4X4

Horoscopes

20 January 2021 Robert Pepper

Wondering about your life decisions? Worry no more, just read our 4X4 Horoscopes for guidance…. Arseian – March 21 to April 19 Sell those old suspension parts in your shed. There’s a muppet waiting to hand over top dollar on Gumtree. Tornstrap – April 20 to May 20 Have faith in fellow humans. If you’re […]

4X4

Here’s what’s wrong with the DCS Fraser Island “tide escape” video

14 January 2021 Robert Pepper

On today’s episode of How Not to 4WD: There’s a video doing the rounds of a group in a Toyota Fortuner owned by Deep Cycle Systems, trying to “escape” an incoming tide on Fraser Island. Or, was doing the rounds, as it’s now been taken down. But not before I had a look and took […]

4X4

How to keep your travel car’s weight within limits

7 January 2021 Robert Pepper

Overloading recreational vehicles is becoming more and more of a problem…here’s how to keep legal and safe. The Australian people are getting steadily heavier over time, and so too are our camping vehicles to the point where their weight exceeds various limits set by the manufacturer or the designer. And just like overweight humans, that […]

4X4

Meet your local 4X4 owner

7 December 2020 Robert Pepper

Bush-bashers, compensation machines..offroad touring 4X4 owners have heard it all. MANY PEOPLE don’t like 4X4s. Too big, too heavy, too…everything and they fall back on tired old insults which have no basis in reality. Like most prejuidices, this attitude is borne of ignorance. Those that explore Australia are a cross-section of society, nothing more or […]

4X4

What my readers would do: As Land Rover Managing Director

28 October 2020 Robert Pepper

Jaguar Land Rover just changed its boss to Thierry Bollore, which prompted me to wonder what my readers would do if they were slotted into the top job. Now bear in mind my readers are all car and 4X4 enthusiasts, so they tend to approach the job from that perspective. It’s very clear that Land […]

4X4

Why modern 4x4s break the laws of robotics

21 October 2020 Robert Pepper

The modern vehicle is an amazing feat of engineering, and an even more amazing feat of electronic and computing design. There are sensors everywhere, for everything – wheel speeds, steering wheel angles, all over the engine, even monitors to detect how dark or wet it is. And soon there’ll be more, fed by data over […]

4X4

That’s NOT triple locked!

27 September 2020 Robert Pepper

Don’t confuse centre and cross-axle lockers! There has been a recent trend to refer to vehicles such as the Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen as triple locked, and it’s wrong to do so, even though it’s right. In 4X4 terms, a locker always refers to a cross-axle differential locker. So when we say a vehicle has a rear […]

4X4

European Snow and Australian Sand

22 September 2020 Robert Pepper

Experience in one of type driving is a mixed blessing when you come to try something else. Sometimes the skills carry over, sometimes they need to be unlearned. And other times two terrains which appear to have lots in common do not. I’m talking here about European snow, and Aussie sand which are very different, […]

4X4

Dirty on dirty

20 September 2020 Robert Pepper

So you own a 4WD and you use it offroad. Often it’ll get dirty in the course of those trips, but when it does, take a few moments clean it. There is no point driving around for days or even weeks with a dirty 4WD as some misguided badge of honour – you won’t do […]

4X4

Pride and Prejudice – Hummer H3 Review

15 September 2020 Robert Pepper

Hummer says it’s like nothing else. They mean the vehicle, but that also goes for the emotions. Reprint of a roadtest from 2009! The pictures show a car, but it’s not a car, it’s an emotion grenade. Mentioning you’re driving this car is the roughly equivalent to saying you’ve dumped your partner; people instantly split […]

4X4

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