Table of contents for June 2017 in SA4x4

I had the pleasure of being guided along a mild farm track by well-known TV presenter and 4x4 personality André de Villiers during the launch of the latest Amarok in Clocolan in the Eastern Free State. Not to take away from the vehicle’s ability, but it certainly wasn’t being stretched as we negotiated some grassland tweespoor and a few rocky ridges on the Prynnsberg Estate before stopping for sundowners with an endless view over the region’s sandstone koppies. That was great, but it was Andre’s laconic comment over the radio a few minutes before that got me thinking. “4x4-ing is no longer about hard travel to remote places,” he said. “It’s now about getting to a destination on gravel roads – and once there the people are interested in the…

Grand One Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the original Grand Cherokee, the Grand one is based on a modernised version of the 1993 ZJ. The classic Jeep is powered by a 5.2-litre V8 mated to a four-speed auto. 33-inch BFG Mud Terrains, twin lockers and a 2-inch lift round off the classically styled package. CJ66 Take a Jeep Wrangler TJ frame, hang a 1966 Jeep Wrangler CJ universal Tuxedo Park body on it, add in Wrangler JK elements, power it all with a 5.7-litre Hemi and you have the Jeep CJ66. The narrow-body CJ66 made its debut at the SEMA show in Las Vegas last year and boasts Dana 44 axles, a 2-inch lift and a two-way air system which allows drivers to inflate or deflate tyres on the go.…

Scientific name Emberiza flaviventris Afrikaans name Rooirugstreepkoppie One of the most rewarding spots for bird photography that I have ever been to is the Kamasinga hide in the 40 000-hectare uMkhuze Game Reserve in northern Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal. This particular hide was upgraded and virtually rebuilt a short while before our visit, and it was unquestionably designed with the wildlife photographer in mind. We were there during the month of July, when the park was in the midst of a dreadful drought. In fact, it was so bad that all the waterholes had dried up, and the park management was carting water to this particular hide so that animals and birds had at least one waterhole where they could drink. The upside of this was that almost all living creatures in…

Scientists have been waging war against the mosquito ever since Sir Ronald Ross (1857-1932) identified the mosquito as being the culprit in the spread of the malaria parasite. Ross actually won the Nobel Prize for this discovery. No matter how much insect repellent you cover yourself with, no matter whether you wear long trousers and long-sleeved shirts, tuck your trousers in your socks, make sure your shirt is tucked in, wear light-coloured clothing, or wear a mosquito net over your face, these little critters still manage to find some area of flesh to suck your blood from. Why does it itch? As the mosquito penetrates your skin with its proboscis, it injects a saliva containing a cocktail of anticoagulants. The itchiness is your body’s immune system kicking in to fight…

Tough times demand innovative ideas, and when it came to building a budget-beater overlander, Front Runner sales head Jaco Nel decided to buy a lower-spec Isuzu D-Teq 250 double cab and bolt on kit to just over the value of buying a stock KB 300 flagship. Clever move. “This was a practical, sensible choice,” says Jaco. “The KB250 does not register any problems on the internet forums, the cost of ownership would be lower due to a smaller fuel bill and lower insurance premiums, and the cash difference between the 250 and the 300 could be used to purchase essential items to make a decent travel vehicle.” Certainly the 250 D-Teq is no slouch; on paper its 100kW/320Nm loses out to the 300’s 130kW/380Nm, but in practice it’s a tractable…

Age: 67 Occupation: Retired director Modifications: Complete drivetrain rebuild using a Lexus 4-litre 1UZ-FE quad-cam V8, with a three-speed auto gearbox and Isuzu Trooper 4x4 transfer box (done by myself), with a standard Toyota management system and wiring by Lextreme. Also on board are a National Luna dual-battery system, a Warn winch, and a second 65-litre fuel tank with an electrical pump to get fuel to the main tank when required. I also built an aluminium canopy, which is fitted with a slider system made to fit five ammo cases, with another slide for a 90-litre fridge-freezer. There are two compartments built into the canopy sides, with LED lighting at all openings. The interior is kitted with a high-lift jack, fire extinguisher, sand tracks and spade. On top is a…

