ARB Major collaboration yields accessory range for new Ford Ranger

Ruskin Design – giving your Defender an interior that’s as unique as you are

THERE WAS A TIME WHEN OWNING A DEFENDER meant putting up with a cabin that was functional at best. But these days, more and more Land Rover owners are using interior upgrades to help create trucks to be proud of.

And when it comes to putting life into your Defender’s cabin, there’s not much that can beat a fully bespoke hand-crafted interior from Ruskin Design. The Leicestershire company is the international market leader in its fi eld – and with its design-led service, it promises to create ‘an interior that is as individual as you are.’

With a highly skilled team of craftsmen and women, Ruskin has a reputation for outstanding creativity and fi rst-class workmanship. Its ‘Ruskin Inside’ trademark stands for luxury and elegance, taken to a degree previous generations of Defender owners would never have dreamed possible.

In the company’s own words: ‘Every component of a Ruskin Inside is hand-made, from replacement seat covers, roof linings and carpets through to door card, dashboard and gear shift covers. Whether you want denim or diamonds, vegan or vanilla, the materials for your Ruskin Inside will be skilfully sourced, precision cut, stitched and fi tted by hand by our dedicated team, to give you a premium interior that is as unique as you are.’ Not many aftermarket additions have the potential to add to a vehicle’s resale value, but Ruskin customers often fi nd that the company’s interiors make their trucks more desirable come sell-on time. Professional restorers offering bespoke cabin designs tend to trust them to the experts, too. Want to fi nd out more? Pay a visit to ruskindesign.co.uk – and prepare to let your imagination run riot!

All-round grip from General Grabber AT3 all-terrain

CIVILISED AND DEPENDABLE

ON THE ROAD, sure-footed off-road, incredibly hard-wearing and capable of shrugging off the sort of damage that comes with being put to work on a 4x4. That’s what you want from an all-terrain tyre – and it’s what you can expect from the General Grabber AT3.

The Grabber is a well known name in the 4x4 world, and this current all-terrain has a tread design whose edges grip effectively on to the terrain and whose open shoulders allow effective self-cleaning for traction in mud.

Large sidewall lugs have the job of protecting the main body of the tyre from rocks, while defl ection ribs divert obstacles away from the tyre to prevent punctures. The tyre also has a rim protection rib to shield the bead area of the wheel from kerbing damage and the sort of off-road hazards that can appear from nowhere to turn your whole day into a bad one.

Made from a robust compound, the reinforced blocks of the tread design make it durable and stable under stress – as do the strong steel belts that run along the edges of the carcase. Undeviating block geometry is there to provide a smoother ride and even wear, and also helps the tyre maintain a high level of comfort on the road.

With a wide range of sizes from 15” to 20”, the General Grabber AT3 offers durability and grip to almost all the 4x4 and pick-up market. For more details on the AT3, check out www.general-tire.co.uk.

SMART SAND LADDER BRACKETS FROM MUD-UK

THESE HINGING SAND LADDER BRACKETS from Mud-UK offer a handy way of stowing a set of sand ladders on the side of a Land Rover Defender. Not only that, their design allows them to drop down when you’re parked up, creating a quick-to-deploy table for your mug of tea and bacon sandwich.

The brackets can be mounted directly to the side of your Land Rover via a pair of internal spreader plates, or to a cargo rack using the optional quick-release mounting kit. They and all their fi xings are made from 100% stainless steel, and as well as traditional sand ladders they can be used to mount Maxtrax recovery boards.

The brackets are supplied as a pair and come complete with a fi xing kit for getting them on board. Suitable for a variety of Defenders, they’re priced at £155 including the VAT and can be tracked down at www. mudstuff. co.uk.

Summer holiday adventures begin at Silverline 4x4!

With temperatures rising and off-road lovers preparing for some adventures in the sun, Silverline 4x4 is calling on everyone to make it a summer to remember by customising their vehicles with one of their experts.

Its bespoke wheel and tyre packages are amongst the most impressive in the UK, both on price and genuine quality. All the best brands are under one roof in Warwick, and one call to the Silverline 4x4 team is all you need to find out what solutions suit your needs.

Silverline 4x4’s centre manager Simon Mepstead said: ‘Now is the perfect time to come and see us, as we can add some magic to your pride-and-joy! Off-roading and 4x4s is most definitely a passion for many of us and we continue to be busy, as we’re transforming the look and feel of so many 4x4s and pick-ups. We are finding that more customers are coming to us because they want to customise their vehicles rather than replace them.’

Rather than sell on price, Silverline 4x4 advises iots customers on the right solution for each vehicle they see. Simon added: ‘Our services aren’t like conventional automotive centres in so far as our products aren’t viewed as distress purchases, so price isn’t the overriding factor as the specific solution is the main requirement.’

Silverline 4x4 is the only garage anywhere in the UK to stock the critically-acclaimed Unigrip tyre range, starring the Unigrip Lateral Force and Road Force tyres, available in 15” up to 20” .

