Hitting desert tracks can be one of the most rewarding offroad driving experiences you will have behind the wheel of a 4WD, the freedom and open skies are extremely humbling, and tend to make even the most-staunch realists into speculating about the ‘beyond’. The greatest thing about being in the desert is learning so much about yourself, so before you hit the road looking to find yourself on some of the longest and straightest roads there are a handful of things you can do to get your 4WD in order, and some driving tips you should memorize to make sure you have the best time possible!

First things first, if you plan on hitting the desert, your 4WD needs to be in tip top condition, this will ensure that you minimize the risks of anything going wrong when you need it to stay working. Seeing as some tracks in the outback, are a couple of days from help you’ll need to be reasonably well versed in the art of bush mechanics and be prepared to get your hands dirty and greasy when things go mechanically wrong.  Being equipped with a quality set of tools like the Adventure Kings Tool range you will have an affordable gear that can easily help you unbolt, fasten, hack, hammer, and even just tighten and loosen fasteners when your vehicle says “NO MORE!”.

Maintenance and upkeep out of the way, you’ll need to start thinking about the driving bit, you may be thinking to yourself… “but I’ve been driving for xxx years, I know what I’m doing” the desert doesn’t take too kindly to this kind of arrogance, and demands a good level of respect when tackling its vast and seemingly endless dusty, rutted, and corrugated sun scorched trails!

When driving in the desert you need to keep a handful of rules in mind and drive to the conditions, regardless of what the posted speed limits are, you need to use your better judgement and be able to adapt to the changing conditions ahead, with stacks of obstacles that can come out of seemingly nowhere.

Pack your gear low, to keep your vehicles center of gravity down, this will not only help you to maintain stability and control but will also help keep visibility around your vehicle to a maximum. When driving on dusty roads, if your vehicle ingests any dust you are looking at some serious problems down the line.

This is why fitting a snorkel to suck clean air from up high is a great idea, however this will do nothing if you are driving in the dust plume of the vehicle in front of you, driving through a dust cloud will also impair your ability to see obstacles coming up such as cattle grates and washouts, bull dust and even wildlife or livestock. So make sure you keep a good distance between your 4WD and the vehicles ahead to see more and to save your air filter from clogging with miniscule red dust particles and make sure your fuel economy isn’t lacking when the next service station is over 400km away!

The deserts across Australia are some of the most remote regions in the world, and whilst you may be in a rush to get where you are going. It pays to take your time, and soak it all in, by keeping aware of oncoming hazards you’ll be able to stop and assess the changing road conditions and make sure your tyres are set to an appropriate air pressure to handle the conditions whilst maintaining control and in cab comfort.

When tackling obstacles like corrugations, and soft sand you can reduce your tyre pressures from the standard pressures which can vary from 34 – 38 psi all the way down to around 16-20 psi to enhance the length of your tyres contact patch and reduce the amount of stress and strain on your suspension components, if you find this not so effective you can reduce your pressures down even more!

Whilst suspension does a lot of work when driving offroad, by reducing your pressures you take much of the “impact” of things like corrugations away from your suspension, and also increase your vehicles contact patch from approximately a 150mm x 250mm area per tyre (depending on the size) to up to 250% of the area meaning your vehicle will float over the corrugations and be more buoyant over soft sand and bull dust.

As much as using a stick to depress the center of your tyres valve may seem simple enough, it can actually take a few minutes of doing this before your tyre is low enough to get gains for offroad driving. This method can also introduce dirt and dust to the inside of the tyre valve, making getting a secure air proof seal much harder, it can also end up with different pressures in each tyre, meaning your vehicles balance will suffer, as will traction, handling and braking. This is why it is critical to drop your pressures using a purpose made deflator with an accurate gauge, like the Adventure Kings Kwiky Tyre Deflator whilst completely removing your tyres valve core, you can dump massive amounts of air quickly, whilst retaining the core inside the tool making sure that no matter how slippery your fingers the core will not end up in the dirt causing a poor seal later on!

With your tyres deflated, it’s a great idea to not drive faster than about 50km/h as your vehicle will have more roll and sway and will be less responsive to braking and steering inputs. Once you have passed the obstacle and are back on firm ground, it’s very important that you pump your tyres back up to a firmer pressure, as driving at speed on hard terrain can cause handling issues and could also risk de-seating your tyres bead, we always bring a Thumper MKII Air Compressor as it is lightning fast at inflating tyres without being too heavy or bulky. The Thumper MKII can output a massive 160L of high pressure air every minute, making it one of the most cost effective portable air compressors on the market, being able to air all of your tyres up and down gives you ultimate control over your vehicles performance both on and off the road, and having the right gear makes this task extremely simple.

One of our favorite things about visiting the desert is the necessity to set up a completely self sufficient campsite.

Our favorite setup is as simple as a swag unrolled by the car, with a mesh floor underneath, if there is the capability to have a campfire where you are located, we recommend it, but keep your fire small as to not drown out the night time stars. As for cooking food, we plan the trip well ahead and precook all of our meals at home, then vacuum bag them using the Adventure Kings Vacuum sealer to seal in freshness, then we freeze them and stash them in the freezer half of our Adventure Kings 75L Dual-Zone WIFI Fridge/Freezer this means all you need to do is pull them out of your freezer, then boil some water, and defrost the meal inside the bag, in your boiling water and you are good to go with a nice and hot trackside meal with next to no cleanup and no meal prep on the trackside.

This method of food prep is also good because the food can last for weeks without spoiling, so you will have no problems even on longer trips away with getting tasty meals that are just like home cooked.

Kicking back and sipping on a refreshing beer in the middle of the desert after a long day on the tracks, and debriefing with your convoy will be some of the best memories in your mind, always remembering the people you travelled through the desert with and have a shared experience with!