4x4 Magazine - March 2022

4x4

NEWS • TECH • DEBATE • TRAVEL • MODIFIED VEHICLES • GREEN LANING PLUS Getting in deep aboard the new-look SsangYong Musso

THE UK’S ONLY 4X4 AND PICK-UP MAGAZINE

GRENADIER DRIVEN!

At last – our first off-road verdict on the new truck the whole world is talking about

PLUS Quite simply one of the best Suzuki Samurai builds the world has ever seen

Land Rover Defender 110 2.4 TDCi converted into a superb all-terrain motorhome

An expedition to a part of Latin America rarely visited by Brits

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Epic fords on our Northumberland roadbook

MAR 2022

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March 2022

CONTENTS

8

‘They set out to build a spiritual successor to the old exactly what they’ve done’

38

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TO DO Contents Mar.indd 4

16

58

4x4 15/02/2022 13:26

56 COOL TOOLS WHEN YOU SUBSCRIBE!

Right now you can get 4x4 delivered for a year for just £30 – and we’ll sweeten the deal by sending you a high-quality Sealey multi-tool worth £21.54!

4x4 Scene: News, Products and More…

16 18 18 20 20 16 20 20 22 30 32 33 34 35

Range Rover Specs and prices revealed for SV models and plug-in hybrids Hennessey Velociraptor Bronco and F-150 based hyper-trucks go on sale Isuzu D-Max Green credentials win big order from mining giant Bluebell Lane Rangers call in green lane users to help protect Welsh byway Stile End GLASS team works to repair ever-popular Cumbria lane Odyssey Challenge Fancy dress, proposals and more to wrap up the season TeraFlex 2.5” suspension kit for JL Wranger now in stock at Jeepey Osram Wide range of LED lighting solutions for every kind of 4x4 Dakar Rally Full report from an incident-packed event in the Saudi desert Ring Revised MAGflex range shines a light on all your workshop needs Maverick 4x4 New Slimline II roof rack for current Land Rover Defender 90 LVB Overland Aussie-made Bush Company awnings come to the UK Jeepey LED spotlights from Pro-Comp now in stock Lanoguard Eco-friendly rustproofing you can apply yourself

Driven 8 36

Ineos Grenadier First time behind the wheel of the all-new off-road truck SsangYong Musso SUV-like double-cab now looks as good as it is to drive

Every Month 6 56 66 80

Alan Kidd Being one of the first to drive the latest 4x4s is a perk of the job Subscribe Get 4x4 at a knock-down price and receive a free Sealey multi-tool Roadbook Wading aplenty amid the hills of Northern Northumberland Next Month Some very different ways to treat a classic 4x4

Features 38 44 46

Mighty Wrangler A current 5-door Rubicon gets the Storm Jeeps treatment 110 Motorhome Land Rover turned into far more than just a camper van World-class Samurai One of the best off-road Suzukis we’ve ever seen

Travel 58

Hidden Americas Guatemala and Belize get a rare visitor from the UK

66 Alnwick Roadbook Defender – and that’s

46

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4x4 Tel: 01283 553243 Email: enquiries@assignment-media.co.uk

Alan Kidd Editor

A

n enormous privilege of writing about cars for a living is that every now and then, you get to see, sit in, sometimes even drive one before anybody else. It definitely helps if you work for Top Gear or something like that, but even a specialised mag like this one gets the occasional nod.

I think I was about six months into the job when Toyota brought the 4Runner to the UK. It was already long since here as a grey, and the magazine had no end of specialist importers badgering us to write about the ones they had brought in, but our editor at the time was a canny old fox who knew how to keep the big guns on our side and he held off until he was able to give the story to Toyota proper.

Sure enough, they came through for us.

It was a minor miracle, though, given our track record.

A year or two previously, the same press office had loaned us the first Land Cruiser VX in the country so we could use it on 4x4 of the Year. It was the actual vehicle they were going to be exhibit at the Motor Show, so it arrived with a ‘please don’t break our car’ request ringing in our ears.

The VX duly won the 4x4 of the Year title. But not before one of our testers had reversed it into the wall of our hotel. Quite hard. Remarkably, it wasn’t the hotel that came off worst.

So when the editor pitched for an early go of the 4Runner, he had quite a lot of making nice to do. But he was very good at that. And it worked, because Toyota didn’t just give us the first one in the country, they gave us the first two in the country. One petrol and one diesel. And once again, they arrived with a gentle reminder that after our photoshoot, they were going to have a date with the Motor Show.

I remember being sat in one of them on Salisbury Plain with our Technical Editor and a staff photographer, staring glumly through the windscreen at the torrential rain and thick, low cloud stretching as far as the eye could see, as we remarked to each other that this just wasn’t going to happen.

But it did. The cloud melted away, a bleary sun came out and suddenly, out photo shoot was back on.

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Crunch. The exhaust now looked like a piece of spaghetti On saturated chalky ground, in vehicles with big, fat road-going tyres. You know what’s coming, don’t you?

It was a failed hillclimb that did the trick. I remember slithering backwards in my precious 4Runner and crunch, coming to rest against a bank. The exhaust now looked like the piece of spaghetti that gets stuck to the bottom of the pan.

Thankfully, my other really big memory involving vehicles I got to drive before anyone else didn’t involve anything getting broken. Apart almost from someone’s nose. In autumn 1997, with the Freelander about to be launched, Land Rover offered us a few days in one. Because we had two 4x4 magazines, we ended up with two, once again a petrol and a diesel.

I can’t quite remember why, but the round-Britain driving route we came up with to test them involved going through the middle of Huddersfield at rush hour. Which is why we found ourselves stuck in traffic our two Freelanders… as luck would have it, outside a Land Rover main dealer.

There were a couple of bored salesmen sitting in the showroom and I remember watching them and wondering it they’d notice. They did… and it was like someone had let off a bomb underneath them. They leapt into the air and launched themselves at the window to gawp at the new Landy everyone was talking about; one of them managed to avoid faceplanting into it, but the other one scored a direct hit.

So I’m writing this the day before flying to France to drive the Ineos Grenadier for the first time. Obviously, it’s still six months before the vehicle actually goes on sale, so this is going to be another of those very privileged experiences.

We won’t be able to take them on the road, so I won’t be wowing any sales staff with one. But we certainly will be going offroad. So I very much hope that in addition to become one of the first people to drive a Grenadier, I’m not also about to become one of the first people to break one…

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 Art Editor Samantha D’Souza Contributors Dan Fenn, Paul Looe, Gary Martin, Gary Noskill, Kaziyoshi Sasazaki, Olly Sack, Tom Alderney, Jen Bright, Gav Lowrie Photographers Harry Hamm, Steve Taylor, Richard Hair, Vic Peel Group Advertising Manager Ian Argent Tel: 01283 553242 Advertising Manager Colin Ashworth Tel: 01283 553244 Advertising Production Sarah Moss Tel: 01283 553242 Subscriptions Sarah Moss Tel: 01283 553242 Publisher and Head of Marketing Sarah Moss Email: sarah.moss@assignment-media.co.uk To subscribe to 4x4, or renew a subscription, call 01283 553242. 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, Repton House 1.08, Bretby Business Park, Ashby Road, Bretby, Derbyshire DE15 0YZ

© Assignment Media Ltd, 2022

4x4 15/02/2022 10:21

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INEOS GRENADIER: AT LAST, WE The spiritual successor to the old Defender is one of the biggest stories on four wheels.

Words: Alan Kidd Pictures: Chris Brown / Ineos and Alan Kidd

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HAVE THE ANSWER… And after five years, we’re about to discover if this all-new off-roader truly is the real thing

O

ne of those slightly twittish websites that are forever flagging quasi-news stories on social media recently ran a story about the top ten most anticipated cars of 2022. The idea was that these are the most frequently Googled vehicles due to be launched during the year.

No surprise, the list was dominated by the sort of cars adolescents fantasise about during the odd moments when they’re not fantasising about Doja Cat or Olivia Rodrigo instead. But there in the middle of all the shiny fast stuff was the unmistakable shape of the Ineos Grenadier. The new Range Rover wasn’t there, and neither was the new Grand Cherokee. But the return of traditional off-road design to the new car market? Now, that is worth looking up.

You know the story by now. Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the mega-rich owner of petrochemicals giant Ineos, is a fan of old-shape Defenders. When Land Rover announced it was going to stop making them, he asked them if he could buy the tooling with a view to creating a continuation model, and they turned him away. So instead he created a whole new OEM, Ineos Automotive, with its first product being a vehicle designed to do exactly the same job only better.

That vehicle is the Grenadier. It’s a traditional off-road machine in all the main ways, with a ladder-frame chassis, live beam axles and a lowrange transfer case. A truck, in other words, rather than what we’ve come to know as an SUV. Understandably, the off-road world has been buzzing for it since the news first broke. And that’s been a lot of buzzing, because the news first broke more than half a decade ago. But finally, come late summer this year, production is going to be up and running and the first vehicles are going to be in their owners’ hands.

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For now, the Grenadier is still in the prototyping phase. But those prototypes are now very drivable. And we know, because we’ve driven one.

This isn’t going to be a full test. What we’ve had is only an off-road drive, and the vehicle itself was some way from being to production spec in terms of fit, finish, equipment and so on. So we’re leaving all that to one side and concentrating solely on answering the big question: is it the real deal off-road?

The answer starts with a reference to what’s under the Grenadier’s bonnet. There’s going to be a choice of 3.0-litre petrol and diesel engines; the latter is the one we’d choose, but the former is the one we got the chance to drive.

Both engines are mated to the same eightspeed automatic gearbox, which in turn feeds out to both axles via a full-time, two-speed transfer case. This contains a locking diff – as will both axles on production models, albeit only as an option. In a very prototypey kind of a way, the truck we tested had the switchgear for lockers but it wasn’t wired up.

Now, a revvy petrol engine and an auto box is not necessarily the combo you’d want for hardcore off-roading. Even with low range, we’ve had some hair-raising experiences as a result of trying to use engine braking on vehicles with that set-up.

So, let us transport you to the kind of hill you go down with one foot hovering over the loud pedal, in readiness to intervene at the first sign of you going into an endo. We crawl over it in low first, down goes the nose, up goes the speed and then it comes back as soon as the gradient begins to level out at the bottom. All good, but it it DID pick up speed so let’s try again.

This time, we ease it over the edge with a foot on the brakes, until the slope takes over and we have to let it go. There’s a bit of slippage as the

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vehicle’s weight pulls at its tyres, but it’s a token effort: the drivetrain won’t let itself be fooled into letting it run away. With a bit of driver input, the Grenadier has done it under total control.

Now, we can all think of vehicles where the driver’s involvement is limited to pressing a drive mode button – or, in the scenario above, engaging hill descent control and letting it hammer away mercilessly at the brakes while some earnest instructor next to you tells you how much better this is than using low range and doing it properly.

Having it all done for you can be jolly impressive. But a skilled driver will always have more finesse than any amount of electronics, not to mention more sympathy for the vehicle and the terrain alike. And besides, if you actually like

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driving, especially off-road, being a passenger in your own car can also be jolly boring.

The Grenadier helps you out more than the old Defender did (it’s automatic, so go figure). But it doesn’t dial you out of the equation. We’d say it’s on a par with the Wrangler or Land Cruiser for involvement, which means you have to do enough of the work for it to be rewarding but not enough for it to be tiresome. If your version of off-roading is akin to masochism, you might find it a bit too grown-up for your liking, but given that Ineos wants it to be seen as a vehicle for life you’ll have plenty of time to mature into it.

Elsewhere, the auto box doesn’t interfere when you need to put your foot down. We failed a steep, rutted hillclimb a couple of times while

figuring out how much momentum was going to be just enough; on the way, there was a hint of a suggestion that the revs weren’t going to rise at the critical moment, but then there they were without any fuss.

We’d put that down to the engine being so quiet and refined, we simply didn’t hear it building up speed. We’ll admit that for one horrific moment, we thought the revs were being strangled by some sort of hell-like traction control response, the likes of which has ruined many a 4x4 down the years, but we’re more pleased than we can express to say this was very much not the case.

And this experience of the Grenadier did back up the initial feeling we got from a passenger ride last year that it is very smooth and quiet off-road.

It makes extremely sure-footed progress on an unrelenting swell of torque that’s always there to help but, from what we’ve seen, never to hinder.

Ride wise, the Grenadier’s suspension is quite firm. It was very good indeed when being pushed fairly hard over the sort of terrain you can take at speed, but elsewhere on Ineos’ off-road course its front springs sent a series of jolts into the cabin when travelling at low speeds over corrugations.

We’d like to think that this isn’t just down to the length of time that’s passed since we last drove anything with a proper front axle…

The vehicle’s handling off-road appears very assured, from what we’ve been able to discern so far. There’s plenty of assistance to its steering but still ample feel, so you instinctively palm it around while at the same time understanding exactly what the wheels are doing. At higher off-road speeds, it doesn’t easily slide off-course and nor does its body loll from side to side. Again, it feels very well controlled.

4x4 15/02/2022 12:03

Building the Grenadier MUCH HAS BEEN MADE, most of it jingoistic and a bit dumb, of the fact that Ineos was going to build the Grenadier in Wales but then moved production to France instead. We’ve lost count of the ‘well then I’m not going to buy one’ comments from keyboard warriors, most of whom immediately go on to say they’re going to buy a new Defender (made in Slovakia) instead.

When you see the factory, in the town of Hambach near the border with Germany, you’d need to be a little Englander to the point of lunacy not to understand why the company made the decision to change its plans. The story is that the plant previously belonged to Daimler Benz – which changed its own plans around two years ago, leaving a massive car making facility with nothing to make.

It also left a thousand-strong workforce, with a wealth of skills and experience, facing an uncertain future. The average age of the employees at the factory is 45, and most have been working there for around 20 years – so moving to Hambach meant getting everything you need to build cars for a fraction of what it would cost to establish a new facility then recruit and train a team to operate it.

