Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2020 i NZ4WD

We really lucked out when, last year, our judges picked keen 4x4-owning amateur photographer Paul Richards as the winner of our Your4s photo comp. For his efforts Paul won a set of Kumho MT51 tyres for his Mazda BT-50, and since his win I don’t think a month has passed without an email and further cache of photos. The latest – of which this absolutely quintessential shot of a flock of merinos being shuttled along the ‘long paddock’ (aka the road!) – were taken on a recent drive from Paul’s home in Geraldine to Lake Heron. As I keep telling Paul, he’s a very lucky man, living where he does, and having a nicely set up Mazda BT-50 4WD in the garage!…

Range Rover celebrated 50 years of pioneering innovation, refinement and all-terrain capability in June with the introduction of the new Range Rover Fifty. The original luxury SUV has defined the market since 17 June 1970 and, five decades on, the Range Rover has evolved into a whole family of desirable and capable luxury vehicles. In those 50 years Range Rover has achieved many world firsts and completed numerous impressive feats. It was the first SUV to feature a permanent 4WD system when it was launched, and in 1989 was the world's first 4x4 to be fitted with ABS anti-lock brakes. Later in 1992 it became the world's first 4x4 to be fitted with electronic traction control (ETC) and automatic electronic air suspension, while in 2012, the latest generation Range Rover…

The term overlanding describes self-reliant adventure travel to remote destinations where the journey is the primary goal. Typically using off-road capable vehicles where the principal form of lodging is camping. Overlanding is about exploration, rather than conquering obstacles. While the roads and tracks we travel might be rough or technically challenging, they are the means to an end and not the goal itself; which is to see and learn about our world, whether it be a weekend trip 100kms from home or a 10,000kms trip across another continent. Means to an end The vehicle and equipment can be simple or extravagant as they, too, are simply a means to an end; history, wildlife, scenery and self-sufficiency being the key rewards of overlanding. It might seem obvious to point out, but…

As part of our trips, we have really enjoyed camping over the last two summers, and now rather than being just a way of saving money on a longer, multi-day trip, it is an important part of the trip in its own right. This time I wanted to take advantage of the long, late summer to explore some of the area between Masterton and Castlepoint, planning for a touring trip for the 4WD club, and this gave us a perfect opportunity to make two easy days of the trip and camp in the Masterton area. The rule for the weekend was “Take it slowly and enjoy the experience.” From our meeting point in Martinborough, we worked our way through towards Masterton on a variety of sealed back roads, taking a…

With the cancelation of many of the events around the country I have spent some time at home on the farm. I have even managed to get started back on some of the vehicles in the shed although got a little side tracked with fitting the S-Drive to the Range Rover (see story page 8) and I’m loving it. One problem when you have several vehicles, especially ones that are not been used regularly is flat batteries. It is annoying when you go to start a vehicle and the battery doesn’t have enough left to start the engine. There are trickle charging units that you can attach to the battery and keep some life into the battery but not so practicable for vehicles left outside such as a couple of…

In the June 2020 issue of NZ4WD I wrote about us acquiring an SAAS S-Drive unit to fit to my 2003 Range Rover V8. Initially I had a problem working out how to access the wiring plug on the luxury Range Rovers ‘organ’ type accelerator pedal but once I found out how to remove the pedal it was literally a two-minute job... only for the wiring plugs to be different. BMW vs Ford I went back to North Island importer Warren at 4WDbits, sending him photos of the unit and the wiring plugs. It was baffling as the unit supplied was the correct unit for that model Range Rover. However, Warren was the one quick enough to identify the wiring plugs as BMW and considering the Range Rover had the…

PROJECTA ‘PRO’ JUMPSTARTER A revolutionary, lightweight jumpstarter developed by Projecta does away with the need for traditional recharging and it can be ready to start another vehicle just 40 seconds after use. The Projecta ‘Intelli-Start’ 1500A 12V Professional Lithium Jumpstarter (IS1500) is aimed at motor industry and trade customers. Equipped with patented Rapid Recharge Technology (RRT), the IS1500 recharges itself directly from a started vehicle, recovering 100 percent of its charge after staying connected for just 40 seconds. “Jumpstarters that can be used to start multiple vehicles have traditionally been large and heavy to lumber around a car yard or workshop, but the new Intelli-Start IS1500 is much more compact, lighter and easier to carry around, weighing just four kg,” says Tim Paterson, National Sales Manager for Griffiths Equipment Limited,…

At 4x4Explorer, we’ve lived in New Zealand, the UK & France, and have Overlanded extensively throughout Europe. There are major attractions in Europe, the cultural diversity, languages, food, history, etc. Yet we keep coming back home to New Zealand. Why? As Overlanders and Kiwis, we are just as interested in the people that we meet as the terrain that we cover. I believe that what makes New Zealand special, is its people. We are a special breed here and despite being a young nation, have an extremely rich history. We have seen through the Covid crisis, that we are a team of five million and what a team! I strongly believe that we owe a lot of this to our forebears. The “she’ll be right”, Number 8 wire, salt of…

The Aral Sea first began mysteriously disappearing in the 1960s, a slow process that continued for decades. In 2014 NASA presented a satellite image that showed for the first time in modern history the eastern basin of the Aral Sea had completely dried up… it's now known as the Aralkum Desert. Today, the slowly rusting hulks of ships embedded in the sands of a 'new' desert serve as a reminder of the significant fishing, fish canning and maritime industries that once thrived here. The Aral Sea once provided a sixth of the Soviet Union's fish catch and was ringed with prosperous towns – home to 40,000 workers. There was even a secret Soviet weapons testing facility built on an island (of which there were once 1,100) in the Aral Sea…

