Finally, proof that the Jeep is bulletproof

"Yup, seems to work okay."

Well, sort-of. The close relative of Wrangler, the J8, has been awarded ballistic protection certification. The factory says it's due to a new body panel manufacturing technique that uses hot-forming steel to create a protective shell. Don't ask for details, I'm just parroting the press information. The J8 is sold to military, government and private security operations that require the kind of vehicle that can drive through a hail of small-arms fire without getting perforated. But sorry, not in New Zealand.

Another way to spend money off-roading

The Kyosho Rock Force is set up for serious off-roading ...

... while this one's more of an off-road racer, but is still pretty good in the serious stuff.

A colleague recently brought along two wonderful toys on a 4WD trip and I was sort-of hooked. His RC models, particularly the Kyosho Rock Force (top photo), have everything it takes for hard off-roading with the great advantage that, if you roll or smash into a tree, you simply pick it up and start all over again! Wish I could do that with the Jeep. The worm-geared Kyosho is an amazing low-ratio crawler and has all kinds of heavy-duty stuff that are hallmarks of a good RC kit. Neither of these models is cheap, and they have to be built up – but that also allows lots of opportunity to do mods if you know what you're doing.

Hint: Don't lend to young boys or you'll never get them back! Well, most older boys, too, if it comes to that.

Shorty and sweet

Keep an eye out for the October issue of 4x4 Australia, which has a major comparison of short wheelbase 4WDs, the Jeep Wrangler Sport, Land Rover Defender 90, Suzuki Jimny and the short Toyota Prado that doesn't come to New Zealand.

Starting my own aerial farm

A nice aerial farm at a gathering of Land Rover products. My Jeep has now started its own farmlet (see small photo below right)

The GME TX3220 fits perfectly in a Jeep's dash pocket

A few months ago, I posted these  thoughts on UHF radios. The availability in the dying weeks of 12.5% GST of a nice GME special package that basically included a free good quality matched aerial prompted me to take the plunge. The GME TX3220 is a compact unit less than half the size of the old GME AM set that served so well on the Land Rover. As the photo shows, it fits perfectly into a little dash pocket on the Jeep, unobtrusive and out of the way. The guys at Motortech 4x4  made up a nice mounting bracket that fits onto existing bolt holes, so no sheet metal was penetrated during the installation of the product! I'm impressed by the strength and quality of the signal the AE4012K2 aerial pulls in, despite not being mounted in the best position (ie the middle of the roof!). Although the unit is compact, even the clumsy-fingered should have no problem working the knobs and buttons. It's way better than trying to use a 2w hand-held for in-vehicle use.

The 5w unit is 29mm high, 129mm long, 117mm deep and weighs just 420g. It includes a speaker of decent quality, but there's a jack for an external speaker if needed. It comes with a strong mounting bracket if your 4x4 doesn't have a convenient little pocket to put it in. It quickly scans the 40 channels so you can hear all the inane babble, if that's your thing. GME often has special deals, so if a UHF radio is on your list, keep an eye out for the next one. Check also other good brands such as Uniden, Motorola, Midland and Oricom.

Sydney show special: VW supersizes the tray

Japanese ute manufacturers are waiting with a degree of anxiety to see what kind of pricing will come with the Volkswagen Amarok when it's introduced here next year. The word from within VW is that at least some models will be highly competitive with the Japanese masses. Several were on show at Sydney and one of the things that most impressed me was the load area of the Dual Cab, 1555mm long by 1620mm wide to give a 2.52 cubic metre load. There's also 1222mm between the wheel wells. So what? That's important to some buyers because it's possible to load Euro pallets sideways and save space.