Crucially, with build quality absolutely critical to the credibility of a new vehicle from an unknown manufacturer, Hambach came readily equipped with a state-of-the-art quality control facility. This has the air more of a science lab than a factory, equipped as it is with an extraordinarily futuristic suite of robots and scanners which assess every aspect of the production side’s output on a rolling basis. Every Grenadier contains more than 5000 spot welds; at each stage of prototyping, and three times a year thereafter, a body will be pulled from the line and every one of them will be tested to destruction to establish the force required to break it.

Perhaps the cherry on top from a business point of view it that as part of its deal to purchase Hambach, Ineos got a contract to built the Smart EV for the factory’s old owners, and to produce assemblies for Mercedes’ electric SUVs, for the next five years. So even before the Grenadier goes into production, the factory that will make it is already bringing in revenue.

Ultimately, the intention is for Hambach to make Ineos’ own products and nothing else.

With ample room for two product lines, this asks intriguing questions about what’s next: we know there’ll be an extended-wheelbase double-cab model, and a short-wheelbase version hasn’t been ruled out, though beyond that the company is open about pursuing opportunities in other parts of the 4x4 market too. The Grenadier is just the start – but what a start it’s shaping up to be.

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Technical Specifications Specs for the Grenadier in Station Wagon form. NB some information is based on preliminary data and is subject to change prior to production Length Width Height Wheelbase Towing capacity (braked) Towing capacity (unbraked) Kerb Weight Payload

4927mm / 193.9” (inc spare wheel) 1930 mm / 76” (exc mirrors) 2033 mm / 80” 2922 mm / 115” 3500 Kg 750kg TBC TBC

Engine Output (petrol) Output (diesel) Gearbox Transfer Case

Straight-six, twin-turbo, petrol and diesel 281bhp, 332lbf.ft 245bhp, 406lbf.ft 8-speed auto, manual override Full-time, dual-range

Approach angle Departure angle Breakover angle Ground clearance Wading depth Articulation (front) Articulation (rear)

35.5˚ 36.1˚ 28.2˚ 264mm 800mm 9˚ 12˚

Wheels Tyres

17” / 18” steel/ alloy 265/70R17 / 255/70R18

There wasn’t enough in the way of axle-twisters for us to be able to feel out a point where the lack of diff-locks was starting to make a difference.

That’s not including the aforementioned steep climb, which we’d have walked up with just a rear locker to help us. But from what we did get to drive, the suspension flexes quite well. The rear axle has upper and lower trailing links and a panhard rod, rather than the A-frame you’d want to use for the ultimate in articulation, but the payoff is better control in every situation beyond the kind you take at less than 5mph. And it does still work very effectively on every kind of terrain we’ve been able to tackle thus far – which, just to say, was in a working quarry as opposed to the contrived setting of a manufacturer-made demo track.

And honestly, we don’t see anything contrived about the Grenadier. It’s a big, chunky truck made from big, chunky components and everything we’ve seen about it tells us Ineos has hit the ground running.

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The company remains on schedule for a production launch in July, and ahead of it says full specifications and prices will be announced in April. The latter won’t be cheap – we expect the two-seat van to start at around £47,000 including VAT, with the five-seat station wagon adding around ten grand to that – but it will compare well with the few comparable vehicles on the market.

And if Ineos can deliver on its promise that this will be an heirloom car, it almost doesn’t matter how much it costs. Depreciation has no meaning if you keep a vehicle long-term – and with that taken out of the equation every other cost will pale into insignificance.

It’s a big if. But Ineos has come through with everything it has set out to deliver so far. And now, at last, we can add the Grenadier’s off-road performance to that. They set out to build a spiritual successor to the old Defender – and that’s what they’ve done. The off-road world is about to have its biggest hallelujah moment in decades.

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NEWS

Great British Land Rover Show gets set for springtime action at Newark Showground on 1 May

FOR SEVERAL YEARS, the Great British Land Rover Show has been seen as the perfect way to bring down the curtain on the season.

After missing out in 2020, the autumn extravaganza was back in 2021 – when it set new records by attracting the biggest attendance in its illustrious history.

And now there’s a second Great British Land Rover Show, too. This one is hosted by Newark Showground – and it’s timed to get the season off to a perfect start.

The date for the Newark show is 1 May – and it’s going to be an absolute must for every Land Rover owner and enthusiast!

The springtime Great British Land Rover Show will have it all. Parts and accessories to buy, bespoke vehicle builds and eye-popping restorations… Land Rover toys and models, branded clothing and other merchandise…

Specialist insurance providers, overland travel operators, tyre and exhaust specialists… If you’ve got a Land Rover and you’re looking for more or less anything to do with it, you’ll find it at Newark on 1 May! The show is supported by Headline Sponsor BFGoodrich Tires, Terrafirma, Paddock Spares and The Landy. In addition, the All Wheel Drive Club will be running a special 2.4-mile off-road course which visitors will be able to experience in their own vehicles.

The show’s off-road route is always a smash hit at Stoneleigh in November, and Newark is set to be no different. The course has several levels of difficulty, making it suitable for all levels of driver ability and experience – and for every kind of Land

Rover, from Series Is to new Range Rovers and everything in between.

Marshals from the AWDC will be on hand with advice on driving techniques – and, should that not be enough, a handy tow rope!

The organisers recommend that you buy your tickets in advance for the off-road course, both to avoid disappointment and to be able to select your preferred start time.

The same goes for the display apparatus erected by the Land Rover Experience, on which you can take a passenger ride in the latest Land Rover vehicles with the company’s expert instructors at the wheel.

With intense inclines, dramatic descents, sideways tilts and more, the Experience’s Dynamic Display Equipment, which was designed to showcase the technology and capabilities of all the company’s vehicles, demonstrates their capabilities in various different ways and always makes a popular addition to any show. It was a huge hit at Stoneleigh last November – and you can be sure the same will be the case at Newark in May! Tickets for the Great British Land Rover Show, at Newark Showground on 1 May, cost £15 on the day – or just £7.50 in advance. You can get them by visiting gblandrovershow. co.uk – so mark the date in your diary now!

2022 dates: 1 May, Newark • 20 November, Stoneleigh 4x4 1p GBLRS Mar 22.indd 15

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NEW 4X4S

Specs revealed for PHEV and ultra-

P440e and P510e plug-in hybrids promise 18g/km and a 54-mile electric range • SV

L

and Rover has completed the initial launch phase of the new Range Rover, by opening the order book on the super-exclusive SV version of the vehicle – as well as a brace of plug-in hybrids. Pushing list prices as high as £173,200, with the

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£200,000 barrier easily breachable by adding options, these models move the Range Rover brand further upmarket than ever before.

Offering a choice of design themes, exclusive materials and extensive options for personalisation, Land Rover says the Range Rover

SV can be configured in more than 1.6 million different combinations.

There are two basic design themes, SV Serenity and SV Intrepid, upon which customers can specify a vast range of equipment and finishes to tailor the vehicle to their own personal taste.

The SV is identified by specific bumper and grille designs, as well as its own unique exterior badging.

It can also be optioned with 23” three-finish wheels, while the styling palette inside includes premium metals and ceramics, responsibly sourced woods and a choice of near-aniline leather and sustainable non-leather Ultrafabrics.

There’s also the SV Signature Suite, available in vehicles configured with a four-seat interior, which Land Rover says is the pinnacle of luxury in the new Range Rover. This is designed around a full-length con-

4x4 15/02/2022 11:35

-

NEW 4X4S

posh versions of new Range Rover

models offer bespoke equipment at prices ranging from £146,200 to beyond £200,000

sole accommodating an electrically deployable Club Table and integrated refrigerator with SV-etched Dartington crystal glassware. Even the cup holders are electric.

Further options include 13.1” rear entertainment screens, the largest ever fitted to a Range Rover, with high-fidelity headphones designed specifically for use in the vehicle.

They haven’t mentioned anything about a capstan winch or PTO-driven welder, but it’s made by Special Vehicle Operations so we’re sure

4x4 3pp Scene New 4x4s Mar 22.indd 17

they can do it for you if you want it.

They can also do the vehicle in Standard or Long-Wheelbase form, and with a choice of straight-six 350bhp diesel, 530bhp twin-turbo V8 and 510bhp PHEV petrol engines.

You can choose from four, five and seven-seat interiors, too.

On the subject of PHEV engines, these are also now available to order across the entire Range Rover line-up. Combining a 3.0-litre petrol engine with a 105kW motor, these boast a WLTP figure of 18g/km and

what Land Rover calls ‘a real-world all-electric range of 54 miles.’ With 50kW rapid-charging capability, its 38kWh battery pack can reach 80% capacity in less than an hour.

In addition to the P510e PHEV unit that’s available in the SV model, there will also be a P440e PHEV. Pricing for the latter starts at £103,485, with the more powerful unit costing from £126,455. The gap is disguised by the fact that the P510e is only available in Autobiography spec and above, however;

comparing like for like in terms of everything else, the price walk between them is only £3690.

For the SV range, £146,200 gets you a D350 SWB model – but that’s before the personalisation starts.

Move up to a P530 V8 LWB and that’s where the aforementioned £173,200 comes in – though we spent five minutes on Land Rover’s configurator and by the time we ran for cover we had turned that into more than £220,000. For the sort of person who can buy a vehicle at this level, however, spending money is all just part of the fun.

MARCH 2022 | 17

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NEW 4X4S

High-powered Bronco and F-150 Raptor enter production as Hennessey responds to demand for limited-edition hyper-trucks

TEXAN HYPERCAR MAKER Hennessey has started production of its VelociRaptor 400 and 600. Based on the current Ford Bronco and F-150 Raptor respectively, these are tuned for 411bhp and 603lbf.ft in the case of the 400, and 558bhp and 672lbf.ft for the 600.

Running 35” off-road tyres, Hennessey’s Bronco hits 60mph in 4.9 seconds. The company’s F-150, meanwhile, gets that time down to 4.2 seconds – again on 35-inchers.

As well as the tuning, the vehicles get various interior and exterior tweaks to make them stand out from the crowd, and customers can specify a livery package including badging and race-style stripes. Said customers had better be quick off the blocks, though, because both models are being offered as limited editions.

You’d want to be quite well heeled, too. The Bronco conversion is priced at $24,950, with the livery package adding another $6000 on top; as for the F-150, various options are available but Hennessey says that ‘the total price paid is typically in the region of $115,000.’ This does, thankfully, include the cost of buying the vehicle itself before the company goes to work on it.

EPC-UK, WHICH SPECIALISES in commercial explosives and drilling and blasting services, is on a mission to improve its environmental performance.

And to help it do so, it has turned to the new Isuzu D-Max. Powered by a Euro 6D 1.9-litre diesel engine with stop-start operation, the 2021 Pick-Up of the Year runs AdBlue and Selective Catalytic Reduction to prevent unnecessary NOx emissions. EPC, which is also moving over to hybrid power for its executives’ company cars, has taken delivery of an initial eight vehicles – out of a total order for more than eight times that many.

The company’s pick-ups are mainly used in off-road conditions around quarries, where they transport a vast array of equipment. A proper work truck, the D-Max has low range as standard on all 4x4 models, and another improvement over the previous generation is the addition of a locking rear diff on all but the base-speccer.

The all-round level of safety kit on the new model was a strong point in its favour, too.

‘We are keen to embrace technological advancements as they develop before us,’ said EPC-UK’s Driver Training Manager Anthony Bird, ‘and are committed to equipping our team with vehicles in the here-and-now that can further reduce our environmental impact.’

18 | MARCH 2022

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15/02/2022 14:02

RIGHTS OF WAY

Green Lane Association called in to protect Denbighshire byway from illegal use – and to save the vandals from themselves

T

hree Trees, also known as Bluebell Lane, is a bwyay on a high hillside overlooking the Vale of Llangollen. It’s sensationally beautiful – but in recent times, illegal off-roading alongside and around the right of way has turned things very ugly.

Needless to say, the off-piste activity has caused significant damage to the ground. However the nature

of the terrain here is such that it has also put the vandals themselves in serious danger. There have been a number of instances of vehicles getting stuck – and at least one rollover is known to have happened, which on a long, steep hillside is the sort of incident that could easily have tragic consequences.

The area through which the lane passes is classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. This

makes it particularly sensitive, with management plans in place to increase habitat and species diversity – meaning the level of illegal use is especially concerning.

Representatives of the Green Lane Association recently visited the area to meet with the ranger responsible for its upkeep and discuss what can be done to protect it from rogue 4x4 users. ‘We spent a total of three hours walking the off-piste trails,’ says GLASS’ Lauren Eaton, ‘some of which are very dangerous and have already caused vehicles to roll or become precariously stuck on the hillside.’

At present, the rangers have no issue with responsible use of the lane.

Indeed, reports Lauren, they remain very motivated about protecting access for all legal users. However the damage done by vandals is clearly a serious worry.

‘We produced a plan to deter or block off-piste access that will not detract from the natural environment,’ Lauren continues, ‘and the Rangers will regularly patrol the area to keep an eye on things. Tom, the

ranger, has asked us to contact him should we come across any issues – and although he is a mountain biker at heart, he really enjoyed his first laning experience and wants to do some more!’

A TEAM OF VOLUNTEERS from the Green Lane Association and Trail Riders Fellowship recently spent a day working on repairs to Stile End, a classic right of way between Kentmere and Sadgill in Cumbria. Enjoying a combination of glorious sunshine and gnawingly cold temperatures, the team focused on clearing culverts and the associated main drains in bid to prevent water runoff from causing further damage to the lane surface.

‘We managed to clear out around 14 existing culverts and drain outlets as well as create a few new cuts to take water off the lane,’ say the GLASS reps. ‘We also started to clear the stone channel above the steep zig-zag section to allow water back into the beck rather than down the pitched section, where it had already become a contributing factor to the damage.

‘Steve and Richard from the TRF also installed some large stones near the top of the descent, where users have been cutting corners. Great work, but still more to be done.’

As usual when work like this is ongoing, especially in a busy part of the country like Cumbria, the team encountered a good many other rights of way users.