Has ‘normality’ returned to four wheeling, or have the side effects of COVID-19 made changes to our recreation? A 4WD club I belong to, ran a survey of its members in early May that asked if they thought their four wheeling would be affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. A large majority indicated that they thought it would not change their recreation. By now things may look a little different, however, disposable incomes for many, being less than those prior to March 20220. Obviously there were some environmental effects of the lockdown restrictions over almost three months and there is bound to be evidence of vegetation growth on many routes used for four wheeling that may need to be trimmed back to allow sunshine and wind to help keep the surface…

'Jay' Ha! Know how THAT feels mate. “Just had to send you some pictures of myself and some good buggers after our liberation from our isolation bubbles,” said Jay in an email to The Ed last month. “It was our first real opportunity to get away post Covid lockdown and we had a great weekend with classic winter West Coast weather, cold nights and stunning sunny days.”…

Australia and New Zealand will be the first territories in the world to see Mazda’s all-new BT-50 (pictured) Ute, with stock arriving before the end of the year. Based on Isuzu’s new D-Max and supplied to Mazda on an OEM basis from the Isuzu plant in Thailand, the new BT-50 marks a major step away from long-term commercial partner Ford – with whom Mazda developed the current in-line five-cylinder 3.2 litre turbo-diesel-powered BT-50. Despite the move away from the Ford ‘mothership’ Mazda NZ boss, David Hodge, is bullish about the future, both of the BT-50 ‘brand’ and the new three-litre/four-cylinder Isuzu-powered model here. “It’s fantastic to have a completely ‘all- new’ Mazda BT-50 in the New Zealand market for the first time in nine years.” The look is immediately more…

Hot on the heels of a successful Shelby Mustang launch earlier this year, Matamata-based company Shelby New Zealand say that they will also be building and selling brand new right–hand-drive (RHD) Shelby F-150 trucks, based on Ford USA’s hugely popular F-150 platform, for local consumption. Sales Manager Ross Prevette confirmed that they will be offering the entire line-up of Shelby F-150 trucks, including the all-new supercharged 4x4 Super Snake Sport, a 575kW 5.0 V8 powered model which can rocket from 0 to 100km/h in a mere 3.45 seconds and can go on to achieve 0 to 160kph and back to 0 in an astonishing 8.3 seconds! In addition to the ultra-fast Sport truck, company director Malcolm Sankey says that other models to be introduced here in New Zealand include the…

Always on the lookout for exceptional truck builds, I was talking to a good friend and regular trip buddy, Calvin Johnson, about the work that he had done to his Nissan Navara. I was particularly impressed with the quality of the build of the box that he has on the back of his ute. The work, he said, had been done by Probuilt Fabrication in Christchurch and gave me the number of the owner, Phillip Lepoidevin. Now, despite his name, which definitely sounds it, Phillip is not French. He is, in fact, an Australian and moved to New Zealand after having spent many years in OZ fabricating Outback modifications for 4WD vehicles in Darwin. This is a bit of a long story, so bear with me... Phillip told me that…

Here they are in all their arty, grey-scale, computer-generated glory, the first official photos of what the all-new INEOS Automotive Grenadier 4x4 looks like... or at least will look like when it is available for sale in 18 months or so. Built from the ground up on an all-new platform, the Grenadier has been designed on purpose: namely to meet the demands of its future owners for a rugged, capable and comfortable go-anywhere working vehicle – as originally articulated by the INEOS Group’s billionaire boss, Sir Jim Ratcliffe. Sir Jim owned several Defender and/ or Series model Land Rovers over the years apparently, and he made no secret of the fact he thought the Jaguar Land-Rover Group’s decision not to replace the outgoing Defender with a similar, rugged, no-nonsense model,…

2020 is a year we will all remember and talk about for a long time I am sure. Covid-19 hit and it hit us fast. I won’t go on about it as I’m sure we are all but over talking about it at the moment. I am a supermarket worker so my life didn’t change too much apart from having hubby Scotty hanging around the house all day. So when Level 2 came in and we got the all clear to leave our region it didn’t take long to organise a few fellow four-wheel drivers and head to Reefton. With a long weekend very close we organised it around that. With the Mainland Winch Challenge Series canned for 2020 we had four winch trucks that had been parked up and…

As described in a previous article, we had ventured out from Uzbekistan’s capital, Tashkent, aware that finding diesel across Uzbekistan’s desert regions could prove an issue. The first place I looked for diesel was in Samarkand. Samarkand isn’t that far from Tashkent and so we weren't in desperate need of diesel just then, but I took the approach that I'd get what I could, where I could. Better to be spoilt for choice, than later to have no choice... but as it turned out, we were not going to be spoilt for choice in Uzbekistan! To better my chances of finding diesel I was guided by a list of GPS coordinates where other overland travellers had reported having success in recent months. At the first of these sites in Samarkand…

As we all know – and proudly tell anyone who will listen – 4WDs will go anywhere. The flipside of this versatility, however, is that they can also get stuck anywhere! So, you need basic recovery gear aboard. There are a myriad number of ways to get stuck. Most, though boil down to – let’s see – ruts being too deep, the ground too soft, or you get hung-up on a stump or rock. Whichever one it is it’s almost always a jack and dig job. The body must rise to clear the underside and the wheels must be given something to stand on. So, In My Humble Opinion (IMHO) the minimum amount of gear you need to be carrying for 4WDing alone would be: • A proper gardening shovel…