It differentiates between half a dozen road surfaces but the ones of most interest to us are the sealed and non sealed which are designated by different colour markers, you can also instruct the route plotting software not to use unsealed roads.
There is a free version of OsmAnd but it's nice to buy the paid version (about $15 for life) to give the developers encouragement.
As for differentiating between roads suitable for 4WD but not 2WD... forget it, that's close to impossible to do on a wide range basis; eg. a dry road which is passable by your granny in her Morris Minor may, a week after rain, be impassable to a lifted Landcruiser with lockers and mud tyres.
RoboLB said
11:16 AM Jul 9, 2022
Great tips, thanks
Buzz Lightbulb said
02:54 PM Jul 9, 2022
I used to use OSMAnd but I didn't like the address search facility.
I now use MagicEarth (Android app). It uses the same Open Street Map (OSM) data as OSMAnd.
It also allows one to set 'Avoid Unpaved Roads' in the Navigation settings for a car.
OSM data is managed by the people not by Google or any other single source. This makes it more likely to be kept up to date by the locals in their local map areas.
I hope this helps.
86GTS said
03:23 PM Jul 9, 2022
We've hired cars, motor homes & SUV's in WA & the NT from major hire companies.
Is it true that they have inbuilt tracking devices to find out if you've been on unmade roads?
We were told a maximum of 8kms but we took ours sometimes 20kms off the bitumen with no repercussions.
RoboLB said
05:15 PM Jul 9, 2022
86GTS wrote:
We've hired cars, motor homes & SUV's in WA & the NT from major hire companies. Is it true that they have inbuilt tracking devices to find out if you've been on unmade roads? We were told a maximum of 8kms but we took ours sometimes 20kms off the bitumen with no repercussions.
I'm not aware of any tracking devices, though that would be simple enough.
I think it's more a case of 'obvious' damage caused by rough roads, would not be covered by insurance.
Of course realistically, it's necessary to go off the bitumen a little to reach campsites etc.
In our case, I was just a bit wary of incurring damage that might void the insurance.
If it was my vehicle I would have used those roads.
One for example was the 17km track up to Mt Oxley near Bourke. Which looking at reviews, seems to be OK for 2WD when dry with care.
86GTS said
05:45 PM Jul 9, 2022
We've always had the attitude that if you don't get off the black top you'll see nothing. We camped by ourselves on Rossmore Station for a week next to the Little Bogan River. Mt Oxley is on the station. The unmade road out to the Mtn would be OK for a 2wd in dry weather. The last few kms UP to the summit is very steep with wash outs. Its been sealed at some stage long ago, to access the towers on the summit but its in terrible condition.
-- Edited by 86GTS on Saturday 9th of July 2022 05:46:44 PM
RoboLB said
06:42 PM Jul 9, 2022
86GTS wrote:
We've always had the attitude that if you don't get off the black top you'll see nothing. We camped by ourselves on Rossmore Station for a week next to the Little Bogan River. Mt Oxley is on the station. The unmade road out to the Mtn would be OK for a 2wd in dry weather. The last few kms UP to the summit is very steep with wash outs. Its been sealed at some stage long ago, to access the towers on the summit but its in terrible condition.
-- Edited by 86GTS on Saturday 9th of July 2022 05:46:44 PM
We actually planned to stay at Rossmore Station.
But they were closed. (on holiday)
Was it good?
86GTS said
07:12 PM Jul 9, 2022
RoboLB wrote:
86GTS wrote:
We've always had the attitude that if you don't get off the black top you'll see nothing. We camped by ourselves on Rossmore Station for a week next to the Little Bogan River. Mt Oxley is on the station. The unmade road out to the Mtn would be OK for a 2wd in dry weather. The last few kms UP to the summit is very steep with wash outs. Its been sealed at some stage long ago, to access the towers on the summit but its in terrible condition.
-- Edited by 86GTS on Saturday 9th of July 2022 05:46:44 PM
We actually planned to stay at Rossmore Station.
But they were closed. (on holiday)
Was it good?
A great experience, all of the bird images on the Rossmore Station website are ours after a request from the owners, taken on our visit a few years ago.
It would be a little boggy there now.
Derek Barnes said
06:49 PM Jul 10, 2022
86GTS wrote:
We've always had the attitude that if you don't get off the black top you'll see nothing. We camped by ourselves on Rossmore Station for a week next to the Little Bogan River. Mt Oxley is on the station. The unmade road out to the Mtn would be OK for a 2wd in dry weather. The last few kms UP to the summit is very steep with wash outs. Its been sealed at some stage long ago, to access the towers on the summit but its in terrible condition.
