260+ pages — built from 20 crossings and 500,000 km of outback travel

What's Inside the Guide

Routes, fuel, vehicle prep, sand driving, recovery, comms, camp spots and more — here are a few of the topics covered.

Planning Your Simpson Desert Crossing

Route selection alone can make or break your trip.

The French Line, Rig Road, WAA Line, Knolls Track, Hay River Track, and Madigan Line all have different demands — different dune heights, different surface conditions, different levels of remoteness, and different permit requirements. Choosing the wrong one for your experience level or vehicle setup is one of the most common mistakes people make before they've even left home.

The guide walks you through each route honestly — not as a tourist brochure would, but as someone who's driven all of them, multiple times, in both directions, in varying conditions. Which direction to travel. What time of year actually suits your plans. Seasonal closure dates. The permits people forget about until it's too late.

Fuel and Water

These two things will either get you across safely or get you into serious trouble.

The guide covers real-world fuel consumption figures for a range of common 4WD vehicles — not manufacturer specs, actual desert figures from vehicles that have done the crossing loaded. A modern dual-cab in soft sand burns nothing like it does on the highway, and if your planning is based on highway consumption you'll be short before you get halfway across.

Water needs are equally specific — not just litres per person per day for drinking, but what you need for cooking, washing up, recoveries, and the extra days you might be sitting still waiting out weather.

Vehicle Preparation

Most 4WDs that roll off a dealership forecourt are not set up to carry a full desert load.

Suspension setup, load ratings, tyre selection, rim size, pre-trip servicing timelines, what to check and when — it's all in there. Including the trial packing process that most people skip and then regret, the weighbridge check that tells you whether you're actually within your GVM, and the pre-trip mechanic visit that should happen four weeks before departure — not four days.

There's also a straight answer to the question everyone asks: do I need a heavily modified rig to do this? The answer might surprise you.

Tyres and Recovery

Tyre pressure is the single biggest factor in how your vehicle handles sand.

Get it right and the dunes are manageable. Get it wrong and you're digging yourself out in 30-degree heat. The guide covers tyre selection, rim sizing, what LT-rated tyres actually mean for desert travel, how to handle a puncture in the field — including sidewall punctures — and what tools you need to carry.

On recovery, the guide cuts through the gear overload that plagues most packing lists. What you actually need. The kinetic rope vs snatch strap question. Why traction boards are overrated for standard desert crossings but still earn their place on clay pans. And the winch debate — answered.

Communications and Safety

The Simpson Desert is not the place to figure out your comms setup on the fly.

The guide covers PLBs versus satellite messengers — transmission power, battery life, subscription costs, and why it matters when a rescue coordination centre is deciding how seriously to take your signal. Whether Starlink or your mobile phone are sufficient for emergency communication, and the straight answer most people don't want to hear until it's too late.

There's a full section on Ground Charlies — what information they need before you leave the bitumen, and why someone who doesn't know your route, vehicle, and expected arrival time is not actually a Ground Charlie.

GPS Navigation

The main tracks are well-marked — but well-marked and foolproof are two different things.

Track intersections, faded crossings, weather-altered surfaces, and the occasional forced detour all create moments where the wrong decision adds hours — or worse — to your day. The guide covers exactly what setup Stephan uses and recommends, including the right device, the right maps, and how to have everything configured before you leave home.

For anyone wanting to go beyond the main routes — the Geographical Centre of the Simpson Desert, GeoSurvey Hill, and other remote destinations that don't appear on standard tourist itineraries — the navigation section goes considerably deeper.

Camping Comfort

Uncomfortable camping doesn't just make evenings miserable — it wears you down over a week-long crossing.

The guide covers sleeping bags and how to actually read EN 13537 temperature ratings — the "comfort" rating and the "lower limit" are not the same thing, and confusing them in a Simpson Desert winter is a miserable mistake. Sleeping mats, R-values, and why a top-rated sleeping bag on a cheap uninsulated mat will still leave you freezing.

Shelter options — swags, rooftop tents, stretchers, ground tents — with an honest rundown of the pros and cons of each for desert conditions specifically. Clothing and the layering system that handles 30-degree temperature swings between afternoon and 3 am.

Power Management

Running a fridge in the desert isn't optional for most people — and losing it halfway across is the kind of thing that ruins a trip quickly.

The guide covers dual battery setups — AGM versus LiFePO4, what a DC-DC charger actually does, where to install it and where not to (a lesson learned the hard way in 40-degree heat with a fridge that cut out mid-desert), and how to make sure your alternator and charging system can keep pace with your daily draw.

Starlink, solar, and high-output alternators also get a run. Along with cameras, communication devices, lighting, and phone charging — the full picture of what your power system needs to handle.

Travelling the Simpson Desert with Kids

Plenty of people assume the Simpson Desert is no place for children. It is — if you plan it properly.

Stephan has been taking his own kids camping since they were toddlers — including full desert crossings. The guide has a dedicated chapter on it. What gear kids actually need. Keeping kids engaged on long driving days and during downtime at camp. Giving them responsibilities that make them feel part of the trip.

Night-time safety in camps where pitch black means actually pitch black — no ambient light, no streetlights, nothing. And why a small handheld UHF radio might be the most important piece of gear a kid carries in the Simpson.

Convoy Procedures

Travelling in a group is safer and more enjoyable — but only if the group is coordinated.

An unstructured convoy is just a collection of vehicles heading the same direction, and when something goes wrong, that distinction matters. The guide covers convoy order and structure, vehicle spacing on dune sections, how to handle recoveries without chaos, and the dual-channel UHF setup that keeps internal comms separate from desert traffic.

Corner marking so nobody takes a wrong turn, and what to do when vehicles get separated — including the one thing you should never do, and why staying put and using the radio is always the right call.

Weather and What To Do When It Turns

Desert weather has become less predictable. Rain events that used to be rare are happening more often.

The consequences of being caught in the Simpson during or after rain are serious — bogged vehicles, flooded clay pans, stranded travellers, and mechanical damage that goes well beyond what a wash can fix. The guide is blunt: check the forecast before you enter, and if rain is coming, delay.

It also covers what to do if you're already inside the desert when a system rolls in — where to camp, how long you might be waiting, how to track conditions with a satellite device, and why the vehicles that come out of bad-weather events intact made good decisions early, not heroic ones late.

Wildlife and Risks

The Simpson Desert is alive in ways that first-timers don't always expect.

Dingoes bold enough to wander into camp. Feral camels — up to 600 kg, sometimes erratic, particularly males in mating season. Scorpions that like boots and bedding. Thorns that appear after rain and go straight through thongs. Wedge-tailed eagles. Reptiles worth watching for underfoot.

The guide covers what you're likely to encounter, how to handle it, and — importantly — how to enjoy the wildlife without creating problems for yourself or the animals.

260+ pages of knowledge that took 20 crossings and 500,000 km of outback travel to accumulate.

No forum thread covers it like this.

No generic blog post gets into this level of operational detail. And none of them were written by an accredited 4WD trainer who has actually done what he's writing about.

Buy the Guide — $59.95 AUD

260+ pages. 20 crossings. 500,000 km of outback travel.

No forum thread covers it like this. No generic blog post gets into this level of operational detail. And none of them were written by an accredited 4WD trainer who has actually done what he's writing about.

Buy the Guide — $59.95 AUD Packing List →