WE’VE spent the last few days wandering the grand halls of the SEMA Show in Las Vegas. Here’s a selection of some of the tastiest 4WDs on display this year.

Headlining this batch are a couple of immaculate FJ40 Cruisers and an assortment of wild Jeeps. Enjoy!

WHERE the bloody hell has this year gone?

The December issue is packed full of off-road, mud-slinging goodness, including a rough-road first drive of the Valentino Rossi-approved VR46 Ford Ranger.

We also bookend the new Discovery with Toyota’s LC200 and Prado 150. Plus, we take a look at a DIY-built RG Colorado and trace the Madigan Line with Denis Bartell.

It wouldn’t be a December issue without our Xmas Gift Guide, with a bunch of pressie ideas from the best in the aftermarket industry.

It’s also Custom 4X4 Of The Year time – we’ve cut the field back to 12, now it’s time to vote for a winner.

Get your copy of 4X4 Australia from newsagents or by subscribing to 4X4 Australia in electronic or print format.

What you’ll get this month:

CUSTOM RG COLORADO DIY Colorado is the ultimate adventurer’s toy.

DISCOVERY V 200 SERIES V PRADO 150 Cutting-edge Disco fronts up against Toyota’s Prado and 200 Series workhorses.

VR46 FORD RANGER Valentino Rossi-approved Ranger adds MotoGP flair to 4×4 market.

2017 CUSTOM 4X4 OF THE YEAR Twelve wildly modified 4x4s – and one 6×6 – have made the shortlist this year. Get voting!

MADIGAN LINE WITH DENIS BARTELL, NT Tracing the Madigan Line with the legend who did it 40 years earlier.

ALPANA STATION, SA One of the best station stays in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges.

SNORKEL BUYERS’ GUIDE Chatting to the experts about why a quality snorkel is a must-have accessory.

SAFARI ARMAX SNORKEL: INSTALLATION Troopy gets a Safari Armax snorkel to free up its induction.

2017 XMAS GIFT GUIDE Gift ideas for your four-wheelin’ friends and family.

ROTATING TYRES Regular tyre rotation should be part of a 4WDer’s routine.

THE REST WE ducked down to Safari HQ to check out the brand’s game-changing Armax Performance ECU. Plus, we put Redarc’s BCDC1240 D battery charger to the test.

Readers’ Rigs includes an ’89 GQ Patrol, a ’99 XJ Cherokee and a 2014 JKU Wrangler.

This month, Deano reckons attitudes towards 4WDers are changing, Ron reminisces a Nullarbor expedition, Fraser praises rubber, and Roothy heads cross-country in Milo to attend a wedding. Plus, Viv whips up her last Camp Cooking column.

The December issue of 4X4 Australia is in stores Thursday, November 2.

Get the latest info and all things 4X4 Australia by signing up to our newsletter.

AUSTRALIAN company Piranha Off Road is best known as the manufacturer of dual battery systems and other 4WD-related products, but not everyone might know that it also installs the products it manufactures, as well as many other accessories.

Celebrating 30 years in the 4WD industry, Piranha offers professional fitting and installation for all manner of electrical systems, so now’s the perfect time to get your fourby ready for the towing season.

Piranha employs experienced and qualified auto-electrical technicians to professionally install dual battery systems, for example, which ensures complete safety when dealing with today’s modern electrical systems.

Piranha Off Road in Boronia, east of Melbourne, provides professional installation of brake units, driving lights, dual battery trays, rear work lights, and Anderson plug kits for cars and camper trailers.

Electric brake units will cost you $595 supplied and fitted. For full pricing on all installation services provided, head online to www.piranhaoffroad.com.au or give them a bell on (03) 9762 1200.

Piranha’s dual battery complete system is covered by a two-year warranty, but when fitted by Piranha it has a five-year warranty. All other work is guaranteed.

Get a job done properly the first time, and you’ll save in the long run!

