Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2020 i NZ4WD

A few months ago, NZ4WD magazine reviewed the new RAM 1500 , an intriguing mix of super ute and 4x4, which is gaining more of a following than could reasonably be expected of something its size, given that we are not Americans. We were impressed with the RAM 1500 with its 5.7 litre Hemi V8 and now it seems the latest version of the RAM is not too far away from landing; it’s so close in fact that we can even give you the price, which you may find handy after you read this article. As an addition to the existing four models, the V8 Night Express Crew RAM – a genuine American-sized double cab, kitted out to be a winner with the tradies especially, given its full RAM capabilities…

As Mercedes-Benz prepares to leave the booming global utility sector having failed to find a foothold for its luxury offerings, Peugeot is preparing to enter it – though apparently not in Europe, here or even Australia – with a range of rather more prosaic wellside and cab/ chassis single and double-cab models developed as part of a joint venture with Chinese manufacturer Changan. Announcing the imminent launch of the new Landtrek line, the French company noted that what it (quaintly) called the ‘one ton pick-up market is “constantly evolving but represents more than 2.4 million annual sales,” too many, in other words, to ignore. Fundamental needs to be competitive in the segment, the company reckoned, were: • A 3.5 t towing capacity. • Versatility. • Different body shapes. • Real…

Whether you’re driving on or off-road, its important to understand how to navigate and control your vehicle effectively when towing. Many of the adverse situations associated with towing such as sway and getting bogged can easily be avoided by having the right equipment, one of which is an electric trailer brake controller. BRAKE CONTROLLER TYPES There are two common ways of applying the trailer brakes with a brake controller, manual control and proportional (or inertia sensing). Manual control is when the user adjusts the braking force via some interface with the controller, and when a brake light signal is given the trailer brakes will be applied. Manual control method is generally used in low cost brake controllers with this setting alone, while more advanced controllers offer it in addition to…

“THE OLD WOOLSHED HAD CERTAINLY SEEN BETTER DAYS, THE LONE CHIMNEY A REMINDER OF THE HOUSE THAT ONCE STOOD THERE…” The old woolshed had certainly seen better days, the lone chimney a reminder of the house that once stood there, the yard littered with junk including an old beaten Land Rover, Allis Chalmers bulldozer and what was left of a Mini ute. It was one of the 80 4WD North Island Adventures in Andi Cockroft’s book and after first reading about Ernie’s Place in NZ4WD 22 years ago, I have finally visited ‘Nirvana’, the home of Ernie Matthews, the ‘old man of The Moey.’ It was a fundraising trip into the Waitotara Valley organised by the Manawatu 4WD Club with a base camp at Ngamatapouri, a small settlement 55 kms…

Get a grip with Ironman 4x4 a company which offers a complete range of products to help you maintain or regain traction off-road, starting with the company’s highly-vaunted diff lock option, ‘The Harrop/Eaton E-Locker.’ Manufactured in Australia in conjunction with Eaton Corporation and Harrop Engineering, the ‘E Locker’ is a new-age electro-magnetic design which is maintenance free. They have been engineered to capture 100 percent of the available torque sending it equally to both ends of the axle. There is no need for an air compressor and these diff locks are seriously tough having been tested in off-road racing and competition trucks for years. Total Traction by Treds Designed to improve traction in sand, mud and snow, Total Traction by Treds are the perfect tool for getting you moving again.…

This Christmas trip was going to be a first for us in many ways. It was our first time exploring the Marlborough Sounds, our first time remote camping plus the longest ever camping holiday at nine nights. It was also going to be the first time I had used a roof bag I won quite a few years ago. With an early start for the ferry, we were fully packed the night before, and with all the extra room in the roof bag I was hoping that I would remember where I had put everything when it was time to unpack. Once under way, the trip across Cook Strait was very pleasant, although some passengers were unhappy about the gentle swell. Luckily there was plenty of time in the shelter…

Pukekohe racer Carl Ruiterman scored the first win of the 2020 JG Civil New Zealand Offroad Racing Championship in the Dalton’s 250 on Saturday March 7. And on Sunday March 8 he was nursing bruises and muscle pain from the pummeling dished out by the deceptively rough farm course. A 232 km endurance race held across the hills and valleys of a massive farm west of the Waitomo Caves in the King Country, the Daltons 250 proved to be a suitably tough round for a series’ opener, albeit one former drift champ Ruiterman took in his not inconsiderable stride. After topping the time sheets in qualifying, Ruiterman started from pole and only briefly relinquished the lead to team-mate Joel Giddy on lap 10 before taking control for the sprint to…

Up the Jack and Jill: our 2020 season has kicked off with a jaunt up the Nevis Road in the company of Mr H Paddon and others. This hill climb follows the very spectacular Race to the Sky and was in its debut year. The response from competitors was exceptional – the event had a waiting list! Spectators were admitted free and the course was very quick – quicker than the Race to the Sky. Unfortunately deadlines being what they are, this was written before the hill climb, so an account of that adventure will have to wait for another day. Suffice to say, having been a semipermanent fixture at the old Race to the Sky, there was no way I was going to miss ‘Hayden’s Hill’. These events are…

