2024 Isuzu I-Venture trip to the Flinders Ranges

Australians love their 4x4s, but many don’t feel comfortable using their off-roader in the bush without any experience or without some form of back-up.

Isuzu has devised a solution: 4WD trips for Isuzu 4x4s called I-Venture Club. Would an ex-4x4 journo like me be able to lock his mental hubs for long enough to report on this three-day I-Venture Club trip in the Flinders Ranges? When I began my 4x4 journalism career, we were still listening to cassettes.

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Offering a variety of tag-along tours, from beginner four-wheel driving day courses to three-day adventures for more experienced drivers, these I-Venture Club trips give Isuzu owners the chance to explore the capabilities of their vehicles off-road with experienced trainers at the ready to help out if needed.

I-Venture Club began almost 10 years ago. This concept is not new, but Isuzu has kept it up much longer than any other manufacturer. Owners get a partly subsidised trip with off-road training and back-up if things go south, while Isuzu gets to showcase its products in the environment they’re designed for.

The 2024 Isuzu I-Venture Flinders Ranges trip started officially at a lunch stop at Hawker, where media and customers met David Wilson, a 4x4 driver trainer who has been leading the I-Venture team for 10 years. The dozen or so customers were driving everything from a 2014 MU-X to an almost factory-fresh 2023 D-MAX. They were a really interesting and easy-going bunch of people.

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With our convoy of new friends, we drove the blacktop from Hawker straight to Merna Mora Station. We were aiming for the Station’s Wowee Track, on the western side of the Range. After choking though the billowing dust on the access track we were presented with the Wowee Track ascent. With tyre pressures dropped to 20psi, it was steep but not difficult in low range and no traction control or diff locks were required.

The one heart-stopping moment on the Zig-Zag Ridge climb was a steep descent littered with loose shale, enough to give low range-first and hill descent control a solid workout.

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With the setting sun still lighting peaks to the east, the outlook from our vantage point on the highest part of the Wowee Track offered a view that looked like a watercolour painting; one colour bleeding into another daubed on the canvas of the Flinders Ranges. This is just one of the rewards of having a 4x4 to delve into country like this.

We headed back down in the valley and, after airing up, we were ready to head to Wilpena Pound, our base for the next three nights. The combination of high-speed tarmac and dirt didn’t phase the D-MAX, even though the engine has the typical diesel clatter, when revved the ample midrange torque makes it an easy touring companion. Plus it’s quiet sitting at highway speeds.

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The next morning the convoy headed through the stunning Brachina Gorge and then on to Nilpina Station.

Here we got to play in the red desert dunes on the corner of the Station, and with a drop in tyre pressures again, we headed onto the sand. Wanting to try this new invention called recovery boards, I worked at getting the D-MAX bogged. Mission accomplished, and with Isuzu PR man Mark Harman instructing yours truly on recovery board operation, I eventually extricated myself. These recovery boards make getting unstuck a whole lot easier in sand than digging a spare wheel and hand winching, or spending half a day shovelling sand.

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With sand fun over and tyres quickly aired-up, we headed off the Station for a break at the Prairie Hotel at Parachilna for lunch, before the return to Wilpena Pound.

Day three saw us head to Stokes Hill Lookout, giving a different perspective on the Ranges. From there, we headed for Carey Hill Lookout, via Blinman. The I-Venture Club team had done a recce weeks before to make a track up to Carey Hill, and they loaded up some interesting technical sections for us on the often-rough, washed-out terrain.

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It was slow-going, but with David talking us through the more difficult sections we eventually made it to the final climb to the lookout.

And what a climb it was. Step-ups over broken rock and loose stones on the steep climb provided an opportunity to put the new Rough Terrain mode in the D-MAX to work. With just relatively gentle throttle pressure in low-range first, the traction control did its noisy thing containing wheelspin and we were up and over the steep terrain.

Yet another stunning vista from Carey Hill Lookout capped off a tagalong tour that mixed in the fascinating geological history of the Flinders Ranges with a lot of fun four-wheel driving. With only one flat tyre in three days and nothing broken or hopelessly bogged in that time, the Flinders Ranges I-Venture tag-along was a success.

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Owner profile: Stephen Hall

Stephen Hall and his brother Matt made their way from Queensland’s Darling Downs region to join the I-Venture Club trip in the Flinders.

The Toowoomba-based boilermaker says Isuzu vehicles go back a long way in his family: “Dad had a 1999 TF Holden Rodeo in about 2004 and it was the family car back then.”

Stephen and his younger brother Matt grew up with the Rodeo as the family car, and soon after he started driving Stephen would borrow his Dad’s Rodeo for camping weekends and so on. With a RA dual-cab D-MAX he bought in 2009, Stephen’s view of Isuzu reliability for his purposes were cemented. It had 135,000km when he bought it, Stephen adding more than 400,000km to the clock.

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Stephen’s latest silver D-MAX SX was delivered from the dealer with bullbar and snorkel already fitted.

Then the modification process began, as Stephen explained: “I had a tray builder in Toowoomba, Ozmac, build the tray with under-tray drawer, the under-tray battery boxes, dual-battery system and an onboard air compressor … then the heavier upgrades happened, like the Fulcrum steering correction kit. Also I had a new two-inch lift suspension fitted, with Bilstein shocks, Kings Springs at the front, and Tough Dog Constant 300s at the rear.”

Stephen hopes his ‘new’ work ute will also get him to some iconic Aussie Outback destinations in his free time, such as Cape York and Cameron Corner.