Overlander 4x4 2024 by Assignment Media Ltd

LATEST: NEXT-GEN TORSUS PRAETORIAN | DRIVEN: KIA EV9 GREEN LANED | NEWS: INEOS LAUNCHES NEW SKUNK WORKS

HIGHS AND LOWDOWNS A ﬁnal hurrah for the mightiest Wrangler

August 2024 £5.99

DAY WILL COME The realisation of a lifelong overland dream

01_4x4 Cover AUG24 _195x275mm (wxh_1pg).indd 1

ON THE ROAD

Riding with lady luck on a two-year honeymoon

AGAIN & AGAIN

Skoda repeats a winning trick with the new Kodiaq

23/06/2024 08:16

SUBARU FORESTER. THE NO-NONSENSE SUV. EVOLVED TO EXPLORE.

£2,000 SUBARU DEPOSIT CONTRIBUTION*

5.9%

APR REPRESENTATIVE†

3 YRS SERVICING FOR ** £299

We typically receive commission or other benefits for introducing you to International Motors Finance Ltd. This may be a flat fee or percentage of the amount you borrow. Vehicle shown is a Forester Sport, OTR price of £40,790. Model shown price includes optional special paint finish at £595.

Tough, practical and virtually indestructible, the Subaru Forester e-BOXER will never let you down. Whatever the weather, wherever you want to go, this reliable workhorse will get you there. It’s calm, understated and up for any challenge.

SCAN ME TO FIND OUT MORE.

SUPERB FEATURES. FITTED AS STANDARD. • 2.0L Petrol e-BOXER Engine + Electric Motor • Permanent Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive • X-MODE with Hill Descent Control • 1,870kg Towing Capacity (braked) • 220mm Ground Clearance • EyeSight Safety Package • 509L Boot Space • 8” Touchscreen • Apple CarPlay™ & Android Auto™

SUBARU FORESTER fuel economy and CO2 results (WLTP): Combined 34.7mpg, CO2 emissions 185g/km. MPG figures are official EU test figures for comparative purposes & may not reflect real driving results. Fuel consumption achieved in real life conditions & CO2 produced depends on a number of factors including accessories fitted (post-registration), variations in weather, driving styles & vehicle load. Offers available until 30.09.2024. Stock subject to availability. Subaru reserves the right to amend or withdraw offers at any time without prior notice. Private customers only, not available in conjunction with any other offers. Excludes Personal Contract Hire and Business Contract Hire. Available at participating dealers only. *£2,000 Subaru Deposit Contribution (incl. VAT) on a Forester e-BOXER XE, Sport or XE Premium. †Credit is subject to status. Must be 18+. This credit offer is only available through Subaru Finance provided by International Motors Finance Limited, St William House, Tresillian Terrace, Cardiff, CF10 5BH. **3 services for **£299.00 (incl. VAT) offer applicable when you purchase a brand-new Subaru Forester. All services should be taken at the relevant service intervals - either 12,000 miles or 12 months, whichever comes sooner. All services must be completed by an authorised Subaru Retailer. The customer's failure to redeem the services within the designated mileage or time will void the manufacturer's warranty. Available to retail customer only. Does not cover any non-service related parts or repairs or general wear and tear. Servicing is transferable with the vehicle. #A comprehensive 3-Year Recovery and Assistance Programme is included, valid in the UK and Europe. ^Forester e-BOXER battery is covered by a 8 Year Warranty.

SUB05746-011 Overlander Magazine Ad_1.indd 1

Overlander4x4_2024_08_Aug_Subaru_FP.indd 1

23/02/2024 16:13 13/06/2024 16:36

LOW PROFILE LOW NOISE

Roof Rack Features

- Strong and lightweight

- T slot system for mounting accessories - Low profile, low noise design - Does not interfere with antenna

Overlander4x4_2024_08_Aug_Allmakes_3PS_Gatefold.indd 1

05/06/2024 10:56

TERRAFIRMA ROOF RACK

STRONG & LIGHTWEIGHT

TF8005 / TF8006

The perfect platform for all your camping and expedition equipment. The sturdy black powder coated extruded slats and rails all include 10mm T slots to enable a wide range of equipment and accessories to be securely attached. The racks attach directly to the original factory fitted roof tracks with the lowest possible profile sufficient to minimise wind noise whilst also allowing the sunroof to operate correctly. TF8005 TF8006

Alloy Roof Rack

Defender 90 - 2020 Onwards

1.8m x 1.25m

Alloy Roof Rack

Defender 110 - 2020 Onwards

2.0m x 1.25m

8mm

Pack of 10

TF80056NUT T slot nut plate

Overlander4x4_2024_08_Aug_Allmakes_3PS_Gatefold.indd 2

05/06/2024 10:56

TERRAFIRMA UPGRADES

Enhance your Defender 2020 with ease. The Terrafirma range of accessories have been extensively tested to bring you the finest off-road and expedition accessories. TF80050 TF80001

Rear door fold down shelf Rear door organiser

TF8000 TF8000 - Whether it’s a day at the races or an expedition to the desert the Terrafirma fold down shelf provides the perfect platform for making a brew or knocking up lunch. Picking up on existing mounting points on the inside of the tailgate this easy to fit fold down shelf takes up very little space when stowed, the ‘Molle’ style perforated shelf also provides the perfect surface for attaching equipment. Precision catches, antirattle buffers and webbing check straps ensure the shelf operates perfectly. TF8001 - This handy ‘Molle’ style panel is the perfect place to attach equipment for quick access as soon as the tailgate is opened. No need to rummage around for your recovery equipment, folding shovel or first aid kit. TF8001

Scan To Find Out More

Overlander4x4_2024_08_Aug_Allmakes_3PS_Gatefold.indd 3

05/06/2024 10:56

Tel: 01283 742969 Email: [email protected] Web: www.totaloffroad.co.uk www.4x4i.com Online Shop: www.toronline.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/totaloffroad www.facebook.com/4x4Mag

Editor

Alan Kidd

Design

Ian Denby-Jones

Contributors

Graham Scott, Mike Trott, Gary Martin, Olly Sack, Gary Noskill, Dan Fenn, Paul Looe, Tom Alderney, Frank and Iris Thibaud Kochig

Photographers

Steve Taylor, Richard Hair, Harry Hamm, Vic Peel

Advertising Sales

Tandem Media Tel: 01233 555735 Faye Littlewood-Tribe Tel: 01233 220245 [email protected]

Advertising Production

Colin Swaffer: 01233 220246 Jonathan Graham: 01233 220247 Jemma Heslop: 01233 555736

ast month in this column, I was wondering out loud why more people don’t use big 4x4 trucks like the Bedford MJ for overland travel. Now I’m going in completely the opposite direction. A few months ago, I was chatting with a guy who has a Volkswagen T5 which he uses for expeditions. Of course, the ﬁrst thing I said was that I assumed it was a 4Motion version; the reply was interesting. No, he said, it’s not. For a good reason. Volkswagen’s 4x4 van is a good bit of kit, but ultimately it’s still limited by its size and lack of ground clearance. So in the real world of expedition travel, having all-wheel drive won’t so much keep you out of trouble as encourage you to get into it. The standard 4x2 model, he said, is still capable enough – surprisingly so, in fact, for the simple reason that it’s not normally lack of traction that stops you. But if you do get stuck in one, it won’t be as badly as it would be in a 4x4 – and it probably won’t be as far away from help.

So with that in mind, this month’s big travel story has been endorsed by a veteran expedition man. It’s about driving around the world in a Volks – an old T2 rather than a T5, so much lower-tech and without traction control etc to help, but still instantly recognisable as a cool way to travel. Some readers of this magazine will look down their noses at what they see as a sort of overlanding-lite. But as we’re always saying, expeditions are no time to play the off-road hero. Does that stretch as far as going in a vehicle that doesn’t even have any real off-road ability? As you’ll see, the T2 did everything that was asked of it. Sometimes the caution threshold had to be set higher, but the things it did were not so different. And the welcomes that awaited the team was second to none. Going all prepped like an army on the march might mean getting more places – but it’s the experiences you have on the way that matters, and there’s obvious appeal in looking like you’ve left it all to fate. Alan Kidd, Editor

Subscriptions Agency

WW Magazines, 151 Station Street, Burton on Trent, DE14 1BG Tel: 01283 742970

Publisher and Head of Marketing

Sarah Moss Email: [email protected] To subscribe to 4x4, or renew a subscription, call 01283 742970. Prices for 12 issues: UK £42 (24 issues £76); Europe Airmail/ROW Surface £54; ROW Airmail £78 Distributed by Marketforce; www.marketforce.co.uk Every effort is made to ensure the contents of 4x4 are accurate, but Assignment Media accepts no responsibility for errors or omissions nor the consequences of actions made as a result of these. When responding to any advert in 4x4, you should make appropriate enquiries before sending money or entering into a contract. The publishers take reasonable care to ensure advertisers’ probity, but will not be liable for loss or damage incurred from responding to adverts Where a photo credit includes the note ‘CC BY 2.0’ or similar, the image is made available under that Creative Commons licence: details at www.creativecommons.org

4x4 is published by Assignment Media Ltd, PO Box 8632, Burton on Trent DE14 9PR

16 22

overlander4x4.co.uk

4x4 Contents Aug AWAITING SUBS CONF.indd 2

24/06/2024 16:36

LATEST: NEXT-GEN TORSUS PRAETORIAN | DRIVEN: KIA EV9 GREEN LANED | NEWS: INEOS LAUNCHES NEW SKUNK WORKS

HIGHS AND LOWDOWNS A final hurrah for the mightiest Wrangler

75% OFF

August 2024 £5.99

DAY WILL COME The realisation of a lifelong overland dream

ON THE ROAD

Riding with lady luck on a two-year honeymoon

AGAIN & AGAIN

Skoda repeats a winning trick with the new Kodiaq

Six issues for the price of 12 sounds like half-price – but when you subscribe to Overlander 4x4 for a year, you actually end up getting 75% off the price on the cover

CONTENTS AUGUST 2024 4x4 Scene 4

News

Revisions to the Defender and Torsus Praetorian, and a new source of bespoke Grenadiers

10 Products

Heavy-duty clutches for the Jimny, better brakes for old Defenders, tough seat covers for Grenadiers and a whole lot more

Every Month 43 Subscribe

Get Overlander 4x4 delivered for a fraction of the cover price

64 Next Month

Modiﬁeds, classics, modiﬁed classics, epic travel and more in our Land Rover special issue

Driven 16 Skoda Kodiaq

The all-new replacement for the best vehicle never to win 4x4 of the Year

22 Kia EV9

The stunning all-electric family SUV tested the way only we can: bring on the green lanes…

Vehicles 28 Isuzu D-Max Mudmaster

A hardcore off-road show special D-Max inspired by a hardcore off-road show special D-Max

34 Jeep Lowdown

The neo-legendary Wrangler Rubicon 392 gets its ﬁnal hurrah as a mighty off-road concept truck

44 Defender for Adventures

A promise made decades ago at an African water hole comes good in the shape of a superb overland wagon for all the family

Travel 52 All Around the World

An overland expedition with a difference, as a young couple head to travel round the world aboard a classic Volkswagen camper van

52 44 August 2024 I Overlander 4x4

4x4 Contents Aug AWAITING SUBS CONF.indd 3

24/06/2024 16:36

NEWS

NEW ENGINE LEADS THE WAY AS JLR REVISES DEFENDER LINE-UP

‘

efender takes luxury adventure to new heights with greater choice and more power,’ begins the latest communication from the entity once known as Land Rover. The company’s ‘unstoppable 4x4 has been updated with a suite of comfort-enhancing features for more luxurious all-terrain travel’ and is now available with a new diesel engine as well as a special edition named after an old Kia people carrier. This is the Sedona, a version of the 110 whose deep red colour was inspired by the iron-rich sandstone of Sedona, Arizona. So not the Kia Sedona after all, soz. Based on the already highly kitted X-Dynamic HSE, the 110 comes with extensive black trim and details including 22” alloys, a bodycoloured spare wheel cover and Kvadrat seats which provide ‘a tough and highly tactile environment.’ It costs £82,130 before you get started with the options. The aforementioned seats are also part of the new Signature Interior Pack that becomes standard on all Defender X and

V8 models and optional on the Dynamic HSE. Features include 14-way electrically controlled front seats with heating, cooling, memory and winged headrests, a climate-controlled second-row and a heated third row on the 110 and 130. Trim materials include Windsor leather and Kvadrat in Ebony or Caraway/Ebony and new Ultrafabrics in Light Cloud/Lunar; you get a matching suede headliner, too, while the centre console gains elasticated side pockets on both sides. That’s not the only new pack on the block, either. If you’re buying a Defender 130, the Captain Chairs Pack replaces the standard three-seat bench with two individual thrones, both heated and cooled, which are ‘perfect for first-class adventures across the globe.’ In between is an aisle which ‘gives elegant and effortless access to the third row,’ something we’d enjoy seeing in practice, and you also get armrests and cupholders. Then comes the bit about more power. This is the D350, which replaces the D300

(itself a glorious motor), in the process taking the numbers up to 350bhp and 516lbf.ft. ‘Everything from overtaking to towing is even more effortless than ever,’ says Land Rover, or Defender, or JLR, or whatever we’re supposed to call them, and we don’t doubt it for even a moment. All this extra stuff might make it sound like the Defender range is more baffling than ever, but in fact the company says the process of speccing one has been simplified. Ready? ‘Defender clients now have a choice of S, X-Dynamic SE, X-Dynamic HSE, X and V8 specifications across 90, 110 and 130 body styles.’ Plus engine choices, obviously, which variously include P425 petrol, D250 and D350 diesel, PHEV and V8 units. Even better news for lovers of all things clear and concise is that ‘a simplified range of carefully curated optional packs are also available.’ Regular readers will know how much we love it when Land Rover (or JLR, or Defender etc) uses the word ‘curated.’

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

1.5 News Defender AD THEN READY.indd 4

24/06/2024 16:25

HAS YOUR

FREELANDER GOT AN ISSUE WITH THE REAR DIFFERENTIAL HALDEX POWER TRANSFER UNIT Here at FreelanderSpecialist.com, not only will we fix the problem but we will look to determine why the problem occurred and discuss with you how you can avoid it happening again in the future. Our differential units are uprated, making them stronger than the originals. Between 1927 and 1968, the curatorial work of Dr Alfred H Barr Jr at MOMA in New York was instrumental in elevating modern art to the pinnacle of respect; Arnold Bode curated a series of exhibitions in the 1950s which were pivotal in helping Germany turn its back on the anti-academic brutality of nazism; Pontus Hultén was the first curator to predict the rise of pop art, identify similarities between the work of Da Vinci and contemporary kinetic sculptors and, as director of the Centre Pompidou, to encourage his peers to see their work as an art form in itself; and Land Rover curates leather gear knobs. There are now 15 of these packs, grouped into Driving and ADAS, Cold Climate and Towing, Interior and Third Row Seating themes. We’d be most interested in the Off-Road and Advanced Off-Road packs, and having seen the clever towing tech in action we can’t recommend it highly enough, but then we’re also big fans of the Buy An Old Defender Instead Pack, which is a different kind of curation altogether. As Pontus Hultén would no doubt tell you, in the 1960s there was a movement called Auto-Destructive Art whose purpose was to critique the destruction of previous beliefs. Next time you’re aboard a new 130, sitting in your Captain Chair and enjoying the pre-conditioned climate and soft air-sprung ride, you might take time to consider that the old Defender is the Auto that was Destroyed. NOW we get what they’re going on about with all that talk about curation…

DON’T JUST FIX IT.... FIX IT FOR GOOD!

WE SHIP PARTS WORLDWIDE Tel: +44 (0)780 9575 421 [email protected] www.freelanderspecialist.com August 2024 I Overlander 4x4

1.5 News Defender AD THEN READY.indd 5

24/06/2024 16:25

NEWS

MAJOR UPGRADES FOR THIRD-GEN PRAETORIAN

orsus has unveiled a new, revised Praetorian – the third-generation version of its heavy-duty off-road bus. Claiming more than 50 technical upgrades and options, this is based on a MAN chassis and power train and can be serviced by that company’s agents anywhere in the world – making it a highly attractive option on which to base a high-end expedition motorhome build. Highlights of the new spec include a move to air suspension all-round, adding

greater ride comfort and control. As before, power comes from a 6.9-litre six-pot diesel whose 850lbf.ft (available from 1200rpm) goes to all four wheels through a 12-speed ZF Tipmatic box. It has a full set of three diff locks, plus low range as part of six drive modes. Both axles feature 19.5” disc brakes, and another new feature is a 12-tonne, 30-metre front winch. Inside, the cockpit has been redesigned and no less than 14 seating arrangements can be speciﬁed. The heating and air-con

SPECIAL-EDITION GRENADIERS FROM INEOS SKUNK WORKS

ersonalising the Ineos Grenadier is already a thing. And now the company has launched Arcane Works – a bespoke personalisation service which allows

customers to, in effect, create their own special editions of the vehicle. Rather than providing an endless list of options and inviting customers to dress up a standard vehicle from them, Arcane

systems have been improved, too, and the front end has been revised to provide easier access for maintenance. Pricing for the Praetorian starts at £192,112, so either you’re buying one because you’re a mining conglomerate taking crews to work or because you’re in the wealthiest 1% of overlanders. Both quite unusual positions to be in – but if this vehicle answers a question you’ve been asking, it’s highly unlikely that anything else will do.

Works will create limited-edition batches of Grenadiers which buyers can then take further using unique detailing options and bespoke materials. ‘Each run of limited-edition vehicles will showcase a unique set of features, introduce new technologies and carry a specifically tailored name,’ says Ineos. ‘Arcane Works allows customers to work with specially curated (groan) craftsmen to select from a vast array of finishings and colour match technologies to create a very personal 4x4.’ ‘Arcane Works will also become a test bed for new technologies and systems for INEOS vehicles,’ the company continues, ‘such as uprated engine modifications, new chassis systems and many new materials and features.’ The first Arcane Works limited edition vehicle will be introduced at the Goodwood Festival of Speed over the second weekend of July.

