy and stressful - as a lone vehicle I was really worried about breaking something and ended up taking it very slowly indeed.

I suppose in the eyes of an optimist, it does help you to enjoy the better roads and it certainly makes the spring a worthy reward at the end if you're heading W-E across the Desert....so I disagree that people should avoid the area - it's part of the experience and somehow makes the trip seem more of an adventure. You'll certainly never forget it!

Bobby

[numpty]

Travelled that road from North to South on our recent Edjit adventure and it's no better that way.

Really, it's a part of the outback experience, just drive to the conditions and grin and bare it ,even though it's no fun.

[Bushie]

At the time I decided that would probably be the last time I would enter the desert from either of those directions, even the french line is (was) so chopped up that it was no longer an enjoyable drive, hence I can't see the point of doing it again.
There didn't appear to be any speed that worked over the corrugations.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEeSwMyMwbk[/ame]

East of Dalhousie

Martyn

[inside]

Really, it's a part of the outback experience, just drive to the conditions and grin and bare it ,even though it's no fun.

Exactly! You haven't been outback unless you've driven on some truly horrible roads. It's an experience you can talk about when you come back.

[DiscoMick]

Thanks for the warning. Now I know what I have to look forward too. What tyre pressures and speeds seemed to work the best out there?

[ramblingboy42]

I was running 25psi

the 2 LC200's I was with were running 36ish

Hobbsies 100series was running about 28

nobody faired any better

[TwoUp]

I find 18lb suits me best and going slow, (up to 60Km/Hr on the good bits), note also that there is a 40Km/Hr speed limit O'er most of it.


Cheers,
PeterW

[ramblingboy42]

I find 18lb suits me best and going slow, (up to 60Km/Hr on the good bits), note also that there is a 40Km/Hr speed limit O'er most of it.


Cheers,
PeterW

huh? where is the 40kmh speed limit?

[scarry]

This time last year we came down from Alice to Finke,then across to Mt Dare and Dalhousie.The road between Alice and Finke was the worst road i have ever been on,the corrugations were unbelievable.
It was much worse than the Mt Dare/Dalhousie area,but the roads have probably deteriorated since we were there.