So, do you need a 4-wheel drive car to see Australia? The answer is definitely no. A 2 wheel drive car will take a person / couple / family to 80% or so of the destiniations in Australia that people want to go to. The kicker though is that remaining 20%. Most places people want to see have a nice bitumum road right to the place. Some of the places have a nice compact dirt road to the place - but the last areas are only accessible via 4-wheel drive and most likely some (but not much) hiking.
We have a 4 wheel drive for 3 key reasons:
We are often towing a caravan. These are heavy and you need a vehicle that is heavier than them for stablity, and then you need some power to be able to tow them up a hill etc.
We are both from the country, and our version of the 'real Australia' is not the Sydney Harbour Bridge or Opera House etc.. We want to photograph the country / bush and here there is less bitumum and more dirt roads.
We dont want to be stopped by a bad road - also known as - we want to be able to get ourselves out of trouble if we get in it. Now we are not people who see a bad road and ask 'can we get our car through there?' - but we do go plenty of places we have not been before, and it is easy to start on a nice road, only to find it deteriating with no chance to turn back. It is comforting to have a car - and recovery gear - that can get us through most issues.
The Car: Silverado 2500HD
Our 'tow tug' is the Chevy Silverado 2500HD. We refer to it as a tow vehicle instead of a 4x4 to try to convince people that we are interested more in its towing abilities than its ability to climb some pile of rocks. This is a heavy (4T) truck or ute that has a canopy on the back. The basic car is automatic, 6.6 litre diesel, 5 speed 4 wheel drive with auto-locking differentials and high-low range transmission (so 10 gears really). Ours is the 'extended cab' version with a tiny back seat. Next time we will get the full back seat though. The long wheel base, wider seats and soft suspension of this car means that we can eat up the miles / km without getting as tired as we would in other cars.
"Accessories" that come standard - and didnt need fitting
Our car comes standard with some neat features that others may or may not wish to add to their car.
Trailer brake controller. There are many caravans, boats and trailers that have written a car off in crashes. This happens when the caravan sways with enough energy to push the rear of the car. i.e. the caravan is too heavy in comparison with the car, and it does not have sway control. The Silverado comes with trailer brake / controls, and you can brake the trailer by hand if you wish to. I would not tow anything over about 1 ton without this sort of feature being fitted, and in Australia at least, it is illegal to tow anything over 1.5t without it. That said, there are kits that meet the legal requirements, and better kits. The Silverado one is pretty good.
Locking differentials. A differential lets one wheel turn at a different speed to another. This is important when going around a corner, as the outside wheel needs to turn quicker than the inside wheel. However, when one wheel gets bogged, the differential lets is spin fast while the other driving wheel sits still. A 'locker' or 'locking differential' stops this occuring and forces both wheels to spind at the same speed. If one wheel is bogged, this means that the second wheel will pull you out of the problem.
Second battery. When remote or camping, people tend to use car lights / fridges, etc. This is convenient, but it can flatten the battery and mean that the car wont start / get you out of there. A second battery means that the camping gear can use one battery (only) and leave the primary battery just to start the car. This needs to be installed correctly to work, but it is standard on most 4X4 or camping cars. The silverado has this as a factory option, but we installed a third battery as well and run all the accessories off that.
Accessories we have fitted and why
There is a real market for '4 wheel drive' accessories and across the world I see people adding lots of accessories to these vehicles. We did not choose to make our car look more aggressive, or to make it tackle the biggest mud bath out there. Our accessories were chosen to make our travels safer or more comfortable.
Bull Bar (or Nudge bar for Americans). Are these necessary? I have hit eagles, kangaroos, dogs, pigs, wombats, and lots of smaller animals. My brother has written his car off, and so has my mate. If you travel in the city then these are not necessary, but I consider it important for when we are travelling in the outback / bush / country and especially at night. Ours is an ECB.
Driving Lights. See bull bars. Again, not important in the city, but of a night, travelling in the country, you want to see as much as you can ahead of you. I love em.
CB Radio. No, we dont travel in large convoys and say 10-4, but we do want to talk to the truck in front or warn someone else of some road conditions. Travelling in the bush / outback these are a necessity. Ours is a GME, and we have some handhelds for parking up etc.