THE LONG, SLOW WAY DOWN I was yearning to make a trip across the country for a holiday. My previous trips were basically paid-for as it was mostly business. Now that I’m retired a trip has a completely different feeling to it, and to top it all there was no time factor involved. We did not need to be anywhere at a particular time. We left our home town of Edenvale, taking sand roads and back roads that were fairly devoid of any traffic. On the first night we stopped over in Ficksburg, but the caravan park was disappointing so we moved on to Clocolan where the caravan park had gone to ruin. Fortunately a function had been set up at the showgrounds and we were invited to stay there…

PUMP & RINSE Eco Pressure Shower What’s not to like about a simple shower system that uses no electricity and is instead pressured by a foot-operated pump? The Ironman 4x4 Eco Pressure Shower uses a 12-litre TPU bladder which can be left in the sun to warm (or filled with the required temperature of water up to 50 degrees C.) A few presses on the pump is good for six minutes of pressure while the anti-kink hose and on-demand trigger system regulates water flow as you wash dishes, hose down the dog or rinse off oneself and fellow campers. It is durable and packs into a compact carry bag. R850 011 634 7600 www.ironman4x4.co.za IN THE BEGINNING, THERE WAS LIGHT Lightforce Genesis 210mm LED spotlight You want the…

Anne and I have been friends for more than 30 years. Our husbands were both intrepid explorers, but since we lived at opposite ends of the map, we seldom got to do much together; she and Jack had their adventures and Len and I had ours. But, at last, she was coming to visit me at my home in Katima Mulilo and we planned to have FUN while we still had the energy. Our holiday started in Mudumu National Park, 160km from Katima. Mudumu is chicken soup for my soul. As always, the stress and exhaustion of whatever had gone before melted away as we drove through the park, heading for the furthest campsite. The sun set as a family of elephants noisily slaked their thirst and then crossed the…

“Geologists go to some of the most remote and rugged places on the African continent, and for nearly 50 years they have relied on the Land Cruiser as a cowboy relies on his horse” The prodigy that is the Toyota Land Cruiser was first produced in South Africa in 1972, after a few batches had been imported in the year prior to that. At the time, its future rival the Land Rover was the ubiquitous companion of travellers and traders, hunters and explorers alike, and had been for 20 years. To this day, the Land Rover has retained its romantic fame as the traveller of Africa, but the Cruiser gradually found a niche as Africa’s dependable commercial off-road vehicle. Toyota kept the mechanical formula basic and reliable, and learnt from…

When thinking about 4x4 challenges in the Eastern Cape, the Baviaanskloof first comes to mind. Everyone makes this a bucket list tick, but if you are in this part of the Karoo for longer, what else is there? Having headed inland after an Eastern Cape coastal escape, we decided on a detour toWillowmore where one of the attractions is called Finchley Farm: a working sheep farm with two historic guest cottages and a rustic campsite nestled amongst the acacias, just below a spectacular dam. It’s a basic and unpretentious sort of campsite. Electricity is only on demand, the sites are partially grassed and tucked out of the wind, and water for the shower is heated with a paraffin-driven rocket boiler. There is good walking and mountain biking in the area…

Unbeknownst to most, the Mitsubishi Triton can trace its roots as far back as 1978 when the brand’s first pick-up, the ‘Forte’, was launched in Japan. South Africa got the second-gen Colt, also known as the L200, from the mid-eighties, and then there was the Rodeo… Now in its fifth generation, the Mitsubishi one-tonner remains a fringe product in SA’s bakkie segment, but majors on a great reputation for reliability, good value and a unique 4x4 system to entice customers. The Triton is available in four double-cab flavours including manual and auto options, with two- or four-wheel drive. Interior All new bakkies are moving upmarket at a steady rate, with all sorts of luxury bells and whistles as standard. The Triton has most of these, but without too much shouting…

Kyle Elphick There is nothing quite like the open skies in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, as Kyle’s campsite shot ably shows. The vehicle? It’s a pretty much stock 2016 Hilux Revo double cab. Patrick Rancholo Another adventure in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, in this case in a 2011 Amarok 120kW 4Motion double cab owned by Patrick Rancholo, who lives in Ghanzi, Botswana. Patrick took a solo trip recently, staying in Deception Valley for two nights and another two at Piper’s Pans – game was abundant, he says, and there was not too much mud about as the rains had stopped. Trix Hand The Hands are over the moon about their VW Touareg TDI V6, which they say proved uber reliable, as ever, during their October 2016 safari –…