They always comes around sooner than we expect but service intervals are just as important on older vehicles as they are on new. In my case I have several vehicles so it seems I am constantly servicing the fleet. As vehicle owners, especially 4WDs which are more often used and abused in adverse conditions, we have to maintain them if we want to be rewarded with years of reliable service. Of course, when we talk about service we usually just mean oil and a filter change but believe me, there is more to a basic regular service than that. Depending on your vehicle and use, the oil and filter should be changed at around 5,000-10,000 kms or every 12 months. OK, some modern vehicles have extended service intervals but even…

Keen to build on the base he has developed with his 4x4Explorer.co.nz website and subscription-based off-road route selection service, Overlander extraordinaire – and regular NZ4WD contributor - Richard Soult has created 4x4Explorer Adventures, a bespoke guided tour business based on – and with the full support of – well-known Christchurch-based author Mark Wilson’s 4WD South Explorers’ Club. To find out more – both about the business and his plans for it – we sat down with Richard and asked him these questions. NZ4WD: OK Richard, tell us how 4x4Explorer Adventures came about. RS: Like a lot of things in life, the idea came from a chance meeting. At the beginning of 2019, I was leading a group of friends on a trip around Central Otago, sharing my knowledge of the…

Contemporary turbo-diesel-powered, four-door, dual cab utilities like the (sleek, blacked-out Ranger FX4) Ford had just put on its test fleet when I got in touch re this ‘opportunity’, make great tow vehicles. In fact, every time I see (and wince involuntarily inside) some old boy struggling along in a medium-size front-wheel-drive two-litre SUV trying to make headway with a six or seven metre caravan swaying away behind I wonder why he didn’t buy a dedicated tow vehicle – like a ute – in the first place. But that’s a yarn for another day. This one is about towing my 1350kg (wet and with me in it, weighed on my local refuse station’s weigh bridge) 1989 Nissan Skyline drift car on a (yep and I had several good reasons to go…

It isn’t the easiest thing to break a modern 4WD vehicle. Oh sure, it CAN be done, but then you’d have to be some sort of monetary masochist to do it deliberately – they’re not cheap to fix! Today’s 4WDs don’t typically go places where they would expect to come to grief, which is a far cry from the earlier days of rough and tumble “let’s take the ute flying through the forest” activities as made famous by Toyota NZ’s infamous Barry Crump and Scotty ads of the ‘80s. Back then of course, 4WDs – and particularly the utes – could be meddled with by all who owned them, frequently in the backyard, almost as part of a mechanical coming of age for many owners. Why did we do it?…

Tred Pro recovery boards from ARB are the ultimate recovery device to get you out of trouble when traction is lost in even the toughest of conditions, be it sand, mud or even snow. Essential, particularly if you are not travelling with anyone else, and find yourself stuck off the beaten track without any help in sight – Tred Pro recovery boards feature a unique composite construction which makes them extremely durable, wear resistant and able to handle high levels of flexibility. In doing so they provide the traction you need to get yourself out of a stickie situation by maintaining a high level of pressure on the tyre whilst withstanding the flex of being under vehicle weight on less than stable ground. Features include; • Unique (patented) Exotred composite…

I’d been somewhat anxious about The Khargush Pass Military Checkpoint for a while. Situated near the isolated Khargush Pass (4,344 metres), on the Tajik side of the border with Afghanistan, I’d read of foreigners being harassed by soldiers at this remote military checkpoint. A Belgian cyclist was robbed with a gun to his cheek here; this by the very soldiers who were supposed to be clearing him safely through the checkpoint! Fortunately, we’re benefiting from a recent strong drive across Central Asia to embrace tourism and hence tourists. In just the past couple of years alone most countries in Central Asia (perhaps except Turkmenistan) have taken significant steps to open up and combat the worst types of corrupt and/or intimidating behaviour that has sometimes occurred in the past. From a…

The prosecution of 4WD organisations late in 2019 reinforces at least two things: 1) that our recreation needs to recognise the implications of the Resource Management Act (RMA), and that 2) if circumstances do result in a prosecution against a group or club, an option for protection to limit personal liability, is through an Incorporated Society… or is it? We’re increasingly seeing ‘informal’ groups of 4x4 enthusiasts linked through internet social media and often posting photos of their activities. It appears that a significant source of the prosecution evidence in the case against the club last year, was images of their event found on social media. So, a group of 4x4 enthusiasts who made contact via social media go four-wheeling somewhere and create muddy water that prompts a complaint to…

April winner – Paula Burnett  Paula Burnett enjoys documenting the various 4WD Safari events she attends but it was only when she joined NZ4WD Event Manager Ashley Lucas’s group on the recent Manawatu 4x4 Club’s charity event (see story elsewhere in the mag) that she decided to send in some samples of her work. We liked them so much we invited her to put together a portfolio for our Your4s page... and here are three which caught our eye.…

