ANYBODY DONE THE ANNE BEADELL IN A CANTER OR NPS RECENTLY?

[whatcharterboat]

Has anyone here done the Anne Beadell Highway in a Canter size truck recently?

Asking this question on behalf of on of our customers planning to go in May. I know a couple of guys who've done it before in 2009 and 2012 and one was what you'd consider pretty big (2.4m wide x 3.2m high) but I wasn't sure how much overgrowth was on the track at the moment. I reckon you'd be pushing scrub for a bit no matter what so bound to get some bush pin-striping.

Thought this would be the best forum to ask. Landcruiser/Patrol guys would never believe the trucks would make it even in the driest times. Little do they know. bwahaha.

Anyone?

 

[mrFelix]

might get a reply over at http://www.exploroz.com/Forum/Default.aspx

 

[Aussie Iron]

That's certainly a trip that is on my to do list. In MAY !!!!

Dan.

 

[59DEN]

Cannot help with the truck side of the question, but I did it last year with 3 mates on bikes, we did come across a couple of big American 4wd, F350 I think. Heading East the track only starts to get bush and shrubs encroaching on the side of the track from Ilkurkla roadhouse. The dune country is not as challenging as the Simpson or CSR, but it is one of the great underrated trips in Australia, a good introduction to desert travel.
Attached is a ride report from our trip by Rob from Bunbury way, some more pictures of the ABH heading eastwards.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=896370

 

[alan]

some great pic's there!! thanks for sharing

 

[PKDreamers]

Wow there is great pics on that link,after seeing just had to add a few places to our "Must see " list.
Thank you for sharing 59Den.

 

[Iain_U1250]

HI John, we did the Anne Beadell in our Land Rover in October. It's a nice track, very peaceful. We saw one car in the five days. We went West to East, first part from Laverton to Illkurka Road house is easy, track has been graded and nice and wide. A few corrugations but nothing worse than what we had being doing up near Mornington or Lorrella Springs. The have some great shelter on just off the road, firepit, water tanks etc.













Once you get past the road house, it gets worse. We were scraping the sides of the Defender in some sections, trees are really close now but if you slow down and take it easy, you should come through with a windscreen by the end of it. Our snorkel got loads of scratches, we had to fold the mirror in to stop them from getting broken.

It is basically two camels wide


Main thing to watch out for would be the mulga sticks on the side of the road, depending on the track width of the vehicles, you will have to be very careful in some of the dunes, where you zig zag around at almost full lock.

The corrugations are not to bad up to Emu and the blast sites.

When you see the red/brown course soil like this, then the you have to either go very fast ( 70kph +) or slow down to around 5kph.

One some of the section, the corrugations are so bad, that people have made tracks that wind through the bush, we took a few of them, but you drive almost a slowly as on the main track but with loads of turns as you scrape through the bushes.

We made it without major incident, and no tyre damage. There are a lot of low tress, our dune flag started out with a nice red sleeve and a flag, and by the end, it was just the fibre glass pole, but if you take a chainsaw and do a bit of pruning, it should be no problem as there were not that many low branches, and it would be great for someone to clear the track for our Mog

Initial I thought I would be reluctant to take my Unimog down the South Australian part of the Anne Beadell (when it gets finished), but now I think it would be OK, providing I take it easy. The wheel track is only a bit wider than the Land Rover, since mine is a baby Unimog, I would not like to take a bigger Mog down it , as the sharp sticks the litter the sides of the track are tyre killers, even for Mog tyres with 1" thick side walls.

More details on our trip report here, Anne Beadell starts about halfway down Page 5:

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/115798-Around-Australia-in-a-Land-Rover/page5

 

[mog]

It is basically two camels wide
View attachment 210493

Here I was feeling bad that the USA was the only country (other then Burma & Liberia) not using the metric system.
I'm glad to seeing that Australia is using the UCS [sub]Universal Camel System[/sub] :sombrero:

 

[whatcharterboat]

Hey, thanks everyone. Great pics and responses. Much appreciated.

 

[Iain_U1250]

John, a friend of mine took his GXV mog along part of the Anne Beadell, that is a really big truck 2.5m wide and 4.2m high . He had no problems from Laverton to Neale Junction, then up the Connie Sue back to the Great Central Road. He damaged a tyre on the Connie Sue though.

Although looking at some of the photos of the Connie Sue, and it like it might be just as narrow as the Anne Beadell

http://gxvmoghvn.webs.com/australia4perthtoali.htm

 

[59DEN]

Hi Iain, enjoyed your trip report, great pictures, especially the 2 camel track, what was the temperatures like for you on the ABH