-- Edited by 86GTS on Saturday 9th of July 2022 05:46:44 PM
We just finished a six week holiday through central Australia without leaving the black top. Highlights included Uluru in the rain with hundreds of waterfalls, e-scooting around Uluru in the dry, wading through Kings Creek in Kings Canyon after rain, e-scooting around the Devils Marbles in the dry as well as seeing them in the rain, soaking in the warm water of Florence Falls rock pool and Buley Rock Pools in Litchfield National Park, seeing wild salt water crocs and buffalos and tons of birdlife in Kakadu National Park, feeding baby and adult crocs in Darwin, etc, etc etc. You can actually see many wonderful things around Australia without leaving the black top. (We actually love taking our semi off road caravan on the dirt though!)
I've been caught out in a rental Campervan once.
Came to a section of 100kms of unsealed road, and the rental agreement stated only use sealed roads.
I can understand why, and did not want to risk it. Different story when we get our own campervan of course.
I use google maps for navigation, but it gives no indication of road surface / type as far as I know.
Is there an App that describes the road surface? Sealed, unsealed but OK for 2WD, 4WD only etc.
I picked up a 'paper' Road Atlas, UBD Touring Atlas of Australia.
It does show the road types, but they are very hard to decipher.
Very thin lines with similar colours, not aided by partial colour blindness....
There must be a better way?
We use this:
Yes; OsmAnd
It differentiates between half a dozen road surfaces but the ones of most interest to us are the sealed and non sealed which are designated by different colour markers, you can also instruct the route plotting software not to use unsealed roads.
There is a free version of OsmAnd but it's nice to buy the paid version (about $15 for life) to give the developers encouragement.
As for differentiating between roads suitable for 4WD but not 2WD... forget it, that's close to impossible to do on a wide range basis; eg. a dry road which is passable by your granny in her Morris Minor may, a week after rain, be impassable to a lifted Landcruiser with lockers and mud tyres.
I used to use OSMAnd but I didn't like the address search facility.
I now use MagicEarth (Android app). It uses the same Open Street Map (OSM) data as OSMAnd.
It also allows one to set 'Avoid Unpaved Roads' in the Navigation settings for a car.
OSM data is managed by the people not by Google or any other single source. This makes it more likely to be kept up to date by the locals in their local map areas.
I hope this helps.
Is it true that they have inbuilt tracking devices to find out if you've been on unmade roads?
We were told a maximum of 8kms but we took ours sometimes 20kms off the bitumen with no repercussions.
I'm not aware of any tracking devices, though that would be simple enough.
I think it's more a case of 'obvious' damage caused by rough roads, would not be covered by insurance.
Of course realistically, it's necessary to go off the bitumen a little to reach campsites etc.
In our case, I was just a bit wary of incurring damage that might void the insurance.
If it was my vehicle I would have used those roads.
One for example was the 17km track up to Mt Oxley near Bourke. Which looking at reviews, seems to be OK for 2WD when dry with care.
We've always had the attitude that if you don't get off the black top you'll see nothing.
We camped by ourselves on Rossmore Station for a week next to the Little Bogan River.
Mt Oxley is on the station.
The unmade road out to the Mtn would be OK for a 2wd in dry weather.
The last few kms UP to the summit is very steep with wash outs.
Its been sealed at some stage long ago, to access the towers on the summit but its in terrible condition.
-- Edited by 86GTS on Saturday 9th of July 2022 05:46:44 PM
We actually planned to stay at Rossmore Station.
But they were closed. (on holiday)
Was it good?
A great experience, all of the bird images on the Rossmore Station website are ours after a request from the owners, taken on our visit a few years ago.
It would be a little boggy there now.
We just finished a six week holiday through central Australia without leaving the black top. Highlights included Uluru in the rain with hundreds of waterfalls, e-scooting around Uluru in the dry, wading through Kings Creek in Kings Canyon after rain, e-scooting around the Devils Marbles in the dry as well as seeing them in the rain, soaking in the warm water of Florence Falls rock pool and Buley Rock Pools in Litchfield National Park, seeing wild salt water crocs and buffalos and tons of birdlife in Kakadu National Park, feeding baby and adult crocs in Darwin, etc, etc etc. You can actually see many wonderful things around Australia without leaving the black top. (We actually love taking our semi off road caravan on the dirt though!)