Less usually, perhaps, especially when there’s a set of 4x4s in sight, it was all very positive. ‘Loads of smiley walkers, runners and mountain bikers plus one Jimny,’ says GLASS. ‘And not a miserable face in sight!’

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17/01/2022 19:51:47

MOTORSPORT

Toyota triumphs in Dakar Rally as Al-Attiyah holds Audis lay down marker for future challenge Words: Gary Martin Pictures: ASO and Red Bull Content Pool, as credited

DPPI / Red Bull Content Pool

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o

MOTORSPORT

off Loeb, while high-tech

Flavien Duhamel / Red Bull Content Pool

N

asser Al-Attiyah won his fourth Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia January, and his first since the event moved to its new home in the Middle East in 2020. The Qatari veteran finished the two-week desert rally just under 28 minutes ahead of WRC legend Sebastien Loeb to give Toyota only its second ever Dakar title – with the first having come in Lima in 2019, also with Al-Attiyah at the wheel.

Ahead of the event, much attention had been focused on the trio of RS Q e-trons entered for the first time by Team Audi Sport after a breakneck development process.

With the German giant’s works outfit focused on learning from the rally, it was more than satisfied to see a stellar driving line-up of Matthias Ekström, Carlos Sainz and Stephane Peterhansel all secure finishes – especially as Ekström and Sainz brought their vehicles home in ninth and twelfth places respectively.

Peterhansel, who remains the most successful Dakar competitor of all time, was out of the running almost from the word go after a long wait for assistance following heavy rear-end damage on the first stage ended with him going OTL – and having to accept a massive 27-hour penalty on top of the time lost. However he went on to prove the Audi’s pace with eight top-ten stage times – including a win on Stage 10, from Wadi Ad Dawasir to Bisha, which took him to a career total of 49 on four wheels, putting him within one of Ari Vatanen’s all-time record.

The war of attrition that is the Dakar began in Jeddah with a total of 409 competitors lined up to start a

4x4 6.5pp Scene Dakar Mar 22.indd 23

prologue which saw Al-Attiyah take an immediate lead over Sainz. The Spanish legend’s Audi was well on the pace at this early stage, however – but it wasn’t to last. While teammate Peterhansel was awaiting help in his damaged car, Sainz was, quite simply, lost in the desert. It took him some two hours to regain his bearings, by which time he had dropped to 32nd place overall and also appeared to have blown his chance of the overall crown.

A surprising feature of the first stage was overnight rain, which led to the first vehicles setting out in the sort of misty conditions you’d be more likely to associate with Skeggy than Saudi. But that was nothing compared to the downpour which actually wiped out part of the second, forcing the organisers to reroute to Al Qaisumah. Perhaps there was something in this that appealed to the battle-hardened rallying sensibilities of Sebastien Loeb, because even though the remaining stage mileage was made up of about 90% sand, he reeled in Al-Attiyah in his BRX Hunter to close the gap to less than ten minutes. Sainz and Peterhansel, meanwhile, brought their Audis home in 3rd and 4th, as if to prove that the previous days’ calamities were nothing against the vehicle’s pace – and, importantly given its electric power train, its durability over long, punishing distances.

This stage also saw a stellar performance in the lightweight proto class, when Guillaume de Mevius overcame a series of obstacles – including having to start later than scheduled, meaning he travelled the entire 338 kilometres in deep ruts created by the massive tyres of the

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MOTORSPORT

Sébastien Loeb pushed hard throughout the two-week rally in his Prodrive-built BRX Hunter, and remained All-Attiyah’s only credible challenger to the end. Having lost time to a broken propshaft on Stage 3, however, even the nine-time WRX champion was fighting a losing battle in trying to reel in the eventual winner Pic: DPPI / Red Bull Content Pool vehicles in the trucks class – to lead the field home. De Mevius, whose father Grégoire won three stages on the Dakar around two decades ago, also demonstrated the spirit of the event when he stopped to assist team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen with a wheel change.

The following day’s course was also shortened due to the effects of the rain, and vehicles were able to gain better traction in the wet sand.

Nonetheless, with long chains of dunes to be tackled the going was still very tough. Sainz was the stage winner here, giving the RS Q e-tron

a notable first success on the Dakar (coincidentally, 37 years to the day since an Audi last won a stage), but at the top of the leaderboard a broken propshaft for Loeb saw Al-Attiyah stretch his lead to a commanding 37 minutes.

Another milestone came up on Stage 4, with Kamaz racking up its 170th stage win in the Trucks category. Four-time champion Eduard Nikolaev was at the wheel, though the lead remained with reigning champion Dmitry Sotnikov - also, needless to say, in a Kamaz. Nani Roma, on the other hand, crashed

out of the running when he rolled his BRX Hunter several times, while out at the front of the field Al-Attiyah added a few more seconds to his lead after fellow Toyota driver Yazeed Al-Rajhi was hit with a

two-minute penalty for speeding in a restricted area.

The following two days’ routes were out-and-back loops based at a bivouac near the Saudi capital, Riyadh. These struck out to the

Dmitry Sotnikov retained the title he won last year, beating fellow Kamaz driver Eduard Nikolaev by just under ten minutes. Between them, the top four finishers in the trucks category now have eight titles between them – while Kamaz has taken the crown in 17 of the last 20 Dakars Pic: Flavien Duhamel / Red Bull Content Pool

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MOTORSPORT

Flavien Duhamel / Red Bull Content Pool north and east into the province of Ach-Charquiya, a major historical crossroads between the civilisations of the Orient, Mesopotamia and the Indian subcontinent.

The first of these days’ racing might one day come to be seen as a crossroads in the history of the Dakar, too. Toyota works driver Henk Lategan had been threatening the leaders for several days, and over the course of 421 kilometres’ racing he left even second-placed Loeb trailing in his wake to take the stage by a full two minutes. Lategan was already showing his promise in last year’s event when he pushed a little bit too hard and ended up crashing out of contention, but the South African wonderkid is seen by many as a future Dakar winner – and with Al-Attiyah nursing his lead, he took the chance to demonstrate exactly why.

A slightly shorter loop was to follow the next day, with Orlando Terranova triumphant in his BRX Hunter; this was a first stage win for the Argentinian driver since 2015, when the Dakar was held in his own home country. He was followed closely by rallycross legend Mattias Ekström, providing Audi with another strong performance from the RS Q e-tron, however the big story at the top of the leaderboard was a navigational error which cost Sébastien Loeb so much time he dropped down to third place. Yazeed Al Rahji passed him to become Al-Attiyah’s

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closest rival – albeit at around 50 minutes behind the Toyota man.

But perhaps the most remarkable performance of the day came in the lightweight proto class – where Seth Quintero won the stage despite having no brakes for around half of it.

Not that Chaleco López was feeling the heat, because despite the American’s blistering pace he went into the rest day at the midway point of the rally with an overall lead of more than twenty minutes. Were it not for the time penalties Quintero suffered after being hit by mechanical issues earlier in the rally, the complexion of the leader board in this category would have been very different.

With the rest day done, and crews and vehicles alike refreshed, they were immediately presented with a stage whose total distance, including road liaison, was more than 700 kilometres. Loeb retook second place after overhauling Al-Rajhi, but he remained frustratingly out of touch with leader Al-Attiyah – who remained 45 minutes ahead despite the Frenchman’s stage win. Dmitry Sotnikov remained in control of the trucks class, with Kamaz continuing to lock out every other manufacturer, and López maintained a lead of 80 minutes in the lightweight protos despite Quintero’s seventh stage victory. France’s Alexandre Giroud was in control of the quads category at this point, however a mechanical failure for Rodrigo Luppi de Oliveira’s Can-Am Maverick put him out of

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MARCH 2022 | 25

15/02/2022 12:31

MOTORSPORT contention in the SSV class, handing control to South Racing team-mate Austin Jones.

The following day was even longer, and once again had more than 400 kilometres of special stage to contend with on the way from Al Dawadimi to Wadi As-Dawasir – as well as relentless dunes, some of them more than 1000 metres in height, which several competitors had to attempt several times. Being from the Arabian Peninsula, Nasser Al-Attiyah is in his element in this kind of terrain, however a broken rear transmission saw him finish the stage in front-wheel drive – allowing Sébastien Loeb to take a seven-minute bite out of his lead despite being slowed himself by a puncture.

However the day was dominated

by Audi, with three of the top four places claimed by the RS Q e-trons.

Mattias Ekström took the victory,

followed by Stephane Peterhansel, with Loeb preventing Carlos Sainz from making it a lock-out by just three seconds. Further proof, as if it were needed, that the extreme complexity of these highly advanced electric race vehicles will be no impediment to the threat they pose at future Dakars.

The following stage was shorter and, being another out-and-back loop, it contained negligible liaison mileage. The terrain seemed to suit South Africa’s Giniel de Villiers, winner of the event in 2009, who led home his countryman Henk Lategan – with Nasser Al-Attiyah third, making it a Toyota Hilux 1-2-3 and allowing the leader to put another minute between him and second-placed Sébastien Loeb.

The result elevated de Villiers to fifth place as he pushed on while maintaining his astonishing record

Flavien Duhamel / Red Bull Content Pool of having finished every Dakar out of the 18 events held since he first took part in 2003.

That’s an impressive statistic, but it’s nothing compared to Stephane Peterhansel’s tally of stage wins.

Chile’s Francisco Chaleco Lopez (above) won what looked like a commanding victory in the light prototypes class. But while the standings don’t lie, they do hide a remarkable story. Seth Quintero (below) was put out of contention early on by a mechanical problem which required technical assistance – meaning a wait of several hours, and a huge time penalty on top of that. The young American ended up in 16th place overall – a result which disguises the extraordinary fact that he won every other stage of the event, setting a new Dakar record in the process. In the history of the event, no-one has ever come home with as many medals Left: Daniel Schenkelberg / Red Bull Content Pool Below: Marcelo Maragni / Red Bull Content Pool

6.5pp Scene Dakar Mar 22.indd 26

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MOTORSPORT Left: In 1997, Daniel Giroud was the first person ever to finish the Dakar aboard a quad bike.

This year, his son Alexandre brought the stroy full circle when he won the quads class aboard his Yamaha YFZ 700 ASO / Florent Gooden / DPPI

Below: In the SSV category, Austin Jones proved that consistency is the key to success in endurance events.

He stayed in the top two places throughout the event, despite never winning a stage ASO / Frederick Le Floc’h / DPPI

This climbed to 49 at the end of Stage 10, two from the end, after a fast, flowing route through the rocks and sand of the Wajid and Hejaz plateaus and on towards Bisha.

Peterhansel now stood just one stage win away from equalling rally legend Ari Vatanen’s all-time career record of fifty. This is thrown into focus somewhat, however, by Seth Quintero, who made it ten in just

the one event as he continued to dominate the lightweights class – which, after that early penalty, he had ho hope of winning.

A two-night bivouac in Bisha followed, with another out-and-back special in between followed by a final run back to Jeddah. By now, only a calamitous mistake or mechanical failure could keep Al-Attiyah from taking his fourth Dakar crown –

though between 501 relentless kilometres of sand, soft dunes, rocks and river beds, this was what some competitors called the toughest stage of this year’s rally.

It seemed to suit Carlos Sainz, at any rate, who brought his Audi home first for his second stage win of the event. Sébastien Loeb managed to claw back five minutes on Al-Attiyah – only to lose them

again when he picked up a penalty for speeding. Thus going into the parade home to Jeddah on the final day, the Qatari’s Hilux would have a cushion of more than 33 minutes over its nearest rival.

With most categories now decided, the final stage was set to be its usual triumphant self. But in the SSV class, it was all still to play for after Gerrard Farrés pulled out an astonishing performance to overhaul Austin Jones. The American had suffered a broken diff on the stage – however even then, Farrés’ drive was a stellar one as he pulled into a slender lead of just 1’41”.

But the final stage, from Bisha to Jeddah, was to bring heartbreak for the Spanish driver when he was delayed by electrical issues – allowing Jones to sweep back past him and take the win. The Can-Am driver’s triumph proved that consistency, rather than outright speed, is the key to success on endurance events like the Dakar: over the course of the entire rally, he didn’t win on single stage, yet he was never out of the top two places on the leaderboard. Even on the final day, he was content with doing just enough to overhaul Farrés, coming third on a stage that was won by Lithuania’s Rokas Baciuška – a result which propelled him on to the third step of the podium in his first ever shot at the Dakar.

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MOTORSPORT

Stephane Peterhansel was out of contention early on after ripping a rear corner off his car. But along with team-mates Sainz and Eriksson, he did more that enough to show that Audi’s new breed of electric racer has a big future in endurance events Marcelo Maragni / Red Bull Content Pool

Below: Nasser Al-Attiyah led from the start to give Toyota only its second ever victory in the Dakar. The Qatari driver was rarely troubled, even by the relentless attention of second-placed Sebastien Loeb, and cruised home to Jeddah with a comfortable cushion of time behind him Marcelo Maragni / Red Bull Content Pool In the lightweight protos class, Chile’s Francisco ‘Chaleco’ López cruised to victory after almost all his main rivals were knocked out by mechanical issues. Both Lopez and South Racing team mate Sebastien Eriksson finished several hours ahead of the leading competitor from OT3-Red Bull, Spain’s Cristina Gutiérrez, who finished third.

But the story here was undoubtedly that of Seth Quintero. Back in 16th place, a massive 14 hours 38 minutes behind the winners, at first glance the final standings suggest that the American was an also-ran.

But this doesn’t tell the story of

4x4 6.5pp Scene Dakar Mar 22.indd 29

almost an entire night spent stranded on Stage 2, and the 10-hour penalty Quintero suffered on top of the time lost. Look deeper, and you find a record-breaking performance which saw him win an unprecedented 11 out of 12 stages – a record which is unlikely to be broken for a long, long time.

