OUR 4X4S Vehicle: Isuzu D-Max GO2 Year: 2018 Run by: Alan Kidd Last update: June 2021 On the fleet since: January 2020
Straight out of the top drawer…
A FEW YEARS AGO, we tested a version of the Isuzu D-Max designed with country sports in mind. The Huntsman model was accessorised with practical, hardwearing equipment – and for us, it ticked almost every box. In particular, we were impressed by the Gearmate drawer system fitted in the back. Plucked from Isuzu’s approved accessories range, this British-made unit attaches into the pick-up bed to provide various opportunities for keeping your kit tidy, secure and readily at hand. Here’s what we said about it at the time: ‘Beneath the canopy, the Gearmate drawer system is superbly fitted and works a treat. There are two main drawers, one
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of them sectioned off; we won’t pretend to know what purpose this serves in the world of hunting but if you’re going off-road, it’s perfect for storing your ropes, shackles, snatch blocks and, in the second drawer, a full-length high-lift jack. To either side of these drawers are gun cabinets, which we didn’t manage to find an alternative use for, but the space left on top is still extremely practical – we managed to fit a fridge-freezer in it for the obligatory tip run, which, considering the amount taken out of the loadspace height by the drawers, we found very impressive.’ It’s unlikely to come as a surprise, then, that when we were speccing up our Project D-Max GO2, a set
of Gearmate drawers was high on our wish list. Unlike on the Huntsman, ours was slated to be installed beneath a Mountain Top Roll loadspace cover, which in theory means the aforementioned fridge-freezer could be carried upright, but that’s not what this build is about. Mainly, we wanted to steer clear of adding any extra bodywork that could be damaged while out and about on some of Britain’s delightfully narrow green lanes – but, while the Gearmate system is pretty much impregnable even without anything else on top of it, squirreling it away beneath a similarly secure roller cover adds a welcome element of out-of-sightout-of-mind.
What this means is that step one was to remove the over-rail bed liner that’s standard in the D-Max Utah and replace it with an under-rail job. This is necessary as the runners for the roller cover mount on to the top edge of the bodywork alongside the pick-up bed, where the top lip of the over-rail liner would prevent them from locating. The matching liner on the tailgate comes off, too. Lifting out the old bedliner is definitely a two-man job, as is dropping in its replacement – not so much because of their weight as the awkwardness of manhandling such a big item, especially as it becomes surprisingly flexible as you release it. The new liner doesn’t come pre-drilled with mounting
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