WRT to snow traction, an unloaded pickup can be sporty with plenty oversteer in the rain, let alone proper snow!

Most of my Canadian chums add weight in the back for winter months to aid traction, but they have cheaper fuel than we do…

I still almost bought a Navara though!

Ended up with a “sensible” car instead: WRX estate 😆

A Bishi Warrior. Makes you bowl around like you’ve got a role of carpet under each arm. You will feel your legs bowing out after a single test drive. Before you know it you will have joined a firm and kicking nonces skulls in will be your second favourite hobby.

You have to own a Warrior to become a Warrior.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH4Cb9ox9ok[/video]

We borrowed a friends pick to get some diy stuff (plasterboard, trim etc) it was a double cab and we could fit more in the passat estate than the flat bed. Cab was cramped as well.

You can take a van to the tip if it has permanent camping fixtures inside, doesn’t need to be re registered as a camper though. At least that is the case in cumbria.

we could fit more in the passat estate than the flat bed. Cab was cramped as well.

With the rear seats up?

With the interior stripped out and the roof cut off.

Aren’t these two mutually exclusive, unless you’re willing to accept galactic star destroyer mileage?

Not necessarily; saw a 2007 one locally that looked decent, on at £9k. Admittedly I didn’t check the mileage as I wasn’t buying.

When I commuted to work in deepest Cheshir and saw a number of school run mums bricking it as they tried to make three point turns in the narrow back lanes, I realised the why the L200 “Worrier” got it’s name.

With the interior stripped out and the roof cut off.

No uk pick up beds really are limiting and tiny.

Drive a hilux crew for work.

Would rather crawl across broken glass.

Yeah, it’s a cinch getting a full 1 tonne dumpy bag in the back of a Passat or any van with a single rear door.
or a 6m length of anything.
Each to their own.

Op said he wants to tow a trailer.

That’s how I would move the things you need moved…..and not be stuck with my Hilux the other ,364 days of the year.

Trailers are attractive to tea leaves and are easily nicked. They also take up a lot of space when not being used, which is usually most of the time.

would you?

I am! Just put down a deposit on a new Hilux (Icon with rear canoopy).

Test drove a Ranger and a Hilux. Ranger felt gigantic, high seating position, and the model I was in had all the bells and whistles including lane assist. Didn’t feel like I was really in control of the thing, the 3l V6 auto wasn’t that impressive and felt heavy and cumbersome.

The Hilux didn’t feel as refined, but a nicer driving position for me, more car like. Long throw on the gear shift, but since I won’t be racing it, akes no difference to me. Didn’t feel as heavy as the Ranger,and with careful driving, even got close to 40mpg out of it 😉

Anyway, I’ll be using it for work duties and neither a van or 4×4 car were going to cut it.

which is usually most of the time.

conversely going for a pickup means most of the time you have a crap car to drive around in for the odd time you need to move a big load…

Trailers are nice and easy to hire these days. takes away the theft and storage problems for something that you dont use all that often.

Our hilux is a pain in the arse – cant go shopping as shit gets stolen out the bed when in traffic (im in angola). It makes the people i nthe back sea sick.

How ever im not cruising the back lanes of surrey so the 4wd and ground clearance does get used so its a necessary evil.

Sell children, buy this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMC_Syclone
8)

Test drove a Ranger and a Hilux. Ranger felt gigantic, high seating position, and the model I was in had all the bells and whistles including lane assist. Didn’t feel like I was really in control of the thing, the 3l V6 auto wasn’t that impressive and felt heavy and cumbersome.

The Hilux didn’t feel as refined, but a nicer driving position for me, more car like. Long throw on the gear shift, but since I won’t be racing it, akes no difference to me. Didn’t feel as heavy as the Ranger,and with careful driving, even got close to 40mpg out of it

The Ranger is a 3.2l 5cyl – the engine isn’t a patch on the 3l V6 I had in my previous Navara – it has got a lot sweeter after around 25k though. I just got 40mpg on the flat 4 mile drive home after filling up 😉 Reality is low 30’s @ 70mph on motorways and low-mid 20’s driving round Derbyshire – I average around 28

Surely the high seating position is a plus – I can’t stand the car-like seating in L200’s and Hilux’s (not sat in the new Hilux though)?