In the quads category, France’s Alexandre Giroud was left unchallenged when Pablo Copetti, the only competitor close enough to trouble him, was put out of the running by engine failure. Giroud, whose father Daniel was the first person ever to finish the Dakar on a quad back in

1997, won by more than two hours from his Drag’On Rally team-mate Francisco Moreno.

At the opposite end of the size scale, the trucks class was utterly dominated by Kamaz-Master, with the Russian team’s crews taking all four top spots. Dmitry Sotnikov was the overall winner for the second year in a row; four-times champion Eduard Nikolaev finished second, ten minutes further back, with Anton Shibalov in third and two-time winner Andrey Karginov fourth. They’ve all got a way to go to match the seven titles of Vladimir Tchaguin, the famous ‘Tsar of Dakar’, but the

real winner over a long, long time has been Kamaz itself, with 17 of the last 20 titles to its name.

Only Mitsubishi has ever come close to matching that level of dominance in the cars category, with 11 out of the last 16 Dakar crowns prior to the event moving away from its original home in Africa. But given Toyota’s legendary status in all the continents the event has visited, it seems surprising that this year was only the second in which one of its vehicles has won the event.

Audi will clearly be intending to prevent the Japanese giant from adding to its tally in the years to come, as its RS Q e-tron programme matures in the wake of a successful first outing capped by stage wins for all three of its vehicles. But for now, Nasser Al-Attiyah remains the man to beat. Winning his fourth Dakar in just over a decade meant holding off a two-week assault by a fully fledged driving god in the shape of Sébastien Loeb – yet in truth, the Qatari veteran never looked like slipping up.

Behind Loeb, Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al Rajhi took an extremely popular third place on home turf – navigated by former WRC man Michael Orr, a rare podium place for a Brit on an event that rarely gets the attention it deserves in this country.

This put another Hilux in the top three – with Giniel De Villiers’ fifth making it a hat-trick of sorts. New names, and new technology, may be on the way – but for now, it’s the old guard that continues to dominate the Dakar.

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PRODUCTS

Revised MAGflex range from Ring promises to make your workshop better lit than ever

R

ing has expanded its MAGflex range further than ever with the launch of the RIL6000 series – a range of professional-quality inspection lamps designed to provide vehicle technicians and enthusiasts alike with the right lighting for any job.

Promising ‘complete versatility and reliability in the workshop,’ these are ‘bright, portable, rechargeable, resistant to oil and dirt (and) tough enough to withstand the knocks in a workshop, whatever the job.’

To put some flesh on the bones of that claim, the lights in the RIL6000 range combine impact protection ratings of IK7 or IK8 with IP54 or IP65 protection

30 | MARCH 2022

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against dust and water ingress. All have been tested for robustness and reliability within Ring’s on-site Quality Assurance facility, which itself is ISO:9001 accredited.

The range starts with the MAGflex Mini 250 (RRP £34.99), a compact unit with a 250-lumen output. This has a 180-degree flex base ratchet mechanism to position the light where you need it, as well as a hook and magnets for hands-free working and a torch on top for focused directional light.

For more power, the MAGflex Max 500 (RRP £49.99) has a 500-lumen output – allowing, Ring promises, ‘complete illumination of the engine bay.’ This has a 360-degree twisting head as well as the same hook, magnets and

180-degree flex mechanism, and it’s topped off with a UV torch to help with leak detection.

For shining a light into the darkest recesses of a vehicle, meanwhile, the MAGflex Slim 500 (RRP £39.99) has a narrow body that’s foldable and able to be twisted through 270 degrees.

Again, it features a hook and magnets for hands-free working – and when folded down, it can act as a compact searchlight.

For a simpler but equally convenient option, the MAGflex Headtorch 250 (RRP £34.99) is exactly what its name suggests.

It’s fully hands-free all the time and it comes with an integrated motion sensor, promising ‘a direct light source wherever needed.’

With one-button operation and a lightweight design, all the lamps in the range are recharged using USB-C technology and offer up to six hours’ continuous operation on one charge.

‘Our MAGflex range has been incredibly popular with technicians thanks to its award-winning brightness and durability,’ comments Ring’s Product Manager Roisin Gaughan. ‘We’ve listened to our customers to identify the core benefits and requirements and have streamlined the range with our new RIL6000 series to provide a light for every job.’

Want to know more about the RIL6000 range of lights? Just head for ringautomotive.com and you’ll find it all there.

4x4 15/02/2022 13:13

Storm Jeeps have a selection of customised Jeep Wrangler JL Rubicon's for sale

The Rubicon is equipped with the gear you need to take on the trails. Tru-Lok front and rear Dana 44 electronic locking differentials lock for ultimate traction. Pushing the dashboardmounted sway bar button disconnects the sway bar and allows your front wheels to drop and compress, improving articulation. A heavy-duty 4:1 low-range transfer case delivers outstanding torque and low-speed control for impressive off-road performance.

STORM 53 : £64995 2021 in Sarge Green Teraflex ST2 2.5" Suspension Lift with Falcon Shock Absorbers, 17" Fuel Torque Wheels in Matt Bronze with 35 x 12.5" Falken MT Tyres, Rugged Ridge HD Bumper with Warn Winch, NFab Nerf Bar Side Steps, Procomp S4 GEN3 LED Pillar Mounted Cube Lights and 20" LED Bumper Mounted Light Bar, Rugged Ridge AmFib Air Intake, Colour Coded Satin Finish Dash.

STORM 54 : £67500 2021 in Sarge Green ARB OME 2.5” Suspension Lift with Teraflex Geometry Correction Brackets, 17” Warn Epic Jackhammer Wheels with 37"x12.5" BFG KM3 Tyres, ARB Bumper with Warn Winch, Vision X CG2 4.7" Bumper Mounted Light Cannons LED Lights, Rugged Ridge HD Spartan Rear Bumper with 2" Receiver Hitch, Rugged Ridge HD Tyre Carrier, Colour Coded USA Specification High Top Fender Flares with Smoked Running Lights.

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15/02/2022 14:03

PRODUCTS

Maverick 4x4 unveils Front Runner Slimline II roof rack fitting kit for Defender 90

T

he latest addition to Front Runner’s Slimline II range is a full kit for fitting the ever-popular roof rack to the current Land Rover Defender 90. Supplied with everything you need to mount the rack (yes, that includes

instructions), this includes the 1255mm wide, 1762mm long Slimline II Tray itself along with a wind deflector and two vehicle-specific foot rails.

These in turn have openings for storing compatible gear, such as

Front Runner’s own range of camping tables, underneath the tray.

Like all of Front Runner’s roof racks, the Slimline II kit for the Defender comes backed up by a

limited lifetime warranty. It’s available through Maverick 4x4, priced at £1065 plus VAT and delivery; you’ll find it by going to maverick4x4.co.uk.

PROUD TO SUPPLY CELTIC ROUTES WITH FRONT RUNNER PRODUCTS

PROUD TO SUPPLY CELTIC ROUTES WITH FRONT RUNNER PRODUCTS BORN TO OVERLAND

VISIT WWW.OVERLANDGEAR.UK

NOW IN STOCK NEW DEFENDER 90 SLIMLINE ROOF RACK

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PRODUCTS

Quality 4x4-based camping on offer as LVB Overland brings in Bush Company kit from Australia ONE OF THE RULES IN THE OFF-ROAD WORLD is that if something comes from Australia, it pretty much automatically gets your respect. We can probably all name at least one country where the opposite is the case, can’t we…?

Anyway, The Bush Company is from Australia. So, good stuff by default. It makes a variety of off-road kit, but what we’re looking at here is its vehiclemounted tents and awnings.

Why? Because they’re available here in the UK, thanks to sole importer LVB Overland which both supplies and fits them. ‘These incredible bits of camping kit are robust, fast to set up, and have a well-deserved reputation as one of the best products on the market,’ the company says. ‘The self-supporting awnings provide shade and shelter, while leaving ample room for the vehicle’s doors to still open. Ideal when your camp kitchen is in the back of your 4x4!’

While you’re busy speccing your expedition motor, you might also want to check out LVB Overland’s wide range of RidgeMonkey camping and overlanding accessories. Things like insulated travel mugs, lightweight and compact cooking pans, fuelefficient barbecues and the implements to go with them might not get you to the heart of the Okavango, but they’ll make life a lot more fun while you’re there.

Based near Doncaster, LVB Overland wants to ‘get you and your vehicle kitted out for your next big adventure, whether it’s to the Atlas Mountains or your local 4x4 show.’ Rude not to, really. You’ll find them at www.lvboverland.com.

From roof tents and awnings to cookware and barbecues, LVB supplies all your overland and camping requirements.

Sole UK Bush Company importer

UNIT 10 Gunhills Lane Industrial Estate, Armthorpe, Doncaster DN3 3EF

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PRODUCTS

PRO-COMP 2X2” LED SPOTS NOW IN STOCK AT JEEPEY

SPECIALIST 4X4 VEHICLE DISMANTERS JEEP - LAND ROVER SPECIALIST 4X4 VEHICLE DISMANTERS AND MOST MAKES AND MODELS JEEP LAND ROVER QUALITY GUARANTEED USED PARTS AND MOST MAKES AND MODELS QUALITY GUARANTEED PARTS SOME OF THE VEHICLESUSED WE HAVE RECENTLY DISMANTLED: SOME OF THE VEHICLES WE HAVE RECENTLY DISMANTLED:

20012015 JEEPJEEP WRANGLER JK 2001 Jeep Grand CHEROKEE XJ 2.8CRD 2015 JEEP Cherokee WJ JK WRANGLER 2.8CRD

2007 DODGE 2018 JEEP NITRO 2.8CRD 2010 Isuzu RENEGADE 2007 DODGE Rodeo NITRO 2.8CRD

2014 RANGE 2016 2006 JEEP 2011 ISUZU ISUZU ROVER SPORT 4.4 D-MAX 2.5 DIESEL WRANGLER TJ RODEO 2010 2015 Mitsubishi V8 Jeep DIESEL 2014 RANGE 2016 ISUZU Cherokee KK Outlander ROVER SPORT 4.4 D-MAX 2.5 DIESEL V8 DIESEL

JEEP 2007 LAND 20152010 RANGE 2012ROVER CHEROKEE MK4 DISCOVERY 3 2.7 ROVER EVOQUE MITSUBISHI ASX 2015 Range Jeep KK 2.8JEEP CRD 20072016 TDV6 2010 LAND ROVER Rover Evoque Renegade CHEROKEE MK4 DISCOVERY 3 2.7 KK 2.8 CRD

TDV6

2016 RANGE 2008 NISSAN ROVER EVOQUE 2012 Range PATHFINDER 2.0 TD4 2016 RANGE Rover Sport ROVER EVOQUE 2.0 TD4

2014 2010 JEEP CHEROKEE MK5 MITSUBISHI L200 2020 Ford KL 2.0 MULTIJET 2014 JEEP Ranger CHEROKEE MK5 KL 2.0 MULTIJET

2008 HONDA 2013 TOYOTA CRV 2.2 CDTI HILUX 2006 Jeep Grand 2008 HONDA Cherokee CRV 2.2 CDTIWK

2006 NISSAN 2006 JEEP 2006 JEEP GRAND 2015 LAND 2004 JEEP CHEROKEE WK PATHFINDER 2.5 GRAND GRAND 5.7 V8 HEMI ROVER DCI 2020 Jeep Land2006 Rover NISSAN2015 Nissan 2006 JEEP2018 GRAND DISCOVERY CHEROKEE WK CHEROKEE WJ 2.5 X-Trail WK PATHFINDER WranglerCHEROKEE JL Discovery Sport Charlton Recycled Auto Parts SPORT DCI 5.7 V8 HEMI Vehicle Recycling Centre, Gravel Pit Hill, Thriplow, Cambridge, SG8 7HZParts Charlton Recycled Auto Tel 01223Gravel 832656Pit Hill, Thriplow, Vehicle Recycling Centre, Email parts@charltonautoparts.co.uk Cambridge, SG8 7HZ PLEASE VISIT WWW.CHARLTONAUTOPARTS.CO.UK Tel 01223 832656 Email parts@charltonautoparts.co.uk PLEASE VISIT WWW.CHARLTONAUTOPARTS.CO.UK

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NEWLY INTRODUCED BY PRO-COMP, the 2x2” square S4 GEN 3 LED spotlight is now in stock via Jeepey and suitable for every kind of vehicle. With a 12-watt output, these draw 1.37 amps at 12 volts and provide 830 lumens of clear light in a spot beam pattern.

The LEDs are contained in a body that’s shock resistant, sealed to IP67 and finished in a 3800 polyester powder coat. They come pre-wired for installation and have universal mounts; Pro-Comp says there’s no need to purchase anything extra at all when fitting them Available in a choice of blue, red, yellow and black detail colours, the lights are supplied in pairs. They’re priced at £180.20 including VAT but not delivery, or you can find out about getting some of the best guys in the 4x4 business to fit them by visiting jeepey.com.

ALSO NEW FROM JEEPEY is the Trektop NX from Bestop. Unlike the aforementioned Pro-Comp LEDs, this is designed specifically for one vehicle, that vehicle being the Jeep Wrangler JL. The Trektop is designed to be used all year round, and it has Bestop’s latest Sunrider design – allowing it to be opened like a sunroof from inside the cab.

With a distinctive fastback design which converts easily into a bikini, it’s available in your choice of Black Diamond fabric or a premium Black Twill finish.

Lanoguard rust treatment promises to be user-friendly, eco-friendly and winter-friendly PROTECTING YOUR VEHICLE FROM THE ELEMENTS is one of those subjects that’s never far from the mind of any off-roader. Or at least it might be, but if so it won’t be for long.

Few things, after all, are an investment the way a 4x4 is. And like all investments, you need to look after it.

Hence Lanoguard. This is a DIY rustproofing product for your vehicle’s underbody, and it promises to be user-friendly, easy to apply and, rather topically, perfect for application in cold weather.

‘Our products come with everything you need to care for your whole underbody and chassis,’ says Lanoguard, ‘giving lasting, effective protection against the elements.’