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

4x4-aug-extra-news-page_AUG24_1pg.indd 6

24/06/2024 14:38

Defender Carpet Kits Once installed, these easy to fit, hard wearing carpet kits will transform your Defender’s interior. The black 5mm woven pile carpet is manufactured with a hardback which ensures it holds its shape for years to come. All holes are pre-cut for a precision fit. No glue is required. Fitment is quick and easy with no mess. The carpet also has the added advantage of improving soundproofing within the cabin. When applicable, floor mats have a reinforced edged for a smart, hard wearing finish. DA4910 Defender - up to & including 200Tdi - Right hand drive LT77 gearbox - Excludes V8 Front Kit - Bulkhead panel, gear box tunnel, floor mats, under dashboard panels, kick plate panels & seat box panels DA4911 Defender - 300Tdi & Td5 - Right hand drive R380 gearbox - Excludes V8 Front Kit - Bulkhead panel, gear box tunnel, floor mats, under dashboard panels, kick plate panels & seat box panels DA4912 Defender - Puma 2.4 - Right hand drive Front Kit - Bulkhead panel, gear box tunnel, floor mats, under dashboard panels, kick plate panels & seat box panels DA4921 Defender - Puma 2.2 - Right hand drive Front Kit - Bulkhead panel, gear box tunnel, floor mats, under dashboard panels, kick plate panels & seat box panels DA4916 Defender 110 - Commercial not Station Wagon For vehicles with cut-away arches & door retainers 2nd Row Kit - Floor carpet & forward-facing rear pieces DA4920 Defender 110 - Station Wagon - 2007 - 2016 For vehicles without mat retainers 2nd Row Kit - Floor carpet & forward-facing rear pieces

DA4922 NEW Defender 110 - Station Wagon - 300Tdi & Td5 For vehicles without mat retainers 2nd Row Kit - Floor carpet & forward-facing rear pieces DA4913 Defender 90 - without rear seats For vehicles with square arches Rear Kit - Wheel arches, floor & filler cap cover DA4914 Defender 90 - Station Wagon with inwardfacing seats For vehicles with square arches Rear Kit - Wheel arches & floor DA4915 Defender 90 - Station Wagon with forwardfacing seats For vehicles with cut-away arches Rear Kit - Wheel arches & floor DA4917 Defender 110 - without rear seats For vehicles with cut-away arches Rear Kit - Wheel arches & floor DA4918 Defender 110 - 10-Seat Station Wagon with inward-facing seats For vehicles with square arches Rear Kit - Wheel arches & floor DA4919 Defender 110 - Station Wagon with forward-facing seats For vehicles with cut-away arches Rear Kit - Wheel arches & floor

DA4911

DA4913

DA4916

DA4917

DA4911

Holes are pre-cut for a precision fit

Watch how easy the kits are to fit...

britpart.com Find your nearest stockist - britpart.com/stockist Part numbers used for identification purposes only and do not imply or indicate the identity of a manufacturer. Products available from a Britpart stockist. E&OE.

Overlander4x4_2024_08_Aug_Britpart_FP.indd 1

18/06/2024 11:25

NEWS

ULTRA-EARLY RANGE ROVER EMERGES FROM HIDING

ne of the very earliest Range Rovers has emerged into the daylight after more than 35 years. Registered NXC 234H, the 1970 Suffix A was the third pre-production model to be built after the initial run of 25 Velars; requiring full restoration, it has been owned since 2006 by lifelong Land Rover enthusiast Peter Butters but is now for sale at an asking price of £45,000. Originally painted Masai Red, the Range Rover was manufactured between 22 April and 28 May 1970. It was one of those used on the press launch in Plymouth but was later repainted in Lincoln Green – the story goes that it was chosen to be presented to the Queen on a visit to Solihull and loaned to the Royal household for a short period of time afterwards, and that Land Rover’s top brass felt that Prince Philip was unlikely to appreciate his new shooting party transport being bright red. Just as the Range Rover has some outstanding tales to tell, so too does the man selling it. ‘I fell in love with Land Rovers at about the age of five,’ says Peter, ‘when my Grandfather bought a new Series II in 1959 – which I recently found and intend to restore. ‘In the seventies and eighties, I trialled a Land Rover 80-inch which I rebuilt in 1978

and still own today. This led to me buying complete motors from local scrap yards, less the valuable parts like dynamos and voltage regulators which at the time fitted a variety of vehicles and they had already sold in working order. ‘This resulted in me having A loft stacked with body parts, doors, wheels, axles, gearboxes and engines, as well as power take-offs and early front winches. ‘Along the way, I had acquired and repaired two 1949 80-inch Land Rovers to add to my collection. Over the years, I have had an ex-army Series II, a Series III and a Diesel Turbo 90. These were followed by a new Discovery Tdi Automatic, four Range Rover CSKs (two of which I still own), a P38 and since then, a further three Range Rovers plus an Evoque. So Land Rover really is in the blood!’ He wasn’t the only one in his manor who could say that, either. ‘My milkman and neighbour was the late Ken Wheelwright, the restorer of some of the best early Land Rovers. He would occasionally deliver our milk in a newly restored motor while doing a test drive at the same time! ‘I would get notes from him saying things like “I’ve borrowed a rotor arm and distributor cap from the 80 under the

shed.” Ken regularly visited my loft of parts and once found a tropical grille panel there that was numbered for a pre-production 80. It ended up going on one of his preproduction restorations. ‘In 2006, Ken made me an offer for all the parts in the barn plus the two 80s, due to him wanting some new projects. The money I received, plus a Range Rover CSK I had in bits, were used in the deal to purchase NXC 234H.’ While it clearly is in need of very significant work, the Range Rover was, in Peter’s words, ’in better condition than I thought’ when he pulled it out of storage. Importantly, its major parts are all still there – and though all of them need to be brought back, none are in a condition to suggest that this will be an issue. Peter also has a number of parts which he collected over the years to use in the restoration. ‘These include a very good rear tailgate, body sides in Masai Red, rear corner, overdrive unit and offside front light unit,’ he says. Not everything you’ll need, but everything for a Range Rover of this vintage has to be treated as a rarity now. In addition, Peter says the roof lining is in good condition – not something you’d be expecting. And the original aluminium bonnet is in ‘exceptional’ condition – you’re doing well to find one in any sort of condition at all, so this is a huge bonus. There are also some parts on the vehicle which are, quite simply, irreplaceable. These are the items which, to the eyes of an expert, mark the vehicle out as one of the very earliest. ‘The rear bumper is a pre-production one not found on production models,’ says Peter. ’The rear tailgate upper glass is plain, as found on the earliest motors. It has its original mats under the front carpets, and the Bendix servo is only found on the earliest production models.’ If you’re just after any old Range Rover to tinker with or, worse, abuse, the price of this one will of course have put you off instantly. For someone who recognises the historical value of what they’re looking at here, however, this is an opportunity which, it’s fair to say, is highly unlikely ever to come up again. There’s a huge amount of work to be done in restoring NXC 234H – but once the job is done, the vehicle will be verging on priceless.

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

1 RR News.indd 8

24/06/2024 14:50

250ml

400ml

£18.99

£24.99

£49.00

£21.99 Prices shown are plus P&P. Ametech Automotive Ltd, Technology Centre, Station Road, Framlingham IP13 9EZ

H12 AMETECH AUTOMOTIVE.indd 1 Overlander4x4_2024_04_April_Ametech Automotive Ltd_FP.indd 1

27/01/2023 14:09:12 01/03/2024 10:34

PRODUCTS

Better braking for non-ABS Defenders £75.00-£335.00 | lofclutches.com

More strength to your sump £161.96 plus VAT |

www.psautoparts.co.uk

If you’ve got a Land Rover Defender with a 200 or 300 Tdi, Td5, 2.2 or 2.4 TDCi or V8 engine but not with ABS, LOF’s POWERboost servo kit promises to transform its braking. ‘Double up on your braking performance without spending thousands on big brakes,’ says the company. ‘This kit will enhance the performance of your Defender brake system.’ If you’re running bigger tyres on standard anchors and/or you do a lot of towing, you should already be paying attention. Brake fade is a scary thing, in case you didn’t know. The LOF kit is suitable non-ABS Defenders made after 1992 which run

master cylinder LR013018. It allows you to remove your original brake servo, bolt the LOF POWERboost ring to your brake pedal box then install a later model double diaphragm ABS servo in its place. The new servo doesn’t have to come from LOF, though naturally they’ll sell you one if you want it. Importantly, though, it must be double-diaphragm; LOF says that ‘some of the cheaper ones appear to only have one diaphragm,’ a comment which may put you in the mood for a nice kung po chicken for tea. Using this adapter from LOF, you can then re-mount the original brake master cylinder to the later servo, leaving your reservoir and cylinder in the correct orientation. This doubles up on the servo assistance given to the master cylinder, reducing pedal effort and vastly improving braking performance. LOF says its testing so far has shown braking to be signiﬁcantly better than even that of a Defender with ABS.

People get into off-roading for many reasons. Work, mates and time in the Army are three of the most common ones, but the biggest of them all is of course transfer case sump covers. If you’re nodding your head in agreement, which is surely the case, and if your 4x4 of choice is a pre-Puma Land Rover Defender, a Discovery 1 or a Tdi-engined Range Rover, which must also be fairly likely, this is going to work for you on all the levels. It’s not just a sump cover – it’s a billet transfer case sump oil cooler, complete with fans to help dissipate heat in the sort of conditions that cause it. Designed as a straight replacement for the sump covers supplied as standard equipment, this unit is also stronger than the original. It uses the existing bolts for installation, however you do get a new gasket with it – as well as a plugged port, allowing an oil temperature gauge to be ﬁtted. In addition to its extra strength, the cover adds about half a litre to the vehicle’s oil capacity – without compromising its existing ground clearance. Britpart, which supplies the unit, says it can also work on the Rover V8 engine, but that ﬁrst you need check for clearance behind the existing exhaust pipes.

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

2nd lot Products_AUG24_4pgs.indd 10

24/06/2024 16:35

KIT & CLASSIC CAR PARTS SPECIALIST

ISSUE 37 OUT SOON! ORDER YOUR COPY FROM OUR WEBSITE

www.carbuilder.com Contains Wiring Diagrams Hints & Tips Installation Guides Specification Charts IVA Approved Products

7500+ PRODUCTS

AVAILABLE FOR NEXT DAY DELIVERY Contact Information: 01580 891309 [email protected] Redlands, TN12 0JJ, UK

Overlander4x4_2024_08_Aug_Car Builder Solutions_FP.indd 1

98% Positive Feedback from our great customers

19/06/2024 10:03

PRODUCTS

Carry on camping

£1325 plus VAT | rimmerbros.com

Heavy-duty clutch for current Jimny £205 plus VAT | lofclutches.com

The current Suzuki Jimny is, sadly, destined to remain a rarity in the UK. But if you’ve got one, and you intend to give it the treatment offroad, it won’t be long before you start thinking about the bits between the engine and the axles. Like previous Suzuki off-roaders, the Jimny is too highly geared in low range. If you’re picking your way over very uneven ground, even in low first you’ll need to slip the clutch to keep it from running away – and relying on the engine’s compression for extreme descents will soon turn you into a self-taught expert in cadence braking. And quite possibly the owner of some distinctly second-hand underwear. Seeing the words ‘slip’ and ‘clutch’ in the same sentence won’t please you, and if you’re beefing up a Jimny with raised suspension and taller tyres the situation won’t get any better. We’re not aware of anyone doing a Rock Lobster on one of these yet – it’s only a matter of time, but even then the factory clutch will inevitably be a weak point – especially if you’re loading up with heavy equipment for offroad play or expedition heroics. That’ll be why LOF Clutches has introduced a Jimny GEN4 (2018-on) fitment to its POWERspec range. Specific to the 1.5-litre engine, this is a 190mm, 18-tooth item delivering a +40% clamping load over the original. As usual with LOF, you get a heavy-duty drive plate, cover and release bearing, along with everything else you need to fit it. A two-year warranty is a reassuring thing, too.

If you think roof tents look like a lot of effort, and that it’s a toss-up as to whether they have a more disastrous effect on your truck’s aerodynamics or its clearance under trees, the ARB Flinders is here to confound you. Designed for quick set-up and pack-up, it has a height of just 200mm when packed away, meaning less wind drag and better access to trails with low tree cover – and yet it also offers the added practicality of being able to store all your bedding inside it when it’s folded down. When it’s open, the tent contains a 2400 x 1400mm sleeping area with five zippered windows and a 50mm high-density foam mattress. It’s made using 300gsm polycotton rip-stop canvas and 420D Oxford polyester fly, and it’s total weight is around 56kg. Inside, the tent features a 300 lumen LED touch lamp. You also get two 2.1 amp USB charging points, which connect to a 12-volt outlet within your vehicle.

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

2nd lot Products_AUG24_4pgs.indd 12

24/06/2024 16:35

Longer-range fuel tank for 88” Land Rovers £540 inc VAT | lwww.designdevelopmenteng.co.uk

Interest in leaf-sprung Land Rovers is as strong as ever, and it’s not just for their value as classic cars. People are still restomodding them and fitting more modern engines to replace their old 2.25s – and when they do, one of the first things they tend to discover is that they need a bigger fuel tank. Step right up Design Development Engineering, manufacturer of so much clever stuff for older Landies, with its Land Rover Series 88” Extended Range Fuel Tank. Made from 3mm aluminium with a 5mm heavy-duty bash cradle, this increases the vehicle’s capacity to 66 litres – a useful increase over the standard 45. ‘This tank is suitable for petrol and diesel models with flow and return pipes,’ says the company. ‘So ideal for Tdi engines or V8s, when a little more range is needed.’ It comes with a CNC machined stainless extended pick-up tube housing a micro filter, as well a fitting kit (these are specific to left and right-hand drive) containing all the gaskets and stainless fittings you’ll need. This is a replacement unit rather than an auxiliary one, so you need to remove your old tank first (on some trucks, nature may already have beaten you to it) and cut off its front outrigger (ditto). You also have to source Land Rover’s own single-point rear mounting set-up, which isn’t supplied – but after that, you’re on a roll.

RLG Tyres

Tyres cheap. Not cheap tyres!!

OFFICIAL STOCKIST

Main supplier of and all major 4x4 tyres

Groundcare • Car • ATV • Tubes • Mobile Tyre Fitting Puncture Equipment & Repairs • Four Wheel Alignment Durrants Farm, Rushlake Green, Heathfield, East Sussex TN21 9QB

Workshop: 01435 830664 Mobile: 07710 372672 Email: [email protected]

www.rlgtyres.co.uk

4x4 Magazine_2023_Feb_RLG Tyres_QP.indd 1

2nd lot Products_AUG24_4pgs.indd 13

August 2024 I Overlander 4x4

11/01/2023 17:23

24/06/2024 16:35

PRODUCTS

The Tough get seated £297.18-£485.52 inc VAT |

www.expedition-equipment.com

Tougher seat covers. It’s not just a description, it’s a brand. Tougher is a South African company which specialises in producing ‘sturdy, breathable and comfortable seat covers and accessories that shield your vehicle’s interior from the rigours of those rugged and muddy environments.’ In this case, the vehicle is the Ineos Grenadier. If you’re buying heavy-duty seat covers for one of these, there’s a pretty strong chance you’re intending to use it for overland travel, so it’s quite appropriate that they’re available in the UK via APB’s www.expedition-equipment.com site. The Tougher covers are available in a choice of polycotton and 100% cotton canvas fabrics; you can specify Charcoal and Light Khaki colours in the former, and Light Khaki and Dove Grey in the latter. You also get to choose whether you want to cover just your front seats or the rears too.

Cool T-shirts for early Land Rover fans £25.00 | retroclassicclothing.com

Retro Classic designs T-shirts inspired by nostalgia for a bygone age of motoring. Not that old-school Land Rovers actually are bygone, strictly speaking, because most of them are still around, but here’s a trio of leafers printed on 100% cotton. It sounds like the guy who designed them has a personal connection to the vehicles, too. One of them features ‘a printed gritty graphic representation of a short-wheelbase Series I, similar to the Land Rover soft-top that my dad had.’ In the pictures, that’s the one looking at the back of the vehicle. There’s another Series I T-shirt in the range, this one simply showing a 1956-58 example from front-on, then there’s

a third seen from the side. ‘This T-shirt is in memory of my Uncle Andy, who sadly passed away in 2020,’ explains the caption. ‘The design features his pride and joy; a shortwheelbase Land Rover Series I all-terrain work vehicle that he used for shoots and transporting his much-loved working springer spaniels.’ In each case, what you get is a modern-ﬁt, 100% cotton, 180gsm crew-neck T-shirt with twin-needle stitching on the neck and shoulders. They’re available in sizes from XS up to 4XL, so that should cover most off-roaders except the vaguely bigger ones.

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

2nd lot Products_AUG24_4pgs.indd 14

24/06/2024 16:35

SPECIALISTS IN LAND ROVER & 4X4

SERVICING > REPAIRS & MOT > EXPEDITION PREPERATION > SPARES & ACCESSORIES > OUTDOOR EQUIPMENT

OVERLAND ACCESSORIES • We supply spares and accessories for the whole range of

Land Rover 4×4’s including Discovery, Range Rover, Freelander, and service and repair a wide range of 4×4’s to include Toyota, Mitsubishi Daihatsu, Nissan, Pajero and Isuzu

• Our adventure travel emporium supplies a vast range of gear for the overland traveller and camper

• We repair, fit-out, service and maintain vehicles and offer a

specialized preparation service for adventure travel vehicles at our Hartlebury premises.

CANOPY ACCESSORIES • The Bushtech Canopy range has been designed with

ultimate modularity and functionality in mind, allowing you to easily attach and detach our accessories in seconds, giving you endless configurations

• All our canopies are manufactured with custom aluminium extrusions giving them an industry leading strength to weight ratio.

CALL US NOW ON

01299 250174 [email protected]

www.expedition-equipment.com Overlander4x4_2024_02February_APB Trading_FP.indd 1

30/01/2024 12:51

PRAGUEM The original Skoda Kodiaq was dangerously close to being perfect. So for its replacement, the Czech company has taken a pragmatic approach to the subject of ﬁxing what ain’t broke Words: Alan Kidd Pictures: Skoda

e’ve previously described the Skoda Kodiaq as the best vehicle never to win 4x4 of the Year. It arrived in 2017 and kick-started a new era for the Czech company, moving it further away than ever from its dodgy old roots and entrenching it in the mainstream as a brand that’s not just acceptable, it’s aspirational. Our editor tells the story of a friend whose family owns a giant country estate in the south-west of England. Proper old money, and lots of it. Her car of choice? Not a Bentley, not a Roller, not even a

Range Rover, but a Kodiaq – and she absolutely loves it. That’s just a one-off anecdote, of course, but it’s an illustration of how far Skoda has come – and of the job the company has on its hands with the new Kodiaq, which has to replace a full-on superstar. The ﬁrst-generation Kodiaq excelled by, well, excelling: it was good at everything. Beautifully made, enjoyable to drive and fantastically practical, it was not just easy to live with but a joy to live with. We had one for a year on long-term test and we were very, very sorry to see it go home. It

wasn’t ﬂashy and showy like so many of the more premium SUVs, but nothing made you happier just to have it around. Do the school run in a Lambo Urus, and kids will stare at you (we know, because we have): do it in a Kodiaq, and it’s the other parents that will be giving you a second glance. That’s what this new Kodiaq has to live up to. And very sensibly indeed, Skoda aims to do that by making the same vehicle all over again. It’s not actually the same, of course. The new Kodiaq is based on a new Volkswagen Group platform and has updated styling,

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

4pp Kodiaq.indd 16

22/06/2024 08:49

EMATISM

with a sharper front end that’s in keeping with Skoda’s latest design language, and of course it has a new range of powertrains. It is, fundamentally, a new vehicle from nose to tail – however the familiarity of its body, cabin design and seven-seat layout means anyone who’s lived with the old one will feel instantly at home when they climb on board. At launch, those new powertrains are a 1.5 TSI petrol with 150bhp and a 2.0 TDI diesel with 150 or 193bhp. The latter is only available with all-wheel drive, which in turn is only available with the 193 engine.