South Africans love to tow boats, caravans and trailers, often at the same time, and it was these land trains that were the subject of some confusion among the German hosts at the 2009 launch of the Amarok in Argentina. How, asked the South African devil’s advocate, would this four-cylinder 2.0-litre diesel be up to the task? What was needed was a V6, something with the required grunt. No amount of persuasion by the Germans along the lines of fuel efficiency, emissions or actual turbo-induced pulling power, would sway his opinion. The big V6 is now here, but back in 2010 local reaction to the 2.0-litre turbo four was slightly mixed. Was this bakkie too sophisticated to be a real workhorse? Did VW in fact have the credentials to make…

Hanging back from the rest of the group, I perched on an undulating grassland dune, waiting to grab a few photos. Looking down, I watched as iSimangaliso CEO Andrew Zaloumis followed the game track, together with his wife Tracey and Lindy Duffield, the marketing manager at this ‘Place of Miracles and Wonder’. They skirted a thicket of Umdoni trees atop the 30 000-year-old dunes, and disappeared from view. As I lifted my camera, a scream pierced the air, and within an instant all hell broke loose. Through my zoom lens, I saw Tracey running towards me on the forest edge, with a massive buffalo bull less than 10 metres behind her. I dropped the camera and shouted loudly, hoping to distract the dagga-boy, but this had no effect whatsoever, and…

“ State veterinarians play a very important part in controlling the spread of diseases ” Wildlife vets are the unsung heroes of modern conservation. What seemed impossible years ago has now become common practice in the game-capture industry. Half a century ago, it would have been unheard of to move whole families of elephants thousands of kilometres by road or to fly rhino halfway around the world in cargo planes. The advancement of modern tranquilisers has meant that wildlife vets can keep animals under sedation for extended periods of time. State veterinarians also play a very important part in controlling the spread of diseases, and in most countries there are very strict veterinary laws that must be adhered to. In South Africa there has been strict control in the eastern…

No article that brags about a certain 4x4 is complete without a story of who pulled whom out of the mud. It is a well-known fact that geologists in Land Cruisers trawl the routes frequented by overlander tour companies in the hopes of finding them stuck in the sand, and kindly offer to pull them out in full view of the blue-eyed Belgian girls on board. But nothing was as much of a story as when one of these 70 Series Land Cruisers pull-started an amphibious tracked tank. It was the tail end of the vicious rainy season in north-west Zambia, a land covered in strangling forest, soggy floodplains and even soggier drainage wetlands, called dambos. The geologists arriving in the area of the huge floodplain which straddles the Zambezi…

With the Easter holidays just weeks behind us, there’s a good chance that your auxiliary battery is in desperate need of maintenance, and an even better chance that permanent damage is happening to the battery as we speak. But don’t fret; there’s still time to save your battery and prolong its life. This is what you need to do … A lot can be said about battery life and how it relates to recharge rates, but in the interests of simplicity, here’s the gist of it: a deeply discharged battery must have enough TIME to recuperate. There’s a popular misconception that a battery can rapidly recharge in a short space of time. This is simply not true for most batteries. Unfortunately, very few battery manufacturers and fitment shops are conveying…

Not too long ago, buying a bullbar was simple: choose the one that fits your rig, looks half decent and has space for a winch. Things have changed considerably over the past 20-or-so years, and nowadays you’re offered a whole spectrum of different styles, in various materials – including high-strength alloy and even plastic. The fact that vehicle manufacturers like to facelift their models every five years or so has also made it increasingly difficult for bull bar manufacturers to keep up with trends and increasing design cost. When deciding on your next bumper, there are several factors to consider, so let’s dive right in. Construction material Weight: that’s the biggest factor when choosing between alloy and steel. Aluminium has a material density three times less than steel, meaning that…

ALU-CAB UPDATES As always, Alu-Cab has been busy building, and the latest news is that the new Khaya Camper will be available soon. This is a two-sleeper drive-off camper, built to fit most double cabs and cab-and-a-half bakkies. The benefit of this set-up is that your vehicle can be used as a daily driver and for work during the week, with the camper compartment easily fitted for weekend excursions. Next there have been several updates to the Icarus Series of Alu-Cab products, including changes to the internal cupboards, which free up space inside the rear of the vehicle. The range of Icarus Products will be available in kit form soon. There is also news from Johan Badenhorst, who is travelling in convoy on a 17 000km trip through India. The…