The product’s formula is designed to work by hermetically sealing the surface it’s applied to. Lanoguard says this will ‘displace moisture and oxygen and stop rust dead,’ and that it ‘protects against all salt, acid and alkaline corrosion with a simple barrier coat which stays in place through jet washing, road spray and heat.’ It promises to do the same for bimetallic corrosion, too, which is a particularly big deal if you own a Land Rover of a certain age.

Sure enough, Lanoguard says its products are ‘a great solution for keeping old and new Land Rover chassis’ well maintained and rust-free.’

They’re natural and non-toxic, too, which is good news for all sorts of reasons, and they’re made by a small family company right here in Britain.

They’re also ‘trusted by thousands of Land Rover owners across the UK.’ We’re fairly sure the same products would work just as well on something

4x4 15/02/2022 13:13

PRODUCTS

Ford Ranger Big Brake Kit Ad - Jan 2020 - UK.pdf

1

28/01/2020

17:31

BIG BRAKING PERFORMANCE!

WITH PEDDERS TRAKRYDER EXTREME BRAKE KITS BRAKE KITS

ADJUSTABLE 4X4 SUSPENSION

The hood’s twin configurations are achieved by using a hybrid zipped and zipperless format which promises to combine robust security with easily removed windows. New easy-open latches means no drilling is required for installation, and very helpfully the manufacturer even fits it with map pockets.

One of many soft-tops currently in stock at Jeepey, the Trektop NX costs from £2082 including VAT but plus fitting or carriage. Again, you’ll be able to find it by paying a visit to jeepey.com.

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

Stainless steel abutments.

For the discerning driver who is particular about how eXtreme Brake Kit. The braking results are staggering with the inclusion of a larger 6 pot caliper design, high tech TrakRyder eXtreme kevlar ceramic pads mated with a 10 slot dimpled and geomet coated larger diameter rotor.

Bigger braking surface means bigger stopping power. With the fitment of the all new Pedders TrakRyder eXtreme brake kit, independent Australian Engineering tests reflected an average improvement in braking distance by up to 14%.

Features: • Stainless steel braided hoses.

• 10 slot and dimpled TrakRyder geomet coated rotors 14”/356mm diameter (OE 11.85”/301mm).

• TrakRyder eXtreme Kevlar Ceramic low dust brake pads.

• TrakRyder eXtreme 6 pot design caliper brackets and bolts.

• 6 Pot, 2 piece aluminium forged calipers.

• High grade alloy steel brake pad insulators.

• Stainless steel pistons.

Specialising in Suspension solutions since 1950 For further information go to www.pedders.co.uk or please contact your local Pedders experts.

01296 711 044 info@pedders.co.uk

* Independent Australian engineering test results proved that at 100kmh the TrakRyder eXtreme Brake Kit system upgrade stopped on average 11m sooner than original distances are reduced by 21%. This kit is suited for 18” wheels or larger. Further details available in store and on our website. Suits Ford Ranger PX & PXII Models.

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 that didn’t start its life in Solihull, but over to you on that one. In the meantime, a visit to www.lanoguard.co.uk will be the opening salvo in your war against the elements.

4x4 Scene Products Mar 22.indd 35

Durrants Farm, Rushlake Green, Heathfield, East Sussex TN21 9QB

Workshop: 01435 830664 Mobile: 07710 372672 Email: chris@rlgtyres.co.uk

www.rlgtyres.co.uk

MARCH 2022 | 35

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DRIVEN

SSANGYONG MUSSO SARACEN Recently facelifted ahead of a more comprehensive update this coming year, SsangYong’s high-value double-cab continues to prove its SUV credentials in its most eye-catching form

THE SSANGYONG MUSSO is one of those vehicles that refuse to be pigeonholed. It’s the high-value option in the one-tonne class, with OTR prices ranging from £28,128 to £37,728 including VAT, but it also has the most SUV-like of any pick-up ever offered in the UK. That’s a consequence of it being based on the same underpinnings as the Rexton, SsangYong’s big SUV which is a former winner of our 4x4 of the Year awards. A shared bulkhead means a shared dashboard – bringing with it access to the design and materials of a vehicle which, even at a substantially higher price point, does an incredible job to living up to the standards of much more expensive SUVs. So the Musso has always had a head start in this respect. And being a SsangYong, it also comes with a 7-year, 150,000-mile warranty, further reinforcing the value-for-money proposition it offers.

None of this is new. It’s been the case since the Musso was first launched – and it’s helped the vehicle secure a string of awards from various sources.

But what is new is the Musso’s styling. The Rexton was facelifted in this way last year, giving it a more as-

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sertive presence on the road, and the Musso followed suit a few months later. If anything, it’s even bolder than its SUV stablemate; it was a decent looking truck already, but the new front end treatment makes a very definite statement.

This is especially the case with the Saracen model tested here. It’s the chromeand-big-wheels derivative in the

4x4 15/02/2022 11:34

Musso line-up, and particularly in the bright red paintwork of our test vehicle it looked extremely eye-catching. People who buy trucks still get their snob on bigtime about SsangYong; the name will always hold it back in the UK, but you simply can’t argue with the way the Musso looks. If, for argument’s sake, Audi were to launch exactly this truck, they could price it ten grand higher and still sell them faster than the factory could churn them out.

Beyond the new styling, the only changes to the Musso are new fog lights on the Rebel model, a new instrument panel on the Saracen and, on the range-topping Rhino, both. Our notes say that we can’t remember the instruments on our Saracen being any different to before, but we did remark that the infotainment module is effective and clear to navigate and that, though it doesn’t react to inputs as quickly as we’d like, it connects mercifully easily when mirroring a smartphone via CarPlay or Android Auto.

Our notes also say that the engine made an absolutely horrible noise.

Sounding kind of like a scratchy induction whine amplified through a loudspeaker, it rose and fell with the revs – but was so bad, even at idle, that we noticed pedestrians looking round to see where it was coming from when we were parked up in town.

We’ve driven several SsangYongs with the 2.2-litre diesel unit and this didn’t happen on any of the others, so we assume this one had some sort of issue. Certainly, it would be a colossal refinement fail and an emphatic deal-breaker if it were normal.

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Talking of what it’s like in town, ride quality is a little unsettled over broken surfaces though by no means is it drastic. It’s fine on the open road, where it also handles tidily, and it cruises as comfortably as any double-cab. Ride refinement is no problem on any kind of road.

Its off-road ability remains as it was, too. You wouldn’t choose the Saracen over other Mussos for this, as it runs 255/60R18 tyres compared to the Rhino’s 235/70R17s, but it’s effective nonetheless – and, no small matter, the electronic actuator for shifting between high and low range works quickly, efficiently and without a fuss.

With its classy, SUV-like cabin and the excellent rear legroom you’d expect of a vehicle so closely related to the Rexton, the Musso may be little changed beyond its new face – but it remains an excellent proposition at a strong price. Further changes are due in the next few months, and this time they’ll be wider ranging. But if you’re one of those pick-up buyers who doesn’t get their snob on about its weird name, as has become the norm with SsangYong it’ll prove that you were the guy with the smart money.

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A MATTER OF INCHES Built by Storm Jeeps, this trick Wrangler runs 37” tyres – but only has a 2.5” suspension lift.

Thanks to some smart bodywork, it combines the height of a full-out off-road warrior with the stance and stability of a street machine Words: Tom Alderney Pictures: Storm Jeeps

O

n most 4x4s, fitting big tyres means fitting a big lift. But the Jeep Wrangler has always been an exception. That’s because it was made with so much clearance in the first place – and also, no small matter, because Jeep designed it from scratch with modifications in mind. The average owner, they say, keeps their Wrangler standard for as long as it takes them to drive home, though quite a lot of them probably stop off to pick up accessories on the way.

All the same, if you’re wanting to fit a Wrangler with tyres as big as 37” it’s a good idea to start with a plan. That plan might involve a big suspension lift, with all the knock-ons that brings – or it might involve combining a bit of suspension with a bit of bodywork, so as not to go too big in any one area.

That’s what Storm Jeeps did when it set out to build this 2019 JL Rubicon 2.0-litre 4-door. It

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rolls on a set of impressively hefty 37x12.50R17 BFGoodrich MK3 Mud-Terrains, yet its suspension has only been lifted by 2.5”.

That’s because its standard wings have been replaced with Mopar high-top fenders. These are flared out to create an additional 2” of clearance for the tyre – competing a package of actual and virtual lifts that allows the huge BFGs to fit without fouling.

The suspension is a Teraflex Sport ST2 system using Falcon 3.3 remote-reservoir shocks and progressive bump stops. Designed to combine stable road manners with comfortable performance on uneven terrain, this promises enhanced bump

and rebound manners as well as improved ride quality and ‘race-inspired’ handling. The shocks have a wide range of adjustability, allowing them to be tuned for specific terrain types and handling characteristics via a three-position thumb knob, while the kit also includes front ‘sport flexarms’ for optimised steering geometry.

By limiting themselves to a 2.5” lift, Storm Jeeps’ designers avoided giving the Wrangler the high centre of gravity that’s an inevitable consequence of putting all your eggs in the suspension basket. Too much suspension can create all sorts of problems – from sick-making ride quality to lethal bump-steer – and are pretty good at making

vehicles look ridiculous if you don’t get it right.

But this Rubicon has a stance whose proportions look spot-on, whether flex up or loitering with intent on a street corner.

Further cool stuff on view to whoever happens to see the vehicle includes a Rugged Ridge Arcus stubby recovery bumper, whose 1” thick recovery hooks are cross-drilled to accept both 7/8” and 3/4” shackles. Nice touch. The bumper is also recessed for direct access to the chassis for effective jacking with a high-lift. Nice touch, again.

Further nice touches include bumper-mounted LED fog lights and an 8000lb Warn Zeon winch.

Wound with synthetic rope, this has been located

37x12.50R17 BFGoodrich Mud-Terrains are the stuff of crushing off-road ability. Despite the presence of these extremely cool adjustable bypass Falcon shocks from Teraflex, however, a 2.5” suspension lift wouldn’t normally be enough to make room for such big tyres. Step forward the Mopar high-top fenders that free up loads of extra room beneath the arches

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Both bumpers are from Rugged Ridge; they’re designed not to hit the ground when the going gets really uneven, and not to flinch even if they do. Both have recovery hooks and high-lift jacking points designed in, and the Arcus unit up front is home to an 8000lb Warn Zeon winch. The 2.0-litre turbo petrol engine is fed air through a snorkel from the Mopar range as low as possible to allow the greater possible volume of air to flow through the radiator.

It’s nice at the back, too. There’s another Rugged Ridge recovery bumper here, again featuring 3/4” D-rings and high-lift jacking points – as well in this case as parking sensors. The number plate has been relocated and a heavy-duty Rugged Ridge spare wheel carrier installed – complete with a mount for the reversing camera.

All this helps make a good thing better. And, being a Rubicon, this Wrangler was already very good indeed. Still the best turn-key off-roader of its kind you can buy, this model comes direct from the factory with heavy-duty Dana 4x4 axles, locking front and rear diffs, a disconnecting front anti-roll bar and a 4:1 low-range transfer case.

What it’ll do off-road, even in showroom form, is

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little short of jaw-dropping – and when it’s enhanced the way this one has been, the sky quickly starts to become the limit.

We haven’t even mentioned the Mopar snorkel through which the engine gets its air supply, allowing it to keep on developing 272bhp and 295lbf.ft even when it’s underwater. Well, it’s a petrol unit, but you get what we mean.

This might point to a frustrating truth in the Wrangler’s history as a UK model. Throughout the JK era, the Rubicon was only ever available in petrol form though everybody wanted it to be a diesel: when the JL was launched, the glorious day finally came, but by then the government had decided it hated diesel after all and next thing you know, the Wrangler has been taxed back to being petrol-only all over again.

At least the 2.0-litre turbo unit is a good one, with plenty of power only a prod of the throttle away – and, more importantly, an obedient 8-speed auto box combining with all that torque to heave the vehicle around nice and gently on extreme terrain. Add in the extra-deep gearing that goes with the Rubicon badge and even on such huge tyres, it’s still pleasingly controllable at all speeds.

Better still, there’s no sign of an Angry Birds grille anywhere to be seen. I mean yeah, it’s amusing as far as it goes, but the real thing deserves to be left as just that. Which this Wrangler most certainly is. It gets all its appear from its modifications and doesn’t need any dressing up to attract any attention it hasn’t already won. You could almost say they started with a plan…

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03/12/2021 14:23

DEFENDER BUILT FOR NEXT-LEVEL You’ll have seen plenty of 110s that have been turned into overland campers. This one Words: Dan Fenn

U

nless you’re talking about very high-end conversions based on all-terrain lorry platforms, most classic overlanding vehicles would be considered camper vans rather than fully fledged motorhomes. Certainly, something like a Defender or Land Cruiser with a roof tent and a pull-out kitchen is definitely more about roughing it than living a life of luxury on the road.

But the 110 you’re looking at here does a very good job of blurring the distinction. It’s still a Land Rover, in appearance and in character. But the way in which it has been converted into a small scale motorhome (that’s motorhome, not camper van) elevates it to another level entirely.

Currently for sale at £49,500, the vehicle is based on a 2007 Defender 110 2.4 TDCi with heavy-duty suspension and a new set of Michelin

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XZLs. It’s a complete one-off and, having been built over the course of the last year and a half, the motorhome part of it is brand new.

The Land Rover itself is not, of course, having covered 122,000 miles over the course of a life approaching 15 years to date. As we all know, however, for a good Defender that has very little meaning, and a quick look at its MOT history suggests that while it clearly has been used, it hasn’t been ragged. Most importantly, there’s no mention of any rust anywhere on the vehicle, so it was a good sound basis on which to build a home on wheels.

Said home was constructed from insulated composite sheeting. These panels replace everything behind and above the doors and include a very elegant elevating roof which rises on gas struts to create a full-height living area.

The windows are insulated, too, and have built-in fly screens and blackout blinds.

