Back to Tour Information

Vehicle, Koni & Communications

Site Map

DRIVING PROBLEMS IN THE OUTBACK

    Here are a few problems that you will encounter as you potter about Australia away from cities & towns on those long drives that eventually most of us tend to do. There are times when these things may occur even when you are still in town. It pays to remember that Australia is even now largely uninhabited. The majority of our island is still bush with good populations of things you will only see at night or in times of low light as the sun comes & goes.

Fatigue

    Driving for many hours a day is tiring for almost everybody. Fatigue is a big issue and driving while tired does kill people every year, hundreds of them. Eventually with practice you will recognise when you are beginning to tire and then it is much easier to take steps to counter that fatigue. Pull up, have a cuppa and walk about is normally the best way. Most problems occur with drivers who push themselves beyond what they are used to doing. Driving requires a reasonable level of concentration while ever you are behind the wheel as we all know. As with every skill or talent some people can do more than others so if you are new to long trips it is best to plan your daily travel accordingly. Go for shorter daily distances until you become more familiar with spending "all day" behind the wheel. Whatever you decide please err on the side of caution. The consequences can be devastating if you don’t.

    I think they call this a Pro-Tip - If you are already tired and for whatever reason have to keep driving please don’t eat a big meal. As your body begins the process of digesting the food, blood goes to your guts and you often will encounter drowsiness much quicker than if you had eaten just a snack or just had a drink. This applies at night more than in daylight hours.

Flat tyres & Tyre Pressure Monitors (TPM)

    Good old flat tyres, always a joy.....You don’t often see vehicles with flat tyres on our major highways these days but they do still happen. Normally the problem will be a run flat which is a slow leak for whatever reason. The tyre deflates very slowly and sometimes before it is noticed or "felt" the tyre will fail due to heat because it is running fast at a low pressure. Normally the tyre is destroyed during this process and the driver will almost always say "the tyre just popped for no reason". As the tyre is in bits it’s impossible to find the reason why it failed.

    The other cause will be a quick deflation, this you do notice and half the time when you do get off the road and pull up the tyre is damaged to some degree. [If you have had enough practice with this sort of thing you get pretty quick at pulling up – don’t jam on the brakes with a flat tyre, use the brakes gently.]

    There is a cure for this problem of not knowing you have a tyre in trouble. Get a set of tyre pressure monitors. You will be able to see pressure & temperature at a glance and you can set the alarm to go off as soon as the pressure drops or the temperature climbs. In these times of gadgets and accessories with marketing infused into almost everything I will say that TPM gear is a real advantage and very high on my list of things you should have on your vehicle. Bearing in mind my list of necessary gear is short, extremely short!

Fire & Water

    Australia is a place of contrasts and just due to its size you can drive through rain one day and a couple of days later you might see a fire. If you are planning a big trip then it pays to check the weather for that area long before you pack up & head off. Keep an eye on the temperatures and whether or not there has been any rain at all. Fire is pretty easy to find as there will be smoke, water on the other hand can be a little more sneaky. The rain may have eased off days before and the creek levels or roadways can still be flooded, keep your eyes open.

    Always test the water depth before going through unless you know the road very well.

Daytime Driving

    The following are a few things to be aware of that can cause trouble while doing some miles during the day plus what we have found works to counter these issues.

