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Tanami Desert Road

To: David Stowe <>
Subject: Tanami Desert Road
From: L&L Knight <>
Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:03:29 +1000
You can get a good metal sump guard from places like Subi Xtreme [sp]

I don't think you'd have a problem on any of the regular routes in the "driving season". I wouldn't drive a light 4WD on the Canning Stock Route or an unmaintained route [eg Telegraph track up CYP].

On rough tracks, like the Orientos - Nappa Merrie road, it's a case of driving slowly over the heavy duty gibber to look after your tyres. I haven't done the full length of the Gibb River Rd, but I suspect that much of the damage sustained to vehicles comes from driving too fast through the [surprise] difficult patches [eg you hit a washaway or a rock that you didn't see].

Regards, Laurie.

On 22/01/2008, at 3:28 PM, David Stowe wrote:

Hi Greg
From memory of our trip along the Tanami in 2003 (from Newhaven to Halls Creek) you won't have any dramas. As has already been mentioned it's basically a big dirt road fairly well maintained due to the mine vehicles going up there. No need for low range - pretty fast with the odd dip and corrugations (alot like the development road to Cape York). A good (but popular) place to camp along the way is one of the bores (Montecolina Bore??) where we had lots of Honeyeaters to wake up too.

Alistair - Clearance might only be quoted as 25mm less than a cruiser but have you looked under both? Alot more to it than the number. Only got the diffs to worry about rather than the whole underbody!Front and rear overhang are also alot worse for a Forester which can be more of an issue in the dips.
Sorry - please don't take this as trying to start a 4wd debate! :)

Wish i was coming with you mate!

Also price of fuel in 2003 at Rabbit Flat was $1.60 per litre!

Cheers
Dave


On 22/01/2008, at 3:12 PM, Alistair McKeough wrote:

Greg - some general comments without specific road knowledge.

Is it a manual Forrester with low range? If so, you should be fine. The low range is, I think, a 47% reduction in ratio which, while not "full 4WD low range", means you at least have something in reserve if it gets rough.

As far as clearance goes , although it doesn't have the elevated ride
position of the "soccer Mum" cars (X-trail, CRV, Kluger, RAV4 etc) it
actually has more ground clearance at 200mm - only 25mm less than a
Landcruiser.

Alistair





On 22/01/2008, Gregory Little <> wrote:

Gooday birders

Can anyone out there tell me if it is possible and safe (or suicide) to drive a Subaru Forester along the full length of the Tanami Desert Road. My next RFI may be for Princess Parrot info so then you will see where
this and the swag info is going.

Greg Little

Greg Little - Principal Consultant
General Flora and Fauna
PO Box 526
Wallsend, NSW, 2287, Australia
Ph    02 49 556609
Fx    02 49 556671
HYPERLINK "http://www.gff.com.au"www.gff.com.au


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