Inside, there’s a 6’4” double bed which turns into a settee and dining table when the vehicle is in day mode. Immediately behind the driver’s seat is a 30-litre fridge; a two-burner gas hob and sink unit is located at the back of the living area on the same side of the body, and between them is a work surface with a pair of lockable pull-out drawers beneath it. If all this is in danger of starting to sounds like the version of English you hear from estate agents, that’s because the standard of the conversion, not to mention the use of space within it, is so strongly reminiscent of the kind of work turned out by the giants of the motorhome world.

There’s also a cupboard beneath the sink – while opposite it, beneath a mirrored bathroom cabinet, a flip-up panel opens to reveal a toilet.

Given the nature of the beast, you’d probably only use it as a last resort, and the roof tent brigade would probably just point to their shovel and say there, sir, there is your toilet, but a motorhome is a motorhome and when you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go.

And of course this is a Land Rover, so you can go anywhere…

Down in the depths of the vehicle, there’s a 40-litre fresh water tank mounted between the chassis rails – ideal for weight distribution, as well as putting otherwise dead space to good use. The gas bottle is housed in an external locker, as is the leisure battery – whose operation is governed by a 12-volt National Luna split-charge system. This all means the vehicle can go off-grid the way a Landy should, but for camping closer to civilisation there’s a 240-volt hook-up option too.

Definitely the real deal, this.

Which is of course exactly what you’d expect it to be at as good as fifty grand. But if there’s one kind of vehicle that holds its value, it’s a Defender.

And if there are two, it’s Defenders and motorhomes. So there’s definitely a case for saying that if you can make the initial investment, an investment is exactly what it will be.

Interested? The vehicle is based in the East Riding of Yorkshire; if you want to contact the owner, drop us a line at enquiries@assignment-media. co.uk and we’ll pass it on.

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L

ADVENTURE is more of a fully fledged motorhome

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CHANGED DAYS When Paul Ruddick started out in off-roading, he got into a bad habit of killing vehicles. Eventually, though, he decided to build one that would be worth keeping – and in doing so, he created one of the best presented Suzuki Samurais you’ll ever see Words: Paul Looe Pictures: SteveTaylor

T

here was a time when, if you did off-roading, it meant you did Land Rovers. Then, little by little, it came to mean you might do Suzuki SJs instead.

The last couple of decades have seen Vitaras, Fronteras and Cherokees come and go. Landcruisers have a bit more permanence to them, while Wranglers and pick-ups are obviously here to stay and if you do off-roading there’s still a pretty good chance that it means you do Land Rovers.

Or Suzuki SJs. Because while an awful lot of the 410s and 413s that were turned into off-roaders back in the day were subsequently destroyed, the best of them were forever trucks.

It’s more than twenty years since Paul Ruddick bought his first Suzuki. It was an SJ410 which he modified as you do and had fun in at playdays and on green lanes. A feature of his early off-road toys, though, was that he tended to use them, kill them and replace them, and so ‘an’ SJ410 became ‘another’ SJ410 and so on.

Having had his fill of destroying the very thing he was enjoying so much, however, he decided he was ready to start developing a truck worth keeping.

He started, very wisely, with a roll cage, hiring a bender and buying a batch of tube then setting to over the course of a weekend. Working with his boss (not something you hear all the time), he made a set of rock sliders which also acted as mounting platforms for the front and rear hoops of a six-point exo structure.

As the build went on, he dropped in an 8-valve 1.6 engine from a Suzuki Vitara, which he mated to the original gearbox using a Muddy Zook adapter. This breathed in through an Austin Metro carb and air box, and was cooled by a higher-capacity radiator from a 16-valve Vitara.

The Samurai was already coming along very nicely, aided by a prototype KAM diff-lock in the back axle, and Paul was pondering on the idea of upgrading the suspension using leaf springs from a Jeep Wrangler YJ. But then he was offered another Samurai – with 3-link coil-sprung suspension and ARBs in both axles. A big step forward, surely?

Yes… and no. The coiler was, in Paul’s words, ‘80% finished.’ When you see a car like that up for sale, all too often it’s because someone’s started it with great intentions and got a long way down the road before realising how much they’ve done wrong, and maybe that was the case here. Either way, Paul got Richard Wattam, he of Rockwatt fame, to

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‘Bodywork doesn’t matter to me as it’s such an easy fix. But I like to do everything so it’s a job you do once then forget about it’ take a look at it – and that really is not what you need to see happening if you’re trying to sell a car whose suspension doesn’t move right.

Sure enough, Richard was concerned by the amount of axle-steer going on under the Suzuki.

The price was right, though, so Paul bought it anyway… and stripped it for parts.

Among these was a set of Fox coil-overs, which Richard coveted but Paul now owned. Paul coveted something too, though, which was Richard’s know-how with suspension geometry, and if you can’t work out where this is going, you need a strong coffee already.

And so a plan was hatched. Paul would take the still leaf-sprung Suzuki to a playday at Kirton Off Road Centre, which is just a few miles south of Rockwatt Towers. He’d head home with an empty trailer and then, a couple of months

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later, he’d become the owner of a cutting-edgecoil-sprung Samurai with a three-link system to be proud of, not scared of.

And that’s exactly how it turned out. Paul is no slouch in the workshop himself, and there’s not a lot that he hasn’t turned his hand to, but he knows when to leave it to the masters of the art. And he’s generous in his praise of Richard’s skills, both at the design stage and on the coal face.

‘I didn’t want to do something that would make the car worse than it was,’ he explained. ‘I’d fallen out of love with it because of the way it rode on the leaf springs. The choice was to coil it or buy a Land Rover instead. Richard worked out all the dimensions so that the three-link system would work properly. I just supplied him with a set of shocks and springs, and everything else he manufactured himself from raw materials.’

Those springs were 14” Rally Design coils, rated at 225lb all round, while the shocks were Rough Country units with 14” of travel up front and 16” at the back. He reckoned the whole lot cost about £330: ‘Cheaper than buying a good set of leaf springs!’

The system Richard built around them used linkages made from CDS with a 6mm wall thickness, so wasn’t very light but was plenty strong.

The front and rear radius arms were attached to the chassis at a pair of common mounting points, and centre links at each end ran to the tops of the axle cases. To prevent binding on the bushes, the axle ends of the radius arms and the chassis ends of the centre links were attached using rotating joints, and up front the shocks were mounted ‘before’ these on the links themselves so as to follow the suspension faithfully throughout its full

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Above: The engine conversion was carried out early on in the Samurai’s life as Paul’s offroad plaything, way back in 2004. It’s a 1.6-litre unit from an early Vitara – these ran a nice, simple eight-valve head and got their fuel through a carburettor Right: Paul described the snorkel to us as a ‘Sunday afternoon’ job, which sounds a bit modest. He didn’t want to take the normal route of lashing something up out of plastic drainpipe from B&Q, so he used exhaust pipe and topped it off with a very nifty air scoop made from two Land Rover jacking chocks welded together. The intake ran back through the bulkhead from the air box then up through the scuttle panel, so as never to extend outside the line of the vehicle’s body – excellent news for its longevity, as many’s the owner of an off-the-shelf unit (or the mangled remains thereof) will agree arc of movement. Finally, panhard rods were used front and rear to keep the axles in line.

The result? Brilliant, Paul told us. ‘It’s very smooth, the way the suspension flexes. It keeps the car more balanced and stable.’ With no axle steer at all, the angles of the diff noses didn’t change however twisted the axles might get.

All this happened at a time when the arrival of dislocating suspension had blown open the limits of what was possible – but, on reflection, Britain’s off-roaders had started seeing that using it simply to achieve staggering levels of articulation with

one wheel lifted up by a forklift truck was a little different to flexing controllably over rough ground.

And Paul was among them.

Thus the springs were clamped top and bottom in the traditional style. Quite simply, stability was more important to Paul than achieving the nth degree of wheel travel. And anyway, Richard’s suspension system was more than just smooth – it demonstrated that if you get your geometry right from the word go, you can achieve great things without having to fall back on dislocation.

It certainly did a fine job of keeping the vehicle’s

34” Simex Jungle Trekkers on the deck – and when it couldn’t, the ARBs Paul plundered from that donor Samurai meant it could almost always keep moving anyway.

These were unusual in that they were both rear units. That’s because they were used with a full set of heavy-duty Rock Assault halfshafts, plus CVs up front, whose size meant they needed to be used with a rear diff irrespective of which end they were fitted in.

Up until the Samurai got its three-link conversion, Paul had it road-registered and was using

Left: Here is the carburettor referred to above. That’s it poking up through the middle of the air box; both were from, and we know you’re going to like this, an Austin Metro. Paul needed to modify the box so that the air intake was angled back towards the bulkhead, as in standard form it pointed directly at the radiator… listen carefully and you can actually hear the clatter of bent valve stems coming out of the page Downstream of the engine, a 5-speed SJ413 box is mated to the standard transfer case you see here. This was on the slate for change when we took these pictures, though – Paul admitted to us that he was toying with the idea of replacing it with a 3-speed Vitara auto and Richard Wattam twin tranny conversion

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Above left: With so much trussing and strengthening on the axles, there was never much chance of either getting bent. At first glance, it looks as if the upper suspension link here might be bracketed on to the Rockwatt brace, but look carefully and you’ll see a dimple-died tower attaching it to the axle case itself Above right: The rear axle’s geometry was set up very similarly to the front’s, though in this case the central upper link was mounted to the top of the diff case rather than a dedicated mid-tube tower Right: 225lb Rally Design coil springs and Rough Country shocks combine here to allow 14” of flex up front and 16” at the back. This is at the front; there’s more damping here as the shocks were mounted parallel to the springs rather than being angled away from the vertical Below left: Both sets of radius arms pivot from universal cradles mounted at the chassis’ midway point.

They’re on simple polyurethane bushes at this point, so their arc follows the same line as the chassis rail.

The arms themselves were made from CDS tube with a 6mm wall thickness – nothing’s unbreakable, but in this case we can’t think of how you’d actually prove that Below right: Panhard rods take care of lateral location front and rear, with high-drop top mounts helping account for the extra height in the suspension

Left: This is the sort of clever touch you get when Richard Wattam builds your suspension for you. The radius arms have rotating joints to the axles, which swivel as the axles articulate. This means they never bind, however extreme the angle of droop the axles reach, and also dials out a prime opportunity for wear – which Paul felt would be a big issue if he used rose joints.

As you can see here, the spring mount is on the axle whereas the shock is on the radius arm, meaning there’s no danger of binding on its bottom mount either Right: The top links were also put on pivots at one end and traditional bushes at the other. In this case, the latter is at the axle end – look carefully and you’ll see the pivot seen from end on at the far end of the link

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Above: Between them, these two views of the back axle show the geometry of the three-link system pretty well. Richard Wattam, who built it, is noted in Suzuki circles for knowing his stuff here: where others might just have laid into it with their welding kit and asked questions after, he calculated the necessary distance between the upper and lower links that would allow the axle to travel in a totally smooth arc Right: This view gives you an idea of the angles between the three links with the suspension at rest. That propshaft, by the way, isn’t from a Samurai. When the going gets tough, the tough get a Toyota, and what you’re looking at here started life below a Hi-Lux Surf

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Right: Up front, vented discs and calipers from a long-wheelbase Vitara are used to dealing with a lot more weight than any Samurai will every throw at them Far right: At the back, stopping power is from a pair of calipers from an 8-valve Vitara. Instead of a conventional handbrake, Paul installed a line lock allowing him to hold the Suzuki on these alone – not something you can do on a road-legal 4x4, but more effective than anything else he had tried Below: High suspension means… high steering. Had Paul decided earlier that he was going to take the Samurai off the road altogether, he might possibly have toyed with the idea of a hydro set-up, but while this would have bridged the gap with ease it’s not really necessary when turning mere 34” tyres. Anyway, a Rob Storr hi-steer kit did the job just fine, with a Vitara PAS pump and Jimny box providing all the assistance Paul needed

Above left: A Warn 8274-50 in the rear was mounted on a Gwyn Lewis trough between the chassis rails, with 125 feet of 11mm Dyneema playing out through a hawse fairlead beneath the floor Above centre: As you can see here, the upswept ends of the LA Supertrux winch bumper line up almost perfectly with the height at which the bodywork was trimmed to just miss the wheels at full bump. That’s no fluke: they were cut off and reshaped for that very purpose Above right: The angles on the ends of the winch bumper are seen more clearly here. The winch sitting on it is a Warn 8274, running an XP motor and spooled with 125 feet of 11mm Dyneema

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it for getting about when his everyday car didn’t seem interesting enough. Following this, however, he decided to bestow it with full trailer queen status – which of course opened it up to the kind of options which wind up the MOT man.

You might be thinking of hydro-steer here. But a 34” Jungle Trekker isn’t too much of a struggle for the hybrid Vitara and Jimny PAS system to turn, and a Rob Storr high-steer conversion took care of the extra height in the suspension lift.

Which, Paul told us, he reckoned came to about 5”, though being a custom system he didn’t have a brochure figure to quote.

8pp Ruddick Samurai.indd 55

Anyway, the first mod he made after taking the vehicle off the road was to fit a line-lock in the brakes. These are most commonly used by drift and burnout fans to stop a car’s front wheels while the rears spin free, but you can also use them as a form of handbrake. It allows you to use the standard system as a hydraulic parking brake – effective at stopping the vehicle from rolling away, but also for stopping even the most generous of MOT testers from giving you a ticket.

Which is a shame in a way, because while many people trailer their vehicles to events simply because they’re too gross to ever see tarmac again, what you’re looking at here is once of the best-presented off-roaders we’ve ever seen. Being a bodywork specialist helped him with this, obviously, but a childhood interest in a very different kind of modified car was responsible for one of the most unique touches on this or any other 4x4.

Just take a look at those tail lights. ‘Back in my youth,’ Paul explained, ‘I used to read Custom Car magazine. There’s a technique called “frenching” that’s popular in that scene.

