We climb some mountains on the latest Isuzu I-Venture trip in Victoria’s High Country
- What is an Isuzu I-Venture?
- Is it worth going?
- What do you learn?
- Is it fun?
- Ute or SUV?
- Stock or modified?
- Driver or passenger?
- Timing is everything
- What’s next?
It’s all very well reading about four-wheel driving and watching 4×4 how-to videos, but nothing beats engaging low-range and getting your tyres dirty when it comes to understanding how far you and your off-road vehicle can safely venture off the beaten track.
There are many ways to learn the ins and outs of off-road driving: get some formal training, join a club of likeminded 4WD enthusiasts, or head to a dedicated 4×4 park or some publicly accessible state or national park trails, preferably with another vehicle for back-up.
Once your confidence increases, you can then consider ticking off a few ‘bucket list’ 4WD adventures, either with friends or by joining a privately-run tag-along tour.
Another option is to sign up for an Isuzu I-Venture trip, if you’re one of the thousands of Aussies who purchase a four-wheel drive Isuzu D-MAX ute or MU-X off-road SUV each year.
What is an Isuzu I-Venture?
Running for close to 10 years now, the Isuzu I-Venture Club is an auto brand-led initiative that allows Isuzu owners to experience the off-road capabilities of their 4WD in a relatively safe, controlled and, in many cases, picturesque group environment.
Part tag-along tour, part training course and part adventure holiday, each annual multi-day Isuzu I-Venture trip takes in at least one ‘bucket list’ off-road track or location, even if the finish line isn’t always in sight.
The subsidised trips are reasonably priced and include meals, accommodation as well as instruction and guidance from some of Australia’s most experienced 4WD instructors.
That said, there were only eight customer vehicles (and 16 occupants) on the latest trip, but for those who miss out there are regular one-day events held in places like South Australia’s Adventure 4WD Proving Ground and Western Australia’s Lancelin Sand Dunes.
After a three-year hiatus due to COVID, another multi-day I-Venture trip was held late last month in Victoria’s picturesque and popular High Country region.
There is no lack of 4WD trails – from beginner to ‘black’ runs – on offer in Victoria’s sprawling High Country, with the area for the I-Venture outing well mapped by the likes of ‘Rooftop’s Bright-Mansfield Adventure Map’.
Isuzu’s three-day ‘taster’ kicked off in the popular Alpine town of Bright, not far from the ski-fields of Mt Hotham, and included bitumen blasts on the Great Alpine Road, a detour from the gritty Dargo High Plains Road up the Blue Rag Range Track, one of the ‘top-five’ High Country 4WD tracks, as well as a bumpy ascent up the Monument Track to Craig’s Hut, and a dusty jaunt following the powerlines to Mt Buffalo along the Goldies Spur Track.
Some easy river and not-so-easy bog crossings, combined with stop-offs at settler huts and waterfalls, plus nightly pub meals, broke up the driving before we finished up across the mountains at another High Country hub, Mansfield, near Mt Buller.
Is it worth going?
Our 14-vehicle convoy of support, media and customer vehicles carried a broad mix of experienced off-roaders to High Country ‘newbies’, and by all accounts most enjoyed the trip as much for its social aspects as well as a chance to soak up the incredible views and mountain air, not to mention conquer some tricky terrain.
We’d rate the off-road driving component as easy to medium-hard level, with plenty of slow low-range 4WD trails that required some skill and caution to avoid underbody damage or getting bogged.
Some of the 4WD ‘veterans’ or owners of highly modified vehicles would have been disappointed that the itinerary didn’t include another ‘top-five’ High Country off-road challenge, the treacherous 125km Billy Goat Bluff route, but organisers may have been gun-shy after the unsuccessful attempt at the extremely difficult Climies Track on the 2020 Tassie I-Venture trip.
