Driving Technique - Corrugations

[Tolley]

Hello,

I have added this thread as a result of my comments in the Outback Way thread elsewhere in this Forum. Like tyres brands, Toyota v Nissan etc I reckon there will be as many opionions as contributors. I searched the Caravanner's Forum on the topic of corrugations and found the following from one contributor. My views happen to co-incide with his:

I've travelled throughout the Kimberley, on and off the beaten track, many times over the last 40 years. You should have no trouble on the GRR as long as

1. Your tow vehicle and van are in excellent condition, particularly the suspension and tyres which should at least be LT rated. Having said that, there are some vans of the stapled together variety that I definitely would not take on the GRR.

2. You take a good tool kit and the usual spares, including 2 spare tyres on rims for the tow vehicle and likewise for the van

3. You lower your tyre pressures to about 25 psi

4. You drive sensibly ( ie relatively slowly) according to the road conditions.........the GRR can become quite corrugated at times and if towing a van it is far better to slow right down rather than belt along trying to "get above" the corrugations.......it may take you a day or two longer but the chances of breaking something will be far less

Go for it!

Regards

Colin

[Rod Priestley]

Hi, We did the Great Central Road in 2011 in our 2002 XC 23ft with a 2003 4.8 petrol and gas ST Patrol, just us. A few cupboard doors fell off, the fridge moved, the passenger side windows came undone with lots of dust, (tape all that side windows from the outside), and the inevitable red beet container in the fridge unscrewed itself. We always open the front opening four seasons hatch to the storm setting which gives the van positive air pressure and minimises dust getting into the van.(no other openings)

But in reading all about lowering tyre pressures for these types of roads, and the speed one should travel at - there does not seem to any mention of an actual speed, just drive to the conditions. When talking about not trying to skim over the corrugations, are we saying that 15 - 20k/h is the right speed to do this - taking into consideration the time you have and how bad the corrugations are. Some parts of the GCR we could do 80 -90 k/h, but other sections were only 15 - 20 k/h and these bad sections come onto you very quickly - hard to pick.

Our next journey will be to the Ulysses AGM at Alice Springs in May 2014 and then on the Plenty Highway to Boulia, Middleton and back, and to Birdsville to see it away from the Races which we did in 2006, no flies, no wind and a good time and met up with the Kedron group at their camp.

We live at Turners Beach in Tassie if any one is passing by - right oposite the O C Ling caravan park.

Cheers

Rod and Judy

[surfy53]

We too did the GCR in 2010 and the conditions ewere not great. To have so many things fall off or break you must have been going a bit too hard. There was one day that we never got over 20kph. I remember cattle on the road passing us. Some of the corrigations we drove into needed a map to get out of. If it takes an extra day to get there so be it, at least your van will not suffer.

Chris.

[John and Ann]

Hi All,

It doesn't take a badly corrugated road and/or bad driving technique to make things come loose or move about. I've found that traveling on the highway or lightly corrugated roads can challenge the build of any van. We've found many a screw has worked it's way out even when not traveling on dirt.

The most common screws that have needed attention were awning track, rangehood, oven & grill doors, a few cupboard hinges and the compressor assembly of the fridge, the latter had only one screw holding it in place when I went to give the area a good clean I only noticed by chance when I found a screw laying on the drip tray. Oh and I forgot we almost lost the cover from the external air con as all the screws had come out , luckily it got caught, but, it was on rather a strange angle looking like it was ready to take off.

Maybe we've been unlucky with so many coming loose. Might even be able to attribute it to the aggressive tread pattern of the van tyres causing more vibration that highway tyres. Either way I'm always on the lookout and have the removable thread locker close at hand.

John

[Zolle]

Hi All,

It doesn't take a badly corrugated road and/or bad driving technique to make things come loose or move about. I've found that traveling on the highway or lightly corrugated roads can challenge the build of any van. We've found many a screw has worked it's way out even when not traveling on dirt. That happened to our van when new and our trial run Brisbane to Cairns and back.

.........................

John

I have found that instead of just tightening loose screws on internal fittings take them out add a spot of water proof PVA glue and then refit them, on external fittings cover the threads with mastic before refitting them, this has worked wonders for us.

Cheers

John

[John and Ann]

I have found that instead of just tightening loose screws on internal fittings take them out add a spot of water proof PVA glue and then refit them, on external fittings cover the threads with mastic before refitting them, this has worked wonders for us.

Cheers

John

John,

I'm happy to report that our first encounter with the wayward self unscrewing screws was identical to yours excepting we added a diversion to Alice Springs because we couldn't return to Brisbane until the 2010/2011 flood waters had subsided.

I suggested to Tom, when we called in at the factory for a quick once over, that they should be using thread lock on their screws during the build. Many of the screws that have worked loose are on appliances, so not all the responsibility falls on the shoulders of great team at the factory.

For my part I never simply do up a loose screw. As I've said before I use removable thread lock in all locations, internal and external. A small bottle of the blue Removable Thread Lock from the local hardware supplier is a really valuable addition to your toolkit.

Cheers

John