Will our car (tyres esp.) be ok for Palm Valley and Mereenie Loop?

Hi
Wouldn't drive Plenty Hwy on street tyres. We drowned over Plenty many, many times. The Hwy may change overnight, a specially with rain or flood. If the road is not freshly graded, on some parts you may have to drive in loose sand on lower tyre pressure, which means you need good strong tyres sidewalls and solid rims.
Good luck anyway Dana

I can't comment on Palm Valley and have only driven the Meerenie Loop and Plenty Highway once and that was with good Light Truck Tyres.

Based on that experience and plenty of previous gravel road driving in NSW in cars with "street" tyres, assuming your vehicle is not heavily laden and your HT tyres are near new as stated above, I wouldn't buy new AT tyres for JUST this trip.

IF in doubt, carry a spare tyre on the roof. On the Meerienie Loop and the Plenty, I really can't see you needing low pressure in your tyres which require sidewalls bagging out if the base is solid, but there may be many with significantly more experience on these roads than I.
Remember to drop air pressures approx 25% from what you would run on bitumen.

The residents in the communities off the Meerenie Loop use HT tyres.

As mentioned good AT LT grade tyres would be very handy for the Mereenie Loop and certainly Palm Valley to the very end carpark.

LT grade will allow you to deflate to a good lower pressure and ride to the corros much better, and of course give better traction on the uneven ground / rock from the campgrounds at Palm to the main carpark of the walks etc.

I'd mainly just get them because they will be far better all round anywhere off the blacktop.

Just swap em out when back in town.

A good AT LT like the Dunlop AT22's would be fine, even though nearly a road tyre tread . . . but might as well get something a little better, maybe one the Maxxis AT treads would be good value for your future touring.

Hi P Young

At a minimum, I would personally like the security of AT/LT tyres.............

but my sister lives in Alice Springs and drives a stock standard RAV 4 with normal street tyres and heads out to Palm Valley quite often and she has never had any issues, just be careful and drive to the conditions.




Cheers



Stephen

Rain aside, on that trip you WILL encounter smooth gravel, stony sections, corrugations and sand (possibly deep and soft).
In my view, the tyres come first and the lift for clearance would be a close second. You won't regret the $ on tyres - there's heaps of little sharp stones out there just waiting to attack the thin shoulders on your passenger class tyres. When choosing all terrain / LT tyres, there are just two more things necessary for enhancing their lifespan .... change the pressures when necessary and TAKE IT EASY over the stones ! :-o).

I have followed bash cars over the plenty highway and those on highway tyres don't tend to go too well. The plenty is littered with tyre carcasses. If you blow one, you'll probably blow most of them and that's where the problems start.
Palm valley isn't too far out if town, and the hire rav4's are out that way daily on highway tyres. The whole loop is a bit bigger though, and varies.
That an at is better than a ht is undeniable. That you need to knee jerk to an lt is arguable, especially on the vehicle you are taking. I would probably try to stay with a p rated at on that car rather than an lt, as pound for pound a p rated tyre needs less air to carry the same load as an lt which is good for off-roading.

Whether your street tyres will be ok or not is entirely up to you. Street tyres will drive over dirt and rocks but the real killer in those conditions is too much speed.

My first experience on those type of roads was in 1967 when I drove over the unsealed road from Mt Isa through Boulia to Winton on 5.20 x 10 street tyres. It was a bit hard back then finding an LT for a Mini and still is. The road from Boulia to Winton was good but down from Isa was all wheel tracks and dry creek beds. I just drove to the conditions and the thought of not getting through never even occurred to me.

A few years later I did five trips over the then unsealed Nullarbor on 6.40 x 13 street tyres without any problems. The whole road was littered with shredded tyres and buckled wheels from people going like a bat out of hell in overloaded cars.

I have driven over the Oodnadatta Track on street tyres.

Last year I was in Palm Valley and in came a 60 series Cruiser on street tyres.

Street tyres are not ideal in those conditions but if you take it easy, don't set a time limit and watch where you are putting the wheels, you should be ok and you definitely won't be the first or the last to do it.

Your car with that lift should be ok in Palm Valley. The only problem is a few rock ledges in the last few ks. I noticed they had many deep gouges in them, possibly from soft roaders. The sign at the start of the track said 'Serious 4wds only". I have seen plenty of 4wd only signs in the bush but never any with the word "serious " in them. Maybe the locals are getting sick of having to rescue people.

LT are better but having said that we completed a 3,000 km trip through the SA outback and a crossing of the Simpson Desert last year in our less than 12 month old car and standard highway tyres without a problem. These tyres will stay on until they need replacing and will be replaced with an LT/AT.
On another trip on another car we had a flat very early on in the trip on a very new LT/AT. I put the spare HT on and this tyre lasted for several thousand k's.

Thanks everyone for your help. I posted earlier about communication equipment, and as with that experience I'm grateful for all the generous advice and help. It's a great example of "I don't know what I don't know". Thank goodness for this community of people, and the opportunity to ask questions!

I'm off tyre shopping.

Cheers

I did the Plenty and a few of the other major "tracks" a few years ago on street tyres. I'm glad I took an extra spare because I needed it. I got to have a chat with tyre repair guys in Birdsville, Mt Dare and Oodnadatta while they were patching my tyres. :-) My advice is to do the trip on your current tyres but be very mindfull to keep your speed way down on the roads that might eat your tyres. My extra spare was a tyre only, no rim, to keep the weight down, pick one up from a wrecker. You really are on the edge of your seat after you get a flat and you are a few hundred kilometres from a garage without a spare. All the rocks on the road start to look like they have teeth. I finished the trip with 3 repaired tyres, one of which was sidewall damage to be used only in an emergency. Having said all that, I know another guy who has done a lot of the tracks out there on lower profile HT's without incident.

I have done the Palm Valley with a Grand Vitara with road tyres. Was dry weather and had to be very careful because of clearance issues. plenty of rocks so just a matter of getting the wheels onto rock instead of straddling. I just have standard suspension.

Neil

Gday,
Your tyres aren't ideal and off road tyres would obviously be better, but personally I wouldn't change them just for that trip.
The first time I went to Palm Valley was in a Bedford van with low profile tyres and the track was a lot worse back then........not the ideal vehicle but we made it and had just as much fun as everyone else.....probably more. LOL

More food for thought. Thank you. I'm taking a roof top camper (hard shell style) so can't easily take a second spare.

I found a compromise of sorts - Bob Jane sell a cheap all terrain tyre - a General Grabber AT for $200 each (much cheaper than buying 16" rims and then Coopers for $320 a pop).

I guess it's a new thread (asking about these tyres), but these look like a step up from my road tyres (although not as good as light truck BFGs for example)

Our OKA is fitted with highway tyres and we spend most of our time on the gravel.
These tyres are superb in the sand and on the dirt and run well at sustained reduced pressures. They have a thin sidewall with a single ply of steel and run cool which is a great plus.

I suggest that the biggest and most important difference between highway tyres and off road tyres is the tread compound. Harder compounds will chip on some gravel roads if higher speeds are maintained and this is an issue with the tyres on the OKA, but only on a few roads.

To the OP, I would suggest that using your highway tyres will be fine PROVIDED you take it slowly and reduce your pressures.

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 Motorhome

I wonder how many people actually adjust their tyre pressure to accommodate a load of stuff in the back and/or weight on the tow ball.