The 3.2l 5cyl also feels a bit flat due to software torque limiting in 1st and 2nd to stop it lunching it’s own gearbox.

Colleague had his remapped to remove it because it was dangerous pulling out of lay-bys when he had his land rover winch truck on the trailer.

By God it can shift now.

It’s very nice in the front seats. Still wouldn’t have one.

I’ve got a ‘Pickup of the year’ Navara. Purely for tax reasons, although the 4wd comes in handy for towing on grass. It’s supposedly got the best ride of any pickup because it has coil multi-link suspension at the back, not the usual cart springs. I would never buy any of them with my own money – for all of the reasons others have mentioned, plus the 4wd isn’t permanent and shouldn’t be used over 60mph. Mind you all the electronic safety aids appear to do their job, it can be thrown into bends much faster than you’d think (The older ones I’ve driven are like driving a bar of soap in the wet).

lisascottuk07 – Member

During my recent travelling from Liverpool Street to Waterloo I easily got access of waterloo taxi with very reasonable fare, which was very reliable and punctual service for this short trip.

I found your post to be disappointingly lacking in hyperbole, falsehoods and a latent contempt for people who make choices different to yours based on their own requirements. For Future reference here’s an example of how to post about pickups on STW.

“Unlike everyone in Britain, as a professional horse surgeon in Nepal I can actually justify owning a pickup truck. That being said I’d rather kill myself than buy one. The ride is so appallingly bad that it will give children cancer and they are so slow that a one legged man on a recumbent is certainly faster away from the lights.

Offroad they are utterly useless as they are only part time four wheel drive. My grandmother was in the SAS and she taught me their advanced off road driving techniques which means that even in a Reliant Robin I can easeily tackle terrain that would leave a fully equipped Hilux floundering so long as I have the correct tyres. The actual bed of the pickup truck (despite being rated to carry 1000kg) will only allow you to carry a small lego figure and perhaps a lunchbox. If you need to carry things a wheel barrow is infinielty more versatile and robust. You’ll get far more into the boot of a Nissan Micra or Ford Fiesta or a suitcase.

Avoid them as you would a plague of zombies. “

Hope this helps. For visually reference imagine the above is being spoken by this guy

Got an L200 as a replacement vehicle whilst Caravelle being worked on, it is truly terrible as a replacement.

No space, uncomfortable.

If I was a farmer maybe the 4WD would be useful, but I’m not.

Get a van infinitely more practical (unless you are a farmer / builder in a muddy field).

4×4 or big estate and trailer job jobed..I love having a trailer so useful and just not there when you dont want it to be.

They also take up a lot of space when not being used, which is usually most of the time.

Thats the whole point why lumber yourself with a god awful tank off a vehicle which is neither one thing or the other just for the few times you need it, trailer if you have space is so practical.

Jim jam, that’s rather good.

and maybe very early Amarok.

Bloke across the road from me hit some sort of pothole with his Amarok and managed to bend a lower wishbone, putting the front n/side wheel way out of alignment!
Wouldn’t fill me with confidence as regards taking one actually off-road…

I asked a similair question a few weeks ago. The responses on here really put me off the things. …
.got me thinking

Why doesnt someone make a 4×4 thats as big as these?… is a disco the biggest boot you can get without buying a van?

Some of the camp sites Ive stayed on really do need a 4×4 but I want the load space and ease of a van… what to do?

Some of the camp sites Ive stayed on really do need a 4×4 but I want the load space and ease of a van… what to do?

Where are you camping?

After countless weekends at wet pearce race fields I don’t remember many time the tractors were needed.

I was always impressed on the places around farms I got the Mk2 Fiesta or the crag access roads I got the hire car up in spain…

Some of the camp sites Ive stayed on really do need a 4×4 but I want the load space and ease of a van… what to do?

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/vans/99493/4×4-vans-and-commercial-vehicles-explained

Are we mixing campsites with fields ?

Nope, lots of sites I’ve stayed on recently have dirt access roads and the dirt track around the site is somewhat akin to the test track I took a tank on once on a stag do years ago.

I camp really regularly and go all over the place (mostly with the family not the mtb). So need loads of space and like 4×4 capability.

