this is the first four-wheel-drive vehicle in the world
built by the four-wheel drive auto company of Clintonville Wisconsin in
1909 and this is the second the Nash quad
welcome to the off-road History Museum in the emirate of Sharjah about one hour
out of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and this the newest the jeep gladiator
by special invitation from the museum's creator His Royal Highness Sheikh Hamad
bin Hamden on I an whether it will look the glove from that though green and I
were to be the museum's very first visitors they carry all they have wooden
at all so we said we are in the 2019 we must have panoramic with over 360 unique
exhibits not a single model duplicated this new museum not only celebrates the
history of off-road but also the wonder of the solid front axle
I'm I'm Andrew st. Pierre White join me as I share my passion for bowling four-wheel
drive trucks and traveling to the remotest parts
the museum is divided into four sections modified from around the world the
general evolution of four-wheel drive military and the history of off-road
vehicles by the world's main car makers featuring only those with solid front
axles
in general this is a good example for a fraud this museum is a celebration of
the best off-road vehicles in the world and as you walk in one of the first
exhibits is this and it's a demonstration of what makes an off-road
vehicle great and the components are a solid rear axle five-point and coil
springs transfer gearbox with low range gearing core springs in the front end
the solid front axle the solid front axle is a big deal because unlike
independent suspension solid axles keep clearance constants they are far
stronger and far better at carrying a load as you know our museum for for only
solid axle because solid axle is also advancing this message is this photo and
inscription only one person that Jeep has ever suggested that we change the
front suspension from the solid axle to an independent design that person
doesn't work at Jeep anymore but taking pride of place is this behemoth it's
based on a 10 wheel drive Oshkosh military vehicle and this one is
fully road-legal the section here in the museum is all
about modified vehicles for drive six wheel drive it will drive and is even a
10 wheel drive and some of them are beyond extravagant however every single
one of them are actually tried and tested some of them have crossed
continents they're not just show pieces we're in this building we have to
section my modified car and generally in the modified section is a
mix of sheikh hamad creations and some exceptionally rare originals like this
one this is a Model T Ford four-wheel drive it was never put into production
understand that only three pre-production prototypes were made and
this is the only one known to exist but what the some clever entrepreneur
decided to do that because the demand for four-wheel drive was so small it
never went to production but it was big enough for enough of them to order kits
and it was available for a short time as a kits to convert your Model T Ford into
four-wheel drive in the 1970s the Range Rover of course stole headlines because
it was such a unique designer and unique taste on the station wagon with real
true genuine off-road ability and good comfort so Monteverde in Switzerland
came up with a Range Rover look-alike my guess is that the wheelbase was exactly
the same door handles the doors likewise with a very very large two-door
really is remarkably similar in so many ways but what made this better is that
long before the Range Rover was available with an automatic gearbox this
one was from day one it was called a Monteverde Safari and there are very few
of these remaining in the world
how about this this is a jerrican it's a very big one
in fact pipe goes from here all the way down to the main fuel tank so it's
designed to confuse petrol pump attendants one of the recurring problems
I have when designing and developing Overland trucks is to where to put the
spare wheels and I want to carry two of them well here is a solution for better
for us full bed another one inverted on top the interior volume is double
upstairs there's a little nice patio you can sit up there and have a drink and
watch the Sun go down and of course there's a place up there for the two
spare wheels well this then is the very first model
of the missin patrol and in the Middle East
then listen patrol is probably still to this day the most popular four-wheel
drive vehicle so much so that there is actually a model still built here not
available anywhere else in the world which means that the exhibit I've got a
lot of miss and patrols in it although it looks at that innocent patrol is not
an original it's in the modified section this is serious one patrol honest
brand-new y61 chassis engine
so that's a that's an original original patrol body on a y61 chassis engine
gearbox all the running gear okay from so it's what they call a mod resto mod
resto mod resto work but now this is actually quite a famous metropolis Tony
bust is the world's only eight wheel drive front four-wheel drive was built
in australia by bob james at australia 6x6 it was then shipped to the UAE and
Saudi Arabia where his Highness assembled it we did the work to make the
Ackermann angle correct so as both the front axles which steer the same terrain
at the same track exactly so the history of this car this one has a name
this one is called the large spider which was one of the first in the spider
series that share hummock envisage now this is a y61 miss and patrol with a
undriven bogie axle or the it's not an exodus a hub is hydraulically
pneumatically activated or to drop down onto the floor it will then lift the
front axle off of the floor if you're in a stuck situation or you want it to
change the wheel and you can continue to drive doesn't go around corners things
you can get out of a mess when you're stuck in the desert this is primary what
it's 400 so as this wheel goes down and lifts the front axle off of the ground
