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National 4x4 Show, Melbourne
Range Rover Club stand
Adrian McDougall (AN4WDRN),
Josie Peterson (VAFWDC) &
Steve Johnston (AN4WDRN)
Mr. Bamford (centre) explains the finer points of a B'+Smith winch
Nera satellite phone
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The 1999 National 4x4 Show ran from the
afternoon of Thursday 7 October to Sunday 10 October.
As usual, it shared Jeff's shed (the Melbourne Exhibition Building)
with the (Rex Hunt) Nissan-sponsored Fishing Show and $12 got you
into both of them.
First impression was that the show was rather improved over 1998;
there seemed to be more quality displays by vehicle
manufacturers, lots of variety from accessory suppliers and
a good selection of tour operators, books, maps, tents, camper
trailers and so on.
The Victorian Association of 4WD Clubs (VAFWDC),
Australian National Four Wheel Drive Radio Network (AN4WDRN),
Range Rover Club, Land Rover Owners Club (LROC) (Vic),
and Mitsubishi Pajero Club all had stands and attracted a lot of interest.
The Northern Territory branch (chairman Ken Metcalfe) of the AN4WDRN
has recently won an Alice Springs Council award for community service,
and also the NT division of the National Australia Bank's
volunteer award, consequently being in the running for the national
award, to be selected later this month.
Steve Johnston of AN4WDRN was very pleased with this good news,
and also with the growing membership of the AN4WDRN - up to ~1600.
The Land Rover Owners Club (Vic) was promoting responsible
four wheel driving in general and its annual outdoor Four Wheel Drive
Field Day
in particular - to be held next on 20 February 2000.
Vehicle manufacturers with big displays included
Nissan,
Ford,
GM Holden,
Land Rover,
Mercedes Benz & Jeep,
Daewoo and
Toyota.
Nissan also had a display in the fishing half of the building.
Ford brought along
Courier 4WDs with a 2.5L turbo-charged & intercooled diesel,
and Ford Explorers.
Bill Rich was showing "unofficial"
Ford F150s and a Ford Expedition (huge station wagon).
Holden had Rodeos, a Suburban and recently face-lifted Jackaroos -
with the 3.5L V6 petrol and the new 3L turbo diesel.
Land Rover brought a full-house of
Range Rover, Discovery, Freelander and Defender (130 and 110 Xtreme).
Mercedes Benz made a good effort with three (or more?)
320's
and a V8 ML430.
One of the ML320's was looking very aggressive on
LT265/75R16 (31.8") o.a.d. BFG All-Terrain tyres!
Nearbye, Merc's stable-mate in Daimler-Chrysler, Jeep,
had a Wrangler, Cherokees and 1999
Grand Cherokees.
(Chrysler - Dodge -) Jeep also had a Dodge Dakota,
a ute version of the Dodge Durango, to test its market appeal.
Daewoo was getting into its new market now that it has the
Korando and
Musso
4WDs.
New from Toyota was the
78-series
LandCruiser utes and troop-carrier
(hard-top), updating the trusty
75-series.
The 78 has coil-springs at the front;
there are still leaf-springs at the rear but they are longer
giving more suspension travel.
Engine choice is between the 4.5 litre petrol engine
and the 4.2 litre diesel as in the 100-series.
Several dealers were also represented, and one of
Toyota's had a new turbo-charged diesel 100-series LandCruiser. The
100-series
was launched with 6-cylinder & V8 petrol
and naturally aspirated diesel engines but without a turbo-charged
diesel option. One can only speculate whether or not this had anything to do
with reliability
problems
reported on some turbo-d' 80-series LandCruisers.
The blower seems to be back.
ARB, Opposite Lock and TJM, had large stands
and many other accessory suppliers were represented.
Marked prices at the show can be 5% - 10% or more lower than
marked or over-the-phone prices at "the shop"
(and bargaining can sometimes achieve better still,
particularly late on the last day).
Here are a few random prices observed at the show ($au):
Engel car fridges - 21L $1049, 30L $1149 & 39L $1369 (BBQ-Galore),
Garmin GPS 12XL $509 & GPS3 $779,
Nera geo-stationary satellite phone $5,677 &
Motorola Iridium satellite phone $3,397 (Telstat),
Blue Tongue air compressor and 6m hose $385 (Opposite Lock),
Jackall high-lift jack $119,
Black-Rat hand winch & 20m cable 1600kg lift, 2600kg pull $395,
Big-Haul hand winch & 20m cable $425,
Tirfor T516 hand winch & 20m cable $695,
Warn electric winches - XD9000 $1600, M10000 $2000, M12000 $2200,
Bamford & Smith electric winches (Australian made) -
9000 lb $1450 to 20000 lb $2550.
Interesting products
(check links)
included a part-time 4WD
conversion kit by Mark's 4WD Adaptors
for the HF2A full-time 4WD transfer case on GXL and Sahara 80-series
from 1990 on (but pre- viscous coupled models).
Marks also does Commodore 3.8L V6 conversions
for Mitsubishi Pajero, Triton, L200 & L300 and Mazda B2600,
as well as Chev' into Cruisers and Patrols, and
a number of automatic transmission conversions.
Rockhopper super-low 4x4 transfer gears for Suzuki Sierra
(4.612:1), Suzuki Vitara (4.009:1) and Toyota Hilux (4.811:1),
are being distributed by
GRP Automotive, 8 Skarrat St., Nth Auburn, NSW.
- L. A11ison © 31/10/1999
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