COMING from a racing background, I was pretty excited to fit a set of the new Mickey Thompson Deegan 38s – named after legendary MotoX, RallyX and off-road racing champion Brian Deegan – to my two-door Series 1 Land Rover Discovery.

Rolling a set of Deegans on my old Disco was never going to turn it into a racing truck, but I needed something less aggressive than the mud terrains I was replacing. The new rubber needed to be quieter for long-distance tarmac driving, and they needed to grip in the dirt when in low range.

Mickey Thompson’s all-terrain Deegan 38 seemed to be the right fit, with its tough, high-tensile two-ply body cord sidewalls for increased durability, deep, open-void tread pattern, and angled shoulder scallops with a two-pitched side-biter pattern for off-road traction.

The tall, square-edged (with minimal sidewall) construction gives the Deegans a race-ready and modern style, and they’d be a pretty good look on something like a modern Ranger, Mazda BT-50 or Toyota Hilux – they perked up my old bus.

The first thing I noticed on-road was how quiet and smooth these tyres are – my old Disco is pretty loose, but it never felt so smooth or tracked so straight. I was also surprised by how well they cornered in the wet. The Disco is a pre-swaybar model, so I was able to put that to good test and never lost traction, even under brakes.

Off-road, the deep tread holds well and, even at road pressure, I was able to get the tyres to bag due to the square edges. Even though I’m running the standard LT225/75 R16 size, it feels like I’m running a much wider tyre due to the tread running edge to edge.

And, with a silica-reinforced compound, tread durability seems great – even after a couple of runs up the challenging Rocky Track in Toolangi, Victoria, there were no cuts or chips.

The square edges and the minimal-but-offset sidewall tread-blocks were able to extract me from clay, muddy ruts on my most recent fishing trip, and with a little squirt of the throttle I was able to clear the mud from the deep tread. I’m looking forward to putting the Deegans to the test on some upcoming longer trips.

The silica-reinforced tread compound should see good longevity, but I’m just happy to have a smoother, quieter and easier-to-handle old truck.

AVAILABLE FROM: mickeythompsontires.com.au RRP: N/A WE SAY: Worthy of the Deegan name.

AUSTRALIAN aftermarket company EFS has expanded its range of bullbars to include the new EFS Adventure Series 2 bullbar.

In July this year, EFS – originally an off-road suspension company – announced it was expanding into general 4×4 accessories, with the release of its Adventure Series barwork (this included the rear bar), and an electric winch.

The all-new Adventure Series 2 bullbar features new stylish design features with an embossed EFS logo in the plastic bumperettes, as well as newly designed steel light buckets (not plastic) for improved durability.

The winch-ready Series 2 bar features recessed ports for easier access to winch clutch controls. Made using a 63mm tube and steel infill trims, the bullbar is powdercoated in EFS’s Enduracoat finish.

The Adventure Series accessories range, designed and developed in Australia to survive the punishing outback, is available for Isuzu D-Max (2016+), Mitsubishi Triton (2015+), Nissan NP300 (current), Toyota Hilux (revo 2015+), Toyota LC200 Series (2016+), and VW Amarok (2017+).

The all-new EFS Adventure Series 2 bullbar will ask for $1890 and will be available late in December, 2017.

Check out the EFS Adventure Series range at: www.efs4wd.com.au or call 1300 EFS 4WD.

THE wait is over, as the first official photos of the 2018 Jeep Wrangler have been released by FCA.

All of the intricate details are still unknown, but all will be revealed on November 29 at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

What we do know is that the design of the new Wrangler is touted as modern but one that will stay true to the original. It’s also been slated to run advanced fuel-efficient powertrains, more open-air options, and more safety features and advanced technology than ever before.

Expected here late in 2018, the Wrangler will retain a dual-range transfer case, body-on-frame chassis and live-locking axles front and rear.

In a press statement, FCA said: “The all-new Wrangler’s unique design includes an instantly recognisable keystone-shaped grille, iconic round headlamps and square tail-lamps, improved aerodynamics, a convenient fold-down windshield for off-road purists, even more open-air freedom, and dozens of different door, top and windshield combinations”.