Something else that’s the only thing available is automatic transmission. All the above engines come as standard with a 7-speed DSG unit; in the coming months, the range will also gain a plug-in hybrid version of the 1.5 TSI unit and this too has an auto box, albeit a different one to the others. Skoda says the PHEV will have an EV range of around 75 miles, which sounds kind of game-changing – especially as it won’t be the most expensive model in the range. The 2.0 TDI 193 4x4 gets that honour On that subject, the range starts at £36,645 and climbs to £46,225. There are

two trim levels, called SE and SE L; the high-performance vRS model will be making a comeback towards the end of the year however this time, there’s no Scout model. That’s a pity, because to us it perfectly illustrated the sense of adventure an SUV should be all about. It will still be available in Europe but it clearly didn’t sell well enough in the UK to make the cut. That said, of the 55,000 ﬁrst-gen Kodiaqs sold in Britain, 46% had all-wheel drive – so a very signiﬁcant number of buyers wanted to spend the extra money on it. That stat pales, however, in comparison to the other

August 2024 I Overlander 4x4

4pp Kodiaq.indd 17

22/06/2024 08:49

big choice Kodiaq customers have had to make. Five or seven-seater? A whopping 90% invested in the latter. Which brings us to the new one. Those figures look set to change, with there only being one 4x4 model available, but there’s certainly no shortage of five-seat options. Indeed, if you want a PHEV at this stage it’s only available minus the third row. So, different but the same and the same but different. The launch event gave us the opportunity to drive the higher-spec SE L in 1.5 TSI, 2.0 TDI 150 and 2.0 TDI 193 4x4 form. None of them for more than a couple of hours, but that was enough to let us form our first impressions – which, overall, are that it’s less different and more the same. Well, Skoda didn’t come this far by fixing what wasn’t broke. First things first: when you get on board, the dash feels more uncluttered than before. Not that ‘cluttered’ is a word we would ever have used for it. The media screen is huge – it’s mounted on the dash rather than in it, which can lend an aftermarket feel, but there’s none of that here. Its graphic are excellent and, while it didn’t always react as quickly as we expected to inputs, finding your way around it seems to make sense from what we’ve seen so far.

There’s loads of adjustability in the front seats and, however much of it you use, huge legroom in the second row. This folds quite close to flat, as does the third row, creating a vast cargo bay whose mildly double-sloping floor won’t prevent it from swallowing an enormous load of whatever you want to put in it. Going from vehicle to vehicle to vehicle, our impression was that the driving position is a touch higher this time, giving you more of a traditional 4x4-like view. If you’re coming to it from something like a Discovery, that will feel reassuringly familiar, though if you long for everything to be a sports car it might make you feel perched rather than ensconced. To start with, the first of the Kodiaqs we drove (the 1.5 TSI) rode absolutely beautifully over a good variety of roads. Smooth, quiet, just the job. Later on, we felt some pattering and jolting in the 2.0 TDIs; all three were on the same 19” rims, so whether this was down to differences in the roads, or the extra weight of the diesels, we can’t conclude. What we certainly can say is that none of them rode badly – one was superb while two were merely good. Talking of superb things, the roads on the launch route offered some magnificent

scenery. They weren’t the kind that let you get to grips with a vehicle’s steering and handling, though, and it felt like we managed about five miles without some combination of vans, cars and pushbikes crawling, dithering and pottering along in front of us, so that will have to come later after we’ve had a Kodiaq in for a proper test. So too will motorway driving – though we certainly can say with some confidence that it’s a piece of cake to drive around town, with light, easy steering and excellent visibility inspiring complete confidence in traffic. No shade on the launch route from us, though. Because it included something that’s become almost extinct – a totally memorable off-road experience. Skoda routed us on to a vastly long, wide sandy beach and left us to it. Playtime! I’ve not been to Fraser Island, with its legendary 75 Mile Beach, and I suppose by contrast this one was maybe only two or three, but with it all to ourselves it was like being the only people on the planet. What we learned was that even a twowheel drive Kodiaq is capable of putting down good traction in soft conditions. We learned that throwing it from side to side can provoke mild slides but that it would take way more than that for it to let go

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

4pp Kodiaq.indd 18

22/06/2024 08:49

A revised grille is at the heart of the Kodiaq’s new look. We’re not yet entirely sold on it, but it’s not offensive and is sharper than the old one

altogether (obviously sand is no place for thrashy doughnuts, unless you want to end up fetching one over on to its roof). We learned that even in a modern car, deep, soft sand is alarmingly good at sapping an engine’s power. And we learned that the combination of a good chassis and mainly unobtrusive traction management allows you to have fun without constantly having to fear the rug being pulled from under you. One area where the electronics did put a bit of a wet blanket over proceedings was when we tried to have a unilateral Pendinestyle hot rod drag race. There’s no obvious way we can see of giving nanny the day off; a lurid great wheel-spinning getaway would have been fun, even without a tuned flathead under the hood, but that didn’t appear to be on the menu. Yeah, yeah, we know, this is a sensible vehicle… It’s sensible, and it’s also thoroughly good at everything it does. Just like the one it replaces, then. We’re looking forward to getting deeper into it with the new Kodiaq, but for now we can say that they’ve done it all over again. Which, when ‘it’ is the best vehicle never to win 4x4 of the Year, is a pretty good start. When the time comes to dish out this year’s awards, for sure, Skoda has one of the ones to beat.

The 2.0TDI 193 engine is available exclusively with all-wheel drive at the top of the Kodiaq range. Even the plug-in hybrid, when it arrives, won’t cost as much The cabin feels familiar but is noticeably different, with a large media screen and digital instrument binnacle at the heart of a new design. There are a lot less physical controls now, which removes what little clutter there might have been before. The light grey trip running horizontally across the width of the dash on its upward facing surface looks like fabric, in a promisingly Enyaj kind of a way, but turns out to be smooth plastic – a bit of an ergonomics fail, though perceived quality and overall build in general are both excellent

With the second and third rows folded, the Kodiaq can accommodate a huge load of luggage. Both lie a little way off flat, but the sheer volume of room on offer is overwhelming – as is the traditional boot space when running in five-seater mode August 2024 I Overlander 4x4

4pp Kodiaq.indd 19

22/06/2024 08:49

1000 mm 1000 mm

700 mm 198 mm

700 mm

550 mm

1000 mm

700 mm

1000 mm 550 mm

1000 mm 700 mm

198 mm

700 mm

1000 mm

4x4 Clutch Range

WORLDWIDE

WARRANTY 1000 mm 1000 Three spec’s to suit your needs mm Road going vehicles | Heavy Towing Trucks | Off Road Competition

700 mm

Here at LOF Clutches we have the cost effective solution!

RATED BY CUSTOMERS

Overlander4x4_2024_06_June_LVB_HP.indd 1

ROAD | POWER | EXTREME

198 mm

700• +40% mm HIGHER TORQUE CAPACITY

WWW.LOFCLUTCHES.COM

ROADspec

WORLDWIDE • HD WOVEN ORGANIC MATERIAL • 1000 HIGH TORQUE mm SPRUNG FRICTION PLATE SHIPPING

700 mm

• COMPLETE WITH RELEASE BEARING & SPIGOT BUSH • ALIGNMENT TOOL AND FASTENERS • 2 YEAR LOF GUARANTEE

550 mm • +20% HIGHER TORQUE CAPACITY 1000 mm

WWW.LOFCLUTCHES.COM

700 mm 700 mm

• HD WOVEN ORGANIC MATERIAL • HIGH TORQUE SPRUNG FRICTION PLATE • COMPLETE WITH RELEASE BEARING & SPIGOT BUSH • ALIGNMENT TOOL AND FASTENERS • 2 YEAR LOF GUARANTEE

• HD WOVEN ORGANIC MATERIAL • HIGH TORQUE SPRUNG FRICTION PLATE • COMPLETE WITH HD RELEASE BEARING • SPIGOT BUSH, ALIGNMENT TOOL AND FASTENERS • 2 YEAR LOF GUARANTEE

4x4 Clutch Range

Road going vehicles | Heavy Towing Trucks | Off Road Competition 2 YEAR LOF WARRANTY

POWERspec RATED BY Clutch Pedal?

700• +40% mm HIGHER TORQUE CAPACITY • HD WOVEN ORGANIC MATERIAL 1000 mm • HIGH TORQUE SPRUNG FRICTION PLATE

198 mm

• OE Spec plain dises • DE specbrake pads • Uses original Calipers • Complete with full fitting kit

700 mm

• COMPLETE WITH RELEASE BEARING & SPIGOT BUSH • ALIGNMENT TOOL AND FASTENERS • 2 YEAR LOF GUARANTEE

550 mm • +20% HIGHER TORQUE CAPACITY 1000 mm

700 mm HIGHER TORQUE CAPACITY 700• +40% mm

700 mm 700 mm

• HD WOVEN ORGANIC MATERIAL • HIGH TORQUE SPRUNG FRICTION PLATE • COMPLETE WITH RELEASE BEARING & SPIGOT BUSH • ALIGNMENT TOOL AND FASTENERS • 2 YEAR LOF GUARANTEE

• HD WOVEN ORGANIC MATERIAL • HIGH TORQUE SPRUNG FRICTION PLATE • COMPLETE WITH HD RELEASE BEARING • SPIGOT BUSH, ALIGNMENT TOOL AND FASTENERS • 2 YEAR LOF GUARANTEE

MORE THAN100 UK APPROVED INSTALLERS

• Performance Dimpled, Grooved and vented discs • Performance brake pads • Uses original Calipers • Complete with full fitting kit

RATED BY CUSTOMERS

1000 mm

550 mm

4x4 Clutch Range

WORLDWIDE

EXTREMEspec

MORE THAN100 UK

• Forged Aluminum calipers

ROADspec

ROAD | POWER | EXTREME

POWERspec

Heavy Land Rover Clutch Pedal?

Here at LOF Clutches we have the cost effective solution!

WWW.LOFCLUTCHES.COM WWW.LOFCLUTCHES.COM

Heavy Land Rover Clutch Pedal?

• +20% HIGHER TORQUE CAPACITY • HD WOVEN ORGANIC MATERIAL • HIGH TORQUE SPRUNG FRICTION PLATE • COMPLETE WITH HD RELEASE BEARING • SPIGOT BUSH, ALIGNMENT TOOL AND FASTENERS • 2 YEAR LOF GUARANTEE

4x4ROADspec Clutch 2WARRANTY Range YEAR LOF ROAD | POWER | EXTREME

WORLDWIDE SHIPPING

POWERspec ROAD | POWER | EXTREME 2 YEAR LOF

WARRANTY Dedicated Heavy Duty Land Rover Clutch Specialist WARRANTY

RATED BY CUSTOMERS

Here at LOF Clutches we have the cost effective solution! • +40% HIGHER TORQUE CAPACITY • HD WOVEN ORGANIC MATERIAL • HIGH TORQUE SPRUNG FRICTION PLATE • COMPLETE WITH RELEASE BEARING & SPIGOT BUSH • ALIGNMENT TOOL AND FASTENERS • 2 YEAR LOF GUARANTEE

• +20% HIGHER TORQUE CAPACITY • HD WOVEN ORGANIC MATERIAL • HIGH TORQUE SPRUNG FRICTION PLATE • COMPLETE WITH HD RELEASE BEARING • SPIGOT BUSH, ALIGNMENT TOOL AND FASTENERS • +20% HIGHER TORQUE CAPACITY 2 YEAR LOF GUARANTEE • HD WOVEN• ORGANIC MATERIAL

• +40% HIGHER TORQUE CAPACITY • HD WOVEN ORGANIC MATERIAL • HIGH TORQUE SPRUNG FRICTION PLATE • COMPLETE WITH RELEASE BEARING & SPIGOT BUSH • ALIGNMENT TOOL AND FASTENERS • +40% HIGHER TORQUE CAPACITY 2 YEAR LOF GUARANTEE • HD WOVEN ORGANIC• MATERIAL

• HIGH TORQUE SPRUNG FRICTION PLATE • COMPLETE WITH HD RELEASE BEARING • SPIGOT BUSH, ALIGNMENT TOOL AND FASTENERS • 2 YEAR LOF GUARANTEE

• HIGH TORQUE SPRUNG FRICTION PLATE • COMPLETE WITH RELEASE BEARING & SPIGOT BUSH • ALIGNMENT TOOL AND FASTENERS • 2 YEAR LOF GUARANTEE

MORE THAN100 UK APPROVED INSTALLERS

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

Overlander4x4_August2024_Composite pages.indd 20

WORLDWIDE SHIPPING

Three spec’s to suit your needs POWERspecRoad going vehicles 2 YEARTrucks LOF | Off Road Competition | Heavy Towing

ROADspec

4x4 Magazine_2023_July_LOF Clutches_HP.indd 1

• Bolt on kits to suit both 18 and 16" Wheels

SHIPPING 4x4 Clutch Range

ROAD | POWER | EXTREME

• Forged Aluminum calipers • 345mm Drilled, Grooved and vented discs • Performance brake pads • Bolt on kits to suit both and 16" Wheels The18complete solution supplied with everythhing required

ROAD | POWER | EXTREME

RATED BY CUSTOMERS

Dedicated Heavy Duty Land Rover Clutch Specialist ROADspec • OE Spec plain dises Three spec’s to suit your needs • DE specbrake pads Road going vehicles • Uses original Calipers | Heavy Towing Trucks | Off Road Competition • Complete with full fitting kit

1000 mm

700 mm

MORE THAN100 UK APPROVED INSTALLERS

198 mm 1000 mm 1000 mm

POWERspec 700 mm • Performance Dimpled, Grooved and vented discs • Performance brake pads • Uses original Calipers • Complete with full fitting kit

700 mm

1000 mm

EXTREMEspec Performance Land Rover Brake Kits • Forged Aluminum calipers • 345mm Drilled, Grooved and vented discs • Performance brake pads • Bolt on kits to suit both and 16" Wheels The18complete solution supplied with everythhing required

1000 mm

ROAD | POWER | EXTREME

Dedicated Heavy Duty Land Rover Clutch Specialist

ROADspec

Brake Kits

Three spec’s to suit your needs ROAD | POWER | EXTREME • OE Spec plain dises

Road going vehicles • DE specbrake pads | Heavy Towing Trucks | Off Road Competition

• Uses original Calipers Dedicated Heavy Duty Land Rover Clutch Specialist • Complete with full Three spec’s tofitting suitkityour needs

ROADspec

Road going vehicles | Heavy Towing Trucks | Off Road Competition

POWERspec

RATED BY CUSTOMERS

198 mm 1000 mm 1000 mm

EXTREMEspec Performance Land Rover Brake Kits

WARRANTY

POWERspec

RATED BY CUSTOMERS

29/04/2024 11:20

1000 mm 700 mm • Performance Dimpled,

POWERspec Grooved and vented discs • Performance brake pads • Uses original Calipers • Complete with full fitting kit

ROAD | POWER | EXTREME

Three spec’s to suit your needs Road going vehicles | Heavy Towing Trucks | Off Road Competition

Here at LOF Clutches we have the cost effective solution!

700 mm

POWERspec 2 YEAR LOF Dedicated Heavy Duty Land Rover Clutch Specialist

ROADspec

Heavy Land Rover CUSTOMERS

fitting kit

ROADspec

ROAD |Three POWER spec’s |toEXTREME suit your needs

MORE THAN100 UK APPROVED INSTALLERS

1000 mm 1000 mm

700 mm HIGHER TORQUE CAPACITY 700• +40% mm

• OE Spec plain dises

• DE specbrake pads Three spec’s to suit your needs • Uses original Calipers Road going vehicles • Complete with full | Heavy Towing Trucks | Off Road Competition

RATED BY CUSTOMERS1000 mm

1000 mm 1000 mm

1000 mm ROADspec Dedicated Heavy Duty Land Rover Clutch Specialist

WWW.LOFBRAKES.COM

700 mm

The complete solution supplied with everythhing required

POWERspec Dedicated Heavy Duty Land Rover Clutch 2 YEARSpecialist LOF

ROADspec

Heavy Land Rover 550Clutch mm Pedal? 700 mm

Performance Land Rover Brake Kits

ROAD | POWER | EXTREME

WWW.LOFBRAKES.COM

2 YEAR LOF WARRANTY

TDCI | TD5 | 200TDI | 300TDI | SERIES | V8 | FL1 | FL2

POWERspec

ROADspec

WORLDWIDE SHIPPING

ROAD | POWER | EXTREME

• Performance Dimpled, Grooved and vented discs • Performance brake pads • Uses original Calipers • Complete with full fitting kit

EXTREMEspec • Forged Aluminum calipers • 345mm Drilled, Grooved and vented discs • Performance brake pads • Bolt on kits to suit both 18 and 16" Wheels

WWW.LOFBRAKES.COM

4x4 Clutch Range

WWW.LOFBRAKES.COM

ROAD | POWER | EXTREME

• OE Spec plain dises • DE specbrake pads • Uses original Calipers • Complete with full fitting kit

POWERspec • Performance Dimpled, Grooved and vented discs • Performance brake pads • Uses original Calipers • Complete with full fitting kit

EXTREMEspec • Forged Aluminum calipers • 345mm Drilled, Grooved and vented discs • Performance brake pads • Bolt on kits to suit both 18 and 16" Wheels

26/09/2023 13:01

24/06/2024 15:20

4X4 & ATV TRAINING THE COUNTRY’S PREMIER 4X4 & ATV TRAINING CENTRE, & TEAM CORPORATE ENTERTAINMENT TS … BUILDING ACTIVITY SPECIALIS • STAG PARTIES • 4x4 TRAINING • TEAM BUILDING TI ACTIVITY • ARCHERY • BLIND DRIVING • MUL • CAN AM SAFARI UPS GRO EVENTS FOR CORPORATE & LE ILAB AVA RS CHE VOU • LASER CLAYS • GIFT

Struggling to steer? The answer is here!