‘I cut a 3” hole into the quarter panel and welded in a short length of tube, then I sunk the lights into that. It looks a bit out of the ordinary, and of course there’s no chance that you’re ever going to break them. I used the same technique on the rear number plate, with the lights for it in the top of the recess.’

So this Samurai was definitely a looker – but with a practical streak running deep and wide all

the way through it. The first anyone would you see, of course, was just that it was a looker, but you make assumptions at your peril. ‘I quite enjoy turning up at events and seeing people saying “here’s another puddle-dodger,” but then ploughing into stuff.’ Cynics, eat your words…

And appearance certainly did matter in this build – to the extent that Paul made a positive decision not to pursue a level of off-road ability that would mean disfiguring his truck any further.

‘There are a lot of Suzukis that are more capable,’ he admitted. ‘But they don’t look original.’ He told us he had toyed with the idea of traybacking it but, most unusually for a Samurai, its floors, sills and so on were all still original. That’s a rarity and a half – and when so much of it was what came out of the factory all those years ago, it’s no wonder that he didn’t want to mess with it.

Changed days indeed from when Paul’s idea of off-road fun involved killing first a Lightweight and then an SJ410 in deep water on the same day.

Like most smart people, he learned what not to do – and came to know that treating precious old 4x4s as disposable items is, well, exactly what not to do. And he took to life as a grown-up off-roader with the zeal of the converted.

‘Bodywork doesn’t matter to me as it’s such an easy fix,’ Paul explained to us of his approach to building the Suzuki. ‘But I like to do everything so it’s a job you do once then forget about it. I have a think about it first and make sure I’m doing it so it’s going to work for years to come.’

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MAYA THE FORCE BE WITH YOU Travel beyond the southern border of Mexico, and you enter the home of the ancient

O

verland travellers’ tales come from every corner of the world. But by and large, the same destinations keep on cropping up. Africa, of course, southern and eastern Europe, Mongolia, Iceland, Australia… and, if you’re willing to pay the shipping fees, North America and the Andes.

But the lands in between these last two rarely crop up in the expedition storybook. There’s the legend of the Darien Gap, of course, made famous by the 1972 Range Rover expedition, which to this day prevents through-travel between Panama and Colombia. But even then, for Brits who explore North America by 4x4 it’s rare to venture out of the English-speaking part of the continent, far less beyond the southern border of Mexico.

That wasn’t going to stop Jen Bright and Gav Lowrie, though.

Having already explored Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay in Ruby, their Defender 110, which they then shipped to Alaska before working their way back down through Canada and the USA, they weren’t going to steer clear of the road less travelled.

Instead, their transit through Mexico was just that. Heading for the Ciudad Hidalgo frontier post, they handed in their tourist cards, paid a 17 peso toll fare for the bridge over the Rio Suchiate and crossed into the Guatemalan border town of Tecún Umán.

With bustling streets with architecture reminiscent of the Wild West, this is a vibrantly coloured place where the bright sun reflects

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back on jauntily painted buildings draped in blue and white national flags. It glints off the chrome trim of countless motorbikes and pick-up trucks, too.

Between them, these seem to make up about 90% of the vehicles on Guatemala’s roads. But if there’s one mode of transport here that stands out, it’s an altogether more distinctive one.

‘One of the first things we noticed, speeding along the roads and beeping their horns, were the colourful chicken buses,’ explains Jen. ‘When North American school buses are ten years old, they get sold at auction. Many of them end up in Guatemala.’

Here, the buses take on a new life – one in which they’re packed to the brim with passengers, topped with roof racks full of cargo and driven at high speeds over mountain passes.

In many ways, they’re the equivalent of the Philippines’ famous Jeepneys – and indeed they tend to share those vehicles’ bright paint schemes and colourful decorations.

‘One guidebook described them as being dressed like a Vegas showgirl,’ says Gav. ‘They’re called chicken buses because of the way people are squashed on to them.

Sometimes, actual chickens are carried on them too!

‘Combining the road conditions and techniques of the drivers, such as blind overtaking on narrow hilly roads, a ride in one is certainly an experience! They also belch black smoke, which isn’t great to follow.’

This was all part of the fun as Jen and Gav introduced Ruby to Guatemala’s roads en route to the

Pictures: Jen Bright and Gav Lowrie

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Mayans. It’s a little known region – but the ideal reward for enterprising overlanders

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On the lower slopes of Pacaya, even the solidified lava flows still give off enough heat to toast marshmallows. And here’s a hot fact about lava flows (see what we did there?) There are two kinds, depending on the viscosity of the lava that forms them. Fastflowing lava cools into ‘ropes’ of rock called pahoehoe, whereas the kind you see here is called aa. It’s razor-sharp, and its name is an onomatopoeia – ‘aa’ is the sound of someone walking over it with no shoes on

highland city of Quetzaltenango.

Between the hills and the potholes, it was slow going – but the vibrant colours of the landscape, the towns and the people made a good impression, and with the

temperature starting to drop as they travelled away from the Pacific coast and further into the mountains all was well with the world as the team made camp at Panajachel, on the shore of Lake Atitlan.

This is a beautiful place, all cobblestones and market stalls, in a landscape surrounded by volcanic peaks. It’s in the heart of the ancient Mayan territory, too, whose influence is evident in the villages dotted around the lake. It’s touristy, but it’s also very Latin American and you certainly won’t find yourself being mistaken for the sort of Brit who just wants to know where they can get a fry-up and a copy of The Sun.

Driving to Panajachel had been a test of Ruby’s brakes, as the lake is in a volcanic crater and gravity is very much with you as you descent the steep roads leading towards it. Which meant that leaving again was a challenge, too. ‘We wanted it to be as quiet as possible when we set off,’ says Gav. ‘Ruby’s a large, heavy lass, and other vehicles have a tendency to stop just as she’s built up momentum! But we stuck her in

Lake Atitlan is an ancient volcanic crater, and it’s surrounded by often rather less ancient volcanic peaks. Driving to the water’s-edge town of Panajachel, you’re constantly on your brakes as you creep down the flank of the crater; on the way back up, for a heavily laden 110 it was a case of getting into low box and watching time pass.

It’s worth the grief, though, because this is an enchantingly beautiful place full of cobbled streets and market stalls, and to make it even better it’s right in the heart of ancient Mayan territory

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Tikal was a major centre of Mayan civilisation. Just a short drive to the east, you come to Middlesex’ low gear and she slowly but surely chugged her way up.’

The skyline in Antigua City is dominated by yet more volcanoes – including one, called Fuego, which is constantly active, firing clouds of steam and gas into the sky every day. By night, you can even see the lava glowing red at the peak of the mountain. Jen and Gav drove to another volcano, Pacaya, which is also constantly bubbling away; even on the lower slopes, where the lava

flows have solidified, the ground still gives off enough heat to toast marshmallows.

Next came the route to Semuc Champay, through mountainous jungle trails with steep drop-offs to either side. It’s renowned as one of the hardest places to reach in Guatemala, with the last seven miles or so needing to be done entirely in low range.

It was worth it to experience a wonder of the natural world – the

Cahabón River flows beneath a 300-metre limestone bridge, at the top of which is a series of naturally stepped infinity pools topped up by crystal clear turquoise water. But here, the Guatemalan roads finally took their toll when a radius arm bracket failed, meaning a trip to the town of Cobán for a repair that was cheap, cheerful and done without any kind of safety equipment, but which would did the job for the remainder of the expedition.

And there was still a lot of exploring to be done. The following

night, Jen and Gav camped in the jungle of the Tikal National Park, waking up at first light to a spectacular dawn chorus of birds and animals – including the very well named howler monkeys. Tikal was also a major centre of Mayan civilisation, with blocky stone temples which tower above the treetops; some of these have been restored, while others are yet to be discovered among the dense jungle.

Tikal is an extraordinary blend of nature and archaeology, and a truly breathtaking place to visit. It’s also

Top: Semuc Champay is a wonder of the natural world. Here, the crystal clear, vibrantly turquoise waters of the Rio Cahabón flow through a series of naturally stepped infinity pools – a senstional place to swim or paddle, and all the better because reaching it meant doing seven or eight miles in low range on similarly breathtaking mountain trails Left: Guatemala’s trademark Chicken Buses are pretty breathtaking too. As in, there may be times when you worry that breathing is a thing you won’t be doing for much longer. They’re not actually called that because climbing on board is like playing a game of chicken, but they might be. Still, with their bright colours and liberal acres of chrome, at least you can see them coming

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Yes, a Land Rover specialist in Belize is actually a thing. It’s run by a Welsh bloke and his Scouse wife, which takes some getting your head around when you’ve just emerged from the jungle with the cries of howler monkeys ringing in your ears. In addition to running a garage, they also own a shop selling proper British stuff like Eccles cakes and Yorkshire tea. What could be more wonderful? extremely remote. Yet just a short drive to the east, a couple of hours later you come to… Middlesex.

Oh yes you do. Middlesex is a tiny village in Belize, another nation that’s seldom visited by British overlanders. Yet it’s strangely like being back home; English is the official language, the Queen’s head is on the money and when Jen and Gav checked Ruby in to a Land Rover specialist to get her sorted out for the next leg of her journey,

they were greeted by Yorkshire Tea and Eccles cake served by a woman with a broad Scouse accent.

‘This was Joyce,’ says Jan, ‘who owns the garage with her husband Graham. He was a wonderful character from Wales, who was full of stories to tell.’

These included tales of a former drugs plane, which now sits in front of Joyce and Graham’s premises, and a Land Rover in which he escorted Princess Margaret around

Belize. And as well as a garage, the couple also run a shop selling British classics such as mint sauce, crumpets and baked beans. ‘We went around oohing and aahing and stroking things as Joyce watched and laughed! says Jen’ Leaving Ruby in Graham’s capable hands, Jen and Gav hopped on a chicken bus destined for Belize City. Or so they thought. After only a few miles, its engine began to belch smoke and the driver bellowed ‘EVACUATE!’ at the top of his voice.

Not a problem they ever had in their Land Rover, thankfully.

Having finally made it to the capital, they took a water taxi to

Caye Caulker, a small limestone coral island in the Caribbean Sea whose motto is ‘go slow.’ After all this time spent travelling in their 110, you could say Jen and Gav were already experts at that.

Over the next couple of days, they swam and snorkelled with dolphins, nurse sharks, stingrays, manatees and leatherback turtles. Then, by way of what must be one of the most bizarre contrasts of all time, they found themselves at a charity boxing tournament.

Having returned to collect Ruby, now fully serviced and featuring new hub seals and clutch master cylinder, Jen and Gav stopped off

Left: Caye Caulker is a small island off the Caribbean coast of Belize. You reach it by water taxi and while you’re there, you’re surrounded by a whirlwind of marine wildlife – Jen and Gav swam with dolphins, manatees, nurse sharks, stingrays and more Above: The ruins of Tulum demonstrate that a nice sea view was a desirable thing to the ancient Mayan people too

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Above: Belize Zoo is a place that values the nation’s natural fauna. It’s basically an orphanage for hundreds of species including jaguars and harpy eagles. Nearby you can camp at a monkey sanctuary, whose residents also include iguanas and crocodiles. Note that we said you can camp here…

Bottom: The Mayan city of Chichen Itza remains an ongoing archeological site – and is likely to remain as such for the foreseeable future.

It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site, of course, and in 2007 is was named as one of the new seven wonders of the world at Belize Zoo – basically an animal orphanage in the jungle, where they got up close to everything from jaguars and ocelots to toucans, parrots, eagles and the national animal, the tapir. This was en route to a campsite at a community monkey sanctuary which was also home to iguanas and crocodiles.

The final stop in Belize was Lamanai, once a major city in Mayan civilisation. It was inhabited for a period spanning three millennia and much of the site remained unexcavated until the mid 1970s. Even today, most of the archaeological work done here has focused on a few larger structures; the Mask Temple, Jaguar Temple and High Temple.

‘The High Temple lived up to its name,’ laughs Gav. ‘It gave us a wonderful view over the whole of the site, the jungle and a nearby lagoon.

It was breathtaking to behold.’

It was a fitting end to the team’s time in Belize, and also

4x4 6pp Central America.indd 65

the beginning of the final leg of a life-changing journey. Back in Guatemala, Jen had had an online interview – and now she had a job waiting for her when she returned to Britain, with a start date around six weeks away.

That left them time to explore the Yucatán Peninsula on the way back through Mexico, visiting the city of Valladolid, the ruins of Chichen Itza and the colonial town of Merida before going to watch a wrestling tournament in Mexico City itself.

They also encountered their first dodgy policeman of the trip, who pulled them over for a completely fictitious speeding offence but eventually gave up on trying for a bribe when their we-don’tunderstand act finally got the better of him.

Mexico got the couple’s vote for the best food they had encountered during their travels. Though as the final nation they crossed into the first time, Belize made a perfect

climax to their expedition. ‘The scenery is lush, beautiful and green,’ said Jen. ‘The wildlife is wonderful.

The people are simply brilliant – kind, funny, charming and helpful even in the face of poverty.’

And for all overlanders, and indeed everyone who travels to far-flung corners of the world with a thirst for discovery, Jen concludes with some very wise, very pertinent words: ‘We should never forget how very privileged we are to travel to

other people’s homes and share their resources. We should always travel with humility and appreciate the opportunity.’

Let that be your watchword, and your overland travels will forever enrich your life.

Jen Bright and Gav Lowrie travelled the Americas aboard Ruby, their Land Rover Defender 110 Tdi. You can read more of their exploits by visiting www.rubythelandy.com

MARCH 2022 | 65

15/02/2022 11:32

ROADBOOK

NORTH NORTHUMBERLAND

Quiet rural lanes, hilltop trails…and an absolute treat if you love water USING OUR ROADBOOKS Our roadbooks guide you through the countryside on a mixture of surfaced and unsurfaced roads.

The tracks we use are public rights of way, either Byways Open to All Traffic or Unclassified County Roads, all commonly referred to as green lanes.