The 2018 Jeep Wrangler range is expected to receive a four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine option, as well as the traditional petrol V6 and a V6 diesel engine from VM Motori. An eight-speed automatic transmission is also slated for inclusion.

WE’VE flown across the Pacific, saddled up an F-150, and driven from California to Vegas for the annual SEMA show.

SEMA is not only the home to some of the world’s wildest custom machines, but the major players of the aftermarket industry descend on the city’s bright lights each and every year.

Stay tuned to 4X4 Australia for full coverage of this year’s event, where we’ll chat to the movers and shakers of the industry, as well as bring you up to date with all of the whacky and wonderful rigs and gear.

To kick things off, here’s a selection of wild rides… and that’s just what’s on display in the outdoors area.

THE LDV T60 has been awarded a five-star safety rating by independent safety authority, ANCAP.

The budget-priced 4WD received an overall score of 35.46 out of 37, with a perfect score in the side-impact test (16 out of 16). It received a score of 14.46 out of 16 for the frontal offset test.

“The LDV T60 dual cab enters the Australasian market this week with the five-star rating it needs to gain sales traction in the highly competitive utility segment,” ANCAP Chief Executive Officer, Mr James Goodwin said. “This broadens the segment even further with added choice for safety-conscious consumers using their ute for work and weekends.”

Blind Spot Monitoring is standard across the T60 range, as are dual frontal, side chest and side head-protecting airbags.

“The T60 performed well in our crash tests, although like all light commercial utes currently rated, it lacks autonomous emergency braking,” Mr Goodwin added.

The Chinese-made dual-cab will be available in two trim levels: the Pro is designed as a working ute, with a heavy-duty suspension set-up; the Luxe is aimed at the recreational market, with softer suspension and the addition of various interior niceties.

LDV Automotive’s General Manager, Dinesh Chinnappa, said: “The LDV T60 will transform the position of LDV in the Australian market, not just in terms of sales volume, but also geographically.”

We’ll have a yarn with our thoughts on the LDV T60 soon, after we’ve driven it at its local launch. So keep an eye out.

PRICING

SCOTT Cam’s love affair with the Aussie bush started when he left home on an eight-year adventure at the age of 23, just after finishing his carpentry apprenticeship.

This article was first published in 4×4 Australia’s June 2012 issue.

“I went around Australia in an old Nissan Patrol G60,” Scott remembers. “It was a three-speed with a top speed of about 80 clicks, and I travelled around Australia for about eight years, just cruising and working and driving, stopping in one place for three or four months, or a year, and swagging all the way. I had a great time, just living the life.”

Scott didn’t have much of a route plan.

“I just followed my nose. Originally I went over to Western Australia to watch the America’s Cup. So I did the Nullarbor and swagged along the way, and I ended up detouring here and there. I went all the way up the west coast, and then came back down about three-quarters of the way, and then made my way inland.

“I didn’t take any particular route; I worked in the bush, I heard about work here and there and I went there.” Scott was inspired to embark on his journey of discovery by the adventures of his older brother, with whom he had done his apprenticeship.

“My brother travelled around Australia with two mates in an old Series II Land Rover when I was 15. We grew up with Land Rovers. I had a 1972 model Series II ute. [My brother’s] might have been a bit older than that… this was in 1977, and he wouldn’t have bought a new one.

“When he went around Australia, I was so inspired by that. I tried to smuggle myself into the back of the vehicle… I had to go back to school, but as soon as I was able to I got a vehicle and off I went.”

Scott had that G60 Patrol for the whole eight years away. “We used to swag on the beach for a month at a time. I made friends and we’d find a little spot and set up camp, and then go fishing off the beach… we’d be eating fresh snapper and all that.”

It wasn’t all just lazing around though. “I worked and I had good jobs and I had bad jobs: I was boat building, I was maintenance manager of resorts, I was doing all sorts of things, working on cattle stations and working on sheep stations. I love the bush and so I just had a great time.

