Before I continue with this I would like to let all the anti-toyota owners know that they can come back at me with any comeback they like as it will happen anyway. (most likely nissan owners)
Did the trip up north from wheatbelt W.A. firstly arriving at Mt. Augustus which had modest facilities but although Augustus is bragged as being the biggest rock in Oz it just doesn't have the same punch as Ayers Rock. The track from Augustus north through Yuna was very scenic although slow and winding. Friend had two blowouts on that track. From memory it was about 200 kms give or take.
Next 4X4 section was the
gibb river road from the
Derby end and very surprised to see normal sedans towing caravans along it considering we'd never been on it before. My first casualty of the trip was the scrub bars breaking away from the bullbar and that was on a rough section from the Gibb road to
Bell Gorge. Thankfully a
ranger there lent us his personal mig welder to fix it. Yes, definitely get the brackets to attach the scrub bars to the bullbar - not welds.
The Gibb road itself was no drama but the most stress I think on the vehicle would have been the
Mitchell Plateau road. All along the trip fellow travellers were saying that it was being graded but I think they were a little confused as there's a big stinking
sign at
the entrance to
Mitchell saying, "this road is not maintained."
After arriving at
Mitchell a cursory glance revealed that the rocker cover bolts had unscrewed until there was a couple of threads left. Major maker's battery bracket disintegrated, brought out the ol' bunnings ratchet straps and have never held better.
This is it, mate in front of me in a 60's cruiser hits a BBB (bloody big boulder) about 10kms after passing the grader, this blew his rear left tyre then continued to bounce along the road in front of me. Of course, as it came to rest I went over it and heard this almighty whack!!! Ten seconds later the rear right of my vehicle sags. Pull over, expecting a blowout of the all infamous Coopers tyre - oh no, the rear axle snapped including the whole housing. Boulder would have been twice the size of a footy before it was destroyed.
The rest is history but at least most of the trip was accomplished. As it turned out the axle housing snapped exactly where the vertical weld was about 6-8 inches in from the tyre. I was 100kms from
Kununurra which meant the tilt tray job.
In any event the trip was
well worth it and I hope my misfortune can bring some lessons to others. As we all know there are different challenges for different tracks ie. CSR is the remoteness and some boginess, gibb is the corrugtions, neverending coastal runs where fish swim, Cape for the rainforests and more slippery conditions, and the rest in the eastern states. We did see alot of other areas in the
Kimberley and if anyone's interested let me know.
Looking forward to the next salmon run down south.
Regards