NAVIGATION

We’ve deliberately made it as easy as possible to follow the route, using a mixture of instructions, tulip diagrams and grid references. We normally only include junctions at which you have to make a turning or don’t have right of way, so stay on the main road or continue straight ahead unless we tell you otherwise.

You’ll find a guide to using grid references on the legend of any OS map. Our aim is for you to be able to do the route without maps, whether paper or online, but you should certainly take a set with you.

SAFETY

The notes on thee pages advise you of how suitable the route is for your vehicle. These are just guidelines, however. We’ll warn you of any hazards or difficult sections, but the nature of any green lane can change quickly. Wet weather can make a huge difference to the conditions underfoot, and what’s wide open in winter can be tightly enclosed and scratchy in summer.

The responsibility is yours!

Our roadbooks are designed to be safe to drive in a solo vehicle. We do recommend travelling in tandem wherever possible, however. The risk of getting stuck can be greater than it appears – and even the most capable of vehicles can break down miles from anywhere.

RESPONSIBILITY

Irresponsible driving is a big issue on green lanes. In particular, you must always stay on the right of way. Never drive off it to ‘play’ on the verges or surrounding land, even if you can see that someone else has; doing so is illegal and can be tremendously damaging.

This kind of illegal off-roading is a key reason why green lanes get closed. If you see others doing this, they are NOT your friends. They’re criminals, and you are their victim.

If it’s safe to do so, film them in the act and pass it to the police.

66 | MARCH 2022

12pp Roadbook Mar 22.indd 66

Elsewhere, let common sense and courtesy prevail. Keep your speed down, be ready to pull over for others and show the world that we are decent people just like them.

ANTIS

Anti-4x4 bigotry does exist, but it’s less common than you’d think. By and large, it’s limited to organisations who just want to get the countryside all to themselves.

These organisations are beyond being reasoned with, but it’s rare to encounter real hostility even from their rank-and-file members. If you’re friendly towards the people with whom you share the countryside, the vast majority will respond in kind. There are always bad apples, but no more so than anywhere else.

Likewise, most local residents will accept your presence if you’re driving sensibly. What suspicion you do encounter is likely to be from farmers worried that you’re there to steal from them, so be ready to offer a word of reassurance. Once satisfied that you’re not after their quad bikes, their mood will lighten.

DO…

• Keep your speed right down • Pull over to let walkers, bikers and horse riders pass

• Leave gates as you found them • Scrupulously obey all closure and voluntary restraint notices

• Ensure you have a right to be

there. We research the routes on our roadbooks very carefully, but the status of any route can change without notice Be prepared to turn back if the route is blocked, even illegally If you find an illegal obstruction, notify the local authority Stick absolutely scrupulously to the right of way Always remember that you are an ambassador for all 4x4 drivers

• • • •

DON’T…

• Go in large convoys: instead, split into smaller groups

• Drop litter. Why not carry a bin bag pick up other people’s instead?

• Go back to drive the fun bits, such as mud or fords, again

• Cause a noise nuisance, particularly after dark

• Get riled up if someone challenges you. Be firm but polite, stay calm and don’t let them turn it into a fight

4x4 14/02/2022 23:03

ROADBOOK Right at the very northern tip of England, this roadbook explores the network of green lanes in a region that’s almost within shouting distance of the Scottish border. It’s a gently rolling landscape of hill farms and quiet villages, and the character of the lanes themselves mainly reflects this – though here and there you definitely need to have your wits about you. Mainly, though, this route features a series of fords which, though they would be absolutely lethal when the rivers are in spate, are normally a major part of the entertainment

4x4 12pp Roadbook Mar 22.indd 67

MARCH 2022 | 67

14/02/2022 23:03

ROUTE GUIDE

is it suitable?

START FINISH HOW LONG? TERRAIN HAZARDS

TYRES

OS MAPS

Alnwick (NU 195 119) Glanton (NU 070 145) 65.85 miles / 6-7 hours Rolling farmland Deep, fast-flowing water; occasional mud and ruts; one or two hazardous drop-offs; a few scratchy bits; other users; some liaison sections on fast roads Landranger 75 (Berwick-upon-Tweed) Landranger 81 (Alnwick & Morpeth)

Step

1

0.0

NU 195 119

Start in Alnwick, at the Esso fuel station on the A1068 close to the southern junction for the town on the A1. Zero your trip as you leave the forecourt and turn right towards the tow centre

WEATHER LOW BOX SOFT-ROADERS SCRATCHING DRIVING DAMAGE

Step

3

NU 220 127

Turn right on to the track opposite the road on the left for Rennington and Longhoughton

2.2

Step

Step

0.5

2.75

2

Low-profile sizes may struggle in places. Do-able on a road pattern Avoid in fog or after enough wet weather to raise the river levels Useful in places Should cope if back-up is available Some risk on one or two lanes Concentration and good judgement required in several places Water ingress the most likely cause but one or two opportunities to hit things will crop up

4

The main track swings right through a gate; carry on ahead on a grassy track between hedgerows

Step 1: Start at the filling station near the southern junction for Alnwick on the A1

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4x4 14/02/2022 23:03

Step

5

As a rule of thumb, if the water level is above the stepping stones, it’s too deep!

Step

9

2.85

1.25

Step

Step

2.9

5.5

10

6

Step

7

ZERO TRIP

Step

11

3.25

6.05

Step

Step

0.75

6.95

8

12

Ashington Amble A1068

NU 240 052

This is after you’ve passed through Warkworth

WATERSHAUGH ROAD

It’s not as fearsome as it first look, but with a weir to your right you don’t want to mess with this ford if the water level is high

Follow the sign for Shilbottle and Guyzance

Step 11: The number of fords on this roadbook is pretty extraordinary. They vary in size, depth, character and speed of flow, but almost all of them have one thing in common – when the river you’re crossing is in spate, you’d need to be borderline certifiable to even think about giving them a go. This is the widest of the day; previously, at Step 5 (pictured on the page opposite), there’s a handy set of stepping stones to act as a depth gauge. If you can’t see them, you should definitely think twice before having a bash…

4x4 12pp Roadbook Mar 22.indd 69

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Step

16

ZERO TRIP

9.5 Step

17 Step 13: This turning is on a long and pretty featureless stretch of road, so it’s easy to miss Step

13

NU 206 058

8.2 Step

14

1.5

18 3.9

Dead slow through the farm

Step

19 3.95

Step

Step

9.05

4.1

70 | JANUARY 2022

12pp Roadbook Mar 22.indd 70

234 112

Step

8.9

15

Guyzance Bank House

20

NU 202 029

This is immediately after Step 18, just at the other side of the bridge

Caution – there’s a very big and at times unprotected drop-off to the right as you climb the hill after the old barn

4x4 14/02/2022 23:04

Step

21

The turning on the left is just a field entrance, but it looks like a track as you arrive at the junction

4.6 Step

22 4.85 Step

Step

5.8

11.4

Step

Step

29

23 24 7.1

30 11.7

Swarland Longframlington B6245

Step

Step

31

25 8.95

Swarland Newton on the Moor

12.3

3

4

214

Step

Step

32

26 10.2 Step

27 10.8

Rothbury 10 Longframlington 4

1.6

Overgrass only

1

4

11.4

11.3

12.2

12pp Roadbook Mar 22.indd 71

33 20 11

33 Step

4x4

Coldstream Wooler Powburn A697

Step

NU 155 043

Step

28

ZERO TRIP

Eglingham

34 MARCH 2022 | 71

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Step 40: The exit on the far bank is quite soft, and the field opposite is likely to be full of cattle. The track across it is quite hard to spot, too. All good reasons to have your sensible head screwed firmly on the whole way along here Step

35

NU 084 167

Looking out for the byway sign, turn left through the gate and follow the faint grassy track along the field edge

12.7 Step

36 37

39

It’s just a set of tyre tracks in the grass to your left, but since that’s more or less what you’ve been driving on too it seems wise to mention them…

Step

40

NU 081 183 ZERO TRIP

Step

41 1.45

Step

Step

0.25

1.7

72 | MARCH 2022

12pp Roadbook Mar 22.indd 72

It’s quite soft on the far side, then follow the faint grassy tracks through the field

0.8

13.7

38

As the main track swings hard right, follow ahead towards the wooden gate

0.65

12.9 Step

Step

Caution – however small this looks, it’s actually a B-road, and visibility to the right is poor as you emerge

42 Chatton 5 Chillingham 4

4x4 14/02/2022 23:04

Step

46 5.05 Step

47 5.15 Step

43

NU 061 226

Turn left opposite the road for Bewick Folly

3.5 Step

44

Step

48 5.9

When you reach the river, ignore the tracks in the grass to the right and follow round to the left

Step

49

3.6

6.3

Step

Step

3.8

6.8

45

50 Step

51

NU 037 253

Dead slow past the houses then continue ahead on to the grassy track

Turn right at the cross-roads with another track then immediately swing left, keeping the stone wall to your right

8.1 Step 51 (inset left): This junction is quite good at messing with your head as you approach, but it will soon start making sense

4x4 12pp Roadbook Mar 22.indd 73

JANUARY 2022 | 73

14/02/2022 23:04

Step

Step

8.95

1.05

52 Step

53

56 Caution – this is a major road

54

Another major road. There’s a fuel station on the right at the junction

ZERO TRIP

12.5 Step

55

57

Turn right through the gate

1.8

9.5 Step

Step

Morpeth A697

NT 995 278

Immediately after the bridge over the river, turn left between Riverside Bar and Grill and Doddington Milk Bar

0.25

Step

58 2.05 Step

59 2.3

Step 75 (overleaf): The Hurricane Ash is a simple but touching monument to a WWII pilot who died when he came down here in January 1944, crashing into it

Step 57: It’s the complicated crossroads from Step 51 again, only this time approached from the opposite direction Step 64 (below): Check out the vertical drop-off to your right here. You do NOT want to risk this ford when the water’s high…

78 | MARCH 2022

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4x4 14/02/2022 23:04

Step

Step

2.75

3.2

64

60 Step

61

Caution – this is a major road.

You’ll be turning right again almost immediately, so don’t nip out in front of anything that’s bearing down on you from the right

3.0 Step

62

Morpeth Powburn A697

NU 002 260

Step

65 3.6 Step

66

3.1

4.1

Step

Step

3.15

4.6

63 4x4 12pp Roadbook Mar 22.indd 75

Look at the photo and take note of that drop-off to the right. You do NOT want to be messing with this ford when the water is high…

67 MARCH 2022 | 75

14/02/2022 23:04

Step

Step

4.9

6.95

68 Step

69

74 NU 002 235

This is a bit of an odd track. It has random patches of tarmac scattered along it, and the countryside it passes through feels more like parkland than farmland

Step

75

5.05

7.45

Step

70

Step

5.65

7.6

Step

71

After the gate at the top of the hill, the track changes character and becomes grassy as you cross the field. It’s heard to spot to start with – just carry on more or less dead ahead and you’ll soon pick it up

To your left here is the Hurricane Ash, whose remains are preserved as a tribute to a pilot who crashed into it during WWII

76 NU 016 219

6.5

Roddam

Step

77 8.8

Step

72 6.55 Step

73

The track to the left looks pretty epic, but the right of way is ahead up the hill

6.7 76 | MARCH 2022

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4x4 14/02/2022 23:04

Step

Step

9.5

11.5

83

78 Step

79

Follow through the gate then immediately turn right on to the grass track along the field edge

Step

84

9.8

11.9

Step

Step

11.3

12.0

85

80 Step

81

NU 040 170

This is immediately after Step 80

Step

82 11.45

Another ford you don’t need to be trifling with when the river’s in spate. As if you need us to tell you that…

212

Step

86 13.5

11.3

Glanton

Step

87

Glanton

1

Arrive outside the Queen’s Head in Glanton for the end of the route

14.6

Step 56: One last ford for the day and by jingo, it’s a monster. The actual water crossings are normally quite shallow – it’s the potential for sheer lunatic-level breadth, depth and strength of current that makes Brandon Ford such a legend

4x4 12pp Roadbook Mar 22.indd 77

JANUARY 2020 | 17

14/02/2022 23:04

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4x4

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The story of the Dakar Classic – a proper off-road adventure aboard some proper off-road trucks

Tested: New Dacia Duster and Land Rover Discovery D250 Plus: A hardcore Hilux from way back in the days before pick-ups became cool… and an ex-Army Defender that’s cooler than ever

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Step 40: Tur n left off the main track, embankment dropping dow then plungi n the ng straight into a water trough (right) rock Step n – there are sharp

71 34

Step

Cautio the iate as you climb steps to negot hillside

ROADBOOK: An everlasting landscape of trails13to explore on Salisbury Plain 13 Step

12.3.1

a Abbey Strata Florid

8.75

track to the left Take the rocky track the main Cat A

Step

14

Ste p Step

4328

of

Step

43

Step

15

48 15.2

Step

Step

16 17

It’s a steep, sharp climb up over a bigg er track – you and can’t see ahead over your bonnet to start with

15.0 Step

13.4

11.7

Step

followed by a long

There’s a coup le of huge wate troughs afte r r the junction

1312 .1 .6

10.9

11.8

More rock steps, water trough

Step

47

44 Join the Cat A

track

You may find yourself drivi a river bed ng along for a while…

13.65 Step

45

Fill in your name and address and give this form to your newsagent ●

12.8reserve/deliver me a copy every month Please order 4x4 Magazine and

Name Address

Step

18 12.8 88 | JAN UARY 2020

14.7

track Drop off the main the gate and immediately before trough water into yet another

Step

46

these axleentum to clear t need a bit of mom the right is much bigger Step 37: You migh -off to warned, the drop twisters – but be here s than it look

4x4

14.9 4x4

Newsagent This magazine is available to your wholesaler through Comag Magazine Marketing, Tavistock Rd, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 7QE. Tel: 01895 444055 Fax: 01895 433602

80 | MARCH 2022

Next Month Mar.indd 80

4x4 15/02/2022 10:44

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