Sydney show special: The ultimate G Class

I've been a fan of the Mercedes G-Wagen, now the G Class, since driving one bought in for evaluation by the army as a Land Rover replacement. A few have come in for civilian owners, either as private imports or special orders from the factory and now, it's being introduced to Australian buyers in five-seat wagon configuration. The G 350 BlueTEC  uses technology to reduce diesel emissions, especially nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, but forget about that. The G 55 AMG, pictured, is the ultimate G Class, with an $A215,000 price tag and a 5.5 litre V8 supercharged engine developing 373kW and 700Nm of torque between 2750 and 4000rpm. It will do 0 to 100km/h in 5.5 seconds.
The interior is uber-luxurious, but I can't quite figure why someone would want to pay that kind of money for a fast box that they'll never use off-road, where it excels.

Sydney show special: FJ Cruiser show and tell

This Toyota-supplied video provides a preview of the FJ Cruiser coming our way in February, or Maybe March, wearing a pricetag of around $85,000. With a price like that and enthusiasts reckoning you'd be better off with a used-import Surf, Toyota's not thinking big numbers, maybe just 150 sales in the first year, and fewer as time goes on. Toyota is skilled at predicting the numbers, so I'm going on the proverbial limb here by suggesting they've set this target too high. My prediction is for 70-80, but I've been known to be wrong more often than Toyota. The truck has lots of goodies, though, that might attract punters. The clip includes mild off-roading and some footage of original FJs in action.

Here's an earlier posting.

Sydney show special: Patrol's so far up-market it gives you nosebleed

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FYI only, here's the new Nissan Patrol that goes on sale in Australia next year, but which we won't see until they get a diesel sorted to use in place of the 5.6 litre V8 petrol fed by a 140-litre fuel tank. The motor does 298kW and 550Nm, running through a seven-speed automatic box. The suspension  is now fully independent wishbones and this example sits on 20-inch rims. It really has gone way upmarket inside. Your average GQ owner would be afraid to even sit in it, or know where to start playing with the features!

Sydney show special: Where d'you get those tyres?

Toyota showed one of the Hilux utes the Top Gear team drove to the North Pole. Tyres are 405/70R 15 ArcticTruckers AT405s. You just have to love those enormous sidewalls, but the tread pattern's not going to beat any Extreme Trekker in the mud.

Sydney show special: What to use a Defender for

Good to see Land Rover having another go at selling the SWB Defender 90 in Australia. They tried it several years ago with the Td5 version, but nobody wanted to know. I couldn't think of a better place to rest your coffee and snack and neither could this show media person.

Sydney show special: Holden's river crosser

Holden Colorado LT-R Crew Cab has a hard tonneau, bonnet protector, nudge bar, pretend rollbar, and a snorkel. So it'd be good for keeping the cargo dry when hitting a rock while crossing a river, then.

Sydney show special: Out of the sky, two new utes

The Ranger slipped out from under a Ford-blue suspended container, amid smoke, loud music and special lighting. A full dose of both "yee" and "ha".

The BT-50's glide to earth was much more serene.

What's this thing Ford and stablemate  Mazda have about trucks emerging from the sky? At the world launch of the new Ranger at the old shipbuilding facility on Cockatoo Island, Sydney, the new truck emerged from the bottom of a suspended-in-mid-air container, while at the motor show a couple of days later, the Mazda BT-50 glided to earth through a flock of origami birds.

That plastic shield's going to be gone before lunchtime on the first trail and the intercooler still hangs low in the nose, waiting to be whacked.

They have styling differences, particularly front and rear, but are much the same under the skin, each boasting a choice of three engines, including the range-topping five-cylinder 3.2 litre Duratorq turbodiesel with 147kW and 470Nm of torque, taking what would seem to be a lead in the torque war that's been going on among Japanese utes. Neither Ford nor Mazda has said it will take this top engine, but surely they won't be able to resist at least in a top-end model; next diesel engine down is the 375Nm 110kW 2.2 litre four.

Mazda loves the nose but will it appeal to the 'real men' who buy most utes?