.uk www.protraxoverlandadventures.co

MOROCCO ADVENTURE

WALES WEEKEND TRIP

3116681 Tel: 01536 772238 or| 0797 w.protrax.co.uk E-mail: [email protected]

JEC_2023_09_September_Lit-Steer_QP.indd 1 Overlander4x4_2024_08_August_Lite-Steer_QP.indd 1

21/08/2023 16:06 24/06/2024 12:35

SCAN HERE FOR APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS

AUGUST 2024 I Overlander 4x4

Overlander4x4_August2024_Composite pages.indd 21

24/06/2024 15:20

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED 22

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

4pp EV9 Houndkirk.indd 22

22/06/2024 08:33

ix months ago, Kia flew Britain’s motoring press to Inverness for the UK launch of the new EV9. We spent a lot of time behind the wheel and got to experience the vehicle in all sorts of various conditions and on all sorts of roads – but we didn’t get a sniff of anything not covered in tarmac. But this is a big, premium SUV with all-wheel drive. Not price-pointed against the Range Rover, perhaps, but in its own way Kia’s equivalent to that kind of vehicle. It doesn’t need to be able to get you across the Darien Gap, maybe (that was then and this is now), but it does still need to be a credible way of getting you to the other end of a rough track. Houndkirk Moor, a very well loved byway west of Sheffield, is a rougher track than anyone who buys an EV9 (or rather who leases one, or more likely gets one through their company) will ever attempt. Is that too bold a statement? I suppose short of shouting FACT like some loser on Facebook, it can’t be proven, but I wouldn’t mind betting this was the most extreme thing anyone in Britain has ever done in one of these vehicles. And it made it look like a stroll in the park. Let’s start by winding back to the beginning. Late last year, we were among the first to give the EV9 an award when it won the Luxury SUV class in 4x4 of the Year 2024. Back in good old Facebook land, some of the resident know-nothings you get on social media responded with those ‘laugh’ reacts that are meant to mean ‘I find your joke funny’ but have long since come to be used as a way of mocking people instead, but since then it’s had several more so it looks like maybe we were right.

Driving it again now, we were reminded of why it encouraged us to make such a controversial choice. It’s the combination of a superb driving position, fabulously comfortable seats (our only criticism of which is that the massage they give you doesn’t last long enough), outstanding quality of build and materials, sensational practicality and a gloriously reﬁned drive. Yes, it’s an EV so there’s no engine noise, but that really is just the start. Around town, on the motorway, over A and B-roads… it just doesn’t feel challenged by anything. It handles well, too, with a very poised chassis and steering that can be tuned using the drive mode buttons to match what the powertrain is capable of delivering. And oh, it can deliver. We didn’t really suss this out on the launch event, but you can absolutely roast the opposition from a standing start. As it should with 378bhp, backed up by 516lbf.ft. The quoted 0-62 time is 5.3 seconds, which is fast enough for a 2664kg seven-seater, but what’s really impressive is the way the ﬁrst half of that is seen off more or less instantaneously. It’s a very quick A-to-B vehicle, pretty much as quick as you want it to be on a cross-country mission, but for hooligan fun it makes a mind-blowing street sleeper.

Cross-country mission

Anyway, we’re on another kind of crosscountry mission. The kind where you don’t go quickly – especially not if ground clearance (177mm), big overhangs (875mm front, 1040 rear) and low-proﬁle road tyres 285/45R21 are writ large in your mind, but just not at all. Houndkirk is a public right of way and you’re sharing it with others – we’ve been up there loads of times and

The Kia EV9 is very good at appearing unchallenged by anything. Taking one off-tarmac for the ﬁrst time, can it add green laning to the list of tasks it dismisses with ease? Words Olly Sack Pictures Richard Hair

August 2024 I Overlander 4x4

4pp EV9 Houndkirk.indd 23

22/06/2024 08:33

‘Houndkirk Moor is a rougher track than anyone who buys an EV9 will ever attempt – and probably a good 95% of those who get a new-shape Defender, too’

never failed to meet some combination of dog walkers, joggers, mountain bikers, horse riders, ramblers, other 4x4 drivers and one one hilarious occasion a National Trust warden who assured us she’d never seen anyone doing it in a Bentley before. All of which means any references to hooligan fun must remain firmly at the lights. The EV9’s underside bumped gently on the ground once, only, the whole way along the trail. We could have changed that by picking the sort of route you might if you were in a Defender on a big lift and 35” tyres, however we’re not out to prove that kind of point. We’re here to let this big, amazingly posh and stunningly high-tech vehicle show us that it can make its way over rough terrain (in the context of what the vehicle is, as we always say, but undeniably rough nonetheless) without making us regret getting out of bed. There are parts of Houndkirk Moor which, in a vehicle like the EV9 with relatively short-stroke suspension, will lift wheels off the ground. It’s here that I’m wondering whether traction will falter the way it might in a diesel-engined SUV with traditional props and diffs. But there’s not even a flicker of doubt – it just crawls along, the motors never once hesitating and the wheels, fat low-profile tyres notwithstanding, pulling it along like caterpillar tracks. No, there was no deep, wet mud; but no, even if there had been we wouldn’t have gone near it. Terrain in context, remember? Instead, we’re easing our way over rocks. Sometimes flat like a natural pavement, sometimes more prominent where decades of rainwater runoff have etched the softer ground out from between them. There are big ones to steer clear of and gullies to be crossed, one wheel at a time to protect those long overhangs. Ease in, squeeze out and so it goes on – here was where the transmission was at its best, managing the motors’ torque so astutely it never allowed even a split second of wheelspin.

Picking a line

You soon realise that it’s all about just picking a line to keep the underbody clear of the ground. The vehicle can’t exactly look after that for itself, but you certainly can leave it to keep you moving. So long as the tyres are able to find grip on the ground, you’re in business. Talking of tyres, though, a 285/45R21 with the construction of a road tyre will

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

4pp EV9 Houndkirk.indd 24

22/06/2024 08:33

INTRODUCING THE ALL-NEW

WILDPEAK A/T TRAIL AND WILDPEAK R/T01

WILDPEAK A/T TRAIL

WILDPEAK R/T01

Wildpeak A/T Trail - Rugged Crossover Capability Built for adventure delivering rugged off-road capability without compromise on the open road. Featuring the Three-Peak mountain snowflake, the Wildpeak A/T Trail encourages adventure seeking crossover owners to discover true all-weather capability. Wildpeak R/T01 - Bold, Rugged Terrain Capability Developed for 4x4’s and SUV’s this tyre sets the standard for the new rugged terrain tyre category. Providing the tenacious off-road traction of a mud tyre while retaining the tread life and stability of an all-terrain, professional Off-Road tyre with POR marking.

For further information and to find your local stockist please visit www.falkentyre.com/en or www.4site4x4tyres.co.uk Overlander4x4_2024_08_Aug_Southam Tyres_FP.indd 1

12/06/2024 12:09

35226

65 NEW

18V ½" IMPACT WRENCH

SUPERSTORES NATIONWIDE

3 forward and reverse gears

£FROM ONLY .98 DOUBLE exc.VAT DOUBLE FOOTER £119.98 inc.VAT

450NM BRUSHLESS

2 2AH X

Model Desc Batteries exc.VAT CCIW160 Cordless 2X 2AH £99.98 LI-ION CIR184LIP Cordless 2X 4AH £144.99 LI-ION

inc.VAT £119.98 £173.99

Britain’s Tools & Machinery Specialist

MIG WELDERS

MMA/TIG/MULTI

Quality machines from Britain’s leading supplier See online for included accessories

FROM ONLY £ DOUBLE .99 exc.VAT DOUBLE £116.39 FOOTER inc.VAT

FROM ONLY

HIGH VELOCITY FANS

18"

PRICE CUT NOW FROM ONLY £ .98

135TE

39exc.VAT

MMA/TIG 120

£47.98 inc.VAT DOUBLE

WAS £52.79 inc.VAT

NEW

MIG200 S-MULTI Model PRO90 135TE Turbo 151TE Turbo

Min/Max Amps exc.VAT 25-90 £249.00 30-130 £289.98 30-150 £345.00

inc.VAT £298.80 £347.98 £414.00

Min-Max Model exc.VAT Amp MMA/TIG 120 10A - 120A £96.99 MMA/TIG 200 10A - 200A £139.98 MIG200 S-MULTI 20A - 200A £599.00

GENERATORS

inc.VAT £116.39 £167.98 £718.80

20SPS12 FROM ONLY £ DOUBLE .98 exc.VAT DOUBLE FOOTER £107.98 inc.VAT

Model Capacity exc.VAT 20SPS12 907kg £89.98 25SPS12 1134kg £124.99

ALSO

INVERTER GENERATORS FROM £238.80

PG3800A

Model KVA HP exc.VAT PG2500A 2.2 5.6 £209.00 PG3800A 3 5.6 £239.00 PG3800ADV 3 5.6 £279.00 PG6500ADVES 5.5 9.7 £519.00

inc.VAT £250.80 £286.80 £334.80 £622.80

UP TO inc.VAT 7938KG £107.98 CAPACITY £149.99 IN STOCK

FROM ONLY £ DOUBLE .99 exc.VAT DOUBLE FOOTER £116.39 inc.VAT

IG950D HEADER

model IG950D IG1700F IG1200D IG2000D IG2200A

B = Bench mounted F = Floor standing

Starting Peak Boost Amps exc.VAT 400 900 £96.99 500 1100 £96.99 1100 2200 £164.99 1000 2000 £179.98

199exc.VAT

Model AC5000B AC7050 AC10050 AC13050

Cooling Capacity 5000 BTU/h 7000 BTU/h 9000 BTU/h 12000 BTU/h

inc.VAT £116.39 £116.39 £197.99 £215.98

£ DOUBLE .99 DOUBLE exc.VAT FOOTER £51.59 inc.VAT

exc.VAT 89 DOUBLE FOOTER £107.98 inc.VAT

£ DOUBLE .98

PARTS WASHERS FROM ONLY £ DOUBLE .98 exc.VAT DOUBLE FOOTER £71.98 inc.VAT

PLS265B FROM ONLY DOUBLE.00

CW1D

DOUBLE £322.80 FOOTER inc.VAT

Model Tiger1800B Tiger2600B Tiger3000B PLS195B PLS220 PLS265B PLS360 DLS200AL*

*Diesel Pressure Engine BAR/Psi HP exc.VAT inc.VAT 110/1595 3 £269.00 £322.80 180/2610 4 £379.00 £454.80 200/2900 6.5 £399.00 £478.80 180/2640 5.5 £479.00 £574.80 230/3335 9 £679.00 £814.80 225/3263 13 £749.00 £898.80 248/3600 13 £998.00 £1197.60 200/2900 8.5 £2399.00 £2878.80

Model CTC900C CTC500C CBB209C CTC700C CTC1300C CBB217C

Description 9 Dr Chest 5 Dr Cabinet 9 Dr Chest 7 Dr Cabinet 13 Dr Set 7 Dr Cabinet

CTJ2GLS Saddle exc. inc. Model Type Tonne Height VAT VAT CTJ2L Long 2 378mm £42.99 £51.59 CTJ3000C Pro Garage 3 465mm £152.99 £183.59 CTJ2QLP* Low Quick 2 510mm £159.98 £191.98 Lift CTJ2GLS Long 2 805mm £269.00 £322.80

* WAS £179.98 inc.VAT # WAS £226.80 inc.VAT inc.VAT CW2D ‡ WAS £275.98 inc.VAT Tank £107.98 Model Cap. Type exc.VAT inc.VAT £179.98 £185.99 CW2D 10Ltrs Bench £59.98 £71.98 £215.98 CW1D* 45Ltrs Floor £144.99 £173.99 £227.98 CWM20# 22.5Ltrs Floor £179.00 £214.80 £334.80 CW40‡ 75Ltrs Floor £219.00 £262.80

exc.VAT £89.98 £149.98 £154.99 £179.98 £189.98 £279.00

1 TONNE CRANES CFC100

GARAGES/WORKSHOPS

FROM ONLY £ DOUBLE.00

249exc.VAT DOUBLE FOOTER £298.80 inc.VAT

IDEAL FOR RAIN & SUN PROTECTION

HARRY 2 145 Bar 2103 psi

CWGC100

519

£ FROM ONLY .00 DOUBLEexc.VAT DOUBLE £622.80 FOOTER inc.VAT

589

£ FROM ONLY .00

DOUBLEexc.VAT DOUBLE £706.80 FOOTER inc.VAT

INC. CONTAINER FOR DETERGENT

AMAZING LOW PRICE!

Model BAR Press. VOLT exc.VAT inc.VAT Harry 2 145 2103psi 230 £589.00 £706.80 KING 200 150 2175psi 230 £1169.00 £1402.80

169 DOUBLEexc.VAT DOUBLE £203.98 FOOTER inc.VAT

£ FROM ONLY .98

FROM ONLY HEADER

.98 exc.VAT 219 £263.98 inc.VAT

FAST ACTION PUMP

TONNES

CS10BRK

Fast snap connector attachments for quick & easy assembly Hydraulic pump, ram & hose with various tubes, pieces & connectors Includes metal case

VISIT YOUR LOCAL SUPERSTORE Open Mon-Fri 8.30-6.00, Sat 8.30-5.30, Sun 10.00-4.00 BARNSLEY Pontefract Rd, Barnsley, S71 1HA 01226 732297 B’HAM GREAT BARR 4 Birmingham Rd. 0121 358 7977 B’HAM HAY MILLS 1152 Coventry Rd, Hay Mills 0121 7713433 BOLTON 1 Thynne St. BL3 6BD 01204 365799 BRADFORD 105-107 Manningham Lane. BD1 3BN 01274 390962 BRIGHTON 123 Lewes Rd, BN2 3QB 01273 915999 BRISTOL 1-3 Church Rd, Lawrence Hill. BS5 9JJ 0117 935 1060 BURTON UPON TRENT 12a Lichﬁeld St. DE14 3QZ 01283 564 708 CAMBRIDGE 181-183 Histon Road, Cambridge. CB4 3HL 01223 322675 CARDIFF 44-46 City Rd. CF24 3DN 029 2046 5424 CARLISLE 85 London Rd. CA1 2LG 01228 591666 CHELTENHAM 84 Fairview Road. GL52 2EH 01242 514 402 CHESTER 43-45 St. James Street. CH1 3EY 01244 311258 COLCHESTER 4 North Station Rd. CO1 1RE 01206 762831 COVENTRY Bishop St. CV1 1HT 024 7622 4227 CROYDON 423-427 Brighton Rd, Sth Croydon 020 8763 0640 DARLINGTON 214 Northgate. DL1 1RB 01325 380 841 DEAL (KENT) 182-186 High St. CT14 6BQ 01304 373 434 DERBY Derwent St. DE1 2ED 01332 290 931 DONCASTER Wheatley Hall Road 01302 245 999 DUNDEE 24-26 Trades Lane. DD1 3ET 01382 225 140 EDINBURGH 163-171 Piersﬁeld Terrace 0131 659 5919

TIGER 16/550 Model Motor CFM Tank exc.VAT inc.VAT Tiger 8/260 2HP 7 24ltr £109.98 £131.98 Tiger 11/550 2.5HP 9.3 50ltr £169.98 £203.98 Tiger 16/550 3HP 14.5 50ltr £239.00 £286.80 Tiger 16/1050 3HP 14.5 100ltr £299.00 £358.80

BODY REPAIR KITS

CDP102B

Motor (W) NOW model Speeds exc.VAT inc.VAT CDP5EB 350 / 5 £99.95 £119.94 CDP102B 350 / 5 £115.95 £139.14 CDP152B 450 / 12 £209.00 £250.80 CDP202B 450 / 16 £269.00 £322.80 CDP352F 550 / 16 £329.00 £394.80 CDP452B 550 / 16 £299.00 £358.80 CDP502F 1100 / 12 £699.00 £838.80

inc.VAT £238.80 £286.80 £334.80 £382.80

Honda & Diesel engine models in stock

*CTJ3000QLB has a 3 tonne capacity, ideal for quick lifting of vehicles FROM ONLY JACKS ALSO IN STOCK UP TO 5 TONNE

exc.VAT £199.00 £239.00 £279.00 £319.00

PRO TOOL CHESTS FROM ONLY & CABINETS

2 & 3 TONNE TROLLEY JACKS

Range of precision bench & ﬂoor presses for enthusiast, engineering & industrial applications

Model 910 JS1100C 4000 JS12/24

FROM ONLY £ DOUBLE.00

The ultimate in tool storage

EXTRA LONG 1m LEADS

DRILL PRESSES

FROM ONLY £ DOUBLE .95 exc.VAT DOUBLE FOOTER £119.94 inc.VAT

CAN DRAW OWN WATER

PETROL & DIESEL PRESSURE WASHERS

HOT WASHERS

inc.VAT £262.80 £298.80 £334.80 £466.80 £514.80

3-in-1

✔ Air Con ✔ Dehumidifier ✔ 3 Speed Fan

AC7050 CPF18B100 exc.VAT inc.VAT £39.98 £47.98 £45.99 £55.19 £59.98 £71.98

Ideal for effective cleaning with a hot jet of up to 80°C

exc.VAT £219.00 £249.00 £279.00 £389.00 £429.00

DOUBLE £131.98 FOOTER inc.VAT

269exc.VAT

JUMP STARTS

Provides essential home, garage and roadside assistance Integral work light 910 /JS1100C include air compressor Long life battery

.00 exc.VAT 219 £262.80 inc.VAT

IG1200D Max Weight Output KG 800W 9.3 1700W 22 1100W 12.4 1800W 19.4 2200W 26.6

FROM ONLY

.98 DOUBLE exc.VAT 109

DOUBLE £238.80 FOOTER inc.VAT

CFF18B100 * WAS £56.38 inc.VAT # WAS £52.79 inc.VAT Model Size CBF20# 20" CFF18B100* 18" CPF18B100 18"

INVERTER GENERATORS £

Superb range ideal for DIY, hobby & semi-professional use

Mobile Units provide quick & effective cooling & drying

18"

DOUBLE £298.80 FOOTER inc.VAT

TURBO AIR COMPRESSORS

DEHUMIDIFIERS & 3-IN-1 AIR CONDITIONERS

Ideal for creating a powerful air ﬂow, suitable for both domestic & commercial locations 3 Speeds Tilts to adjust direction of air ﬂow