I’m prob going to go with an l322 range rover myself next… but the repair bills won’t be fun 🙁

People pay to camp on fields. Wow I should open q campsite after all seems it’s not as capital intensive as I thought

chilled76 – Member
Nope, lots of sites I’ve stayed on recently have dirt access roads and the dirt track around the site is somewhat akin to the test track I took a tank on once on a stag do years ago.

you want your money back on the tank experience 😉

Yep, loved the ones we’ve had and easy reliable power to be freed from the L200s.

I’d have another but Mrs Deviant is enjoying swanning around in a Touareg at the moment…personally I’d like a mk2 or mk3 VW Caddy pickup as my own bike transport but most are rusty buckets now.

Looked at two this week, both had more rust than actual car, shame….still I have plans for a clean euro style Golf Estate as my biking wagon by the end of the week.

They also take up a lot of space when not being used, which is usually most of the time.

Thats the whole point why lumber yourself with a god awful tank off a vehicle which is neither one thing or the other just for the few times you need it, trailer if you have space is so practical.

So taking up space with a trailer is more practical??? I have both BTW

I don’t get this ‘neither one thing or another’ – it’s a pick-up.

Ok, we don’t get much snow these days, but mine has got me home on at least one occasion, when cars and vans were stranded at the side of the road in the dark, 6 miles from home. It’s got me to work in Middlesbrough from Derbyshire when I’d have considered staying at home – the same day the local lads had to spend an hour at the end of the day trying to get their transit moving. It’s pulled a sprinter and trailer/mini-digger off a wet grass verge when my workmates would have been stranded

Show me a panel van that will fit in a multi storey car park
Show me a panel van that can tow 3.5t

I’m not sure how a van would have fared in this, but I know where I’d rather be – do crew cab vans have airbags in the back for your kids btw? They might do, not sure?

[url=https://flic.kr/p/nVCPWF]Untitled[/url] by davetheblade, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/oeTnU8]Untitled[/url] by davetheblade, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/nVCQBi]Untitled[/url] by davetheblade, on Flickr

You keep posting that picture but it’s a bit like saying helmet saved my life.

So taking up space with a trailer is more practical???

Yes.

You keep posting that picture but it’s a bit like saying helmet saved my life.

Maybe so, we’ll never know…

My other points?

So for the 1 day of snow every 3 years that will stop an average car or the 3 times a year a non building contractor or farmer needs to tow 3.5 ton you get stuck with one.

I have a Hilux at work and I also have a pick up at home. I wanted it. I make no bones I wanted the pick up, for all its impracticalities. But as my only car it can do one. Van all day long.

What you want is one of these ( not) ..apparently global warming is over and the next ice age is on its way ..thats the only reason I can think of for this conversion of an Isuzu D-Max ..
It’s an arctic vehicle ..given as a courtesy car while the bro-in-law’s Blade was in for some warranty work .
I returned it this afternoon ..30 miles down the road and felt a little seasick when I got there ..pretty cool looking though ..just a pity the ride is so crap.

20171018_145853 by Neil Hodgson – Flickr2BBcode LITE

20171018_145910 by Neil Hodgson – Flickr2BBcode LITE

20171018_145925 by Neil Hodgson – Flickr2BBcode LITE

20171018_145936 by Neil Hodgson – Flickr2BBcode LITE

20171018_150052 by Neil Hodgson – Flickr2BBcode LITE

20171018_145823 by Neil Hodgson – Flickr2BBcode LITE

The l200 walkinshaw we had in ukraine was pretty good.

Still had all the load area short comings of a pick up. But it didn’t ride like a sea sick dolphin thanks to its coil over suspension.

So for the 1 day of snow every 3 years that will stop an average car or the 3 times a year a non building contractor or farmer needs to tow 3.5 ton you get stuck with one.

I have a Hilux at work and I also have a pick up at home. I wanted it. I make no bones I wanted the pick up, for all its impracticalities. But as my only car it can do one. Van all day long.

Nope, it’s certainly an advantage though. I’m not stuck with anything – I can buy whatever I want.

To be honest, if I had a choice of a Hilux, I’d probably decline – underpowered, horrible seating position, ridiculously long gear throw. The new models seem a bit nicer though

hodgynd – that’s quite smart. I test drove a D-Max Blade a few years ago though and wasn’t impressed by the interior, or lack of grunt