Motor homes.

Bass · Senior Member

Motor homes.

macka17 · Guru

A lot of four wheel drives get shipped back on the barge.
From the "tip" road.
How do you think a little baby truck would go.

Park it at Cooktown\Douglas\Mossman.
Hire a Troopy and use that.
Lots do.

Corrugations. Gibb etc.

Mainly depend on the suspension you fit underneath it.

along with what you have on top

-- Edited by macka17 on Monday 9th of October 2017 07:32:13 PM

Gaylehere · Guru

I don't know, but our motor home does not like corrugations.

Warren-Pat_01 · Guru

Bass, a lot of the guess work could be taken out IF you knew when the roads in question have been graded to reduce the impact of corrugations. Perhaps the greatest dangers are other drivers. Some drive as though they own the road.

Also what depth of water would stop the motorhome in question or van in that case? How water proof is the unit? The insurance company might not be impressed!
Anything is possible - it depends on how game the driver is & how much damage you're willing to suffer but be certain to carry some recovery gear with you.

Incidentally, the "Tip" road is becoming more sealed each year.

Bas + Eve · Senior Member

Just spoke to a couple in Big Unimog...blew 3 tyres on the Gibb, $600 each!! Wouldnt take a MH over it!

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

"A lot of four wheel drives get shipped back on the barge."
A "lot" Macka? Sorry, but that is rubbish. A "very few" would be a better description.
Actually, there is not a barge, it is a ship.

We have driven the GRR (and the road to Kalumburu) at least 7 times and the road to Cape York twice. Most of those occasions have been on highway tyres. We have never blown a tyre.
Some people don't know how to slow down.
Plenty of caravans make the trip to the tip and back without drama and any vehicle can do it if it is driven appropriately.
Avoid school holidays and go as soon as possible after the road opens to all traffic after the wet season and the fresh grading will be complete.

Cheers,
Peter

Bass · Senior Member

Thank you all, I think I had better explain. Ive done the tip twice in 91 and in 2015 and would have no hesitation in taking our van to the top ,in fact it will be there in 2018. in 2015 there were road going jacyo's up there. I have dragged my van on strez, oodnadat, wari gate , been on tanami mennie loop etc etc I have been 4wding / camping all my life ( NOT an expert ) but on the weekend a friend asked what would be the limit of motorhomes and where would I be willing to take one and that got me / us thinking. I see a lot on highways and outback roads but maybe I miss seeing them on the " tracks " .Thankyou gaylehere

Cheers bass

macka17 · Guru

Pete.

Barge\Ship.
Whatever. a large vessel that delivered stores and transported vehicles\Containers etc.
Some go up by ship. Back by land and visa-versa nowadays.

Over the yrs quite a few have sailed back involuntarily. Not so many nowadays
Now that it's a paved road virtually.
I haven't been up there for around 13\15 yrs now. Too many idiots. went up Bloomfield when it first opened too.
Drove a dozer on relief for mate too (a weeks leave)
That's where I dropped my first ever wheel trim (on a Navara). Too hard tyres to start. Forgot.

All this bypass roads and grading.
Spoils the areas from what they really were.
The Gibb. Tanami. even the Birdsville were hard work decades ago.
You can ride pushbikes along them nowadays. What's the point.
They just road signs nowadays.
Hence. as I said. we go O\Seas nowadays mostly. this place got too civilised.

You want rough nowadays. Sail round.
I did that in '78. in a little 28ft Full length Jarrah Planked Sailing boat (Palo)
EX RSAYS Commodores pride in '65. (Look up their register).
(Built by one of the best timber boatbuilders in country
Barry Quin. He moulded most of the Duncanson hulls in this country later.).

Low freeboard. WET. but beautiful to sail
Had to half recaulk her on a beach up near Darwin. she "flexed " a bit in the bumpy.
One hand on tiller. one on Whale pump in ****pit. Kept you alert.
Let her take on a bit when real bouncy. More stability.
Little one pot Yanmar, 5 and a bit knots anywhere. on around 1\3rd litre per hr.
Oily rag had nothing on it.

and again in '97 (from memory?) in my Avatar on left. (Pugh "Moonwind")
She in N.Z. now I believe. That's where he came from, and going back to.

It's just a shame that they have to "civilise" all these places so people can drive whatever up there.
You didn't really go to the tip or do the Gibb. Great Western anymore.
Just travel dirt graded roads to sign posts.

Decades ago. People went to an area. Got on a serious off road tourist truck and did it rough.
Kipped in tents. cooked own foods. swam in creeks pools with somebody on guard with a rifle.

I did it to the Top EndEscarpment. back in '70's with missus.
Bus from Adel to Darwin. 2 tours. boat to islands first. then 5 day in Troopy tour North.
Paddling on warm pools on top of Escarpement.
Where I got my first "Tropical Ulcers".

DON'T scratch mossie bites then go in tropical waters. Believe be.

Holes in raw flesh, down to the bone. Physically scalpel it out to clean flesh every morn and repack.
NOT good. But a good lesson to a newbie.