Yesterday I drove my 2022 Pajero sport exceed from Broken Hill to Cobar.

My van is a 20 foot Snowy Mountains SRC20 fitted with a Dexter ESC unit

At the start there was a strong westerly wind which had a slight effect on the van, or maybe it was moving because of the truck caused depressions in the road being a different axle width.

Around 60km out from Cobar the storm cell hit with extremely strong gusting winds from the north. There were periods of extremely heavy rain which sometimes included hailstones.

Visibility was sometimes down to less than 50m. The gusts were sometimes blowing the water off the road surface. And on several occasions the car was blown over the centreline.

And through it all the van hardly moved.

I normally tow in the 4H mode at 90kmh. on cruise control. I ditched cruise control and found myself driving between 50 and 90. Maybe even sometimes slower, I really wasn't paying attention to the speedo.

Water over the road?

Several times I encountered overflowed creeks coveriing the road and I quickly learned that slower is better, especially when meeting an oncoming B-double midstream.

I believe that the reason I didn't end up in the ditch was a combination of the Pajero's inbuilt stability features, driving in 4 wheel drive and that the van was fitted with the Dexter ESC.

In my opinion, towing a van without an ESC is madness.