It’s a good question isn’t it? And to help you decide we have just received word from the latest Shannon’s auction in Sydney. And that word might well surprise you! The ‘matching numbers’ 1954 Land Rover Series 1 86 SWB Utility offered at Shannons Sydney Summer Auction in mid-February, a former Queensland country car known as ‘Sally’, and which had been meticulously restored at great expense over many years by its British-born owner, sold for – just – $AU46,000! Shannons quoted a conservative guiding range of $AU45,000 – $AU55,000 before the auction but in our humble opinion somewhere in the region of $AU64-$AU75,000 would have been closer to the restored vehicle’s true worth. Meaning, of course, that the canny – or just plain old lucky – buyer got something of…

We are extremely fortunate in New Zealand to have an enormous amount of free access to the wild areas of this beautiful country, that we call home. The vast majority of those, both locals and tourists, who enjoy the great outdoors respect this privilege and take only photographs and leave only footprints. There are, however, very small minorities, who treat this country like a rubbish dump and seem to have no respect for the outdoors or those who follow and feel obliged to clear up behind them. Why do it? As a 4WD enthusiast, there are two primary threats to our freedom. One is the small minority who do not stick to marked tracks and cause unnecessary erosion or damage to historical sites. Macetown is a prime example of this.…

Barely two weeks back in New Zealand after our European trip logging routes for 4x4Explorer, the call came from my partner in crime, Mr Scott Gray. He was organising a trip down in South Canterbury, taking in some of my favourite routes. The plan was for the convoy to meet in Timaru, traverse Mount Studholme, head to Kurow, up to Omarama, over the saddle, descend the West Branch, lunch at Saint Bathans then head over the Cluden-Lauder to the Lindis Pass. I thought that this was quite an ambitious plan for two days but I was as keen as mustard to get back out on the tracks and happy to go with the flow. Truly outstanding I have previously written about Mount Studholme and it is truly an outstanding route.…

Crankcase filters and fuel and water separators are increasingly popular but the quality is variable, says Ryco. Many 4WD owners are starting to understand the value in fitting fuel water separators and crankcase filter kits to their diesel-powered vehicles. The demand is seeing an influx of choice of these products on the market but these are not all created equal. Ryco is keen to help buyers seek out components that will perform to expectations. There are a range of benefits in fitting fuel water separators and crankcase filters, especially to those vehicles that tow, are under heavy load, are driven in rugged terrain, or drive long distances. Fitting the combination of a fuel water separator and crankcase filter kit protects engines from early wear and tear and helps them perform…

ARB Air Locking differentials allow you to tackle the toughest terrain, at any speed and with complete confidence. As the world’s premium selectable locker and the official locking differential of the Ultra4 rock-racing series, ARB Air Lockers will keep you moving regardless of the conditions. Development and testing under extreme conditions has resulted in multiple vehicle applications, including competition differentials, which the company’s engineers have made continuous improvements and advances with to ensure increased strength and reliability. Toyota’s ever-popular 70 Series Land Cruiser is an excellent example of a tough, factory-produced workhorse which lends itself to the addition of ARB Air-Locker differentials. Not only is it the utility of choice of tradesmen, fleet and government pools worldwide it is also the go-to 4WD for recreational campers and tourers everywhere. With…

I’ve joked about it previously, but now we’ve actually done it! Not long after turning off the roughly paved Pamir Highway for the route to the Wakhan Valley via the Khargush Pass, we spotted a walker ahead of us. “Oh look, a hitchhiker”, said Sylwia. “No one would be hitchhiking here!”, I replied. My immediate response was in part informed by my reading of Lonely Planet, which strongly recommends against attempting to hitchhike through the Pamirs given the very long wait you could be in for. We weren’t even on the Pamir Highway - we’d departed it for a more remote route and to top it off it was mid-October, which is after the end of the main season for visitors to this region. The odds of a hitchhiker catching…

We call atmospheric conditions weather. It should be whether! Will it be condition A – sunny, or condition B – wet? Or any unpredictable mix thereof? This year, with the Waitangi Day public holiday falling on a Thursday, was excellent for linking four days off to go bush. I expected a swim or two in a lake but by the time the sun peeled back its sleeping bag it was time to break camp! Luckily passenger and I could have the Monday off so were able to spend two nights in gorgeous weather while our friends returned to the city. Of course my techo mind is always analysing something. Usually it’s ‘why doesn’t this friggin’ gadget work?’ but at times it’s a bigger picture. ‘Global warming’ is getting tiresome so…

2019 was certainly an exciting year for the Mainland Winch Challenge Series with the final results being very close. To recap: Outlaw Class had 11 Series entries, though of that 11 only three (Andrew Garrett, Andy Reeves and Brent Holden) started all five rounds. Then, of that trio only Andy Reeves qualified to be able to drop one round. Despite that advantage, he still didn’t get enough overall points to win the series, the final results seeing Brent Holden first on 387 points, Andy Reeves second with 380 points and Richard Wilson third on 375 points. Very close indeed. and Brent Holden also won the NZ1 Title for Outlaw. The Open Class had 12 entries and again of that 12 only three teams (Scotty Newport, Nathan Hammond, Brock Welsh) started…