“I’ve just about been all over Australia, because I’ve crisscrossed the country. I’ve done the Simpson, I’ve done the Stony, Camerons Corner, Birdsville, Oodnadatta Track, I’ve done all that – but I’ve never been to Tasmania, would you believe?”

Scott learnt many lessons on the road over the eight years before he returned to Sydney, but he says one thing stands out as the most important. “Without a doubt, be prepared for anything. Tow a trailer with preparation in it. If you think you’re not going to get three flat tyres, you’re wrong. You’ll get three flat tyres.

“When I was a kid I saw [Australian artist and TV adventurer] Jack Absalom; I used to watch his TV show. Anyway, I was driving in the middle of the dunes in northern Western Australia – and you know what it’s like in that country up there, there are sand dunes and there’s nothing else – and then the vehicle just stopped dead in the middle of the dunes.

“We worked out it wasn’t an electrical problem, and [eventually] discovered it was fuel. I said, ‘I reckon the fuel pump has s**t itself’. So I remembered when I was 10 years old I’d seen Jack Absalom gravity feed the fuel pump.

“I was towing a boat at the time, and I had roof-racks – big cage racks over the top of the fourby. I put a jerry can on the roof, pulled the fuel hose off the boat, and stuck it in the top of the jerry with rags wedging it in, and then ran the fuel line down with the hand pump – you know, the bubble pump – into the side of the bonnet straight into the carbie.

“We pumped it to get it going, to prime it, and it turned over and… it started!

I could not believe that it started! Once we got it going – and the line was primed – it just gravity fed. We did 600 kays, just changing over the jerry cans. That was one of those million-to-one shots.”

These days Scott drives something a little more comfortable than a G60 Patrol, but his Lexus LX470 isn’t merely a luxury wagon; it’s been transformed into a dual-cab chassis.

“I’ve had it about five years now. I bought it standard and then got someone to do the bodywork for me. Then I put on the tray and did the timber work on the sides. It’s been a great vehicle because I go to the bush a lot and I tow a bit. So I needed a big V8 with plenty of room for the kids and all the stuff I’ve got.

“I’ve got a big box trailer with a lot of gear in it, and a couple of motorbikes and things like that. When I go to my farm in Mudgee, and I’ve got the ute full and the box trailer reasonably full, and you’re going up hills like Mount Victoria, the old Lexus struggles with it sometimes.”

That old farm in Mudgee is where Scott and his family get away from the hustle and bustle of living in Sydney.

“That’s why I’ve got the place at Mudgee,” Scott says. “My grandfather had a 50-acre place where we used to go and just hang out. To me it was 50,000 acres, because I was a kid, and so I said to my wife – we didn’t have any money at the time – we’ve got to get ourselves a bush property, so we can go and swag and take the kids to the bush and get a fire going.

“I did that when my [first] son was about two. As I say, we had no money, and so I begged, borrowed and stole, got a bit of money from my job, borrowed some money from the bank, and I bought a little block at Mudgee – 135 acres for $30 grand – which is fantastic.

“It’s a s**t block, but I bought the joint across the road seven years ago, a much bigger place, a 1000 acres with a house on it, and it’s a nice little property. It’s got a lot of mountains and four-wheel drive tracks and bush and a lake…

“I don’t get the chance to go on big drives, but we do go out to the bush a fair bit. We go down the south coast [NSW] and we swag and camp down there, and we do a bit of beach fishing.

“When we’re at Mudgee for, say, three weeks, then we’ll go on an adventure from there. We’ll take off and maybe go overnight and we’ll drive west to various places. You know, we might drive to Dubbo and go to the zoo, or go to Wellington Caves or drive on further and keep going.”

Scott’s a Toyota man through and through. He has an old LandCruiser ute, kitted out with bar, winch and UHF, and an unregistered HiLux on his property that’s about to click more than half-a-million kays. But when the Lexus is retired, Scott says he’s considering a switch of brands.