so again unique one-of-a-kind in the world
and once it's driving drives just like your conventional yes and patrol it's a
missile patrol chassis obviously and it's called a new way of tell me an
attitude it's a Nissan Patrol y61 that was built in Rabat in Morocco that
checks workshops there as you see it was hundreds interpretation of a forward
control and Shekhawat wanted to show a mishap that the feasibility of a forward
control vehicle was still very very durable this vehicle was driven from
Rabat Morocco all the way to Paris on the road it demonstrates perfect road
holding despite Walker's this part they like to call the general part
illustrates the history of the evolution of the forward drive vehicle and even
has some very early Subaru a Subaru of course was one of the the early
manufacturers that came to understand the benefits of four-wheel-drive even
for an ordinary road car I do wish though that they had paid more
attention to the way their cars looked
this is the world's first military four-wheel drive again made by the
four-wheel drive Motor Company the military part of the museum is
outstanding from Russian vehicles Pinsk our Bedford's dodge lots of land rover
and even a two by two competing with Land Rover with these little known
utility vehicles this one is the Austin champ sophisticated by Land Rover
standards it had a rev counter this is a Land Rover one zero one forward control
basically they took a Land Rover 109 chassis adapted it same system same
suspension leaf springs solid axles front and back but used Range Rover
transmission and Range Rover engine and it was very very successful we have the
m151 in the books this is 85 brand new the end when they
stopped building it the end that's the final one final I
I have to wanna fix it and win with keep it in a box from the factory with the
other Jeep that interests me as much is also in a box the Willis G 503 packed
for military airlift in world war ii but this is my favorite section walking down
the aisles is like paging through an encyclopedia of the history of the
four-wheel drive from missin jeep GMC Land Rover
Ford Suzuki International dodge mercedes-benz
and Toyota
okay my friend only a few days ago because we are we know you are coming we
bring this one by purpose for you because we know if you come without
seeing this one you'll come angry all these land crows are without this one
it's impossible for you he's right you know for those of you less familiar with
the channel I have two all-time favorite 4-wheel drives and this Land Cruiser is
one of them only one in the world for about that
oh that's interesting that's an insult Turkish
now
you carry on counting down the history of these important vehicle manufacturers
building for our vehicles over the decades it'll be easy to think but you
haven't included that new haven't included that but what I'd like you to
do is think about all of the that's do they have solid front axles no and
that's why they're not here because sheikh hamad does not believe that they
are off-road vehicles and this is an off-road history museum not a
four-wheel-drive History Museum so is this idea of it eccentric I mean what's
the difference really between solid axle and independent front suspension well to
a true full driver any of us everything it means everything and the first thing
that comes to mind is a solid axle holds its clearance no matter what ground it
travels over it either holds it or increases it as wheels lift with
independent suspension clearance decreases and clearance is a fundamental
necessity of good off-road performance that's just to start with the reason why
there are fewer and fewer solid front axle for drives available to us year
after year because we don't ask for them and the reason why we don't ask for them
is that we don't understand the benefits of them
when I said this in a recent video I say hats off to Suzuki for building an
off-roader not an ordinary SUV not a boring vehicle not a dull vehicle an
off-roader a proper off-road er that just happens
to do everything else that one would do with an SUV really really well I meant
it thank you Suzuki for keeping the dream
alive so how do we solve the problem how do we make more of these things
available to us around the world you guys in North America
why don't I owe to bring this absolute beauty to North America because you
don't want it because you'll go and buy a Tacoma you're going buy a Tundra
you'll go and buy any person you like Toyota good car sure independent front
suspension that'll be ok you go to any of the major four-wheel drive off-road
meets anywhere in the world and the guys who are passionate they're driving old
vehicles why because they've got solid front axles and they rebuild them year
after year they keep them the going they keep them going
and the motoring manufacturers are losing out because these vehicles are
all look looking how many 80 series how many old 61 why 61 Patrol's you see
driving on they're everywhere how many defenders
you see driving around they're everywhere even discoveries how many new
discoveries do you see with really nice big fat tire roof rack you know the guys
are going fishing none not one because they're no good at it the guys that are
going fishing and towing boats and going driving up mountains they're driving
older vehicles and for the few of us who are lucky enough to live in countries
like Australia and the Middle East we can we've got a big choice so what are
you going to do about it you are going to
follow me on a quest it's called hashtag only front solid
axle and I want you to post and go mad posting every post you make on Facebook
on Instagram YouTube whatever you do that's the new hashtag we've got to do
something about getting the motoring manufacturers to bring back and if I see
in my lifetime one motoring manufacturer bringing a new model and they bring a
solid front axle back to that design I will retire a very very happy man
please join me in this thank you for watching see you next time