DOUBLE.00 exc.VAT 249

484 PAGE CATALOGUE GET YOUR FREE COPY! • IN-STORE • ONLINE • PHONE 0844 880 1265

EXETER 16 Trusham Rd. EX2 8QG 01392 256 744 GATESHEAD 50 Lobley Hill Rd. NE8 4YJ 0191 493 2520 GLASGOW 280 Gt Western Rd. G4 9EJ 0141 332 9231 GLOUCESTER 221A Barton St. GL1 4HY 01452 417 948 GRIMSBY ELLIS WAY, DN32 9BD 01472 354435 HULL 8-10 Holderness Rd. HU9 1EG 01482 223161 ILFORD 746-748 Eastern Ave. IG2 7HU 0208 518 4286 IPSWICH Unit 1 Ipswich Trade Centre, Commercial Road 01473 221253 LEEDS 227-229 Kirkstall Rd. LS4 2AS 0113 231 0400 LEICESTER 69 Melton Rd. LE4 6PN 0116 261 0688 LINCOLN Unit 5. The Pelham Centre. LN5 8HG 01522 543 036 LIVERPOOL 80-88 London Rd. L3 5NF 0151 709 4484 LONDON CATFORD 289/291 Southend Lane SE6 3RS 0208 695 5684 LONDON 6 Kendal Parade, Edmonton N18 020 8803 0861 LONDON 503-507 Lea Bridge Rd. Leyton, E10 020 8558 8284 LUTON Unit 1, 326 Dunstable Rd, Luton LU4 8JS 01582 728 063 MAIDSTONE 57 Upper Stone St. ME15 6HE 01622 769 572 MANCHESTER ALTRINCHAM 71 Manchester Rd. Altrincham 0161 9412 666 MANCHESTER CENTRAL 209 Bury New Road M8 8DU 0161 241 1851 MANCHESTER OPENSHAW Unit 5, Tower Mill, Ashton Old Rd 0161 223 8376 MANSFIELD 169 Chesterﬁeld Rd. South 01623 622160 MIDDLESBROUGH Mandale Triangle, Thornaby 01642 677881

NORWICH 282a Heigham St. NR2 4LZ 01603 766402 NORTHAMPTON Beckett Retail Park, St James’ Mill Rd 01604 267840 NOTTINGHAM 211 Lower Parliament St. 0115 956 1811 PETERBOROUGH 417 Lincoln Rd. Millﬁeld 01733 311770 PLYMOUTH 58-64 Embankment Rd. PL4 9HY 01752 254050 POOLE 137-139 Bournemouth Rd. Parkstone 01202 717913 PORTSMOUTH 277-283 Copnor Rd. Copnor 023 9265 4777 PRESTON 53 Blackpool Rd. PR2 6BU 01772 703263 SHEFFIELD 453 London Rd. Heeley. S2 4HJ 0114 258 0831 SIDCUP 13 Blackfen Parade, Blackfen Rd 0208 3042069 SOUTHAMPTON 516-518 Portswood Rd. 023 8055 7788 SOUTHEND 1139-1141 London Rd. Leigh on Sea 01702 483 742 STOKE-ON-TRENT 382-396 Waterloo Rd. Hanley 01782 287321 SUNDERLAND 13-15 Ryhope Rd. Grangetown 0191 510 8773 SWANSEA 7 Samlet Rd. Llansamlet. SA7 9AG 01792 792969 SWINDON 21 Victoria Rd. SN1 3AW 01793 491717 TWICKENHAM 83-85 Heath Rd.TW1 4AW 020 8892 9117 WARRINGTON Unit 3, Hawley’s Trade Pk. 01925 630 937 WIGAN 2 Harrison Street, WN5 9AU 01942 323 785 WOLVERHAMPTON Parkﬁeld Rd. Bilston 01902 494186 WORCESTER 48a Upper Tything. WR1 1JZ 01905 723451

BRIGHT WHITE INTERIOR

Model CIG81212 CIG81015 CIG81216 CIG81020 CIG81220 CIG81224 CIG1432 CIG1640

size (LxWxH) m 3.6 x 3.6 x 2.5 4.5 x 3 x 2.4 4.9 x 3.7 x 2.5 6.1 x 3 x 2.4 6.1 x 3.7 x 2.5 7.3 x 3.7 x 2.5 9.7x4.3x3.65 12x4.9x4.3

exc.VAT inc.VAT £249.00 £298.80 £279.00 £334.80 £329.00 £394.80 £349.00 £418.80 £399.00 £478.80 £499.00 £598.80 £1099.00 £1318.80 £2599.00 £3118.80

PAY Monthly

Spread the cost over 12, 24, 36, 48 or 60 months Any mix of products over £300 5 MIN APPLICATION! 19.9% APR

5 EASY WAYS TO BUY... SUPERSTORES

SUPERSTORES NATIONWIDE ONLINE www.machinemart.co.uk TELESALES

0115 956 5555 CLICK & COLLECT OVER 10,500 LOCATIONS

CALL & COLLECT AT STORES TODAY

Calls to the catalogue request number above (0844 880 1265) cost 7p per minute plus your telephone company’s network access charge. For security reasons, calls may be monitored. All prices correct at time of going to press. We reserve the right to change products and prices at any time. Check online for latest prices. All offers subject to availability, E&OE. Terms & conditions apply see machinemart.co.uk/ﬁnance for more details

35226 (72) 4X4 (full) Long A.indd 1

Overlander4x4_2024_08_Aug_Machine Mart_FP.indd 1

24/04/2024 10:48

19/06/2024 15:14

inevitably be vulnerable to sidewall damage in rocky terrain. So there’s another reason to be taking it very carefully indeed. You don’t go green laning to put your foot down, but if you needed to take on a track like this as a means of actually getting somewhere, the necessary slow pace might start to bug you. We’re able to pick it up on the gentler parts of the route, where you’re rolling on a slightly odd combination of smoothly rounded fist-sized stones amid a top layer of sandy soil. It drains well, unlike the peaty moorland to either side of the right of way which is strictly off-limits to anyone on wheels, and is actually better suited to a road-biased tread than something more aggressive that will claw into it for no gain. And here, there’s another surprise – which is that now we’re going fast enough for ride quality to become a thing, once again the EV9 is remarkably refined. Yes of course, there’s more bumping from down below and the body is being moved around, but it’s still smooth and the surface feels as damped and distant as ever. Perhaps a little more feeling of connection to the ground would be good, but that really is going off at a tangent. Ultimately, you’re in a vehicle which covers ground very competently indeed.

What was it we said earlier on? ’It just doesn’t feel challenged by anything.’ Unbelievably, almost, to that we can now add green laning. In context, of course, always in context – you won’t ever learn anything from beaching an SUV in ruts, scratching its panels to death or asking its tyres to do the impossible on wet grass – but Houndkirk Moor isn’t just rougher than anyone who buys an EV9 will ever attempt. It’s rougher than 99% of people who buy a Range Rover of Discovery will ever attempt,

and probably a good 95% who get a newshape Defender, too. So we’re feeling better than ever about being one of the first to give it an award. And we’re pretty pleased with ourselves for showing you here what it can do beyond tarmac, too. This is a phenomenal allrounder – and as we headed home from Houndkirk Moor, once again enjoying that effortless A-to-B pace, we had learned that there’s another string to its bow that makes it more so than ever.

August 2024 I Overlander 4x4

4pp EV9 Houndkirk.indd 27

22/06/2024 08:34

MASTER PLAN

Words Dan Fenn Pictures Alan Kidd

Four years ago, Isuzu built a cool off-road truck and we promptly nicked it. Now they’ve built another, and the ﬁrst thing they did was let us have a go. Will they never learn?

s you’ll know if you’re a regular reader of this magazine, for the last few years we’ve been running an Isuzu D-Max as our go-to off-road machine. It was built by Isuzu, to a spec we drew up with the guys there, the idea being that they’d exhibit it at the NEC’s Commercial Vehicle Show then afterwards it would spend a period of time featuring in our roadbooks and green lane guides. That particular CV Show was the one in April 2020, and we all know how that worked out. But at least the bit about us using the D-Max for green laning went to plan… so much so that it’s still with us now. That’s us sorted, then, but what about

Isuzu? After going to all that effort, they missed out on giving the D-Max GO2, as it was named, its big moment in the public eye. Then a few months later the all-new model came out, meaning ours wasn’t much use to them any more. So they’ve built one of their own. Very sensible of them, too. The V-Cross Mudmaster is a one-off show special modiﬁed for extreme off-road use and blending the luxuries of the range-topping base model with the eye appeal of some seriously unsubtle branding. Isuzu sponsors the Tough Mudder hardcore cross-country running series, while Mudmaster is also the name of a range of mud-proof watches – we don’t think there’s

an actual tie-up going on, but still it’s all pointing in one direction. The D-Max was never less than a capable off-road machine – and this is it at its most capable yet. Unlike our GO2, the Mudmaster is based on a model with a rear diff lock as standard. Not a bad start. We specced an ARB in ours, which is gold-standard stuff, but a factory e-locker will do the same job 99% of the time. In terms of the similarities, there are several clear ones but below the surface both use suspension kits supplied by Pedders. This provides an element of lift (Pedders tries to avoid quoting exact ﬁgures, on the basis that no two vehicles will go up by the same amount) which on

www.overland4x4.com

5pp D-Max Mudmaster.indd 28

22/06/2024 08:59

Bonnet and door handle protectors are there to save your paintwork from damage caused by small stones in the first case and rings or work gloves in the second… and they add a little touch to the truck’s looks, too With all that mud flying around, keeping the engine’s air intake out of harm’s way is a better idea than ever. People mistake a snorkel for a passport to worry-free madcap wading, which it absolutely isn’t, but it’s an insurance policy for trucks that are going to get used properly Lazer’s Sentinel 7” Elite spot lamps look bold and, literally, brilliant on the grille. The Come-Up winch behind it is well and truly hidden away, on the other hand – were it not for the fairlead tucked beneath a flip-up number plate, you’d be forgiven for not noticing it was there at all

the Mudmaster is backed up by a 1.75” body lift. This is a similarity between the Mudmaster and the halo model in Isuzu’s showrooms, the AT35, which also runs extended body mounts. However while that vehicle uses the extra space under its arches to accommodate the big, tall tyres that give it its name, the Mudmaster is shod with 285/50R20 Toyo Open Country A/Ts on Hurricane alloys. Conventional wisdom has it that you want tall tyres with an aggressive pattern. Mud-terrains, to use the name they’re known by (which might contain the teensiest of clues). You want them to be tall and lean for surface mud, so they’ll cut

Toyo’s Open Country A/T is a good all-round tyre, but seeing a 285/50R20 on a lifted off-road truck is definitely a bit of a culture shock. They acquitted themselves well in the mud, however – though most of the height comes from a body lift, which resulted in a few surprise graunches as the steel plates under the chassis did their job. And if there was a set of rear discs on show behind those wide-spoked Hurricane alloys to go with the ones at the front, we’d see it as a good thing August 2024 I Overlander 4x4

5pp D-Max Mudmaster.indd 29

22/06/2024 08:59

Our 4x4s

THE INSPIRATION

e like to think that Isuzu built the Mudmaster because they were jealous of our GO2. They built it themselves, after all, but never got to show it off properly. The D-Max GO2 was conceived as a joint project between us and Isuzu UK. Way back when the vehicle was first launched in this country, one of the company’s senior executives asked us what they could do to get the attention of the off-road community; our response, naturally enough, was to say give us one and let us build it. Several conversations (and years) later, it all fell into place. Isuzu wanted to relight the fire beneath the D-Max ahead of the new model coming out, the aftermarket had well and truly caught up and it was time to push the button. The idea was that the GO2 would make its public debut on Isuzu’s stand at the 2020 CV Show before spending some time with us, appearing in our roadbooks and green lane guides and generally being our go-to off-road machine. Of course, the 2020 CV Show was one of the first big events in Britain to fall victim to lockdown. And the rest of that year wasn’t exactly conducive to going out green laning every weekend, either. But the GO2 did eventually find its way to us and as you’ll probably have spotted, it’s been a regular sight in these pages ever since. We’ve gone into depth on its build before, but there are some interesting contrasts and comparisons between it and the Mudmaster. Most obviously, both have

been modified for off-roading – and to be show trucks, too. Both have been lifted on Pedders suspension. Ours uses the company’s Extreme kit, on remote-reservoir shocks with adjustable bump and rebound, which – along with some judicious (and very gentle) trimming of one of two edges around and below the arches, allowed us to fit a set of 285/75R16 General Grabber X3 mud-terrains. Rather a different kettle of fish to the 285/50R20s on the Mudmaster, obviously – though, while you wouldn’t think it to look at them, there’s only about an inch of difference in their overall diameters. It’s just that we’ve got a lot less wheel and a lot more sidewall, which as far as tradition is concerned is the way to do it. Something else Pedders supplied for the GO2 was its rear disc brake conversion. Isuzu hasn’t added as much weight to the Mudmaster, which is still on its original bumpers, but you can picture it with a tent on its roof rack, a kitchen under its canopy and a camping trailer on its tow ball – in which event we suspect they might do an upgrade. Not that the standard rear drums aren’t up to it, of course, and however much you add to a vehicle you’ve still got to stay within the GVW its OE brakes are designed to handle, but if you’re going to overengineer anything… Talking of over-engineering, both trucks have winches. A Come-Up job on the Mudmaster and a Britpart unit on the GO2, but the big difference is obviously in the

way they’re mounted. There are issues at work here involving boring red tape – as a vehicle manufacturer, there are things Isuzu can’t do pre-registration which we didn’t have to worry about on ours, which was already a year old when work started on it. So the Mudmaster has a wonderfully discreet hidden mount designed and installed by Winch Systems, while ours has a sodding great steel bumper from ARB which, we have to admit, looks almost comical by comparison. Comical until you bash your shin on it in the workshop. Joking apart, we spent a lot of time in Isuzu’s technical centre while their guys were building our D-Max. One of the rules they have is that you need to wear steel toecaps, and there could never be a better illustration of why. It took three big blokes to lift the front bumper into place and hold it there while a fourth secured the mounting bolts – and if they dropped it, that’s 50+ kilos heading full-tilt for the centre of the Earth. You don’t want to be in the way. Anyway, our GO2’s front bumper is huge and very strong, and there’s another at the back too. Plus a set of equally heavy-duty rock sliders from Isuzu’s own options range. If you’re going to crash into someone, don’t crash into us. Both vehicles are fully armoured underneath, too. The plates beneath our GO2 have rarely been called into action, however, because of its extra ground clearance – which comes from all the lift being in the suspension and taller

Insurance for your 4X4 30 www.overland4x4.com Call 0800 085 5000 or visit adrianflux.co.uk 5pp D-Max Mudmaster.indd 30

Authorised & regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority

22/06/2024 08:59

Thinking of taking your 4x4 off road? We recommend getting your vehicle insured by Adrian Flux, a specialist insurance broker for modified 4x4s. Given that they’re a specialist insurance broker, we’ve insured several of our project trucks with them for the simple reason that they understand the needs of modified 4x4 owners – plus off-roaders and green laners – better than most other insurance companies. Give them a call on 0800 085 5000 for a quote.

tyres, rather than, as is the case with the Mudmaster, +1.75” extended body mounts. The biggest visual difference between the two vehicles, however, is probably at the back. Here, the Mudmaster is equipped with a full canopy while we’ve got a set of Gearmate drawers hidden away beneath a retractable load cover. Gearmate also made the custom mount which puts our spare wheel on a set of load bars above the pickup bed. Like the Mudmaster, the GO2 is fitted with a raised air intake from Safari Snorkel. If we’re counting right, this is the eighth vehicle we’ve had on the fleet with one of these, and we still haven’t got tired of explaining to people that no, it’s not a chimney. Anyway, also like the Mudmaster we have a locking rear diff – though ours is an ARB Air-Locker, as the previous generation D-Max didn’t come with a standard unit from the factory.