• Early morning & late afternoon – a lot depends on where the sun happens to be shining at these times. If the sun is in your eyes just pull up for half an hour or so and let it rise or set. Have a cuppa then get going again. Keep an eye out for wildlife at all times.
• The season affects animals on roads – this is where your observation skills have to be developed. You need to take stock of the country you are driving through and decide whether the season is a bad one (dry) or it’s pretty good (had some rain). If it’s dry it’s more likely that roos etc will be on the edge of the road chasing the small amount of green herbage the rain run-off affords the road edge. The other way to tell is far more obvious, look for dead animals on the road or the splatter marks from them being hit.
• Wedgetail Eagles on roadkill – Our big eagle eats meat and a great deal of meat can be plastered all over our remote highways every day if the conditions are right. If you are seeing a lot of road kill then expect to see some big birds about the place. The normal problem is they will be feeding on a carcass on the road as you are coming closer. Remember their eyesight is razor sharp, they can see you with ease but often they don’t judge the timing well and they get hit by vehicles as they take off from their dinner. What I have found over the years is by warning them they will lift off a bit earlier, most times enough to get airborne and away from the road. I flash my lights at them and you can see them flick their head up to watch closely. I keep doing that as I approach and if they still haven’t moved I’ll hit the horn a few times. I haven’t had a close call for years but I’ll still slow a bit and if the road is clear I’ll give them a bit more room if I need to. Normally with my lights & horn they’ll be well off the road by the time we pass by.
• Roos – I’ve put the roo stuff into the night driving section because on most outback & rural roads you’ll encounter them on or after dark. However sometimes they have a shift change and give you a rattle.....
• Cattle & travelling mobs of stock – Just don’t hit cattle or camels etc, they will end your trip very quickly. In the daytime if you are in remote country animals may pop onto the road any old time but you have the advantage of better visibility on the daylight. If a mob is crossing the road then watch carefully, the stragglers will nearly always want to cross even if you are coming up quite quickly. Travelling mobs of cattle or sheep are much easier, the blokes will put a sign out to tell you that a mob is up ahead. General rule is just slow down.

Dirt Road Etiquette

    Not that many years ago in the bush you’d pull up for a yarn even if it was just to tell the other lot how bad the road was. Sometimes you’d be there for half an hour or so, but these days you are flat out getting the other vehicle to pull up or wind their window down. Bloody terrible in remote country to have folks that won’t talk to each other, think about it. Anyway here are a few tips about being courteous in the bush. I’ll try not to get on a rant......

Get Over

    This is an old problem and very annoying when on any dirt road and the bloke coming the other way sits in the middle of the road or barely moves over and you have to go bush in response. If I’m in a good mood I figure they just don’t know how wide their vehicle is. (If you watch people drive in car parks you know what I mean.) If you don’t know where your wheels are on your vehicle here is a little tip from the transport industry. Did you ever wonder why big trucks can sit in their lane even though they often fill the lane line to line? Pretty simple, they have an aiming mark built into the truck. From the driver’s seat there will be something that lines up with the outside edge of the front tyre. I can remember that on one particular Mack truck it was the bulldog on the bonnet. You just steered to put the dog on the fog-line and the truck ran along the left fog-line on the bitumen. Pretty simple system and I do the same when I’m towing our large trailer. Part of the bullbar lines up with the fog-line when the wide trailer is on that same line of paint. You can do the same thing with your vehicle, just mark the bullbar or bonnet with a bit of coloured tape and you have your own sighting mark. If you park the vehicle alongside a gutter in town then it’s easy to get your sight mark.

Slow Down When Passing By

    When there is oncoming traffic on a big wide gravel road these days nobody seems to slow down to minimise dust and rocks showering over the other vehicle. It seems to be all about them. So do us a favour and slow down and move over when passing by. It will be appreciated, trust me.

Avoiding Truck Dust

    If there is a road train coming and the wind is moving the dust off the road, it doesn’t matter which way, the best thing to do is get off the road and let him go past. If you’re smart you’ll pull over to the upwind side then you’ll be able to miss copping all the dust and also you’ll see if there is any other traffic coming your way because the road will be clear. Not quite in the rule book but much safer than plunging through a dust cloud and hoping nobody else is coming behind that truck. If there is no wind about you’ll just have to wait for a little while, a couple of minutes at most. If you try this then make sure you get off the roadway.

Let faster vehicles pass by

    If you have planned wisely for your trip you shouldn’t be in a hurry. It doesn’t matter how fast you travel on the dirt there will always be someone coming up behind that is moving even quicker. Keep an eye on your mirror & if you can see them just gently pull over to the side and let them go. If they catch you by surprise they will sometimes flick their high beam on and you’ll pick them up in the mirror in your peripheral vision.

Night Driving

    Quite simply we don’t recommend it for the average traveller. The Australian outback and the rural areas of every state pose threats to the night time driver, in particular the inexperienced. Heavy rainfalls can easily put water over roads and wild wind can drop trees & limbs over roads that can be very hard to see at night. The obvious risk of hitting animals of various descriptions is very well known. If you have to do some night miles here are a few things to keep in mind.

