Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2021 i NZ4WD

Our own Events Manager Ashley Lucas can always be relied upon to get ‘a’ decent shot or three at an event. This time though, at Dan Cowper’s Suzuki Extreme 4x4 Trial event Ashley went one better and got arguably ‘the’ shot of the day – part of an amazing ‘forward ‘tuck ‘n roll’ sequence we used to open our coverage of the second 6 ‘Challenge sections’ at the event this year. In one of them Ashley also managed to get this shot of current NZ#1 Scott Biggs mid-wheelie. Epic work, Ashley. Epic!…

HULK Professional Series has launched its latest product to enhance a vehicle’s driving performance – Quick Response Electric Throttle Controllers, available through HULK 4X4 distributors nationwide. The Quick Response Electronic Throttle Controllers are suitable for modern vehicles that use “fly-by-wire” technology, specifically vehicles without an accelerator cable. Many of these vehicles may experience a delay from the moment the accelerator pedal is pressed to the time the signal gets to the throttle, otherwise known as “lag”. The HULK Professional Series Quick Response Electronic Throttle Controllers reduce, and in some applications eliminate, this lag by shortening the response time between the accelerator and throttle. Six switchable modes – Comfort, Sports, Performance, Automatic, 4x4/ Eco and Standard – and 36 settings are offered within each controller, delivering individual characteristics and adjustability for…

“A beautiful SUV, but... and “Wish it came in a diesel.” were comments which have dogged the Highlander through its previous three generations. Toyota was listening and for generation four, promised hybrid technology for its popular SUV and – right up to the 11th hour – this was what we expected, a complete range of hybridised Highlanders. This being in keeping with Toyota New Zealand’s drive for a cleaner and greener product portfolio. The Highlander hybrid GXL, hybrid Limited and hybrid Limited ZR have all landed as promised – but right alongside them are two ICE (for Internal Combustion Engine) V6 petrol models in GXL and Limited grades. “The decision to retain a V6 option in the 2021 Highlander line-up was driven by consumer demand – mainly from fleets,” says…

A few years ago, I was working on a project in Whanganui and drove my Land Rover Discovery down the Parapara Road on a beautiful clear February evening – and thought how great it would be to drive my Series 1 down this road with the lid off – in the same conditions. This year, the team behind the local Land Rover Series 1 Enthusiasts Group decided to hold our annual ‘gathering’ in Whanganui, so – and as luck would have it – I did indeed got to drive my Series 1 down the Parapara Road in the exact same conditions I experienced all those years ago – just stunning. What a great start to the weekend. This year we also had a very special guest coming along for the…

It was a case of out with the (tired old) shock absorbers fitted to their much-travelled Mitsi Pajero and in with a brand-new set of ‘you-beaut’ Ironman 4x4 Foam Cell units. Here Scott tells us a bit about how he went about narrowing down the options and how happy he is with the Ironman Foam cell shock absorbers he eventually settled on. If, like Kristen and I did, you have a mid-90s 4WD vehicle that seems to accentuate every bump in the road, this one is for you; in an effort to improve the on road as well as the off-road handling of our trusty ‘93 Pajero, we decided it was time to up upgrade the shocks. It had been running a fairly old and worn combo of Old Man…

Mangatutu Hot Spring is one of those places which is well known to the locals but little known elsewhere in the country. For us it made the perfect leisurely three-day trip complete with a couple of nights camping. Our search for a campsite turned up Waiwhenua Farmstay and Riverside Park, off the Napier – Taihape road, where we duly booked an unpowered site for the next long weekend. After our traditional late start on the Saturday morning, and a short fight with the traffic in the Hutt Valley, we met up with Ashley and Gillian at Featherston and headed north for an uneventful run all the way to Hastings, where we refuelled for the rest of the weekend. It was then a short run up the Napier – Taihape road,…

And so, effectively at the halfway point in the day-long comp, recently crowned NZ#1 Scott Biggs had taken the lead off local hero Hamish Auret (relegating him to third in fact) with Neville Mather holding second as they headed into the second half of the courses. Greg McDell was fourth, Jarred Biggs fifth. Whilst the first six courses had been revised versions of previous years with the mud sections deleted showing environmental responsibility, the following six courses were a little different. In addition, vehicles were being pushed to their limits with most getting plenty of ‘air,’ and some, some particularly hard landings so finishing would be a matter of ‘driving to survive.’ ‘To finish first, first you have to finish,’ is how the saying goes. Simple is as simple does…

Where would we be without America? Setting aside the small matter of that nation being the home of off-road racing, it’s also the home of trucks going off-road, of the Stadium Supertruck franchise, and of course of the championship that spawned the ProLite, Pro2 and Pro4 race truck categories and designs. We’ve banged on about ProLite forever, and it really has transformed the truck classes in New Zealand. There must be a dozen or more ProLite trucks regularly on the championship trail these days. Not so common, yet, are the Pro2 and Pro4 beasts. Part of the reason for that is their sheer size. A Pro4 is 94 inches wide in the track (side to side) measurement. That’s a decent wheelbase (hub to hub) measurement for a New Zealand truck,…

