Terrain Tackling: Outback Roads
Every driving circumstance - whether it's slow, low range four-wheel driving or simply cruising the open highway - demands different regimens, different techniques. If you're new to the world of 4WDs, for example, you need to realise that a genuinely capable medium SUV (Sports Utility Vehicle) like the Pajero has a much higher centre of gravity than a conventional passenger car. Put simply, this means that despite having inherent active safety features like Active Stability Control, it cannot corner like a sports car. So, if you're travelling in the Northern Territory, for example, where there are no speed limits on the open road, take it easy on the sharp bends.
Outback roads have their own unique pleasures and their own inherent hazards. The pleasures are the sense of being 'out there' - one of the prime reasons you bought your 4WD - the fact that time ceases to become a constant watch-checking imperative, and a completely different scenic vista. The hazards, however, are worth bearing in mind.
Road trains
As soon as you hit the 'real' Outback, you'll discover road trains. These are simply massive prime movers with three or four linked trailers (known colloquially as 'dogs') following behind. Once you get north of Dubbo in NSW, throughout most of rural Queensland and WA, and all through the Territory, road trains are a fact of life.
On the tar, if you come up behind one and want to overtake, allow yourself plenty of forward vision and lots of road. Some of these monsters are over 50m long! Swing out as wide as you can when beginning the passing manoeuvre, because the rear trailer can swing as much as a metre either side of its axis. Don't look at the road train, but the road ahead. (There's an old driving instruction axiom that if you look at something, you'll drive into it. Besides, with a road train, the swinging dogs may cause you to panic).
On dirt, for example, the Plenty Highway between the Channel Country of Queensland and Alice Springs, if you see a road train coming towards you, move as far to the side of the road as you can and stop. They can't and won't divert to avoid you. If you've got the windows down, power them up. Road trains create their own dust storms, big and blinding enough to rival an erupting Mt Pinatobu - yet another reason to stop completely, because it's Visibility Zero. (Likewise, on narrow bitumen roads used by road trains, like the Burke Developmental Road between Cloncurry and Normanton, get as far off the road as possible). If you are driving on dirt with (comparatively) heavy traffic, turn on your lights so that oncoming vehicles have more chance of seeing you through the dust. You should also slip the transfer case lever into High 4WD (the second position on Pajero’s transfer case selector). This will give you better traction and handling in possibly slippery or loose conditions, enhancing your safety margin.
Animal strike
Try to avoid driving at night, particularly in places like the Northern Territory and outback Queensland. A typical example is the Stuart Highway near Alice Springs, where the huge pastoral holdings are unfenced simply because it's uneconomical to do so, and black cattle are the preferred stock. Even if you have driving lights to augment your regular high beams, they're very hard to see until you're almost on top of them, and hitting enough steak on the hoof to feed an entire battalion won't be good for it, you or your 4WD, regardless of air bags and predictable crumpling! Because you can become stranded through no fault of your own (or the vehicle's), always carry drinking water with you to tide you over until help comes along. If you're travelling in really remote areas, carry emergency food rations as well.
Likewise, driving at dawn and dusk is risky, because that's when the native wildlife like kangaroos and emus come to devour the 'green pick' at the side of the road. This is more succulent vegetation created by rains running off down the camber of the road - definitely the choice of gourmet locals! If you're forced to drive at these times, keep the speed down.
Behind the wheel
Depending on the country you're driving through, the scenery can either be fascinatingly distracting, or more likely on long trips, simply boring. In times like this, white line fever becomes white line coma, the straight stretch of black bitumen or yellow dirt hypnotically stultifying. Rest and revive frequently by stopping and stretching the legs. Another trick is to regularly flick the eyes away from the road to look at what's happening in the flanking paddocks or bushland. If you can't immediately recall the road over the last couple of kilometres, it's time to stop.
Fuel
Fuel up where you can, when you can. Because the distances between bowsers are so much greater than in the city, don't let the gauge drop to when the fuel light comes on. Keep it topped up. That's most important in a diesel, where filling an entire tank with dirty, rust-flaked fuel - as can be the case in out-of-the-way places - is not a particularly smart option. And remember that it's usually going to cost a whole lot more than you're used to paying at the local servo. But how's this, with Pajero's Di-D manual you can get approximately 1047kms^ on one tank of fuel - that's Sydney to Maroochydore, QLD without filling up!