• Modern vehicles have pretty good headlights. Often driving lights are not required despite what the advertisements will tell you. If you get caught out and think you don’t have enough candlepower then just slow down a little so you can react in time to see an obstruction in the lights that you do have. [If you do want better light I suggest upgrading the bulbs in your standard vehicle headlights. It will be cheaper and factory vehicle headlights don’t fall off your bullbar on corrugations!]
• Don’t be a goose either – drop your high beam for oncoming traffic. It is these times when you cop high beam that you realise just how good modern headlights can be.
• Use your UHF to call up passing traffic and ask if there is anything up ahead. Trucks are your best resource for this. If you are talking to trucks then there is some etiquette to be observed. If you are asking about the road ahead of you then let them know that the road ahead of them is clear or whatever the case may be as you have just driven through there. Most drivers will help you out and remember truck drivers are at work, they do this sort of thing for a living 12-14 hours a day.
• If there are a lot of animals about, namely kangaroos, then a good option if you can arrange it is to sit in behind a truck until you clear that bit of country. BUT, ASK THEM FIRST ABOUT DOING IT. Talk to drivers at a roadhouse or call them up. If they agree it’s likely they will want you to stay some distance behind and you will have to stay on low beam all the time. Trucks have huge mirrors and your lights will be in that bloke’s eyes the entire time you are behind him. Doing this allows the larger heavier vehicle to "clear" the road for you and normally all you need to do is dodge the debris (for want of a better word). In fact you can normally see in the truck lights what is going on even when you are some way behind.
• Be observant about the country you are going through and look for signs of roadkill at all times. Look for splatter on the road. Make a note about an area that has a lot of death & destruction and remember that if you have to drive back through there after the trip. Look to see if the country is fenced, if it isn’t what type of stock are being run in that area. Remote cattle country is rarely fenced along the minor roads and even some highways are not fenced so you would be foolish not to expect some trouble from cattle, sheep, goats, camels, horses & donkeys.
• Other animals you may see at night in the lights are owls and frogmouths. Often they just wheel in front of you and are gone. You may notice the odd one killed on the roads. Sometimes the timing is too tight.
• Another problem with modern vehicles is that the people will often travel with the windows up. This denies you the pleasure of smelling the country. In regard to night driving you may be able to smell roadkill even if you can’t see it. Not pleasant, but a good warning that animals will be on the road sooner than you may think.

Kangaroos & Smaller Animals on the Road

    If you are forced or choose to travel when animals may be on the road there are a few things to keep in mind. I’ll list a few things below for you to try & remember.

• If you can see an animal in your lights and you have time to slow down do so.
• If you cannot avoid hitting the animal try not to swerve, drive straight and slow down if you can by all means. If you swerve to miss the animal at speed you could possibly lose control of the vehicle and run off the road – not ideal. This applies to an animal right in front and the ones that come in from the side very suddenly. Try and stay straight on the road.
• Smaller roos and things like wombats will go under the vehicle and they will nearly always bend a drag link/tie rod. These are the rods that hold your steering together under the front of your vehicle. Normally when the animal does some damage to these rods the steering wheel will "kick" to a funny spot. Instinctively you will pull the wheel straight and the vehicle will swerve. You’ll know something is wrong in an instant and you will just have to pull the vehicle back into line and ignore what you think the steering wheel should be doing. It will happen very quickly and the first time you will wonder what is going on.
• The other problem with small animal impacts if they are big enough is that modern "safe" vehicles can be fitted with impact switches of some description. These may activate your hazard lights or even do such things as shut your fuel off to prevent fire as the vehicle will think you are in a collision. I would be reading the vehicle manual about any safety features fitted for accidents.
• I do also know of several instances of air bags deploying after striking roos. It may pay to find out if your steering wheel airbag will push your hands off the steering wheel. I have heard of this happening as well.

Big Animals on the Road

    No good news with this I’m afraid. Stay alert and do your best to see them first and not hit them. Get your passenger on the job as well. Things like cattle, horses & camels normally go over the bonnet if they are on their legs and the only thing stopping them is a windscreen & you. If they do only hit the front of the vehicle it will be like running into a brick wall.....the results are not good at all.

Hope some of that is useful.
Mick Hutton
Copyright: June 2021

BEADELL TOURS

Mobile : 0408 841 447
Email : Beadell Tours

ABN : 40 947 959 130

Beadell Tours Home           Site map