But taking the torque-meister may be in vain. We won't see either vehicle until well into next year, by which time Nissan may have decided to import its Navara, the current torque champ at 450Nm, with the new 170kW 3.0 V6 diesel producing a marketing department's dream 550Nm of torque running through a seven-speed auto. Nissan NZ MD John Manley told 4wdNewz, "We are currently evaluating both the Navara and Pathfinder with the new engine. If we take the 550 it will be in addition to the 450."

Will Ranger, BT-50 have lost their top torque status to Nissan before they even hit town?

Meanwhile, the Ranger and BT-50, both larger than their predecessors, bring to the market lots of useful features for the kind of folk who follow 4wdNewz. There'll be a six-speed auto with sequential manual and grade logic, a rear-view camera, rear park assist, trailer sway control and adaptive load control, with other stuff yet to be revealed. Stability and electronic traction control are on the menu, as is a mechanical rear cross-axle diff lock. Both have more rear legroom in dual-cab models and more interior space generally.

The Ranger will be sold in some 180 markets, the BT-50 somewhat fewer. The two main markets that miss out will be the US and Canada.

Thoughtful feature from Ford for those who might carry power equipment under a canopy, a 12v outlet built into the optional tray liner.

The Ranger interior looks pretty decent … and look where they've put the handbrake after, like, a zillion years.

So who rescues the rescuer, then?

Alan Hejl of the Auckland 4WD Club takes winch cable from the Nissan (red arrow) to run through a snatch block (yellow arrow) and hook it to a rear recovery hook on the stuck Jeep.

Here's a bit of a screw-up. I'm part of the safety patrol in the Jeep Woodhill 4WD Park, near Auckland,  but I'm the one needing rescue. We'd been threading our way through pine trees during a little off-track diversion and I manage to get the Wrangler stuck, with a tree stump wedged between the sump and transmission skid plate. Couldn't go forward. Couldn't go back, only up. That creates a problem because neither patrol chief Alan Hejl nor I have packed a skyhook. So it's a matter of laboriously lifting the front beam axle with a scissors jack and building up the track under the right front wheel with branches, topped by a piece of thick MDF board I carry as a jack base. We also dig tracks for the rear wheels and line them with more sticks. Most of the sticks and small branches nearby are rotten or near rotten, so it takes while to collect enough for the job.

Once the stump is clear of anything it can damage, we decide to winch the Jeep backwards, because if ever there is a need for "slow and steady", this is it. The Jeep's low speed throttle control is poor; there's either none or too much. With a winch, we can pull the vehicle slowly, centimetre by centimetre. But there's no easy way to get the lead recovery vehicle behind the stuck truck, so Alan drives his Nissan closer to the Jeep and rigs a snatch block to a convenient tree so that the Wrangler can be pulled backwards while the Safari is facing it.

The whole exercise takes an hour, but is completely successful and I'm again ready to help, not be helped. Wow, how embarrassing. It was sort-of a freak situation but a key aspect to safe and successful off roading is to expect the unexpected. I was sort-of prepared, but not prepared enough. For example:
• I carried an exhaust jack that's been really useful over the years, but completely useless on this occasion because of a lack of clearance to set it up properly, and the angle of the ground.
• I had no kind of saw, but Alan at least had a small folding one.
• The Jeep's scissors jack worked really well, but would have been useless without a firm base and something to boost its height which, between us, we had.
• The Jeep, like most modern 4WDs, has no points to accept a high-lift jack and as a result of this incident, I'll be buying a second, larger scissors jack.

Another lesson: Don't use a wanky lifestyle vehicle without proper ground clearance to do a man's job!

Build-up of front wheel to get Wrangler separated from the tree stump lodged between sump and transmission skidplate.

We won't go down that track

A year or so ago, when the photo that appears as part of the 4wdNewz heading was taken, the track was perfectly drivable. The photo above shows the same tack, from the opposite direction, a couple of days ago. The Land Rover in the main picture is climbing out of what is now the big watery bog. And it's several times tougher in life than it appears in the photo. Today, it might only be drivable by the toughest of trucks. The moral here is that tracks change, and change quickly, providing one of the great challenges of off-roading.