“I’m looking at turning [the LX470] over at the end of the year and I’m looking at getting a Dodge Ram… the 6.7-litre turbo-diesel,” he says. “I need a good towing capacity, and that’s got a great towing capacity, as well as a great payload – a tonne, I think.”

If he does get the Ram, one of the first places it’s likely to journey to is Tassie.

“We planned to do a trip to Tassie, and I was working as a chippy at the time, I had my own business for 25 years, and I had some dramas with the job we were doing and we had to give the trip away to my wife’s brother and his wife. We paid for it and everything. That was about 10 or 15 years ago and I’ve never done it since.”

HE’S a gadget freak and proud of it.

This was first published in 4×4 Australia’s February 2011 issue.

One look inside Matt Beetham’s Toyota Prado and you can tell. The dash and roof are chock-a-block with meters, radios, leads and screens, and that’s just the start of it. It’s a well-equipped tourer, especially when it comes to keeping in touch with the rest of the world, and there are few places it wouldn’t go.

But it wasn’t always that way. I used to live around the corner from Matt and didn’t even notice a new fourby had moved into the neighbourhood – it was just another Prado.

“The car was in stock standard condition with only the bullbar and tow bar when I bought it,” says Matt. But it didn’t stay that way for long and I started taking notice the day I saw it wearing a solar panel on the roof.

Over the following weeks it sprouted antennas, grew several centimetres higher and began looking like a car owned by someone who likes the bush. Meanwhile, Matt was also doing renovations, and some days I’d spot him rendering or helping the concreters. I’d sometimes pass his half-opened garage door and hear banging and grinding going on. Must be a hands-on bloke, I thought, and resolved to say g’day.

Sure enough, turns out Matt had done most of the work on his Prado – only the Repeller alarm was fitted by someone else. He’s come up with a good mixture of store-bought and hand-made features, then put them together himself. It’s not his first shot at it, after setting up two 4X4s in the past, and he’s settled on a set-up that’s based on experience.

He’s a veteran when it comes to two-way radios. “I’ve been into radios since I was 16,” Matt says, “and I had a UHF base station at home.” He still has one, too, and given that he and partner Paicy both work close to home, and both their cars are UHF-equipped, they save a lot of money on phone calls!

The Prado doesn’t end with just a UHF, though. You’ll notice four aerials on the bullbar, three for radios and one for the mobile phone. Inside the cabin, up on the roof, Matt mounted an Icom 400 Pro 128-channel UHF radio for general comms, which gets the most use.

The other Icom is a 208H UHF/VHF armature radio, which he mostly uses for scanning and receiving; he did have marine VHF programmed into it, but now it’s only set for UHF duties. The Codan 9323 HF radio, with its remote head mounted on the dash beside the Nokia car-kit screen, has around 400 channels, and Matt has programmed in the main ones like the Flying Doctor, VKS-737, weather channels and so on.

“I have Icom hand-held radios, too, so we can go walkabout in the bush or fishing,” he says. “Every radio has its purpose. I can listen to ABC cricket in the middle of nowhere,” he adds.

There’s no shortage of power behind the communications and other gear. Matt put a second battery under the bonnet – the same as the cranking one – and two 65 amp-hour deep-cycle batteries under the luggage system in the rear.

The under-bonnet batteries are separated by a Redarc 100-amp isolator, and the second one is held down on a tray Matt made from 40mm angle iron. He installed two battery-level gauges on the dash, one hooked only to the cranking battery, the other monitoring the three accessory batteries.

He has a 300-watt inverter “to keep the notebook computer powered while camping, which in turn keeps the kids happy during the wet weather.” Everyone’s kept happy by the 50-litre Waeco fridge. The Solarex 40-watt solar panel on the roof trickles charge to the batteries while they’re camping, and Matt says it does a fine job.

His party trick is the LED flashing orange lights inside the front and rear glass. “I’m just into gadgets,” he admits again, but there is a real safety benefit to having them: his job takes him into the ports, where being visible can prevent an accident.

