Jim and his Everest

By Chris Morton Photos by Christine Arnasiewicz

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Jim Filov loves his Ford Everest. For him and his family it is the ultimate family car that can quickly be converted into a highly capable touring vehicle with minimal effort.

Despite the impressive list of modifications, the Everest is still incredibly nimble on-road, where it spends most of its time pulling duty for school drop offs or ferrying the kids to soccer practice. The high level of technology appeals to the part time DJ with an impressive infotainment system and electronic driver aids making every journey enjoyable. Jim’s build is quite an extensive one, taking his stock standard Everest and transforming it into a very capable touring rig. Up front he has fitted a colour coded TJM Outback bar (complete with 8 tonne recovery points) and paired it up with an Ironman 12,000LBS Monster Winch with synthetic rope. For night driving he opted for a pair of Ultravision NitroMAXX180 spotlights to ensure he could see the distance. Under the hood he opted for an upgraded Century Touring Battery with an iDrive Blue Tooth battery monitor installed. A Process West Separ8r catch can and a Fuel Manager preline fuel filter kit protect the Everest from oil blow-by and potentially dirty fuel and an OEM snorkel provides cooler, cleaner air for the engine to breath when travelling along dusty back roads. He opted for a 40mm lift to the suspension, using TJM’s XGS lift kit with a 300kg front and 200kg rear springs upgrade. To protect the underbody he chose Bushskinz UVP, manufactured in 4mm steel. To ensure he had the extended range for travelling around WA he installed a Brown Davis 125 litre fuel tank with a modified neck, incorporating a fast fill breather. Wanting to ensure a firm grip with the road some aftermarket CSA Hawk 17x9 rims were paired with a set of Mickey Thompson Baja ATZP3 tyres. RhinoRack’s Pioneer Platform with their Backbone system was selected to provide extra cargo capacity on the roof with ROLA’s recovery tracks bracket carrying the very essential recovery boards. Wanting to ensure that the vehicle is easily converted from the family’s everyday drive to a touring unit, Jim has custom designed the rear of the Everest. An Intervolt charging system has been paired with a DCS 75Ah lithium battery to run the Waeco CF50 fridge and various auxiliary lights fitted to the vehicle. A custom shelf and tub system reduced the weight in the back of the vehicle and makes for a quick set up and tear down when the trip away is complete. What we really liked was Jim’s custom compressor box that he had put together. The box mounted securely to the roof rack and was connected to the auxiliary battery. Inside was a Bushranger 4x4 Blackmax

compressor, which also contained his recovery gear. The airline could be quickly coupled to an external quick connector and the power switched on from inside the rear of the vehicle. This keeps the compressor noise outside the vehicle and reduces the potential impact on passengers. What doesn’t he like? His number one gripe is with the handbrake not lasting long in muddy conditions. This relates to containments entering the handbrake assembly and quickly wearing out the brake shoes. His other bug bear, the unintended consequence of making modifications to any vehicle having a detrimental impact upon fuel economy. This is not normally discussed in any detail and initially caught him by surprise. Jim has taken the Everest on plenty of adventures around the state with a trip along the Holland Track and out to Cave Hill being one of his more memorable ones. He has explored Steep Point and the Shark Bay area as well as plenty of sand driving all along the coast. The Mickey Thompsons have been put through their paces both around Dwellingup and Waroona Dam. When we asked him what his favourite destination has been to date, he replied simply with Wedge Island. Its simplicity and beauty keeps drawing him back. We had a great time meeting Jim and having a look over his Everest out amongst the Wandoo trees. The video and photo shoot was a lot of fun and Jim was a natural on camera. Christine, who was taking photos at the time, learnt a valuable lesson concerning the distance muddy water can travel when a car drives through it.

Mud bath in 3, 2, 1 ....