We came down Oodnadatta Track last year. Had done a lot of other roads with corrugations & this was probably the straw that broke the camel's back.

We let the tyres down to 24psi, the top 120km was rough, the rest was ok. Out to Lake Eyre North was a choppy track, but worth it!

A bolt on the roof rack broke. The same had happened the previous year, had the tools, spanners & a round file & M10 bolts to replace the M10/M6 bolt.

Have been steadily strengthening the whole structure after each trip.

Photos from previous year with roof rail off to file a larger hole for am M10 bolt.

The were a lot of sections of road with rocks so it was a matter of finding the smaller rocks to hit. Doesn't help that our car has 255/60R18 wheels!

Warren-Pat_01 wrote:

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Yes Peter_n_margaret, I agree with you about rigid pc.
When we had the camper trailer we went to Innaminka from Winton via Diamentina NP. Then you could buy fuel from the ranger station by arrangement. Our water tank (100mm pipe) firstly developed a crack in the front, then eventually the front cap disappeared totally. Mind you when I emptied it at Adelaide, I got 2 buckets of medium sized rocks & half a bucket of mud out of it! If only I had extended the stone guard a bit more!

I'm interested - how many kms have you done in the Oka? And how did Margaret take the picture?

Kevin, without seeing the road (I've been on the other end of it from Roxby Downs to Maree) & up the Birdsville (many times), I would have taken the tyres up to the mid to high 30s psi & the speed up to something comfortable, perhaps variable 50 to 80kph & where it was possible safely, to have driven on the opposite side of the road. Yes, it can be woeful starting off but then if possible you sit on the top of the corrugations, checking often that all is ok out the back.
I don't tell Jayco where I take their units to.

For me 15 years at Ceduna was good training on how to drive on rough roads - the old Eyre Highway was a beauty! It was after a rescue of one of our (then Telecom Aust) crews that all route cars (earlier, Ford Falcon station wagons; later Holden panel vans) carried two spare tyres/wheels. We did break two Ford diffs & punctured many tyres, bent a few wheels but never had any accidents. Don't ask me how much weight we carried!!!! We had to keep the radio systems going.

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 Had tires on 30 psi, speed varied from 20-80km depending on surface.

Wanda wrote:

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We returned from a similar trip up that way only 2 weeks ago, Coober Pedy- Breakaways-Painted Desert-Oodnadatta-Willian Creek-Marree-Muloorina Hot pool- Adelaide.
Towing 18'6" offroad van with two other vehicles, 21'6" semi-offroad and a Motor Home on a Iveco.
All vehicles performed well except for the un prepared "semi-offroad" Traveller, all issues mainly due to owners first ever trip offroad, nothing major, minor breakages due to their in experience and the quality of the build(very average in my opinion at $80k)
The road conditions were FANTASTIC, I have never seen these roads up there in better condition, mainly as Peter from the Pink Road house said was due to "lack of traffic due to the corona virus lockdown. I think we were one of the first groups through after they had reopened
Coober Pedy to Oodnadatta was as flat as a tack with very few minor corrigations.
Maybe the section out to Marla was bad because the rest of those roads were fantastic at the time, we only saw about 8 other vehicles over 3-4 days.
Great trip, great wheather 2 weeks ago
cheers
Ian

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 Yes Ian, it was the Oodnadatta - Marla section, a couple of good bits bit most of it was crap.  There was a 20k stretch which ended 20k from Marla that had been graded.

The sign if you are starting at the top end of Oodnadatta Track.

Craig1 wrote:

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Interesting tech update Peter, UHF handpiece with a camera built in

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 No, head mounted, voice activated GoPro.  

Cheers,

Peter