You have to say ...

... that the restored FJ Land Cruiser Toyota New Zealand is giving away looks pretty good.

Update: Dylan Kirschberg of Auckland won the old Cruiser from about 3000 entries submitted by supporters of Toyota’s Top to Bottom Off Road journey. He was reported keen to sell it for around $35,000 it by internet auction.

A year with the unusual Wrangler MT/Rs

I was by coincidence one of the early adopters in New Zealand of the asymmetric Goodyear Wrangler MT/R with Kevlar, to use its full name. It was a bit of a gamble in that they looked good on paper but were something of an unknown in practice. The point of difference is its tread pattern that tries to provide the off-road advantages of a good mud tyre yet handle and ride on the road like an all terrain. Having learnt through experience that compromises are almost always, well, compromised, my worry was that the Wranglers wouldn't be much good in either role.

Fortunately, the tyre has lived up to its design brief. It's relatively quiet on road, including on coarse-chip, and rides and handles well. Braking distances and control are more like an all terrain than a mud tyre. They're god in the wet. Off-road, in mud, it's been at least as good as the BFG Mud Terrains I previously favoured. On trips, I've never felt even slightly disadvantaged compared to others using other more conventionally designed rubber. The Wranglers just do it.

Nor have I noticed any disadvantage compared to the extreme mud tyres, notably the Simex Extreme Trekkers (aka the Centipede) that are favoured by many enthusiasts. But there's a reason. Of course a cross-ply with giant lugs is going to be better than the MT/R in severe mud conditions, but I believe the Centipedes are overkill for most club trips – guys are just running too much tyre on tracks where normal mudders perform perfectly well, or well enough.

The MT/Rs are not cheap, but on the basis of the first year they've been money well spent and I'm looking forward to many more interesting trips with them.

Earlier posts:

• Here, describing the tyre
• And here, on their noise
• And here, on going blue

You can tell this book by its cover

A Farmer’s Affair
The Legend of the Land Rover Icon
Duncan Munro
306 pages, $56
ISBN 978-0-473-17894-9

For several months before I was able to borrow a copy of this self-published title, I'd been hearing praise from people who know the author. I must have been asked, expectantly, a dozen times if I'd seen the book and what I thought, often with the enthusiastic rider, “you’ll really like it”. So I’m feeling like a right bastard to be sitting here and wondering what the fuss was about? I thought it indulgent, poorly written, lacking research and urgently in need of a good edit. It tested my resolve to read it cover-to-cover – and I really like Land Rovers. PublishMe of New Plymouth did an excellent job with the production; this is a handsome volume once past that dreary cover design that, perhaps, says something about much of the content within. However, there are some good and interesting photos, well reproduced. If you do buy a copy, skip directly to Chapter 14, which is about recovery. Mr Munro is an experienced off roader; he's at his best here and the chapter contains lots of useful information. 

Phil Hanson

Update: The author has responded, three times, in the comments below.

4wdNewz has also looked at these books:

• 4WD Handbook

• Spot X Offroading New Zealand

I got the blues, and I got ’em good

The Rubicon's Goodyear MT/Rs turned really blue after their last off road outing. My tyre guy says it's due to heat build-up. Used to get it on my BFG Mud Terrains sometimes, but not so colourfully! Since posting this, a couple of off-roading colleagues have been in touch to say they believe it's a reaction between something in the ground and something in the tyre's compound. Not exactly scientific, but quite plausible, as I've done quite hard and heat-producing off-roading on these tyres elsewhere without a sign of the "blue-ing".

UPDATE: A month later, the tyres had almost returned to their original colour.

Jeep vs Hummer

There goes Happy Hour …

The well-used 1994 Pajero V6 churns through the muck on what was supposed to be an easy track. Will the sausages have gone cold before we get out?

What a great idea. Do a few unformed (aka "paper") roads, adjourn to a local winery run by a club member, have a sausage sizzle and maybe even a glass or two of liquid refreshment. So that was the plan that got a bunch of Auckland 4WD Club vehicles assembled on the edge of Riverhead Forest after lunch on Saturday. Our trip leader had a list of half a dozen tracks, some of them behind council-installed locked gates, but we had both the key and the enthusiasm to knock them off even before the barbecue was hot.

The first track was easy; the second the track from hell – overgrown, rutted, muddy, wet; you name it. Ah well, that's the thing about off-roading – the only thing to expect is the unexpected. The sun had slipped behind the horizon before the final truck was out, so there went Happy Hour. But on the other hand, what a great opportunity to get in some recovery practice, watch some winching and improve lopping techniques on the gorse. I went home after the driving, but I'm told the hospitality at WestBrook Winery was excellent. I could have used some of their product next morning after spending more than three hours cleaning the Jeep. I collected enough clay from underneath it to take up pottery as a hobby, though.

So this all looks easy enough, but wait, there's more … much more.

A 1993 MU 2.8 diesel cautiously tests the depth of one of the holes.

Warn 8274 on Trip leader's Samurai gives a JK Wrangler a little help.

Simex shod 1997 TJ Wrangler Renegade with auto shows this hole who's in charge.

Sigh. The afternoon started out as such a cruise; the worst obstacle was the digger arm. Please hold comments about this being how Aucklanders prefer all their off roading.

Good and not so good

The thing that impressed me about my Jeep on the trip above was how resilient the paint is to gorse scratches. The few it collected easily polished out with wax. My old Defender's paintwork would have taken a caning. Not so impressive was the ARB rear bumper whose open leading edge scrapes in the mud which is then compacted into a solid block. Not fun to get out.