Simon added: ‘Having driven on Unigrip ourselves, we can vouch for their performance capabilities in the most uncompromising of conditions. Unigrip Tyre gives you the confidence to enjoy the road, while helping to keep you safe behind the wheel.

‘Unigrip dedicates to innovation, technology and development of new patterns, sizes, compounds and state of the art technology and we’re thrilled to stock their 4x4 portfolio. Unigrip really needs to be experienced to be appreciated. Silverline 4x4 stocks Unigrip tyres in 14 different sizes, which plays a vital role in full tyre coverage for each and every visiting motorist.’

For more information about Silverline 4x4, pay a visit to www. silverlinewheels-tyres.com or call 01926 490002

JEEP COMPASS TRAILHAWK

The off-road tuned version of Jeep’s medium-sized family SUV is a great all rounder – and better than you might believe in general A to B use, too. But do the costs add up for this plug-in hybrid?

THERE’S NO SHORTAGE OF medium sized SUVs in the world. A recent study found that there are now more of them on the planet than there are human beings who still remember Status Quo.

What they almost all have in common is that they’re nothing special offroad. They don’t need to be; they don’t pretend to be.

But this is Jeep. Say it while drawing yourself up to full height and flexing your biceps. The Compass, its medium-sized family SUV, may be built on the same platform as those other desert-bashing titans, the Fiat 500X and Alfa Romeo Tonale, but this is Jeep. ‘Nothing special off-road’ is not acceptable. Hence the Trailhawk. It’s the hardcore model in the Compass range. It’s not trying to be the Wrangler but it comes with raised off-road suspension, low range and a fivemode Selec-Terrain traction control system. This features a Rock mode, which is exclusive to the Trailhawk and helps it take advantage of its 21.3cm ground clearance and 30.4°, 33.3° and 20.9° approach, departure and breakover angles. So perhaps it is trying to be a mini-Wrangler after all. Thus equipped, the Compass has done enough to earn Jeep’s ‘Trail Rated’ stamp of self-approval – a marketing gimmick, you may say, and you may be right, but Jeep knows its truest fans won’t stand for any bull in this area so it’s not going to make any claims it doesn’t believe its vehicles can back up. This then is a very modern kind of Jeep, and it’s more modern still in that it’s a plug-in hybrid. There’s a certain type of Jeep owner who would therefore sooner chew his own arm off, but he is probably still driving a YJ or CJ7 that no-one gets out of alive. If you want a Wrangler, buy a Wrangler: if you want a cool, economical family SUV that can absolutely cut it off-road at the weekend, Jeep would invite you to buy exactly the vehicle you see here. Doing so will set you back £41,495. Make that £43,500 with the options on this one, which include a Mode 3 charging cable and Jeep’s Technology and Convenience Pack. The latter brings a premium Alpine audio system, 230v power outlet, 360° camera, all-round park assist with autonomous self-parking, blind spot and cross path detection and door mirrors with courtesy lamps, which sounds like much better value than some of the accessory packs you see 4x4 makers trying to pass off as being worth the money.

Overall, indeed, with the price of new vehicles becoming ever more detached from the reality of what everyday people can afford, £43,500 as tested sounds like a bit of a bargain. If you can afford it, the cheapest Wrangler starts at just over £14k more, which is a hefty chunk of money but when you consider that Wranglers hold their value like houses, it’s a hefty investment too. But that’s another story.

The plug-in system mates a 1.3-litre turbocharged petrol engine developing 180bhp and 184lbf.ft to a 60bhp, 199lbf.ft electric motor in the back axle. So that’s 240bhp all told, with a very healthy whack of torque to get you moving – most of it from zero rpm. The motor is powered by an 11.4kWh battery with plug-in charging; this allows an all-electric range of up to 30 miles, with average emissions of 44-47g/km and fuel efficiency in the region of 141.2-156.9mpg. These are all WLTP figures, so you can expect them to be pretty accurate.

So, use it right and this is extremely cost-effective motoring. It’s a Jeep which could in theory conquer the entire Rubicon Trail on electric power alone, though obviously the idea of it being a PHEV is that you can do your daily commute and so on without firing up the petrol engine, which stays in reserve for longer trips – including the sort of off-highway jaunts most Compass owners wouldn’t be able to countenance.

Pressing the button to engage electric drive so you can listen to the tyres crunching and squelching their way over the ground without any engine noise to interfere with it is a fun novelty, but in reality you leave it in hybrid mode and concentrate on driving it. Or rather, you concentrate on letting it drive itself, because Hill Descent Control is at the heart of how it works.

As we’ve mentioned, the Trailhawk has low range. It’s activated by a button on the floor console and it allows the vehicle to pick its way over rough ground, but it stops short of doing what we’d expect. In particular, even in low first we found engine braking to be as good as absent. The vehicle doesn’t completely run away going downhill but it certainly does start to, and on a very steep hill you wouldn’t be under control.

Happily, the HDC system works effectively to take this in hand. You need to have activated it before you start, however, because if you try to go for it while you’re already careering down a hill you may well be going too fast for it to engage.