The Prado’s shelves are Matt’s handiwork. After measuring the interior, he simply welded together some angle iron to form the frame and used plywood for the shelves.

He bought a Black Widow slide for the fridge and boxes to hold the bits he keeps back there – things like a remote-area first-aid kit, 2.5-tonne hand winch with 30 metres of cable, a pair of 10m high-tensile chains, three 9000lb snatch straps, two winch straps and various shackles.

With the bullbar-mounted no-name 9500lb winch and the two high-lift jacks – one mounted to the bracket on the rear door, the other on the roof rack – Matt shouldn’t struggle to get out of a bog. The ARB roof rack is also home to a long-handled shovel, a second spare wheel and tyre, and about 20 litres of water in the 100mm PVC pipe, which has a tap and is primarily for washing with.

The spotlights on the bullbar are 130-watt Narvas, and Matt has a couple of always-handy work lights rigged up at the back on the fourby.

Matt attached the snorkel himself, a job only a confident and careful bloke would attack on his own. Drilling big holes in exterior bodywork is not for tyros, but Matt gives no indication that it worried him in the least. There’s a tiny mark on the paint where he slipped, but I’m sure only he notices it until he points it out to people like me.

The minute NSW vetted bringing in that ridiculous VSI-50 legislation which threatened the straightforward fitment of your common and garden variety suspension kit, Matt went out and installed one. He chose a heavy-duty EFS kit with the standard 50mm lift, but ended up getting more than twice the rise!

Not because he opted up, but because the standard springs were completely knackered. “I gained 110mm overall because the stock springs had sagged so much,” he says. He’d noticed his Toyota seemed a bit of a low rider. “You’d go to the shops and see other Prados and think, whoa – and that was before I added the weight.” He’s very happy with the EFS set-up.

Matt has added another gadget – a reversing camera, wired to stay on all the time. “I can tell the distance to tailgaters,” he laughs. He bought it cheap and fitted it in just one and a half hours. If that seems quick, he reminds us that “I’ve pulled that car apart so many times”.

One of the benefits of doing work on your own vehicle is that you get to know it a lot better. Matt knows his Toyota and its set-up inside out, having rigged similar systems before, and now done so much to this fourby. Watching it tackle trails and a few steep challenges on the day we spent photographing it, I can say it handles its load well and is sensibly built for having tons of fun in remote places – exactly what a good 4×4 should be.

GET AWAY? GET AWAY

Matt has one regret: after all this work, he’s yet to do a trip in his beautifully equipped Prado. Not even a weekend.

“Same old story,” he says. He and Paicy both worked shifts, and the rostering planets never aligned; now Matt is 9-5 and it’s no better. “And now with kids,” he shrugs. And the renovations. Life gets in the way!

“We’re planning to do the Simpson or Fraser Island, but I’ve booked leave and my partner can’t get it,” he says. “It’s partly our fault for not dedicating it.” You get the feeling he’ll be dedicating it soon enough, though. With a rig set up for family camping, he won’t be shrugging off the impediments for too much longer.

“The kids love four-wheel driving,” he smiles. “They love the bumps and going through the mud.”

TROOPERS

Matt has a soft spot for TroopCarriers. Not only has he owned two of the rugged Toyotas, he’d love another. Both 75 Series models, they were decked out similarly to how he’s now got his Prado set up.

“I’d just bought a ’97 model and we found out Paicy was pregnant. I ummed and ahhed, but by the time you put a seat in the back and fit baby seats…” Matt’s voice tails off before he says, “I should have kept it.”

He was close to buying a V8 Troopie but reckons the city dealer talked him out of it. He sounds surprised as he reveals it, but I wasn’t sure if it was more about the dealer not wanting to sell something or Matt letting him change his mind.

He’d like Paicy to take over the Prado so he can have a Troopie, but there’s one sticking point: “If my partner could drive a manual … we’ve discussed this. I’d definitely go back to a Troopie.”