The fact that Isuzu adopted such an essential item for the new D-Max shows that the company takes off-roading seriously. Not just as something people do for fun but as part of their working life – though of course, having a locker as standard makes the vehicle that much more attractive if you’re going to use it for anything from the odd playday and lane run to round-the-world overland travel. Which reminds us, we’ve got this magnificent off-road beast and we’ve not been over the Pyrenees in it yet. Or the Sahara, or Iceland, or up to Nordkapp… the list goes on. Writing this while gazing out the window at the GO2 parked outside our office, it’s hard not to picture it with a tent up top and a world-class destination in its sights. We like to think that we inspired Isuzu with the spec we gave them for our truck: turns out that when they built it, they inspired us, too.

down through it to the grippier stuff, or for the bottomless variety you want something tall, wide and only just containing enough air to keep them on their rims. So. How do you master mud on tyres like these? Guess we’ll just have to take it and go find out. Damn. Should the mud win, we’ve got a ComeUp winch on a hidden mount from Winch Systems. One look at this company’s website and you’ll see that this isn’t the first time they’ve laid their hands on an Isuzu D-Max. The mount integrates the unit nicely behind the standard front bumper, with a hawse fairlead located low down beneath the number plate and just above a heavyduty steering guard. This in turn is part of a comprehensive steel underbody package of steering, sump, transmission and rear diff guards. There’s also what Isuzu called ‘custom off-road side bars’ – these don’t look to us like you’d want to put a high-lift under them, but overall Isuzu has done exactly the right by protecting the truck’s delicate bits from impacts. Further kit on the Mudmaster that promises to make it as usable as it is capable includes an ARB Base Rack on the roof and an Alpha XS canopy over the pickup bed. Plenty of storage options there, whether they’re using it for work or play (they’ve already done the camping thing with their AT35 Basecamp and Expedition Edition show vehicles, though obviously there’s plenty on the Mudmaster that would be A-list equipment on an overlander too). There’s also a Lazer Linear 36 Elite LED

August 2024 I Overlander 4x4

5pp D-Max Mudmaster.indd 31

22/06/2024 08:59

ARB’s Base Rack adds a new level of utility to a vehicle already dripping in it. Adventure kit, cargo, roof tent, the possibilities are endless. It also provides the perfect home for a Lazer Linear 36 Elite LED bar to go with the spots down below – between them, they light up the road or track ahead opening your blinds just as the sun comes up. There was a bit of noise from the rack at gentle motorway speeds, though

With Alpha’s XS-T canopy in place, you’d be able to build a top-notch expedition rig in the back with all the pull-out kitchen equipment your heart desires. It comes with its own set of roof bars, too, allowing you to carry yet more up there

Protective seat covers are a very good idea in a vehicle like the Mudmaster. It’s an even better idea if they don’t come off every time you get in or out, though. Note also one of the self-adhesive door handle protectors, which turned out not to be selfadhesive enough. The seats themselves are excellent, though, with plenty of adjustment and good lumbar support 32

bar on the front of the rack and the same company’s Sentinel 7” Elite spot lamps on the grille, plus a variety of other bits and bobs like wind visors on the front doors, self-adhesive door handle protectors and, on the inside, a set of heavy-duty covers to protect the leather seats that are standard on the V-Cross. Time for another comparison, because the latter kept slipping off during our time with the Mudmaster; we’ve got a different kind on our GO2, also direct from the Isuzu options range, and they’ve never budged in four years, which is much more like it. Don’t let’s concern ourselves with seat covers, though. The Mudmaster was made to be driven, and not just on tarmac. No, not even with 31.2” diameter tyres on 20” diameter wheels. The first thing to say is that despite their low profile and heavy-duty sidewalls, the Toyos ride very smoothly and quietly. On tarmac, yes. Well, you have to drive on some to get to the mud. The second, of course, is that despite the name, and the image people have of off-roading being all mud and nothing else, those of us who do it know very well that actually, truly muddy conditions account only for a very small proportion of the terrain we drive. So while a hulking great set of diff-killers with shoulder lugs the size of your fist would look good and gnarly, in actual fact most of the time you’re better off on all-terrains. And indeed here we are on all-terrains. They’re docile and civilised on the motorway as we head for the lanes (a set we know in the Midlands which, although

they’re firm and sustainable underneath, gather plenty of the sloppy stuff on top) but the going here is disturbed by a constant vibration and knocking from up top – where, we suspect, the Base Rack needs a little adjusting. Not uncommon on a newly built vehicle – everything needs shaking down (both anti-roll bars came loose on our GO2, for example), and we happen to know that we were the first journalists to get a shot of the Mudmaster so we’re not concerned by this. Turn up the stereo and it’ll be right. Off-road, it waltzed over everything we tried. A deep ford with rocks the size of your head littering its base, wet ruts, deep holes, grass slopes, loose stone and gravel – all typical green lane fare and all taken in its stride. The tyres never once wanted for traction – though those underbody bash plates grounded out a few times when we weren’t expecting it. A body lift won’t help you with ground clearance, of course – unless it’s there to let you fit taller tyres. The D-Max is always poised, tractable and agile off-road, and the Mudmaster is all these things and a little more. It’s as manoeuvrable as ever and of course, limited underbody clearance and avantgarde tyre choice notwithstanding, it has a little more to offer of all the things you’d like it to. It feels strong, sure-footed and ready to take anything in its stride. In its character, it’s a different kettle of fish to our GO2 – but the concept is just the same, and like ours it’s a great example of how much potential the D-Max has waiting to be unlocked.

www.overland4x4.com

5pp D-Max Mudmaster.indd 32

22/06/2024 08:59

Overlander4x4_2024_06_June_SV Tech_FP.indd 1

22/04/2024 10:26

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

8pp Jeep Lowdown.indd 34

22/06/2024 08:09

GETTING THE LOW DOWN Fifteen years ago, Jeep stunned Moab with the Lower Forty concept. Now it’s gone back to the concept behind the concept and done it all over again with the even more spectacular Rubicon 392-based Lowdown Words: Graham Scott Pictures: Jeep

ou’re probably aware – in amongst getting annoyed about the way we’re all getting less for more money, getting worried about Gen Z’s future etc – that Jeep likes to roll out a wacky set of concept vehicles at the annual Moab Easter Jeep Safari. They did it again this year. But this is no new habit of theirs. The Jeep Safari started way back in 1967, when it was only open to members of the Moab Chamber of Commerce. They ran a one-day event just for themselves. It must have been fun – at lunchtime they

got ice cream packages dropped to them on the trails by an airplane. Obviously it’s come on a long way since then – you can’t even get ice cream airdropped for you any more unless you’re a billionaire. Fast forward to 2009. Doesn’t sound long ago, does it? But it was the year President Obama was ﬁrst elected, and the year Captain Sully Sullenberger successfully landed his US Airways ﬂight 1549 in the Hudson River. And it was the year of the 43rd Easter Jeep Safari. And you were looking at a 2009 Jeep concept that seemed almost like a

August 2024 I Overlander 4x4

8pp Jeep Lowdown.indd 35

22/06/2024 08:10

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

8pp Jeep Lowdown.indd 36

22/06/2024 08:10

The Rubicon 392 has been a halo vehicle to end them all for Jeep – the ultimate iteration of the ultimate Wrangler, with raised suspension, taller tyres and a 6.4-litre V8 engine. The Low Down is a celebration of all that, as the world tells Jeep, and everyone else, that yes, actually there is a substitute for cubic inches… cartoon. Like a mix between a Jeep and a dune buggy, or something out of that Pixar film Car. If you got close to it with a fisheye lens low down you’d get the same effect. Massive, oversized lower part, reasonably recognisable middle and diminutive top part. After a quart of Jack Daniels it might look very odd indeed. Back in 2009 Jeep was using the Mopar Underground Design Team to come up with the six concepts for the safari. That team sounds like a band from the 1970s, almost certainly protesting against the war in ‘Nam, while channelling pot and Hendrix. Perish the thought that such attitudes could pertain in a modern corporate environment of course, but it has to be said that team came up with some pretty psychedelic ideas, and the inspiration for the Low Down is one. It was called the Lower Forty, which seems to refer to the fact that it had 40in tyres fitted. Given that’s a raise of about 10ins, you got increased ride height without any suspension lift whatsoever. Naturally Jeep had to wear out quite a lot of saws and blades chopping bits off it so that the tyres wouldn’t foul bodywork, fenders or anything else. The ‘lower forty’ is also an old term used for what would have been the most remote 40 acres on a farm. The phrase

morphed a bit to mean ‘out there’, ‘in the wilds’ and it’s that attitude that takes us forward to the 58th Moab Jeep jolly. And the Jeep Low Down. So that’s easy for the writer since of course ‘the low down’ means the important information and facts on something, and that’s a neat segue for me to tell you all about this new concept. Jeep makes it so easy sometimes. Hmm, where was I?

High and Low

Ah yes, the Low Down. Which isn’t actually, like, low down. It’s actually High Up. You know how radical concepts always get watered down? And it’s true, the Lower Forty’s 40in tyres have indeed gone. To be replaced by 42in BFG Krawlers. And Jeep has stayed with the concept of going up without a lift kit. Instead the massive tyres on 20in beadlock wheels go up and down controlled by stock Wrangler Rubicon 392 suspension. However, the suspension is controlling beefy Dana 60 axles instead of the standard Dana 44s. Obviously the bodywork of the Wrangler needed a lot of work to cut it down, and to make some it, like the ‘fender flares’, from carbon. But you need to do more to fit such huge tyres in and let them move. Other tweaks that aren’t so visible include redesigning the rear fenders/mudguards

August 2024 I Overlander 4x4

8pp Jeep Lowdown.indd 37

22/06/2024 08:10

LIFE BEGINS…

Here’s how we reviewed the Lower Forty when it first came out, in the August 2009 issue of Total Off Road magazine:

eep unveiled its latest concept vehicle at the recent Moab Jeep Safari – along with a host of modified machinery designed to highlight the flexibility of its Mopar aftermarket operation. And unlike so many modern 4x4 concepts, it’s a fullhouse off-roader. Called the Lower Forty, the vehicle is a Wrangler Rubicon designed to fit 40-inch tyres without any suspension lift. Being based on a stock vehicle, it could perhaps be described better as ‘custom’ rather than ‘concept’ – but either way, the amount of modification done to its bodywork to accept the massive new tyres means it’s very much out of the ordinary. ‘The team’s goal,’ says Jeep, ‘was to achieve added ground clearance without altering the vehicle’s centre of gravity.’

That meant making savage mods to the wings – after which three inches of height were removed from the windscreen frame, which was then remounted with its rake speeded up by ten degrees. Having removed most of the wing panels, the Mopar team made new wheelarch flares which are one inch wider and four inches higher than standard. These were complemented by a one-piece carbon fibre bonnet incorporating a ‘power dome’ inspired by CJ Jeeps of old, while at the other end an opened-up rear section was finished off by a custom drop-down tailgate. The vehicle’s appearance was heavily influenced by another Jeep concept, the Hurricane, which appeared on the front cover of TOR in February 2005. This too used pared-down bodywork to accommodate outsize tyres – though while both can be seen as tributes to America’s army of

Jeep enthusiasts who create extraordinary modified machines for rock-crawling, trail-riding and the like, the Lower Forty is actually quite normal in comparison. Lest we forget, the Hurricane had in-cab suspension control, individual drive to all four wheels and the capacity to rotate on its own axis, thanks to the small matter of having two 5.7-litre V8 Hemis. The Lower Forty has just the one engine, but unlike in the standard Wrangler Rubicon it’s a 5.7 Hemi too. Replacing the V6 unit with which the vehicle left the Jeep factory, the V8 drives through a Getrag 238 six-speed manual gearbox to Dana 44 and 60 front and rear axles, all supplied from the Mopar catalogue. These were fitted with 5.38:1 diffs and ARB Air-Lockers, in order to cope with the gearing effect of the 40x13.5R20 Mickey Thompson Baja Claws adorning its 20” forged aluminium rims.

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

8pp Jeep Lowdown.indd 38

22/06/2024 08:10

Launched a decade and a half ago at the 2009 Moab Easter Safari, the Lower Forty was the result of a mission to fit 40” tyres under a JK Wrangler without altering its centre of gravity. Running on standard-height suspension, all the lift is virtual; the wings were remade with the wheelarch cutouts a full four inches higher, and the rake on the windscreen was brought back by ten degrees The Wrangler is fitted with a roll cage as standard, but this made way for a custom unit tied to the revised windscreen frame and featuring a rear hoop run down to the chassis. The rear stays, which flow all the way back from the A-posts, are set as wide as possible to leave room for forty inches of spare in the floor of the cargo area. Further mods include a custom cargo rack, two-tone Katzkin leather seats and

a hose-out interior created using spray-on truck-bed liner and off-the-shelf Mopar floor mats. The vehicle was finished off in a custom paint scheme created specially for the project, which glories under the name of Red Eye No.3. Despite having to compete with several siblings for the attention of Moab’s assembled Jeep fans at the Easter Safari, the Lower Forty was guaranteed

plenty of ogling. Whether or not it’s a technological masterpiece of the level of the Hurricane is another matter – but it’s the most extreme iteration yet of the current Wrangler JK, and despite not being destined for production it’s another reminder that however much the market for new 4x4s has moved on, Jeep is still very much in touch with its off-road heritage.

HURRICANE: THE INSPIRATION Just as the Low Down draws on the Lower Forty theme, the Lower Forty drew on a theme started by Jeep’s Hurricane concept in January 2005. But this vehicle was about much more than tall tyres and massively cut-out wheelarches: its twin-engined, twin-drivetrained layout meant both sides of the vehicle could be driven independently. By combining this with

four-wheel steer, Jeep’s engineers were able to create a vehicle capable of turning on its own vertical axis. Jeep said at the time that the Hurricane was a tribute to the army of enthusiasts who, down the generations, have built innovative off-road machines based on CJs and Wranglers – which kind of means the Lower Forty, and indeed the Low Down, are just that too.

Mercedes’ latest electric G-Class has been getting plenty of attention for its ability to pivot about its axis. Jeep was doing that trick almost 20 years ago, though – albeit with a pair of V8 engines. The link from the Hurricane through to the Low Down is clear to see

August 2024 I Overlander 4x4

8pp Jeep Lowdown.indd 39

22/06/2024 08:10

Stock Rubicon 392 suspension (which itself has nothing stock about it) controls a set of Dana 60 axles. These are turned by the 475bhp from a 6.4-litre Hemi. The Lower Forty had a CJ-style power bulge in its bonnet, and sure anough so does the Low down; in this case, it’s see-through too…

to the extent that the fuel filler cap had to be relocated to the cargo area. ‘Clearance adjustments’ is the phrase Jeep uses to cover what must have been a ton of mostly unseen work. The programme of taking things off continues with the rest of the body. Gone are the rear door handles, for example, but Jeep stopped short of lowering the height of the windscreen as it did with the Lower Forty. However both front and rear bumpers are shortened, which go together with the massive tyres to give brilliant approach and departure angles – ramp breakover too. The centre of gravity is not raised as much as with some other lift-kitted models, so the original aim still holds true. One bit of bodywork that we like is the see-through ‘Power Dome’ that sits on the bonnet. You just know you’re not going to look through there and see a whiny electric motor. Instead it’s what Jeep calls ‘a celebration of the hemi’. Even so, in these bed-wetting times we can’t expect the 5.7-litre, 400bhp V8 of the original Lower Forty. Instead the new Low Down has a, errrr, 6.4-litre V8 with a ‘prodigious’ 475bhp. Now that’s progress. Which means you’re sitting pretty pretty in the cabin beneath that red glow from the bikini top. Sitting in custom black leather seats with cloth insets in front of a dash that has more of the Poison Apple Red paint that has been thickly sloshed over all the bodywork. Sitting high, sitting pretty. It was actually quite gutsy of Jeep to attempt this. The original Lower Forty is still a show-stopper to this day when it is wheeled out, so to attempt to revisit it shows either bottle or bombast. Actually it seems like a sign of Jeep’s increasing confidence in its ability to come up with original, interesting and creative ideas that make off-roading even more fun. Will people still be talking about the Low Down at the 73rd Moab Easter Jeep Safari? Don’t count against it.

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

8pp Jeep Lowdown.indd 40

22/06/2024 08:10

August 2024 I Overlander 4x4

8pp Jeep Lowdown.indd 41

22/06/2024 08:10

HERITAGE

CELEBRATING THE FIR ST HALF CENTURY OF THE GREAT BRITISH 4X 4

HERITAGE

LAND ROVER

CHARLIE’S TALE

MISSIONARY POSITION

SERIES IIA THAT CARRIED THE VATICAN’S WORD TO THE FAR EAST

HOW THIS SERIES II’S RES FORGED A LIFELONG FRI TORATION ENDSHIP IN THE FACE OF TRAGEDY

HERITAGE LAND ROVER magazine is produced by Land Rover experts and enthusiasts and covers the era of the Series I, II and III as well as the original Range Rover, and more modern classics such as the early Discovery and Defender. Published 4 times a year, Heritage Land Rover is a high-quality magazine combining great writing with beautiful photography, making it a publication you’ll want to keep hold of and treasure.

SAVE MONEY WHEN YOU SUBSCRIBE! ) £25 per year by Direct Debit or by card or cheque £27.96 ) Get each issue delivered swiftly to your door

WINTER 2023 £6.99 0 4 9

CLASSIC OR MODERN?

107 STATION WAGON BECOMES A WORKHORSE FOR TODAY

PLUS FRED DIBNAH’S HLRCoverWinter-v1.indd

DESERT RANGEYS

772976 607002

TICKFORD

EARLY RANGE ROVERS ON THE DAKAR CLASSIC

FROM UGLY DUCKING TO DARLING OF SERIES I WORLD

ASO / FOTOP

LIGHTWEIGHT / DUNS

FOLD’S PROTOTYPE 110 03/11/2023 09:08

PHONE

01283 742970

LINES OPEN MON-THU 9AM-5PM

Complete and return this form to Heritage Land Rover Magazine, c/o WW Magazines Ltd, 151 Station Street, Burton-on-Trent DE14 1BG. ■ Yes I would like to subscribe to Heritage Land Rover Magazine

PERSONAL DETAILS Title

Initials

Surname

Direct Debit Instruction Direct Debit (uk only) Instruction to your bank or building society to

Please complete and return to Heritage Land Rover at the address above.* Name and full postal address of Bank/Building Society pay by direct debit

To the Manager

Address

Postcode Account in the name of

Postcode

Branch Sort Code Account Number

Tel

Signature

DIRECT DEBIT PAYMENT Please retain the Direct Debit guarantee at the bottom of this form for your own records

■ £25 every 12 months (4 issues) (I understand that I can cancel my subscription at any time.)

*We cannot accept faxed/photocopied Direct Debit Forms.

Reference (Office Use)

1p HLR House Ad.indd 42

Date

27 - 55 - 22

■ £55.92 for 2 years (8 issues)

(Charged in the name of Assignment Media Ltd)

■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ Security code ■■■ Expiry Date Signature

■ Tick if you prefer not to receive occasional mailings of interest to Heritage Land Rover readers.

• This Guarantee is offered by all Banks and Building Societies that accept instructions to pay Direct Debits. • If there are any changes to the amount, date or frequency of your Direct Debit, Assignment Media Ltd will notify you 10 working days in advance of your account being debited or as otherwise agreed. If you request Assignment Media Ltd to collect a payment, confirmation of the amount and date will be given to you at the time of the request.

HLR fp Landy ad.indd 1

HERITAGE

Banks & Building societies may not accept Direct debit Instructions for some types of accounts INSTRUCTIONS TO YOUR BANK OR BUILDING SOCIETY. Please pay Direct Debits from the account detailed in the instruction subject to the safeguards assured by the Direct Debit Guarantee. I understand that this instruction may remain with Assignment Media Ltd and if so, details will be passed electronically to my Bank or Building Society.

ORIGINATOR IDENTIFICATION

■ £27.96 for 12 months (4 issues) ■ I enclose a UK£ cheque/postal order for .................................................... made payable to Assignment Media Ltd OR ■ Please debit my Visa/MasterCard/Maestro/Delta card

Address

CHEQUE OR CREDIT CARD

Valid From

Issue (Switch) Date

UK ONLY – For overseas rates please call +44 (0) 1283 742970

• If an error is made in the payment of your Direct Debit, by Assignment Media Ltd or your Bank or Building Society, you are entitled to a full and immediate refund of the amount paid from your Bank or Building Society. If you receive a refund you are not entitled to, you must pay it back when Assignment Media Ltd asks you to. • You can cancel a Direct Debit at any time by simply contacting your Bank or Building Society. Written confirmation may also be required. Please also notify us.

14/07/2023 14:53

24/05/2024 17:33

Join us for the journey...

Subscribe for just £6 for your first 6 issues delivered to your door

UK Direct Debit only. Continues at £39 every 12 months thereafter unless you cancel.

