- Hey folks.
So today we're doing a reviewer's ride
with Andrew here and his Prado.
(upbeat music)
So we had a plan of catching up with Andrew
in this amazing
place called the Styx Valley in Tasmania.
And it was going
to be amazing until it started
decided to rain all day.
But anyway, we're going ahead anyway.
So this is Andrew, everyone.
- Hi everyone.
Thanks for coming.
Thanks for joining us.
Today we're talking about your Prado,
so maybe let's start off whilst we're
in the cover and out
of the rain.
Tell us about your car and why you bought this car.
Like, you've got a family, little family
what was the driving reason for buying the Prado?
- Well I actually bought a brand new Hilux,
and was planning on kitting
that out for a family vehicle
once we had our daughter
and just for some random reason,
the ute didn't seem to suit the family lifestyle
and
Alice needed a new car.
So this is actually my wife's car,
her daily driver, and yeah,
can't fault it
it's perfect four wheel drive for us
and comfortable for the family.
She loves it.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- You've certainly gone to town in equipping it
- Yeah.
- And it's got good road presence.
And once we hop outside the car,
you'll be able
viewers at home will be able to see why.
Anything internal you've done to the car?
You've got a cage in the back?
- Just, yeah.
Cargo barrier and a bit of electrics
so
- Yep.
- Yeah UHF'S
- The fancy GME UHF
which we've been using to say
"We'll be hoping out of the car
in about one minute."
- Couple of charging ports in the back
and extra plugs for fridge
et cetera.
But didn't really need much.
- Yeah.
- We were lucky enough
to find GXL factory leather
- Yes that's right fancy fancy leather.
- Which is,
you don't often find,
but
yeah Tow Pro.
- Few switches here and there but.
- Yep cool, well let's hop outside
into the rain.
We have our umbrellas so.
Ready?
(car doors opening)
(car beeping)
(wind whooshing)
(car doors shutting)
(rain falling)
So I guess if we start at the front,
it looks like a fair bit of TJM gear from
you know on the bus.
- Yeah well, I just had a good chat
with a guy there Danny from TJM
just he was easy to deal with and
- Yep.
- Gave us a pretty good deal
on this stuff so. - Yeah cool.
- So probably interesting things
are Bull Bar.
That was, I guess,
just the TJM version.
- Yep.
- And then you've got the snorkel as well.
What made you go for that one?
- Just probably to keep the looks flush.
- Yep.
- As well just quite like the look of it,
how it wrapped and
yeah, you don't see many
of them around.
- Yeah.
I like the idea that sort of
catches the breeze
off the windscreen as well so
that's interesting.
And then obviously got the Roof Rack
and the Maxtraxs on there.
You guys ride a lot as well so.
- Yeah, I've normally got a Hitch Rack in as well.
- Yep.
- For the bikes and I just interchange bits and pieces,
depending on what we're doing.
- Yeah cool.
- On the weekends and holidays and stuff.
- Now, the thing I like about this car,
the best is the road presence
and just how the tyres look on the car
or the tyres and the wheels.
So let's just swing around here.
(raindrops falling)
And so people have been watching
this for a while,
actually recognise these Coopers as ones that I had
on my car a little while ago,
these are the Cooper 83 XLTs,
which is actually 285/70/R17.
And now...they're not the most easy tyres
to fit onto these
Prados.
So what did you actually do
to actually fit them?
- No well, I had to get,
obviously the suspension lift
and then just change the
offset of the wheels had to go.
- Two inch suspension lift?
- Yeah it's probably closer to three.
- Yep.
- Just the way it ended up
that Bilstein-Dobinson combo.
Yeah it was,
actually sat quite a lot higher
than I was expecting it to.
- Yep.
- I was happy with that.
- Yeah cool.
- And then the offset
of the rims,
the factor is 20 or 25,
had to go out to a zero.
- Yeah, right.
To get the 17 by eights
to fit the 33"s and.
- Yep.
- Awesome. - Yeah.
How have you found the tyres to ride on?
Because mean I did 10,000 Km on them.
And how many have you done
on them now?
- Probably close to in over 25.
- Yep.
- And yeah, they're great for
pretty much everything except for
when it gets really muddy and slushy.
Obviously they're not that type of tyre,
but for everything else,
they're just cushiony.
They ride well,
they're quiet - Yep.
- On the sand they're awesome.
- Yeah.
Well, the thing I remember about these ones was just,
they were so comfortable.
- Yeah.
You could hit stuff in the road
and you wouldn't even know
you've actually hit it.
Like, little cat's eyes and that sort of stuff.
(Andrew agrees)
So, which I found awesome.
What about around the back?
(both walking)
It's got the regular hitch.
- Yeah regular hitch just
like I said the electrics
we're normally towing an off-road camper trailer
when we go away.
- Yep.
- So just the Anderson plug,
which I, I tape it up when we're gonna go 4WD driving
and obviously it fills up with gravel.
- Makes sense.
Yeah that's actually quite a good tip really. (Andrew chuckles)
Cool.
And then.
- And that, yeah,
the racks and not too much else
when we bought it,
it had all the windows done
with a nice dark tint.
- Yes
Was trying to see you in there before
to wave at you,
but couldn't see you so.
(Andrew laughs)
- The steps and I've got the Brown Davis dash plates
that are put under there,
LED light upgrade.
You got the Stedi Light Bars.
- Yeah.
Cool. - Yeah.
- And then you've got
this little side project called
get outside Tasmania.
I know it's kind of,
you know
what it is it's a bit hard to talk about,
but what's the project?
- Yeah well, it's my wife and I would just
sort of set it up for
bit of inspiration really
to just try and get people outside
and adventuring more.
And you know
we live in this amazing place.
Why wouldn't you go out and have a bit
of a look around and we spend a lot
of time riding bikes and surfing
and just getting out and doing things.
And if we you know.
- Like for example
- Yeah pretty much.
- Yeah.
- If you can inspire somebody to do it as well
then why not?
- Cool. Awesome.
- And it is good for us
health and well being.
- That's right.
So get outside everyone
So cool thanks Andrew.
- No worries.
- Thanks for giving us a quick tour of your car and,
see out on the road.
- Thanks for having me on.
- Cheers.