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Vehicle Tests > Overlander 4WD of the Year
Overlander 4WD of the Year
Issue: February 2007
A broad spectrum of 4WDs made the final cut for Overlander's 2006 4WD of the Year test. It took a full week and 1800 kilometres to find a winner.
Report by Mathieu Raudonikis, Fraser Stronach, Vic Widman and Norm Needham.
Photography by Thomas Wielecki.
2006 4WDOTY
The Route, by Vic Widman
The seven Overlander 4WDOTY finalists were tested over five days over a route around New South Wales. Our test route was designed to not only determine how each of these vehicles perform in an offroad situation but also balance this to their touring ability. Let's face it, most of us spend quite a lot of time getting to our favourite 4WD destination, so it is important to know that a worthy winner will perform equally well on the highways and byways of Australia as well as offroad.
Day1
The testing starts at the Great Divide Tours 4WD Training facility near Braidwood. Overlander has been using this property for the past four 4WDOTY test programs. Here we were able to establish the offroad credentials of each vehicle side by side on set exercises. There are some steep smooth climbs which all of the vehicles accomplished in high range and then even steeper hill climbs where the Santa Fe impressed with its lack of low range but still managed to keep up with the tough trucks that were equipped with low range. The torture test hill climb shows up vehicles with the best wheel travel and puts those fitted with traction control to the test.
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Whilst we don't use all of the great exercises and tracks available at the 4WD training facility we do have the opportunity to test the offroad capabilities of each vehicle. This provides a sound foundation for knowing what we can and cannot attempt over the next week.
From here we spent the afternoon touring the gnarly 4WD tracks of Mogo National Park just south of Braidwood. This is a spectacular area of steep-sided hills on the escarpment between the Monaro plains and the south coast. There are lush fern filled gullies and exposed craggy escarpments with their beautiful grass trees and steep rocky trails and this proved which vehicles had the clearance and power to safely negotiate this true four wheel drive terrain.
Day 2
Leaving Braidwood we had a long touring section ahead of us, with typical back road driving which varied between sealed and gravel sections. We travelled from Braidwood to Goulburn via Canberra, then through Taralga and Black Springs to Bathurst. The weather was hot as we pushed onto the Bridle Track towards Hill End. This part of NSW is in the grip of the worst drought in 100 years and the bull dust on the Bridle Track, the bone dry Macquarie River and the total absence of anything green certainly made us very aware that the country folk out here are doing it tough. As for us road testers, all we had to contend with was lots of dust and a dry camp beside the Macquarie River. This gave us the chance to roll out the swags, get the camp oven going and enjoy a great roast dinner under the bright full moon sky. Some of us were woken that night from our swags by the mournful howl of a fox as it wandered along the dry valley.
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A broad spectrum of 4WDs made the final cut for Overlander's 2006 4WD of the Year test. It took a full week and 1800 kilometres to find a winner.
Report by Mathieu Raudonikis, Fraser Stronach, Vic Widman and Norm Needham.
Photography by Thomas Wielecki.
2006 4WDOTY
The Route, by Vic Widman
The seven Overlander 4WDOTY finalists were tested over five days over a route around New South Wales. Our test route was designed to not only determine how each of these vehicles perform in an offroad situation but also balance this to their touring ability. Let's face it, most of us spend quite a lot of time getting to our favourite 4WD destination, so it is important to know that a worthy winner will perform equally well on the highways and byways of Australia as well as offroad.
Day1
The testing starts at the Great Divide Tours 4WD Training facility near Braidwood. Overlander has been using this property for the past four 4WDOTY test programs. Here we were able to establish the offroad credentials of each vehicle side by side on set exercises. There are some steep smooth climbs which all of the vehicles accomplished in high range and then even steeper hill climbs where the Santa Fe impressed with its lack of low range but still managed to keep up with the tough trucks that were equipped with low range. The torture test hill climb shows up vehicles with the best wheel travel and puts those fitted with traction control to the test.
read on below advertisement
Whilst we don't use all of the great exercises and tracks available at the 4WD training facility we do have the opportunity to test the offroad capabilities of each vehicle. This provides a sound foundation for knowing what we can and cannot attempt over the next week.
From here we spent the afternoon touring the gnarly 4WD tracks of Mogo National Park just south of Braidwood. This is a spectacular area of steep-sided hills on the escarpment between the Monaro plains and the south coast. There are lush fern filled gullies and exposed craggy escarpments with their beautiful grass trees and steep rocky trails and this proved which vehicles had the clearance and power to safely negotiate this true four wheel drive terrain.
Day 2
Leaving Braidwood we had a long touring section ahead of us, with typical back road driving which varied between sealed and gravel sections. We travelled from Braidwood to Goulburn via Canberra, then through Taralga and Black Springs to Bathurst. The weather was hot as we pushed onto the Bridle Track towards Hill End. This part of NSW is in the grip of the worst drought in 100 years and the bull dust on the Bridle Track, the bone dry Macquarie River and the total absence of anything green certainly made us very aware that the country folk out here are doing it tough. As for us road testers, all we had to contend with was lots of dust and a dry camp beside the Macquarie River. This gave us the chance to roll out the swags, get the camp oven going and enjoy a great roast dinner under the bright full moon sky. Some of us were woken that night from our swags by the mournful howl of a fox as it wandered along the dry valley.
next page »