CALL 01283 742970 OR ORDER ONLINE AT SHOP.ASSIGNMENTMEDIA.CO.UK Untitled-2 1

08/12/2023 17:26:28

Back in 1996, Sam and Nathalie Hughes came across a couple exploring Africa in a Land Rover. And they promised themselves that one day, they would have one of their own. And what a fine day it turned out to be Words and pictures Alan Kidd

ONE FINE 44

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

6pp Hughes 110.indd 44

21/06/2024 23:18

‘O

DAY 6pp Hughes 110.indd 45

ne day.’ It’s a phrase we all seem to spend most of our lives using, as we promise ourselves that we’ll dig the garden, paint the fence, visit that in-law, fix that rattle, experiment with swinging… What? That’s just me? Oops. You’ve said it, though. Over and over. One day I’ll win the lottery. One day I’ll do the Rubicon. One day I’m going to say take this job and shove it and just walk out that door and then they’ll see what it’s like to try and cope without me… Now, I know that one’s not just me. There comes a point in your life when saying ‘one day’ starts to sound a bit hollow, because you realise that in the greater scheme of things you don’t actually have all that many days left. But Sam Hughes still had time on his side when he made himself the promise that ended up yielding this very well sorted Land Rover Defender. Wind back the clock to 1996. Penalty shootout heartbreak against Germany, again. Hello Spice Girls, Ford Ka and The Simpsons. And Dolly the sheep. It was the year of the X-Files. A year when Charles and Di got divorced and a massive 4% of the population now had access to the internet. The year when Trainspotting came out. Feeling old? Sam certainly wasn’t when he went travelling in East Africa with his partner Nathalie. And with their whole lives ahead of them, they could dream big. So when they bumped into another couple at an overnight stop who were traversing the African continent in a Land Rover, they didn’t get jealous: they got inspired. ‘This was the catalyst for a pledge,’ says Sam. ’That one day we would own a Defender and embark on lots of adventures together. Who knows, one day even return to tackle Africa once again.’ Some time has passed. Careers have happened (and still are happening), ditto family, and now here we are looking at Sam and Nathalie and they’re the ones whose Defender will be inspiring others. It’s certainly inspiring their son Bobby, who intends to get himself a 90 and do an overland conversion of his own just as soon as he’s sorted with a driving licence. What the inspiration comes from is a 2014 Defender 110 XS Utility. Well into the 2.2 TDCi era, then, and being an XS it has the extensive luxuries of a range-topper like manual air-con, heated seats and a rear wash-wipe. Clearly, at least one of those can

August 2024 I Overlander 4x4

21/06/2024 23:18

make a big difference if you’re planning to go overlanding, even if the trucks that built the Land Rover legend had none. ‘Ruby,’ the 110 is affectionately known, arrived with the family as what Sam describes as ‘already a nice example of a 110 Utility.’ She looks pretty much dropdead gorgeous in a coat of Montalcino Red and, on an altogether more practical level, she had already been fitted with premium slide-out draws and a storage locker. A good start, clearly, with what Sam had in mind.

Need not want

And what was that? Well, here’s an interesting one. ‘We set about only adding what we actually need,’ Sam explains. ‘Having owned six motorhomes adorned with every conceivable luxury, the shift back towards minimalist, utility-based travel has been an interesting but rewarding challenge.’ Imagine what he’d be saying if he’d bought an old 109…

The Defender rides on 265/75R16 BFGoodrich All-Terrains, which puts it on a sensible footing for long-range travel. Strong, tractable and hard-wearing tyres matter more than a playday-hero tread pattern and, best of all, they’re standard in size. When you’re prepping for overland travel, you change what you must but nothing you don’t have to. Nobody ever crossed a continent and put it down to having 44” tyres and nitrous. What Ruby does have is heavy-duty springs and shocks from Old Man Emu. No need for a lift, but the rears are 300kg constant load jobs specified with the weight of all that expedition kit in mind. Not that the front, where the springs are medium, is exactly lightweight either – a Terrafirma Pro tapered winch bumper and the same company’s 12,500lb winch see to that, as does the steel guard protecting the drag link. There’s a set of rock sliders further back, with tubular extensions for keeping trees

at arm’s length, while the tops of the wings and bonnet are dressed in chequer plate to provide a step and the engine breathes through a raised intake from Safari Snorkel. Nothing too extreme there, then – not so much a case of trying to make a vehicle something it’s not than making the most of what it is. You could add a lift, more armour, locking diffs, fancy trailing arms, blah blah blah, and no doubt there are people reading this who can’t believe Sam didn’t try to wring every last drop of horsepower out of the engine, but would any of these things have made it a better overlander? A good overlander is one that gets you home again afterwards, and there’s never been a better case for the KISS principle. That being the case, it’s as standard as it can be and no heavier than it has to be. Boxes ticked. And when it comes to living out of the thing… well, actually it’s not as extensively messed with here as you might imagine either.

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

6pp Hughes 110.indd 46

21/06/2024 23:18

A 12,500lb Terrafirma winch sits on the came company’s tapered heavy-duty bumper, providing all the pulling power Sam should ever need

For decades, Land Rovers travelled the world without rock sliders. Mind you, back then replacement doors didn’t cost about a million quid a pop

Who needs a service book when you can just write it on the fan cowl? The 2.2 TDCi engine was a big improvement on the 2.4 that came before it, though it’s probably the sixth speed in the Getrag gearbox that makes the biggest different on long hauls

Masai’s light guards protect a set of upgraded headlamps

When you’re going places where dust is the main feature of life beyond tarmac, a snorkel comes into its own. Yes, they protect your engine from the perils of deep water, but more importantly they gather up clean air from above the cloud of fine particles that’s constantly swirling around closer to the ground

No need for anything radical here. The BFG All-Terrain is legendary for its combination of grip, wear, strength and road manners, and a 265/75R16 is a standard size requiring no modifications to the 110’s suspension

As always, there’s a conversation to be had about whether you’re going to be living out of it or in it. For a while, roof tents were the only way to go, but more people now are moving to pop-top conversions and turning their trucks into compact motorhomes. Sam does say that in the future, he might do a full Alu-Cab roof conversion and interior fit-out, but for now he’s kept it traditional, installing a full-length roof rack upon which lives an ARB Esperance tent.

Loving the life

This is a thing with a story behind its name. Esperance is a town on the south coast of Australia, about 450 miles from Perth, and when you look at pictures of the place you basically want to go there and stay forever. Turquoise waters lapping beaches of pearly white sand where kangaroos bask in the sun – it’s that kind of vibe. A place for surfing, swimming, scuba diving and just generally loving life amid a landscape from a dream.

August 2024 I Overlander 4x4

6pp Hughes 110.indd 47

21/06/2024 23:19

Above: Terrafirma’s drop-down table is mounted on the nearside van panel, providing the perfect rest for a two-ring hob and solar-fed Anker power bank. A pair of TredPro recovery boards is mounted to its underside, too Right: Ally floor in the back hides a deep drawer which pulls out to reveal all life’s cooking essentials. Another drop-down shelf on the rear door provides further kitchen space, then a huge stowage box inside looks big enough to sleep in

Above: Trasharoo is a delightfully Aussie sounding word, but in fact this is an American product. Just look at the way they’ve spelt ’tire’ on the label. Either way, it hangs around the spare wheel to provide a handy, instant-access camp site bin

ARB’s Esperance roof tent opens on its own integrated gas struts – after which a telescopic ladder drops down for access. The highly featured unit gives you three zip-up ventilation units and a ‘stargazing moonroof,’ and its dry weight is a pleasingly slight 56kg

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

6pp Hughes 110.indd 48

21/06/2024 23:19

Overlander4x4_2024_08_Aug_Rimmer Brothers Ltd_FP.indd 1

19/06/2024 13:55

4X4 ON-THE-GO CAR MAINTENANCE MADE EASY WITH KWIK LIFT®

The Leading Land Rover & Range Rover 4×4 Engine Specialists

Available in AC220V and DC12V conﬁgurations, Kwik Lift® comes in 5 different models with a lifting capacity from 2500kg (5511lbs) to 3500kg (7716Ibs) and can lift from 460mm to 536mm (without rubber blocks). Easy to use and easily transported in the back of a car or van.

Ideal for:

• Mechanics • Professional Racers • Motor Enthusiasts • Detailers

• Engine Rebuilds & Servicing • Electrical Repair Work • Health Check • General Repair Work • Air Conditioning • Older & Classic Vehicles

Portable Car Lift Available in

5 Models

A friendly, personal service with the professionalism of a larger dealership

Tel: 0203 542 0100 [email protected]

01727 875695 | [email protected]

www.4x4enginerebuilds.co.uk

www.KwikLifts.co.uk

Unit 16, Riverside Industrial Estate, 27 Thames Road, Barking IG11 OND

4x4 Magazine_2023_Apr_4x4 Engine Rebuilds_QP.indd 1

08/03/2023 14:54

COMPLETE READY TO DRIVE CARS OR SELF BUILD KITS • Build manuals & full kits, & ready-made bodies available controlled speed, lights, horn, • Manual includes full component • Pre-cut panel sets and body cutting dimensions & ready-made bodies available • Battery powered DIY kits or parts • Manual includes full component For more information please contact 01291 626141 [email protected] www.toylander.com and body cutting dimensions For more information please contact 01291 626141

COMPLETE READY TO DRIVE •CARS BatteryOR powered kits or parts SELFDIY BUILD KITS

[email protected] • Build manuals www.toylander.com & full kits,

COMPLETE READY TO DRIVE controlled speed, lights, horn, CARS OR SELF BUILD KITS

• Pre-cut panel sets • Build manuals & full kits, & ready-made bodies available controlled speed, lights, horn, • Manual includes full component • Pre-cut panel sets and body cutting dimensions & ready-made bodies available • Battery powered DIY kits or parts • Manual includes full component COMPLETE [email protected] TO DRIVE For more information please contact 01291 626141 COMPLETE www.toylander.com and body cutting dimensions READY TO DRIVE

CARS OR SELF BUILD KITS CARS OR SELF BUILD KITS

Free UK Delivery on orders over £15.00 + VAT

• Build manuals & full kits, • Build controlled speed, lights, horn,manuals & full kits, controlled speed, lights, horn, • Pre-cut panel sets • Pre-cut panel sets & ready-made bodies available & ready-made bodies available • Manual includes full component • Manual includes full component and body cutting dimensions and body cutting dimensions • Battery powered DIY kits or parts • Battery powered DIY kits or parts

Toylander kits and ready built vehicles available in stock, hand built cars that children love to drive. For more information please contact 01291 626141 [email protected] www.toylander.com Please contact us for more infowww.toylander.com at For more information please contact 01291 626141 [email protected] [email protected] For more information please contact 01291 626141 [email protected] www.toylander.com For more information please contact 01291 626141 [email protected] www.toylander.com

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

4x4 Magazine_2023_September_PS Autoparts_QP.indd 1

Overlander4x4_August2024_Composite pages.indd 50

18/08/2023 4x4 Magazine_2024_04_April_Toylander_QP.indd 15:28 1

27/02/2024 10:08

24/06/2024 15:20

Nearside van panel is home to a pair of 20-litre Front Runner water canisters, complete with taps, and a high-lift jack

Also on the roof rack is a set of 20-litre jerry cans from Front Runner and a collection of storage boxes from XS and Tentco, not to mention a 270-degree Speedwing awning

That’s quite appropriate, too, because Sam is currently looking at moving the family to Oz for a spell while he takes up the offer of a posting there from work. The family don’t seem to mind, safe to say. This may be because he’s also looking at shipping the Defender out there too and having some proper adventures in it. Back to the tent. ARB designed it for quick and painless set-ups and breakdowns, with an internal telescopic ladder, gas strut assisted opening and a closing mechanism using just three push-lock ratchet straps. They also gave it what they call a ‘stargazing moonroof,’ as well as three zip-up windows with mesh screens to keep flying critters at bay. We mentioned weight earlier, and the Esperance tent adds 56kg dry. That doesn’t include the roof rack, but while it can’t help but affect the vehicle’s centre of gravity it’s only about the same as having a medium sized adult sitting up there. And less likely to get you arrested (ARB says the tent will limit your top speed to 68mph, while with a human up there it’s more like zero). Other things on the roof rack include a 20-litre jerry can from Front Runner and a collection of storage boxes from XS and Tentco. There’s also a side-mounted 270-degree Speedwing awning from TuffTrek, which turns the Defender into a kind of garden room within a few minutes of Sam parking it up wherever his journey may have taken him.

Said room can just be a lounge, or perhaps more accurately a veranda, but most likely it’s that trendiest of things, a living kitchen. You can get incredibly fancy slide-out jobs, as we all know, but Sam contents himself with a Terrafirma dropdown side table upon which a portable two-ring hob does everything the family needs. There’s another drop-down table mounted on the inside of the back door, too, as well as a large drawer which slides out from beneath a false floor to provide ample kitchen stowage. The 110 also carries a Total Cool fridge freezer (‘cheap but cheerful,’ sys Sam) and an Anker power bank and solar panel. A full-height mesh guard keeps the cargo and passenger compartments isolated from one another which is good because the cargo in question includes a seriously big and rigid storage case. Further additions include a couple of 20-litre Front Runner water canisters mounted on the far side from the dropdown table (these have taps, so they’re more than just jerry cans), a high-lift jack bracketed to the gutter above them, various LED surround lights and a Trasharoo bag slung around the spare wheel. Talking of lights, the headlamps have been converted to LED too, and there’s a set of Masai guards to protect them. This is a set-up that might want some developing, not least in terms of total fuel capacity if they’re going to make the most

of all that Australia has to offer. But the basics and more are already there, and it’s all very well tried and tested too. ‘The Puma engine and all-important sixth gear for longer motorway stints have already proven themselves during trips to the Pyrenees and Picos De Europa, alongside many long weekends exploring all Wales has to offer,’ Sam continues. And this year the family will be going further afield than ever: ‘To celebrate a milestone birthday, the island of Corsica awaits with its many tracks and trails, stunning isolated beaches and mountain locations.’ Feeling a little jealous? Well, don’t forget that this is Sam and Nathalie’s ‘one day’ truck. Though their ‘one day’ promise to themselves was to explore Africa in a Land Rover, and with everything else in the mix that day might still be a little way in the future. It’s never too early to start getting ready for that one day, though… and wherever the road might one day take them, they’ve certainly got the vehicle for it.

August 2024 I Overlander 4x4

6pp Hughes 110.indd 51

21/06/2024 23:19

TRAVEL

ALL OVER THE WORLD

Expedition travel takes many forms. Normally, we think in terms of 4x4s built to take on deserts and mountains – but setting out to see the world aboard an old Volkswagen van is every bit as much of an adventure. Throw in the small matter of the trip also being your honeymoon, and it’s a recipe for perfection… Words and pictures: Franck and Iris Thibaud Kochig

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

8pp Amerikando.indd 52

21/06/2024 23:36

rriving home at the end of your honeymoon is a special moment for any couple. For us, however, it was very special indeed. Because it came after two years and around 46,500 miles of travelling the world in our Volkswagen camper. We met in 2005 in Iris’ home town of Mar del Plata, Argentina. Franck, who comes from France, was studying at university there, and before long we had fallen in love – with each other, and with exploring the world together. Four months after our chance meeting, we set off on our first road trip together, exploring the mystical landscapes of Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of the

Americas. It was our first great experience as a couple, and it confirmed to us that this was the way we wanted to live. Soon, we were dreaming of going further afield, and then one night in 2007 we found ourselves sitting in a restaurant, scribbling plans on a serviette as we talked the night away about what we really wanted to do: drive around the world in a Volkswagen Kombi. The Type 2 was already out of production in Europe by the time Doña Renata, as she was christened, rolled off the line at VW’s General Pacheco plant in Buenos Aires Province. That was in 1982 – when neither of us had even been born! With our wedding set for 14 February 2009, we had a lot of work to do. Many

couples prepare for the big day by choosing caterers and making fancy invitations, but we were more likely to be found in Iris’ father Sergio and uncle Guille’s workshop, turning a basic Type 2 van into what would be our home. A great deal of work went into making the vehicle quieter, with polystyrene sheets glued to the panels and flexible plywood lining the roof to deaden the drumming noise that’s typical of vans. This would help insulate the cabin against the cold, too, as did the rubber matting and rigid plywood bonded to the floor, while sheets of carpeting were cut out and placed over the panels covering the engine compartment.

August 2024 I Overlander 4x4

8pp Amerikando.indd 53

21/06/2024 23:36

With this done, the van was ﬁtted out electrically and installed with storage furniture and a custom-made bed made using plywood over a timber frame. And that was that – one home-made Kombi camper, and a Volkswagen ready for the adventure of a lifetime! Or was it? On Thursday 26 February, at about 4pm, we waved goodbye to our loved ones and the big trip had begun. A hundred or so miles later, it had stopped again. The gearbox was stuck in ﬁrst.

