Gibb River in a Grand Vitara
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Having done the Gibb River track you should be fine. Just keep an eye on two things. Make sure that your tyre size (and that you have good tyres suitable for rough stuff) can be sourced at the few places along the route and secondly since the 4G GVs are like a dwarf 3G version make sure you can carry everything you will need ! We had booked a RAV4 (little did we know) but it had been written off a few days earlier (overseas driver who didn't know how to drive on shingle roads) so the rental place gave us a Landcruiser for the same price (although fuel was way more expensive). We were grateful for the much larger space. If your GV is already set for camping etc (water, tools, food, fuel) then you will know whether you will be set enough. It is remote.
Our trip was back a bit (15-20 years) so I am picking that the track should be better now (although don’t know how much maintenance would have been done during covid).
Also had a power cut once I had most of this typed in. Fortunately we have a large UPS which allowed us to save work so no loss.
Our trip was back a bit (15-20 years) so I am picking that the track should be better now (although don’t know how much maintenance would have been done during covid).
Also had a power cut once I had most of this typed in. Fortunately we have a large UPS which allowed us to save work so no loss.
Question for you - why are we discussing a 4G GV? For that matter, what is a 4G GV?
As far as I know, the fourth gens are Vitaras, not Grand Vitaras, and if a Vitara is what the thread starter has (he describes it as a 2017 GV), then this is going to be a whole different discussion - a fourth gen Vitara is a transverse engined cross over, and whilst "All Grip" is an option (in this case "All Grip Select"), it's an electronically controlled all wheel drive system with no low range - it's really not a vehicle I would consider doing any serious off roading with.
I know nothing about the Gibb River track, but below is an excerpt I pulled from the first hit on a google search about the Gibb River track.
I'll just point out that neither a third nor fourth gen Vitara/Grand Vitara (or a Rav4 for that matter) can be considered a "high clearance vehicle" (the Land Cruiser you did it in certainly would be), the third gens are to my mind vertically challenged (I own one), and the fourth gens, even more so (I'm currently researching the purchase of one, and the only reason it's actually on the list is that it's made by Suzuki)
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Well I was more discussing the Gibb River road rather than the 4G Vitara . I would not touch a 4G Vitara with a barge pole myself. In fact since the 2G GV the vehicles have gone downhill as far as being useful offroad which is a huge shame. Lonely Planet might well recommend high clearance and 2 spares and they are right for peace of mind. But that doesn't mean it is a must. We did 8,000km including the Gibb River and Tanami tracks. Had one puncture on tarseal at Broome. The only time I used 4WD and required high ground clearance was the optional crossing of a river (about a half km in total) and that was solely so that at the end of the trip I could say we used 4WD. However there are plenty of side trips we did where I might be reluctant to take a standard vehicle (into the Bungle Bungles for example and even here I didn't use 4WD). I guess the single main thing noticeable during the entire trip was the amount of standard cars, station wagons and AWDs on the road probably on road tyres. So a 4G could do it as long as the planning went into it. But if I was the OP my comment about being able to take everything you need (he can decide what that might be) should be an indication that maybe he should rethink the whole idea. I would have no hesitation in taking my 3G on the road (but I do have a lift and bash plates though) and probably would even consider it without those. The number of grey nomads that manage it (including towing) would indicate it is doable. Probably easier after the annual road maintenance was done after the rainy season.
As to him posting about a 4G in a 3G blogg that would be typical on here.
As to him posting about a 4G in a 3G blogg that would be typical on here.
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Is the river named after the brothers ?
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To quote Wikipedia "it is named after geologist and explorer Andrew Gibb Maitland."
If the Gibbs brothers were involved they would be 158 years old now.
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The GV will do the track mate.
Lower your tyre pressure and reduce your speed, slow and steady wins the race. That road gets deep corrugated rutts that destroys vehicles by shaking them to death.
July is peak season for that region and you will have plenty of other vehicles travelling on that road so help won't be far away.
Great part of the country for man and machine to explore! Great times!
I picked up my car from our mechanic on Friday. ( Not the GV, however he has looked after the GV since we have had it). In the workshop was a 2012 GV, It had just had a service and had its “ city” wheels and tyres put back on after having just done the Gib River Road. I had a chat to the owner, and apart from putting on a special wheel/tyre combination, the car was stock and handled the trip, no problem at all.
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In my post above I mentioned about how we did Gibb River Road in a Landcruiser. It had standard road tyres. When we got a puncture (on tarseal) the spare turned out to be useless and we had to buy a new tyre (on the hire company). The problem with a lot of gravel road (or other stuff even worse) is that letting down your tyres, although a very good thing to do, is often not done because the means to blow them up again is not carried. In our case we had no pump in the rental vehicle (and this I am assuming is because either they kept disappearing or the people who rent 4WDs actual don't use it for 4WDing) but I fixed this day the before we flew out with the excess baggage charge being paid for by Quantas who oncharged it to Air NZ (owners of Ansett at the time).
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