Long Range Fuel Tank. Depending on where you are going, and how big your car's tank is, people either have no extra fuel, some Jerry Cans of fuel, or a long range fuel tank fitted. Ours gives us over 2000km range for the car, and more than 1500km when towing the caravan. We typically dont fill it as doing so adds another 150kgs to the cars weight, but we do leave 20litres or so in there for emergencies and we can fill it when we know we are going remote.
Air Pump for tires. If you get a car bogged on mud or sand, or are loosing traction (dry bogged) on a rocky / sandy road, then lowering tyre pressures is one of the best ways to get the car out. In addition, travelling over sand roads (yes, we have roads in Australia that run along a beach, or over a desert), it is very helpful to lower you tyre pressures and improve your tyres footprint. Of course, what goes down, needs to come up when you get back to the main road / bitumen, so a car tyre pump is very handy.
Max Trax. These are basically a plastic ramp that you can lay down over sand / mud and drive on. Your own little bridge. Love em. Having a heavy car, I have worn the plastic knubs on mine and I would get the pro model next time with metal knubs. Still, they are not that expensive or heavy (they are bulky) and if they can get you out of one mudpit then they have paid for themselves. Mine have been used several times.
15T Warner winch. In front. I have not used this to get myself out of trouble (yet).
Recovery Gear. By this I mean soft-shackes, bow schackes, gloves, tree protectors, etc. Not used often, but when you need it, it needs to be inside your car.
Tyre repair kit. Outback roads can be tough on tyres, and in particular sharp rocks and burnt sticks can quickly puncture tyres. Most cars have a spare tyre. Some people carry a second spare. We carry a tyre repair kit. These only cost $20 or so, and let you fix a half dozen punctures. When going remote we carry a second spare. If I repair a tyre, then I take it to tyre repair shop to have them check my work when I am back in town.
Tyre side wall kit. A typical tyre repair kit consists of 'plugs' of rubber that look like sticky pencils. These go into the typical 'nail' hole in a tyre tread. However, rocks and burnt sticks can puncture the side wall of a tyre. Tyre repair shops will not attempt to fix this, and for good reason, the tyre needs to be replaced. You cant create a good patch on the side wall. HOWEVER, you can stick something like a big sticker over it. This 'big sticker' is clearly going to fail sooner or later, and you dont want that to happen at speed - so these are illegal to use on the road. BUT if it is a matter of using one of these or attempting to walk 100kms in the desert and dying, then I know what I am going to do. I carry one. I have never used it, and I hope I dont have to use it. If I do use it, then wont travel more than about 20km/hr - or 15 miles per hour - but this is enought to get me out of trouble and plenty fast enough in bad country.
OBD II reader. Most cars on the road have an OBD II port (usually under the steering wheel) - but if you have a simple reader, then you can read any trouble codes for your car. This narrows down your fault finding a lot, and often you can simply clear the code and continue.
Car repair kit. A toolbox of items associated with your car can help lots. A multi-meter, some panel pullers, screwdrivers, fuse pullers, pliers, winding wire and socket / spanner kit. If you know something about cars, these should help a lot.
Roof Rack. I am definitely not in favour of some of the stuff I see loaded onto 4x4 roof racks. We have ours for long items (e.g. canoe) that cannot fit inside. They come in handy, but I don't overload it.
Fridge. This is invaluable. When we go shopping we can simply dump our groceries in the fridge, turn it down to 2C, and go home. At 2C fruit will be cool, cans will be cool, and frozen stuff will take 24 hours odd to defrost.When home, they can be transferred to the caravan fridge. If the fridge is full, we have some 60 litres of extra fridge or freezer space depending on what we are doing.
Jerry Can of fuel. One Jerry can is ~20 litres, which should get most cars ~100km. This is not enough to travel Australia, but it enough to get someone out of the 'oopsie - I mis-calculated my fuel' type situation. We have diesel, so a we can keep a Jerry can for more than a year without it 'going off'. Note: if you are low on fuel to the point where you are not sure you can make it, and towing a caravan / trailer, there is always the option of dropping the van, going fill up, and then coming back to complete your journey. This obviously takes time, but a lot less than walking 30km to a fuel station and then back again with a newly purchased 5 litre can of fuel.