How to Drive on Dirt Roads in Cape York

Cape York roads are a challenge!  Every year on Cape York roads there are numerous crashes.  The roads aren’t always in good condition, resulting in written-off vehicles, severe injuries and sometimes even fatalities.  You will hear hundreds of varying opinions on how to drive on dirt roads in Cape York, some with good points and some…not so good!  Here I hope to give you a handful of VERY BASIC tips that will help you survive the drive and not have your vehicle returned in a rubix cube state.

Firstly, I’m not going to delve into the make of vehicle, your kit or technical four wheel driving.  I simply want to provide a basic guide for people not sure what to expect of Cape York roads.

So, in order of importance here is my advice…

I remember it took me a while to really observe the signs and every time I tiredly stared straight through the ‘sand holes’ sign, I no doubt would find myself “ohhhh F*^k” ing my way through one!  It’s a really simple one, but I GUARANTEE you, it will save you somewhere along the line.  These are just a few of the signs to watch out for:

• Sand holes – bull dust/sand holes in the road – some of the worst road damage around
• Rough surface – Another BIG one.  Even some of the bitumen surfaces have large uneven patches, that could catch you out if you were travelling fast and towing a trailer.  There’s a bend on a range, and a new causeway that both have VERY bad rough bitumen surfaces.  ANY time you see a ‘rough surface’ or ‘sand holes’ sign, slow down, there IS something coming!
• Dip – dips in the road, sometimes with washouts at the bottom
• Roadworks – you don’t want to fly into a road work area.  A. You might crash into backed up traffic.  B. You’ll piss of the workers and get dust on their lunch.  Not cool.
• Gravel ahead – these signs signal the end of the bitumen (and you can tell when the right lane starts to get redder and redder).  Some of the drop-offs from bitumen to dirt are nasty.  You also never can tell the condition of the dirt road ahead, it’s often not the same as the section before. You don’t want to drop off into a dust hole at 100 km/h!!  Also, if there’s dust ahead and you can’t see into it, there could be a truck doing 20km/h ahead.  My old boss did this once, came off the bitumen at 100 km/h, into a dust cloud and slammed into the end of a truck doing 20 km/h.  He was lucky.  His wagon…written off. 

Reading the road is probably the next most important skill (as is not being fatigued). When I drive, I’m constantly scanning, a good distance ahead of the vehicle, for anything that is a different colour or ‘texture’ to what the rest of the road is. Often a sand hole will be a white or yellow patch in a sea of red for example. Big rocks are often different colours. Sand looks different to gravel which looks different to clay. Watch for these changes in colours and textures as they’re often the first giveaway of road damage ahead. Of course, when possible, avoid driving over sticks and fist-sized rocks…no matter how indestructible you think your tyres are. 

Now we all forget sometimes, but if you drive without your lights on on a dirt road in Cape York, you’re either a newbie or a nutter! They help you see oncoming cars from miles away, or highlight them in dust clouds. But they also help you see them in your mirrors! Mirror checks to see what is behind you is critical too! And of course, keep an ear out on UHF Channel 40, and use it to help when passing. It’s not polite to flood CH40 with endless banter though, so for longer conversations jump a couple channels down.

A really basic one, but you’ll be surprised on the effect. When you start to get hazy on the road, pull over for a piss break, or inspect an ant mound. Something to take your mind off the road, even for 5 minutes can help you reset for another stretch. 

The famous question…with no absolutely correct answer. Why? Because every vehicle drives differently, is set up and weight distributed differently and every driver’s skills and confidence vary. As you go, you will get better at judging corrugations. Travelling at a reasonable pace over small and consistent corrugations is OK, but it’s much harder to travel fast when you get the big buggers that could hide a soccer ball and are spaced inconsistently over the road. 

If you are towing, the dynamic of your vehicle entirely changes as well. The trailer creates a see-saw like effect when travelling over bumps and when driving over large, inconsistent corrugations, sometimes the only option is to do 20 km/h. Don’t worry, this is fairly normal! Some guys with more experience, larger utes and good 4×4 trailers can float over these corrugations though.

If you have consistent corrugations, set a nice pace and coast over it. Remember corrugations on corners are incredible dangerous. Essentially, your tyres are only contacting the road 50% (lets say) of the time compared to normal, and if you lose control around a corner it’s much harder to regain control. 

I wasn’t going to touch on this, but just briefly…

Personally, I don’t alter my tyre pressure too significantly. I’ve heard of some guys dropping pressure to 10-20 PSI. I think the lowest I’ve ever gone is 30 in my ute, but most the time I never touch it. My reason being…I’m confident with my driving and vehicle handling, and my comfort level, that I’m not worried about it too much. I find that a higher tyre pressure results in fewer punctures.

Also, with all the bitumen patches in between the dirt these days, if you drop it too low, you have a chance of your tyres heating up too much on the bitumen sections.

• Never brake all the way into a dip if you’ve come into it too fast.  Your front springs will be fully compressed and have no travel left in them to absorb the bump/dip etc.  I’ve found (and have heard many others recommend this too) that accelerating at the last instant before bottoming out will lift the front of the vehicle enough to get some travel in your springs and change the angle of your vehicle to the dip and potentially save a catastraophe.
• Be patient.  Trying to overtake a truck when you’re 6th in line can be tough.  Hang in there, you’ll get around eventually.  And use your UHF.
• Remember, there are people in the Cape that work and live there and are familiar with the roads and will probably drive faster because they know the roads and their limits.  Don’t feel bad about going slow, but don’t get angry because they’re going faster.
• Clean your windscreen, windows, mirrors and lights!  A clean windscreen (in and out) makes driving in the dust much easier.  Fill your wiper water, use good soap.  Keep your mirrors clean to keep an eye out behind too.  And clean your headlights and brakelights from time to time, especially if you’re towing or driving at night.
• Two of the simplest preventative maintenance tasks you can do are: checking/tightening all nuts on ALL your wheels.  And if you’re towing, get underneath and check the nuts on your U-bolts that attach your axle to your leaf springs (or whatever you have going on).  Corrugations can loosen these in a day easily.

I hope this has been helpful!  If you have any questions, feel free to contact us via email or phone.  We’re always happy to help!  If you found this helpful, leave a comment and let us know what you think, and sign up to our blog mailing list (by clicking here).  We post some great stories and media media on Facebook & Instagram too, and it’s worth a look!