The official explanation was a lack of time, which was understandable given the extra distances and time involved –while having to fit in High Country ‘icons’ like a few historic huts (Bindaree/Craig’s Hut), not to mention the Bindaree Falls – and to avoid turning the event into an exhausting or vehicle-busting three-day 4WD marathon.
That said, credit goes to the two main guides (Lead I-Venture Club trainer David Wilson and Steve Cooney from Brisbane Hinterland 4WD Training) for successfully steering the convoy through some tricky spots without any serious damage or breakdowns.
The only damage we saw on one vehicle was a big dent and a yellow ‘pin stripe’ along the side, inflicted prior to the event.
It was a reminder that ladder-frame four-wheel drive vehicles are more suited to scrambling along bushy trails than conducting tight turns in multi-level carparks!
What do you learn?
Basic theory like when to run high-range 4WD and when not to, and when to turn on off-road driving aids like diff locks, is drummed in throughout the event – either in person, at group briefings or over two-way radio when driving.
It’s not like military camp though, with plenty of light-hearted asides, travel anecdotes and countless ‘Dad jokes’ from the two instructors, to keep it light-hearted and upbeat.
Mostly it’s a chance to get more familiar with the Isuzu’s 4WD capabilities, with plenty of opportunity to play around with low-range 4WD gearing, try out hill descent control and other Isuzu features like diff locks and terrain control systems (if fitted).
All in a real-world environment where, if you do get stuck, there’s help at hand along with other vehicles laden with recovery planks and powered winches to pull you out of trouble.
Not to mention one-on-one guidance over the UHF radio through unsighted rocky drop-offs, which also gives you a better idea of how to approach similar hazards when you’re out doing it by yourself or with a mate next time.
In our case there were mostly ‘touchdowns’ of the Isuzu’s standard side-steps over moguls, and we noticed one of customer-driven MU-X vehicles had removed the side steps for improved clearance.
Lowering tyre pressures to around 20psi on the rougher tracks not only improved overall grip but also resulted in no tyre punctures.
We were also reminded to keep the revs up when driving through a very boggy section of track, and when the tyres felt like they were spinning like propellers through the water rather than driving through the mud.
Another lesson was when powering a bit hard through low-level river crossings, causing a front rego plate or two to dislodge be lost in the depths.
The overriding theme is to get out of your 4WD comfort zone, while never forgetting the limitations of both vehicles and drivers.
Is it fun?
Each I-Venture multi-day trip generates some heart-pumping moments. On the 2020 Tassie trip it was using a ‘bridge’ of recovery planks to negotiate a bog on the Climies Track, while another time it was a thrill ride up Billy Goat Ridge in the Flinders Ranges.
In Victoria’s High Country, it was the rollercoaster ascent into the clouds and along spectacular ridgelines on the Blue Rag Range Track, although the 8km crawl was not as difficult as we expected due to dry conditions.
There are breathtaking views along the ridgeline before a final uphill blast to the 1726m-high Blue Rag Trig Point, where jaw-dropping 360-degree views of Victoria’s High Country await.
The Monument Track ‘short cut’ to Craigs Hut was just as spectacular, with the twisty, undulating trek through ghost gums shrouded in fog, limiting visibility and reminding us of scenes from the Gorillas in the Mist movie.
There’s also plenty of stops-offs for socialising, including morning and afternoon tea stops at settler huts and waterfalls, along with some panning for gold and trout fishing, and a chance to enjoy the local wines and beers at night around dinner, sharing a few laughs with likeminded enthusiasts that have travelled from around the country to take part.
The required walking boots didn’t get much of a workout though, unless you count the steep 400m walk to the Bindaree Falls…
Ute or SUV?
The High Country I-Venture also gave the media contingent a chance to ponder that age-old chestnut; which is the better weekend warrior – 4×4 dual-cab ute or SUV?
Putting aside payload and passenger-carrying capabilities, and while didn’t ride in different vehicles over the same terrain, the leaf-sprung rear-end of the top-shelf D-MAX X-Terrain ute did feel noticeably bumpier over the tracks compared to the coil-sprung MU-X LS-M we drove.