Close to home

Just as well this happened so close to home. And that Iris’ father is a mechanic. He turned up to help us the following morning, by which time we had enjoyed our ﬁrst night camping – at the foot of a slip road by a toll booth on the autopista! After all that, is it any wonder that we headed for the city of Luján? The Virgin

of Luján is Argentina’s patron saint – as well as being the protector of roads and travellers. So it seemed only right to pause at the Basilica there, before hitting the highway confident that the heavens were at last smiling on us! Our plan was to head through Central America to the USA, ship the van to Japan then head west through Asia and into Europe, finishing in the French city of Brest. Thus we’d have driven from Iris’ home town to Franck’s – perfect! All we had to do was get there… The Virgin of Luján may have blessed us, but that didn’t mean it all went smoothly. Quite the opposite, in fact. Two weeks in, Dona Renata caught fire. In those moments, as we watched flames leaping from our Volkswagen’s engine, we knew that surely, we were looking at the end of our dream. But it was because of this that we met Fabio and the

mechanics from his garage, where we lived for a week as they helped us repair the damage and return the van to her former glory. Thus the biggest disaster we faced was turned into the most valuable lesson we ever learned: every problem has a solution, and there’s always someone who can help. Maybe Our Lady of Lujan really was looking out for us after all! Something similar happened in Venezuela, where a worrying misfire led to us finding a garage in Merida owned by Volkswagen specialist Reinaldo. This was our first experience of the way Volkswagen fans around the world take care of each other; while he was nursing our Kombi back to health, we were treated as guests of his family. Not only that but the night before we left for Colombia, the VW Club of Merida insisted on throwing us a party. And boy, can these guys drink…

When the authorities in Honduras closed the country’s borders, Franck and Iris found themselves stuck at the frontier with El Salvador amid a huge crowd of equally huge trucks

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

8pp Amerikando.indd 54

21/06/2024 23:36

on 00 ,0 25 er ov s ew vi re

There aren’t many vehicles as versatile as the 4x4. From general day use to off-roading adventures, your 4WD needs an insurance policy that protects it in every situation. That’s why we offer 4x4 insurance that’s tailored to your needs. Plus, save money with us - our customers have saved an average of 28% when taking out a 4x4 policy with us.*

d se Ba

INSURANCE FOR THE INDIVIDUAL Our bespoke 4x4 insurance can include:

Off-road and green laning cover Cover for modiﬁed, imported and classic 4x4s Agreed value cover Discounts for car club members

Call us today on 0344 728 0489 adrianflux.co.uk

Authorised & regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Trustpilot rating checked on 23rd April 2024. *Based on customer premium data from 2023

Overlander4x4_2024_07_July_Adrian Flux_HP.indd 1

24/05/2024 15:26

Specialist 4x4 Insurance Providing specialist car insurance for 40 years

Call today for a quote on

01395 255 100

www.graham-sykes.co.uk Graham Sykes Ltd. is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

AUGUST 2024 I Overlander 4x4

Overlander4x4_August2024_Composite pages.indd 55

24/06/2024 15:20

VEHICLE AIR CONDITIONING SPECIALISTS

01452 309983 07816 889905 • Parts • Repairs • Service • 134a and 1234 yf gas

UNIT 2, LLANTHONY BUSINESS PARK, GLOUCESTER, GL2 5QT www.ac-automotive.co.uk 4x4 Magazine_2023_Feb_AC Automotive_HP.indd 1

11/01/2023 17:19

MAZDA ISUZU MITSUBISHI FORD TOYOTA NISSAN

Leaf Springs Suspension Kits 2’’ Suspension Lift Kits 56

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

Overlander4x4_August2024_Composite pages.indd 56

24/06/2024 15:20

‘As we watched ﬂames leaping from our Volkswagen’s engine, we knew that surely, we were looking at the end of our dream’ So we set off with sore heads. But also with 150 Bolivars in cash, after the club held a collection to help with our travelling costs. That, right there, is the best example you’ll ever see of the Volkswagen brotherhood in action. It still moves us now to think of their kindness. It wasn’t long before we were in another garage, this time Samuel Cigarruista’s workshop in Panama. Like Reinaldo, he taught us a lot: but when he gave us the bad news that the oil leak we had spotted was being caused by a crack in the cylinder block, we were faced with the huge job of completely rebuilding the engine. If we had had to pay for this work, it would have taken up most of the money we had saved for the trip. Samuel, however, did it all for free, just to be part of the dream. We’ll never forget his kindness, and those of so many others who helped us along the way.

A week later, our ears were once again ﬁlled with the sound of an air-cooled engine as we headed north to meet up with friends from the Volkswagen Club of Costa Rica. This is a land of volcanoes (one of them, Arenal, went off in 1968, much to the consternation of the people living on it who had long thought it was extinct), which we toured en route to Nicaragua.

Feeling the heat

You can get disconcertingly close to some of these volcanoes, but we suffered a completely different kind of heat on the way through Honduras. As luck would have it, President Zelaya had just returned to the country after being removed in a coup. The military government had responded by closing the borders, as you do, and now here we were stuck in a crowd of about 200 Macks, Freightliners and Peterbilts, listening to the radio for news

of when we might actually be allowed to cross into El Salvador. The tension was made all the worse as we were so keen to get out of Honduras. It’s only 136 kilometres across the country between its borders with Nicaragua and El Salvador, but in that distance we had been stopped 13 times! Even with their nation on the brink of civil war, the police were more interested in checking our warning triangles and pretending we were speeding (it’s a Kombi, for heaven’s sake). We couldn’t help but think of the poor people who must live every day with such tedious corruption. Finally, a rumour began to spread like wildﬁre: they were coming to open the border! We jumped aboard and, we know not by what miracle, managed to slip between the huge trucks surrounding us. You can understand our relief at ﬁnally seeing the border post.

In Guatemala, the honeymooners had the unusual honour of being interviewed on TV. Prior to that, Panama was where they visited Daniel Cigarruista’s workshop to check on an oil leak… and ended up having to carry out a full engine rebuild August 2024 I Overlander 4x4

8pp Amerikando.indd 57

21/06/2024 23:36

The couple made an early stop at the Basilica of Lujan, dedicated to Argentina’s patron saint and the protector of roads and travellers. And then, two weeks later…

The Kombi spent a week in Reinaldo’s garage in Merida, while Franck and Iris were feted by his family. Then the night before they left, the local VW club threw a party in their honour

A sponsorship deal with the owner of Bullseye Powder Coating transformed the trip. It meant big changes to the van, too, which was treated to a body resto and respray 58

Not that El Salvador was a highlight of the trip. It rained and rained, then it rained some more, turning the whole country into a bit of a wash-out. Before we knew it, though, we were getting our passports out again and crossing into Guatemala. Here, we had the unusual honour of being interviewed for the local TV news. That’s not something many people can say happened to them on honeymoon! Our next stop was Mexico; while planning the trip, we had contacted as many Volkswagen clubs as possible, and this country had replied with more invitations than any other. We were already excited by our first evening in Mexico, when our odometer showed that Amerikando was now exactly 20,000 kilometres old! Not long after that, mind you, when we visited the Mayan sites of Tikal and Palenque, it felt more as if we had travelled to a different planet, not just a new country. While in Mexico, we had arranged to take part in Vochorama, one of Central America’s biggest gatherings of VWs. In truth, though, everywhere we went in this wonderful country there seemed to be people waiting to greet us. Many wanted to help, too, donating items to keep us on the road – once again, we found our fellow Volks fans’ generosity overwhelming.

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

8pp Amerikando.indd 58

21/06/2024 23:36

‘We felt at home in Central America, and had taken Mexico to our hearts. Once we had crossed the border into the USA, things would be very different!’ And then we were in Monterey, the last Mexican town before the border. We felt at home in Central America, and had taken Mexico to our hearts. Once we had crossed over into the USA, things would be very different! They certainly were. We realised that Latin America is a very similar group of countries and that now we were entering another world. A world in which we instantly felt as if we were inside a TV show. In fact, as we enjoyed Thanksgiving with a Texan family that was about to set off on a Type 2 adventure of their own, eating turkey and ice cream, drinking beer and watching American football on TV, we realised that the show in question was The Simpsons – and we were both Homer! Joking apart, what this does show is that while the roads might be wider, the cars newer and the adverts shinier, one thing about the USA is just the same as it is everywhere else. When it comes down to it, the friendship and hospitality you get from everyday people is what makes life worth living.

Open doors

As we made our way through the southern states en route for New York, that’s what we kept ﬁnding. Friends of friends, members of Volkswagen clubs

who’d heard of what we were doing… all opened their doors to us, showed us their cities, made us feel like members of their families. And they offered us places to sleep, too, which was very welcome as autumn was turning into winter and for the ﬁrst time our van’s distinctive bay window was greeting the morning under a blanket of frost. We celebrated new year in the Big Apple, staying in the city for a couple of weeks while gathering together all the visas we needed for the second half of our trip. And, of course, making friends; the guys from the Long Island VW Club threw a party for us in a German restaurant, then got together in the workshop to service our engine – and, when they discovered a broken valve support, carried out the repairs that would let us press on with conﬁdence. And then something amazing happened. We had spent months trying to get a sponsor for our expedition, to no avail. But then one day, just for fun, we went to a VW show and found ourselves talking to Joe Orriols. Joe owns Bullseye Powder Coating, and he loves cars. And when he said he was going to pay for our fuel for the rest of the trip, we couldn’t believe it. From out of the blue, we had found our guardian angel.

Of course, a powder coating company could never be seen to sponsor a vehicle that didn’t look good. And while Doña Renata was beautiful to us, she certainly had some scars, not to mention areas where her body was starting to rust. Cue three days in Joe’s paint shop, where she was stripped, filled, sanded and finally painted to a glorious finish. Fresh stickers, mirror-polished wheel trims… our little Kombi was looking good as new! We had new friends in Joe and his wife Delia, and with their support we could now look forward to the rest of the journey without worrying about money. With happy hearts, we headed west, pausing at Disney World to celebrate our first wedding anniversary – yes, we had been on the road now for almost a year! In San Francisco, we met a friend we had made on a VW forum who said we could stay with him while organising shipping for the van. Then we went to a local VW show, where we met guys who immediately volunteered to help us with maintenance before we headed across the Pacific. They had lots of contacts in Japan, too, which turned out to be invaluable as that was where we’d be reunited with our Kombi after her two-week voyage. We had phoned around every shipping company we could find, and were quoted

August 2024 I Overlander 4x4

8pp Amerikando.indd 59

21/06/2024 23:36

‘Of all the souvenirs we could have brought home, three months after arriving in France we were going to become parents to a baby boy!’

from $1700 to $4500 for the voyage. Guess which one we chose. An additional $500 was to be payable when the bus landed in Japan (in fact, we were charged more like $800), but it was still good value. Taking ten days, this crossing was a quick one, too – they sometimes take more than twice as long. Yet again, in Japan we were stunned by how friendly the Volkswagen community was towards us. And generous, too: we were never given more presents than we were here. We found ourselves back on TV as well, being interviewed about our travels once again, and went to three events with the KDF Owners VW Club of Japan. Each of them was a wonderful experience; we hadn’t even planned to visit the country, but as we prepared to set sail on the ferry to Russia we were sorry to be leaving it behind.

Space race

This was in 2010; of course, we wouldn’t be able to travel through Russia now. It didn’t start well, when getting the Kombi

back from customs took an unbelievable four days, but once we were on the road our frustrations quickly melted away. Here in the far east of the world’s biggest country, it’s a lot less developed than Japan, but the amount of space in front of us was just great. Siberia was beautiful, too – and, in the summer, very warm. And as we drove west, we discovered that the cities here are cosmopolitan and surprisingly historic. We even found that the food in Russia is good! For open space, though, surely Mongolia can’t be beaten. Basically, it’s the world’s biggest camping ground – for two weeks we stopped where we wanted every night, in beautiful, natural landscapes populated only by animals and nomadic herdsmen. As time went on, we reached a region in which there aren’t even any roads, just dirt tracks, which caused plenty of breakdowns and, on one occasion, left us stuck with our back wheels sunk into the soft ground. Imagine our despair, then, when we got to the border – only to ﬁnd that it was

open exclusively to Russian and Mongolian citizens. To make matters worse, the only route to the next crossing point meant fording a big, wide river. We chose what we thought was the best way over, but after a few metres the engine cut out. It was several hours before a truck showed up that was able to tow us the rest of the way, and what a worrying time that was. After all that, the paved highways on the far side of the border seemed like a fabulous luxury! Was Mongolia an adventure too far for our Kombi? Certainly, some of the terrain we were driving on would have been better suited to a Syncro. But she lived through it – even if we did need to rely on help from passing locals from time to time. And what this showed us was that while there might not have been a VW club there, people were as happy as ever to lend a hand when we were in need. Those guys who helped us out when we got stuck, for example, wouldn’t let us drive on until we’d shared the bottle of vodka they produced from their truck!

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

8pp Amerikando.indd 60

21/06/2024 23:36

With the Kombi’s engine in a bad way, the guys at the Volkswagen Club of Iran said they could help – if Franck and Iris could make it to Tehran. No small task, this: Iran is a big place…

Sunflower fields in Russia came as a bit of a surprise. So too did snow in Turkey – but hard as it is to believe, the day they encountered this blizzard was also the day when the team clocked up their highest mileage of the entire trip

We drove on to Omsk, where we waited two weeks for our visas to enter Kazakhstan. Then we drove to Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, where we spent another month getting visas for Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Iran. You can see a pattern forming. As it turned out, the Uzbeki visas only just came through at the very last moment. Still, we made it to Iran – where we discovered what is an amazingly warm, friendly country that’s totally different to the preconceived notions people are prone to having about it in the west. Strangers welcomed us into their homes and insisted on introducing us to their families; we met many fellow travellers, too, almost all of whom were planning to try and extend their visas.

Perish the thought

But now we had another worry with our engine, which was once again losing oil. It seemed that the transmission oil seal was blowing every few days; perish the thought, but could the crankshaft be broken?

Nursing the Kombi through the desert, we made it to the city of Yazd. Here, we hoped to find a mechanic who would identify the problem and fix it for us, but first we were determined to enjoy the city. Which was easily done, especially as once again, the people were fantastic – friendly, hospitable and full of laughter. On that subject, salvation finally came from the VW Club of Iran. We had driven overnight to Isfahan in the hope of finding a better mechanic than those in Yazd, but then the club contacted us to say they could help… if we could get to Tehran. So that was what we had to do – and it was worth it, because yet again a bunch of fellow VW enthusiasts saved the day. Not a moment too soon, either, because the next day our visa ran out. So once again, we knew our route, which took us north-west and into Turkey. Here, though, we were faced with a new hazard in the shape of thick snow – but despite it we celebrated new year’s eve by breaking our record and covering 1000 miles in one day. That night, we celebrated new year on the

highway, and in the morning we were in Istanbul – and with that, in Europe. This, we knew, meant that our two-year adventure was almost at an end. By this time, we had set a date for our arrival in Brest but, more than that, a new adventure was about to begin. The biggest adventure of all, indeed: of all the souvenirs we could have brought home from our voyage, three months after arriving in France we were going to become parents to a baby boy! Could there have been a more fitting finale to our trip? We don’t think so. We arrived in Brest on 27 February and were greeted by a huge rally of Beetles and Kombis from the area’s local Volkswagen clubs. Once again, such a moving sight – and so much more so to know that they were there because of us. And so our honeymoon was at an end. And of course, the next chapter of our life was just beginning. Louis was born on 1 June and it was the most beautiful moment of our lives – yes, even after two years travelling the world in our wonderful old van.

August 2024 I Overlander 4x4

8pp Amerikando.indd 61

21/06/2024 23:36

UK Destinations To Explore 1

Llanerchindda Farm Cynghordy, Llandovery Carmarthenshire, SA20 0NB Tel: 01550 750274 [email protected] www.cambrianway.com

Riverside Caravan Park High brentham, North Yorkshire, LA27FJ Tel: 01524 261272 [email protected] www.riversidecaravanpark.co.uk

Kingswood Caravan Park Rowan House Gravelly Bottom Road, Kingswood, Maidstone, ME17 3NU 01622 842 096 [email protected] www.kingswood-caravans.co.uk

Smytham Holiday Park Smytham Holiday Park, Little Torrington, Devon EX38 8PU 01805 622110 [email protected] www.smytham.co.uk

Blue Hills Touring Park Crosscoombe, Trevellas, St Agnes, Cornwall, TR5 0XP 01872 552999 [email protected] www.bluehillscamping.co.uk

The Hop Farm Family Park Maidstone Rd, Beltring, Tonbridge TN12 6QF 01622 872068 [email protected] www.thehopfarm.co.uk

Woodhill Park Cromer Road, East Runton, Cromer Norfolk, NR27 9PX Tel: 01263 512 242 [email protected] www.woodhill-park.com

Locations to stay in the UK

Kingswood Caravans

6 4

Overlander_2024_Map_200x275_FP.indd 1

24/06/2024 15:24

British 4x4 Centre

Cynghordy Llandovery Carmarthenshire, SA20 0NB Tel: 01550 750274 e-mail: [email protected]

Your Independent Landrover Specialists

www.cambrianway.com Country Workshops Tel/Fax 01775 750223

www.british4x4centre.co.uk

Risegate, Nr Spalding, Lincs, PE11 4EZ

TO ADVERTISE IN

Green Lane Holidays in Mid Wales Family run guest house and self catering cottages with spectacular views, en-suite bedrooms, comfortable lounge bar and excellent home cooked food. Pressure washer, drying room, map room with local lanes marked, on-site 4x4 course, guides and GPS hire available. A very popular venue for both individuals and groups of 4x4 enthusiasts

Please call Faye on

01233 220245 WHITECLIFF 4X4 A5 2019b:ad

4X4 PLAYDAYS EVERY MONTH 10am to 4pm Slindon open second and fourth Sunday of every month (BN18 ONB) 4x4 entry £40 per vehicle (full driving license required) More info and pics Google youtube/slindon 4x4

Quad Bikes £25 (all riders 14 or over) Parking only £5

7/5/19

11:00

Page 1

Whitecliff Off-Road Centre www.whitecliff4x4.co.uk

4x4 4x4 Off-Road Off-Road Driving Driving & & Training Training Introductory Introductory & & Advanced Advanced Courses Courses BORDA BORDA Qualified Qualified Instructors Instructors 1:1 1:1 Owner Owner Driver Driver Training Training Junior Junior Off-Road Off-Road Experiences Experiences Gift Gift Vouchers Vouchers Bespoke Bespoke 1:1 1:1 or or 2:1 2:1 Courses Courses Groups/Corporate/Stag Groups/Corporate/Stag & & Hen Hen Events Events Professional Professional 4x4 4x4 Off Off Road Road Training Training (PUWER) (PUWER)

We specialise in organising 4x4 owners’ days and expedition training at our 4x4 off-road site at Slindon in West Sussex for owner-drivers.

www.4x4driving.co.uk

Get in touch with us:

01903 812195 07802 582826

THE BEST 4X4 OFF-ROAD EXPERIENCE BY FAR

4X4

WHITECLIFF

E: [email protected]

Office: 01594 834666 Mobile: 07720 734192

AUGUST 2024 I Overlander 4x4

Overlander4x4_2024_08_Aug_Morgan 4x4_QP.indd 1

Overlander4x4_August2024_Composite pages.indd 63

4x4 Magazine_2023_Feb_Whitecliff Off Road_QP.indd 1 06/06/2024 16:03

11/01/2023 11:00

24/06/2024 15:20

NEXT MONTH

LAND ROVER SPECIAL Living with a Landy: vehicles, travel, historics and more

PLUS Prepping your truck for overland travel

Braving the wilds in an ancient Range Rover

First drive of the new KGM Torres

SEPTEMBER 2024 ISSUE: ON SALE 1 AUGUST 64

overlander4x4.co.uk

Next Month Aug 24_converted.indd 64

22/06/2024 08:12

THE TRADE - IN

For a limited period, get £1000 extra for your part exchange. Any make. Any model.

DON’T MISS OUT. FIND OUT MORE AT ISUZU.CO.UK

DRIVEN TO DO

Part-ex vehicle must be under 7 years old. Available on vehicles ordered and registered before 30.09.24, while stocks last. Retail purchasers only. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. Starts 01.07.2024. Ends 30.09.2024. Terms and conditions apply. For full details please contact your local Isuzu dealer or visit isuzu.co.uk. Isuzu (UK) Ltd a subsidiary of International Motors Limited.

ISU06060 4x4 August Advert_1.indd 1

Overlander4x4_2024_08_Aug_Isuzu_FP.indd 1

19/06/2024 15:48 19/06/2024 16:50