With Ashley indisposed and unable to write his usual TorqueTalk column this month, we decided to replace it with something dear to his heart; a new page which we have had waiting in the wings for a couple of months now in which he (and anyone else associated with the mag) can write up, photograph and submit a 150 word ‘endorsement’ of a product, tool or gadget purchased for working on or use with a 4x4 which over the years has either proved its worth time and time again, or, achieved the ultimate ‘Holy Grail’ state of being considered indispensable. First up we have contributions from Ashley and mag publisher Cathy Parker. Snap-on garage creeper (AL) Engel 40-litre fridge/freezer (CP) The fridge was originally obtained as part of the Project…

Protecting the seats on a hard-working ute or SUV has never been easier with the latest range of Tradies seat covers now available in New Zealand. Designed and made especially for Ute and SUV models sold in our market, the Tradies covers are described as the “ultimate protection” to keep seats looking like new. And now there are two colour options available; the ever-popular standard grey and a new black that is offered on certain models to better match vehicle interiors. “Tradies seat covers have been very popular in New Zealand and now with the addition of black covers to the range we can satisfy almost any tradie looking for vehicle specific canvas seat covers,” says Tim Paterson, National Sales Manager for Griffiths Equipment, which distributes Tradies seat covers throughout…

The 2021 iteration of the Land Cruiser LC300 demonstrates Toyota’s ability to balance heritage with modern tech. Most critically to the Land Cruiser’s ongoing evolution is obviously Toyota’s environmental commitment, which is why the 2021 model uses a 225kW, 3.3-litre, twin-turbo diesel V6 in place of the ‘King’ Cruiser’s traditional 4.5-litre V8 diesel. Ouch! I can hear the howls of protest from here! But what do you want out of an engine: the original 200kW or 650Nm of the superceded ‘bent eight. Or would you rather see 225kW and 700Nm of stump pulling ability courtesy the new smaller, lighter six? The V6 delivers all this and manageably too, thanks to the new 10-speed transmission which is the standard combination across the VX, new GR Sport and VX Limited range. Across…

Having skipped a year last year thanks to fears of mass community transmission thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 52nd New Zealand Agricultural Fieldays event was held at Hamilton’s Mystery Creek event centre between June 16 and 19 this year. Where, in previous years, you could have been forgiven for thinking that you had got your dates wrong and mixed Fieldays up with some annual NZ Motor Show, this year several of the big players on the Kiwi car scene – notably Toyota but also other former Fieldays heavy hitters like Mitsubishi and Nissan – decided to stay a home, meaning that ‘the show’ went back to relying more on its rural roots. Obviously, that didn’t stop the likes of Ford, Hyundai and Isuzu returning. There were also more smaller…

Hereworth School is a Private Boys School located in Havelock North in Hawke’s Bay. Every two years, the Hereworth ‘Old Boys’ hold a fund-raiser 4WD Safari for scholarships to attend the school. Earlier this year the latest Safari was to be held north of Napier near Lake Tutira about halfway between Napier and Wairoa on the East Coast. I was really looking forward to it and was devastated when Covid-19 came along and destroyed over two years of planning. The previous weekend, you see, Auckland had gone into a Level-3 lockdown and dragged the rest of the country into Level-2, restricting gatherings of over 200 people, which dashed the hopes of the Hereworth team of holding their event. Also, part of our ’Oxford ‘tour of New Zealand included a weeklong…

After deciding to bring out a replacement kit for a vehicle, the standard suspension is assessed, and then decisions made as to the lift height and shock absorber rates. Whether a coil spring is made progressive or linear depends on what the manufacturer has originally specified for the vehicle. Ironman typically brings out a range of spring rates from A to E, with A being the softest and E for the heaviest loads. Most 4WDers will go for the B and C springs which are designed for a slight lift and a heavier load than standard. Up she goes! The lift can come from a taller spring, but also from a stiffer one. In fact, some lifted coils are the same height or even slightly shorter than stock because a…

I’m a Boomer, and happy to be (tho’ there are disadvantages!). Growing up, we walked or bussed to school. The Industrial Revolution was well past, we’d moved onto the Electronic one, then the Miniaturisation one. Trains had moved from coal and water to diesel. Governments assured us the world’s resources were infinite and poured huge amounts of money into sucking vast amounts of oil from beneath limitless deserts. Technology was everything, supposed to make life simpler and more efficient. Cars went from two or three per street to nearly every house. They grew from Austin 7s to Minis, now they are Utes or SUVs, bigger, heavier, and much more powerful. Supermarkets and Warehouses forced us to travel to buy anything, corner dairies have almost vanished.NZ public transport has never worked…