And while neither variant struggled at any time with obstacles, we did notice the tow bar attachment on some of the utes drag on a downhill rocky section as opposed to the cleaner exits of the MU-X vehicles with their slightly shorter rear overhangs.
The trip also reinforced some existing 4WD ‘bugbears’ with the Isuzu vehicles, including the persistence with a part-time 4WD system rather than the more user-friendly full-time permanent systems offered by rivals like Ford.
Despite their big touch-screens and electronic driver aids, the Isuzu utes look decidedly ‘old-school’ in some aspects compared to their MU-X siblings, with the absence of an electronic parking brake and Rough Terrain mode.
Stock or modified?
Most 4WD vehicles these days are extremely capable out of the showroom, and the Isuzu 4×4 offerings are no exception with excellent all-terrain capabilities even without adding any aftermarket accessories.
The media vehicles including the X-Terrain and LS-U+ dual-cab utes and lower-spec MU-X LS-M and LS-U 4×4 wagons came with a few factory accessories including a tow kit, rubber mates and cargo carriers.
But they seemed decidedly underdone compared to many of the customer vehicles on the trip, which sported a range of aftermarket upgrades including suspension lifts, more aggressive all-terrain tyres, bull bars with winches and even GVM upgrades to carry more gear and supplies, or for heavy-duty towing.
Most vehicles also had slide-out drawers and fridges fitted in the back for camping trips, while one owner about to head off on the Big Lap with a caravan had spent a small fortune at ARB on his already well-equipped Volcanic Amber metallic X-Terrain dual-cab, fitting everything from a canopy, scrub bars and auxiliary battery to long-range water tanks to the humble ute.
With its extra underbody armour it looked unstoppable, ploughing through many of the deeper bog holes and steep rocky drop-offs where painstaking inch-by-inch forward movement and millimetre-perfect tyre placement by the stock-standard vehicles was required to avoid damage.
We asked lead instructor David Wilson what his biggest priority is when it comes to aftermarket enhancement for off-roading, and he said a suspension upgrade followed by grippier all-terrain tyres in lieu of the slick highway tyres fitted as standard to most showroom four-wheel drives.
Driver or passenger?
Participants pay $2000 per vehicle for the three-day event, which includes just about everything except evening drinks, but we’d have to say it’s a far more enjoyable experience calling the shots from the driver’s seat than watching the trees go by from the often-jarring passenger pew.
Many I-Venture-goers adopt a team approach to sharing the driving, allowing both participants to hone their skills. We noticed one older husband and wife team do a driver swap for a tricky descent into a river crossing. And it’s not a bad idea to practise your off-roading skills in the event you do need to take the reins when traveling in remote regions for a variety of reasons including ill-health.
Timing is everything
We got lucky with generally dry off-road tracks throughout the trip, although it can get wet and slippery at any time of the year in the High Country.
It’s also not accessible all year round, which is why the I-Venture trip runs at the tail end of the ‘dry’ season and there are plenty of signs to remind enthusiasts that many of the tracks close in the first week of May and don’t re-open until late-November.
It’s always a good idea to keep an eye on changeable conditions and any weather warnings at altitude, not to mention bushfires and landslides across roads causing by flooding.
Just over a week after the trip ended an early dump of snow in the region caught many drivers unaware, resulting in a number of SES rescues including a couple of camper-trailer and caravan rigs that slid off the road near Mt Hotham.
What’s next?
The next three-day I-Venture trip hasn’t been announced yet, but a couple of one-dayers are lined up for Molonglo Gorge near Canberra in early June, followed by a mid-June session at Lancelin Sand Dunes just north of Perth.
We haven’t tackled Molonglo Gorge but a visit to Lancelin Dunes is recommended as much for the sand boarding down the tall fluffy dunes as the four-wheel driving…
Keyword: Highs and lows of four-wheel driving