Dirt roads

Burrawong · Member

Dirt roads

Bruce and Bev · Guru

Hi and welcome to the Forum - you will find it friendly and very helpful over your years of caravanning.

Some of the others here maybe able to give you contacts with "professionals" who do remote tagalong tours - they organize it all, do any temporary repairs your vehicles may need and usually do the food as well. But meantime just google "tagalong" and see what you get.

I am aware of at least two mid-aged couples that do this as a living. If you don't get anywhere, PM me and I will unpack a couple of cartons I have stored away and get you some email addresses for these folks.

Otherwise you can sometimes hook up with amateurs like us who want to go remote, but don't want to do it by themselves. Just make sure that someone in your group has some experience and also can do temporary fixes for any breakdowns on your van or tow vehicle. If you choose to try this option, run a fresh topic here with the appropriate subject heading like "anyone want to tagalong with a couple on a remote tour"

Good luck and enjoy. You will be surprised how much better remote, dirt/gravel roads are nowadays, especially if you pick the right time of year when the weather is not washing them out and they are being maintained regularly. And drop those tyre pressures when on rough or soft sand roads and drive at the appropriate speed:))

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

Tagalongs cost a lot for very little.
It seems from your post that the problem is yours, not his?
Have a bit of confidence. Take it slowly. One km at a time. The difference between a bitumen road and a gravel road is tiny.
You will find that the travel experience and the choices expand dramatically.

Cheers,
Peter

villatranquilla · Guru

if you post on trip planning where you are headed there are often other forum readers who will be in the same area and happy to have you 'tag along'. Make sure you have a CB radio and if really concerned a sat phone might give you a bit more confidence as well as top RAC cover.
As Bruce and Bev said the organised 'Tag Along' tours seem to me to be expensive. Maybe join a caravan club.
There are lots of dirt and outback roads that are not really that isolated.

hako · Guru

The problem we found with tag along was that unless there was a few hundered metres between vehicles the dust greatly reduced visibility meaning you missed the view and it basically was unsafe as you could not avoid bulldust etc. We still have sand in our van from a trip out near Adavale. Check your RACQ and car/van insur re recovery when on unsealed roads because sometimes if you do breakdown the local RACQ agent does not have a suitable vehicle available to assist you. I guess this is where tag along helps as you have someone with you to help. You certainly will see things offroad that you'll never see on the blacktop.
Good Luck.

elliemike · Guru

There Possibly are caravan camping clubs in your area that do some of the more adventurous type of travel. We mostly travel by ourselves, I would suggest that most of the dirt roads you would travel are usualy well used by other travellers and Local's

Traveling the Outback Way or Savannah Way for instance is well frequented by other travellers. You would be seeing vehicles every few hours.

Try a Local club.

Burrawong · Member

Thank you everyone for your fast response, it is very helpful. However, I may have misled you somewhat (though some 10 years ago we did the Gibb River Road), in fact I am not talking anything that adventurous. But some advice already given I will take up on, Thank you very much. Burrawong (Sylvie)

Burrawong · Member

Folloiwing my last: we have an 18' Sterling pop top, SOOO low to the ground (we are going to have it raised - has anyone experience with this, safety wise etc?) and a Nissan Patrol 3L. Burrawong (Sylvie)

deverall11 · Guru

Some of the dirt roads in WA are better then 'sealed' roads in NSW.
Larry

villatranquilla · Guru

Burrawong wrote:
Folloiwing my last: we have an 18' Sterling pop top, SOOO low to the ground (we are going to have it raised - has anyone experience with this, safety wise etc?) and a Nissan Patrol 3L. Burrawong (Sylvie)

we had our 18' Heritage raised so we could get up our driveway - Jayco swapped the axles and springs around - we had no issues afterwards

Bello · Veteran Member

G'day,

I raised my first 'van, the axle had stub axle welded under neath, so I just turned the axle over, raise the van 100mm. Our next 'van was an offraoder.

The Nissan will tow it "good".

good travels.

New Wanderers · Veteran Member

As suggested you could join a caravan club, we have the Australia Caravan Club and found it to be a great source of information to pick up a lot of valuable tips, we've found that other caravanners are only to happy to help, dirt roads is where you really see Australia not on the highways, you can sit back and relax as I'm sure your hubby is quite capable of travelling on the dirt roads and enjoy our wonderful country.

Burrawong · Member

Hi - I'm the dreaded husband mentioned above! Sylvie's a wonderful wife and great friend. We did a two year 'round Aus trip ten years ago and she really handled it all easily.
We traveled the Oodndatta and Gib. She took a bit of convincing to travel the tracks but having started, enjoyed it immensely to the point where she even
talks about our adventures with a touch of pride today.

We are now both in our seventies and it seems that age has given her a nervous companion problem. My lady seems to be simply
frightened of being frightened, she is also a nervous passenger without the kero on behind. But! When she's driving, no problems what ever. She is a competent and skillful
driver, drives fast but observes the speed limits [to the point that drives me crackers]. I actually think I am a pretty hot driver myself being holder of a Heavy Vehicles license,
ex RFS driving instructor and no serious prangs in 60 years behind the wheel.

I've tried everything to talk her about taking it easy and not being so nervous. She seems to totally unable to comprehend the difference between "off road" [which I don't want to do!]and
unsealed road travel. The last trip was a disasterwhen she refused to travel a dirt road we had previously traveled so we cut the holiday short and came home in a cloud of grey funk.
Rather than sell the van, like I feel like doing,I suggested she contact GN for some advice. We have called a truce based on her gaining some experience in traveling with a tagalong or group
and she agrees with this, hence her posts above.

Any suggestions, especially from the girls out there?
Kind regards and thank-you's Grahame (Newboy)

BruDi · Senior Member

Graham and Sylvie,

Certainly get your van raised as it will give you more confidence. We do a lot of dirt road outback travelling and camping as well as 4WDriving. When we do hard outback tracks, eg the Anne Beadell we use our camper which is designed for such travel. The really important thing with travelling on gravel roads is to take it slowly, let your tyres down, keep out of the dust of others, let trucks through and just wait for their dust to settle and finally give way to the idiots (safer). Letting some air out of your tyres on both vehicles makes for a softer ride for your van and the things inside a softer ride in the tow vehicle. The tyres tend to roll over the rocks for more easily. Of course it means you need a compressor.

My suggestion would be to find a good formed gravel road and try it out and perhaps Sylvie will find it easier than she thinks.

By the way we are in our late 60's.

Cheers,
Di

Burrawong · Member

Thank you so much Di for your good advice, appreciate your time. I have found this forum very helpful.
Kind regards
Sylvie