Paul Richards won our Your4s reader’s photography comp in 2019 and has since become a valued contributor. That hasn’t stopped him tip in the occasional extra pic here and there, or – for that matter – packaging up the odd ‘pick’n mix for the place where it all started; our Kumho-sponsored YOUR4s page. In this case, Paul tells us all four pics ‘Were taken on a big day when we travelled from Cromwell through to Waikaia via Leaning Rock, the Obelisk, Waikaia Bush Road and Whitecoomb Road.’ From top to bottom on the pics are of; going up to Leaning Rock with Lake Dunstan and the Clyde Dam below us; higher up with Leaning Rock in the distance, then the last steep climb up to Leaning Rock, before tip-toeing down…

Toyota New Zealand confirmed to NZ4WD magazine late last month that it has no plans to bring in an electric Hilux any time soon. “I’d like to reiterate that we do not have any plans for a battery electric Hilux in our line-up in the next 18 – 24 months,” says Neeraj Lala, Toyota New Zealand Chief Executive Officer. “It is irresponsible to suggest that customers stop buying non-electric vehicles immediately until there is an electric option available. The range and volumes of EVs needed to meet demand is simply not available, and many customers still need a vehicle to transport their family or operate their business.” There have been 5,296 EV sales over the last five years, and of these 45 percent fall into the luxury market. In comparison,…

The main reason for my recent ‘road’ trip (back) to the North Island was to attend Fieldays at Mystery Creek. I was kindly invited to stay in Auckland with a couple of my regular guiding guests, Garth and Michelle Wood, and we all headed down to the show together. I also knew that my great friend Jono Hitchcox of Lost Sheep Adventures was in Auckland and that he had planned a weekend to Poutu with Brian Norris, formerly of Rugged Life tents, a couple of weeks earlier, but had to cancel due to bad weather. Several months ago, I was in Reefton getting some work done on the truck by Tash from Reefton Motors and had bumped into two young Auckland cousins, Jack and Jono, who were on a South…

Flick through through the pages of any issue of NZ4WD and you will find plenty of ads from reputable companies selling suspension upgrade parts and services. Once you start looking the choice is vast – from simple replacement of your OEM struts, coils, leafs and dampers with aftermarket equivalents, to extravagant lift kits which will see your humble daily driver or weekend warrior tower over you like a Transformer. Meeting all the relevant government standards here (Not to mention across the Tasman in Australia, or – for that matter – across the Pacific in the USA) is not a task for the light of heart, or those prone to a once over lightly approach to anything! In saying that, if you stuck it out at school long enough to learn…

After returning home for a couple of months, I wanted to get in another trip to Australia before the year end. This time it would be a solo trip, before it became too hot, as I had decided that if I was going to bring the Land Rover back to New Zealand, I would have to do early the next year before it become an illegal import (the rules around bringing 4WDs into New Zealand were changing and my vehicle no longer qualified after mid 2016). I flew to Melbourne, then bussed up to Bendigo, to collect the Land Rover from where it was stored (same place as last time). This was mid October 2015. My intention for the first part of the trip was to do Googs Track (often…

With this current government seemingly directly aligned to the United Nations Agenda 2030, which is the blueprint for modern-day socialist policies, and with the freedom of a majority in Parliament, the ‘rules and regulations’ are coming thick and fast. For four-wheeling the implications are that our recreation is going to get more and more constrained. Those ‘policies’ quietly appearing as climate change alarmism, where every storm, drought, flood, etc., is supposed evidence that New Zealand must change things… despite our infinitesimal 0.17 percent contribution to global emissions. Somehow, in the face of such social engineering, our recreation needs to make ourselves appear as less of a threat to the environment. Even if we all converted overnight to electric vehicles, I suspect that there would be those in other camps that would…

They say history never repeats, yet Crowded House has reformed and are touring again. Meanwhile the Unruly Tourists have been the death of opera in this country... though I’d say opera killed opera in this country. So just like Sol3Mio you have to make your own history. Since the start, Series convenor Mark Watchorn has insisted on not calling an overall champion each year but to emphasise the four different class winners so that you feel that there is an even playing field. He said, “When I look at the overall results, it rams it home to me that it doesn’t matter how capable your truck is, it ends up being how well you drive and that is what the series is about. You may not win on the day,…

Our monthly feature showcases 4WDs doing just about anything except rolling over or burning! We will award a grand prize of a set of four Kumho 4x4 tyres in the NZ4WD Annual issue. This contest is open to all readers who are not professional photographers. IMPORTANT: Photographs must have been taken by the person entering them, or have the photographer’s written permission. Email your digital images and a detailed caption to: editor@NZ4WD.co.nz Send your prints and detailed captions to: Your4s with Kumho, PO Box 65-092, Mairangi Bay, Auckland 0754. Be sure to include your postal address! Submitting photos The basics: as with any photo, there’s no substitute for an image that’s sharp – in focus and free of camera shake. It should be well-exposed. Size and type The ideal submission…