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Theuns, this question has been asked before elsewhere, and I even asked an engineer!

No answer.

Bugger-all to do with vehicles, end of story!

An eternal mystery...

Why the ridges?
As the vehicle wheel start to climb the little ridge it slows down ever so slightly and as soon as the wheel pass the crest there is a slight acceleration of the wheel .
So-in front it will compact the soil and at the back it will loosen the soil a bit.
Look carefully the next time you drive a well travelled "sinkplaat pad" at the differences in opposite directions.
rene

We have just returned from a wonderful 10 days in the Park.
Thank you again KNP and staff.

I don't know if it is just me though, but the gravel roads seem to be in a terrible state.
The S125 is so bad and corrugated that on more than one occasion my vehicle's indicator spontaneously went on and I even lost the tail pipe of the exhaust.

The first section of the S90 looks very good and when you get to Gudzani, it is clear why as the road maintenance vehicles are parked there.
Can somebody maybe give an update on when some of the other roads can be repaired?

Bundi,

I'm sure KNP has an elborate plan for the maitenance of all the road networks in the park - I can't remember the exact km's but I know it is a road network of thousands of km's, and they would obviously have a plan to maintain that network of roads in the best possible condition.

And, almost like clockwork, people start to complain about the state of the gravel roads at this time of year... and the reason is simple... they cannot grate the roads until they've had some rain... so naturally July/August the roads would be in their worst state due to the dryness as well as the longest time since it's been maintained.

Also remember that alot of repairs to other infrastructure had/have to be taken care of due to the floods earlier this year. That is keeping maintenance staff pretty busy I would think...

I don't mind it if people stick to the tar roads - less traffic for me
PS: When last have you driven on the Kgalagadi gravel roads?... you wanna talk about corrugation

As far as I can remember there is about 4000 kilometers of road in Kruger.

KTP might be an eyeopener, those roads can be far worse.
That is why we say you can do it (mostly) with a normal sedan, but recommend a 4x4. That is just for comfort.
I'll be doing KTP with a sedan though in December.

We have just come back from a wonderful 12 day trip...have to agree the gravel roads were awful, in fact nearly as bad as
What we were surprised with, was how quickly the H2-2 Vortrekker Road has deteriorated.
Noticing many driving way over the speed limit as a short cut?
while we toddled along at 15kph.
Its really nice going at that speed but sometimes our planned 6hr drives became 10!!

Remember the floods in February?

It had a major effect on the roads and caused resources to be prioritised to repair those damages.

I travelled the Voortrekker road in June, and sadly, it had taken a bad knock. Such is the power of water. I did not think that it had depreciated to its former levels though.

missing it all right now

I am sorry to say that I think that the signs at the entrance of gravel roads which state that the grading can only be done after rain are somewhat of a permanent fixture.
In January this year after very good rains we travelled some of the dirt roads above Tshokwane towards the S36 with dire consequences to our vehicle.
The sliding door to the bus actually became unhinged and then the whole window fell out.
Sadly speeding vehicles do not help the lack of maintenance either as they simply make the roads more rutted.

The details the KNP roads are as follows:

Tourist roads:
Gravel - 1618 km.
Tarred - 881 km.
Total: - 2599 km.

Firebreaks - 4216 km.
Boundary and access roads - 658 km.

Total all -7373 km.

Well it is actually not mainly meant for your comfort but for creating less corrugation

But again not sure if low profile tires and low tire pressure is a good combination, and you will probably be doing a lot of tar road in Kruger anyway

Ok thanks. Will keep pressures normal and crawl along. Have a number of S roads on my list to see so hope it will be ok. There on Tuesday!

I know what you are saying Guzz. The S90 looks great too and has obviously been graded lately, as it is still standing at Gudzani Dam.

Seems some conflicting advice, over the above posts .
Surely, if we want a more comfortable ride AND want to minimise any worsening of the gravel roads; then reducing tyre pressure makes sense?
Every so often we do go on Tar roads for extended distances (eg. when moving from camp to camp), so on those days surely we just re-pressurise to normal road level?

Really grateful for further insight from you experts

Badly corrugated gravel roads in KNP have become a bit of a deal-breaker for us, and have completely nixed plans for KTP. Having said that have just planned an 18 day trip to KNP for next year, having given it a miss this year.

z&m , indeed , reducing tyre pressure makes for a more comfortable ride, especially so early morning .
As the day grows warmer, road surface temps increases and so do tyre temps also increase with a consequent increase in tyre pressure .
You then find that the ride becomes harder and sometimes it could then be beneficial to reduce the tyre pressure even more .
The problem however then is that tomorrow morning your tyre pressure could actually then be too low for safety
So, the answer is a combination of tyre pressure , and slow speeds , and do not accelerate and avoid wheel spin , especially in inclines.