Just Browsing Tackling the Gibb River Road

[GUlewis]

G'day everyone, I'm after some feedback on people's experience from their trips along the Gibb River Road with their Expanda. How well did they hold up? Any pre-trip mods to chassis and interior?Road conditions? Best time to travel? How long roughly will it take to travel while taking in a few of the sights?
Cheers.

 

[Pace]

Pretty sure there is a thread on here re exactly your query,Jason Neale rings a bell for me?
Also on youtube hes on there to.

 

[BUSH PALACE]

We did that trip in 2012 , leaving Adalaide travelling up the centre turning left and tackling the Tanami desert track we were ready for the Gibb . So after a break at Broome we left to drive the GRR all to find out that the graders had gone through 4 days b4 us and we could travel at 80kmh no problem . We were lucky you read and watch dvds of a rouhg GRR . The only real problem we had was dust , nothing that a roll of duct tape wont fix , we also broke off a shocker mount - easy fix just took off the shockers . Check out our Kimberly trip its on here somewhere , top places we visited and plenty of photos

 

[Smergen]

Pretty sure there is a thread on here re exactly your query,Jason Neale rings a bell for me?
Also on youtube hes on there to.

Yep, one of my favourite clips on YouTube.

 

[GUlewis]

No worries, thanks guys.

 

[Matty4]

Yep, I also took mine along the GRR back in 2010, with a 4 day detour up to Kalumburu with it.
That road was far worse than anything we encountered on the Gibb.
We spent 11 days all up along there and could have spent more easily.

As others have said, duct tape and silicon will be your best friend along there, but you will still get dust in, the Expanda's have 2 great big holes front and rear that aren't dustproof by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[GUlewis]

Good point on the duct tape as I used it on my Flamingo when I did the strzelecki track. Certainly helped around the roof seal. How did all the interior hold up on yours Matty4?

 

[Matty4]

@GUlewis, Very well considering.
I would strongly suggest picking up a couple of packets of screws that are the next size up for all the cupboard door hinges. Those screws are very small and we had a couple of large doors fall off. I then used the larger screws to fix them back on and no more problems.
You may even want to do all of them before you go, or just wait until it happens (it may not) and then replace them.

But from memory we only lost the doors on the Kalumburu road, so you probably won't have any issues there.

 

[chartrock]

Kalumburu Rd is something else.

 

[Matty4]

LOL @chartrock that looks very much like how I remember the Kalumburu Rd, however it was bone dry when we travelled up there, so the mud wasn't an issue, just the massive ruts, corrugations and washouts....

 

[MDS69]

@GUlewis, Very well considering.
I would strongly suggest picking up a couple of packets of screws that are the next size up for all the cupboard door hinges. Those screws are very small and we had a couple of large doors fall off. I then used the larger screws to fix them back on and no more problems.
You may even want to do all of them before you go, or just wait until it happens (it may not) and then replace them.

But from memory we only lost the doors on the Kalumburu road, so you probably won't have any issues there.

I have heard of when installing the screws also consider using PVA glue on the threads.

 

[Smergen]

Kalumburu Rd is something else.

That's a road??

 

[dagree]

That's a road??

Don't think I'll be towing the expanda down that one

 

[GUlewis]

@GUlewis, Very well considering.
I would strongly suggest picking up a couple of packets of screws that are the next size up for all the cupboard door hinges. Those screws are very small and we had a couple of large doors fall off. I then used the larger screws to fix them back on and no more problems.
You may even want to do all of them before you go, or just wait until it happens (it may not) and then replace them.

But from memory we only lost the doors on the Kalumburu road, so you probably won't have any issues there.

Thanks for tips mate, I'll look at replacing them before i go.

 

[GUlewis]

I have heard of when installing the screws also consider using PVA glue on the threads.

Thats a good idea, much like using loctite.

 

[Gibson]

Hi I was up working off derby over the weekend talked to some People that had just done it whilst I was waiting at derby airport and it is very bad up to mitchel falls and the gib is ok just bit corigated but go soon getting hot and there are fires every where

 

[Matty4]

Don't think I'll be towing the expanda down that one

Where's your sense of adventure @dagree?

 

[dagree]

Where's your sense of adventure @dagree?

Got the sense of adventure @Matty4
Just don't want to get it dirty

 

[Matty4]

Unfortunately on the GRR, that's pretty much impossible.