G'day guys, that is the ultimate new D-MAX. The latest and greatest. It's going to be Simon's
truck for this year's rig builds. Now we've already got the tub off, so we're not mucking
around. We're going to build Australia's number one touring D-MAX. Check this out.
There you go guys. Introducing the 2021 model Isuzu D-MAX. Now this is an all-new D-MAX
for this year, and we've decided to fit it out to be Australia's toughest touring rig
and hand it over to Simon to see what he can do on this season.
Now starting with the front end of this truck, we've got some serious frontal protection going
on. So to do that, we've teamed up with the boys at McCormacks 4WD, especially Bodie McCormack,
the owner, who is third generation. Mate, these guys are some of the best in the business.
My name is Bodie McCormack. We own mccormack's auto service / 4wd. We fit four-wheel drive
accessories to all vehicles. For the D-MAX, we're fitting Offroad Animal bar,
XTM 21.5 inch light bar for the Offroad Animal bar in the stealth loop, XTM winch,
Rhino-Rack roof racks. I think we're putting an XTM light on the top of the roof rack as well.
Definitely the Offroad Animal bar on the new D-MAX looks smick as well.
Known as Grey Goose, fitter here at McCormacks 4WD. When Simon's D-MAX first come in, yeah,
we started on the bull bar--the Offroad Animal Predator bar. The protection on the front's good,
so you know when they're out on bush and entry points, I suppose too, and yeah just
to protect the front of the car. And then up top we've got more XTM stuff up there as well.
Put the snorkel on. Yeah the stainless steel is pretty slimline, so I think that's why they're
goin' that. So it looks good. Now off the Offroad Animal bar, we've got some pretty cool lines, so
it's a little bit better than your normal vanilla setup, as they say.
All right, guys, there's no doubt about it, we tow some big gear into some of the toughest
terrain in Australia. Now we've been doing that all these years with Clearview towing mirrors.
Now they've listened to the feedback of all their customers, and they've designed this
new towing mirror with all the features and vision of their mirrors in a compact design.
That's a pretty cool bit of gear.
When you head up onto the roof, you want to get yourself a good roof rack.
Now what we've gone and done for the new Isuzu D-MAX is we've got the Backbone and
on top of the Backbone, as you can see, it's a Pioneer tray. Now tray as opposed to a platform,
Simon goes with the tray, because he finds that he can contain whatever he sticks up there,
he can contain it within the frame of the tray. He sticks anything from boxes, cargo boxes, to
Maxtrax, to swags, you name it. You whack them up there, they stay inside the tray. Easy to strap
down. It's also good for holding things like your shovel, you know, you can still put your compact
shovel on there. You can get some light bars up there as well just like the tray. Also some
side lights, which we've done here. It's a pretty cool and compact design, even though it is a tray.
Now you can't just go and stick all this fancy gear on your truck without thinking about
suspension. Once you get off the tarmac you're going to realize that those rough roads up north
are going to rattle your gear to bits. So we start with an Outback Armour suspension kit,
but not just any one. We've gone to the top of the range, fully adjustable,
so that Simon can dial it in to suit what conditions he's driving in,
and also if he's loading his truck up or it's not loaded. Which is very important. Because
what goes on underneath is just as important what goes on the outside.
Hi my name's Rod. I'm from Outback Armour. And here,
I am one of the salesmen at Outback Armour on the front counter.
We've been with All 4 Adventure two years now, coming up to our third season with them,
which we're looking really forward to. The stuff that these guys can put out is absolutely amazing,
so the footage that we're getting, the content that they're creating, is just absolutely
amazing. What they do with our gear absolutely punishes it, and that's what we're looking for.
So with the D-MAX that came in, we fitted up our All 4 Adventure kit to it, and with that kit what
we're doing is we're putting in a specialized leaf that was made in development with Jase and Simon.
So this is some of the components that we've actually fitted up to Simon's D-MAX,
starting with the big one which is our leaf. This is our All 4 Adventure leaf. So as you can see,
it actually has--it's all one stage. So a lot of other leafs that we have,
and pretty much all the other leafs that we have that aren't an armored vehicle leaf,
are two stage which means that they have the first stage up here and then a straight second stage.
And that is that it has the comfort level and then it goes down to the load bearing level.
This being built along the armored vehicle line is the fact that it is all one stage.
So it is designed to take weight and try and be as comfortable as possible from the
outset. So this leaf is, we have it rated at about 650 kg constant load at a 50 mil leaf.
In saying that, that is also with a lot of that weight over the back. So it probably accounts
for a lot more than the 650 kilo. We also have our bump stops which is an extended progressive-rate
bump stop. So it takes up sooner than the factory one and compresses and makes a nice, neat ride.
We also have our adjustable shocks. Now these also have a bonded bush top and bottom which means that
their life quality is a lot longer than just the little two-piece ones that have been around for
forever basically. We run our super pro bushes, our u-bolts as well, greasable pin,
greasable shackle at this end. All in all, really great kit for the rear of that D-MAX, the 2021.
So the adjustable shocks, you've got 20+ clicks of adjustment. Starting at full hard, you turn
them down to wherever you need them. Same left to right, obviously. They are also maintainable,
which is fantastic. So they're metal moving parts. They work really, really well to adjust to whether
the terrain is on the bitumen, on the dirt, on the sand, wherever you're going. They work everywhere.
With Simon's 2021 D-MAX, with a fit out, I reckon, it looks absolutely amazing with the Outback
Armour gear in it as well. We find that the ride is a lot nicer, especially the weight that's been
carried with adjustable shocks and struts in there. So he's able to adjust to suit himself
and also the weight. We find that just the ride quality itself has just gone through the roof.
The ride's amazing. Looks amazing. Can't wait to see it on the tracks.
How tough are these new rims? So ROH have got this new set of rims. I do like them. They look pretty
smick. We've talked to the guys at Black Bear. They've chucked on a couple of mud terrain tyres.
They are a good sized mud tyre, simple as that. They're pretty tough sidewalls. They've got
some great traction in the tread. Now with all that, you're going to be traveling over some
really rough country. You're going to need some underbody protection. So Brown Davis have got a
full set of bash plates under this truck. Without it, mate, there's potential damage to diffs and
and gearbox housings, sump... Imagine if you'd put a hole in a sump of that engine. No thanks.
Anyway the other thing left is you're going to do some big miles, you're going to need a long-range
tank. We chucked the long-range tank in from Brown Davis as well, because that's going to
give you so much more fuel. In fact, it'll give you up to 140 liters of juice, which on some of
those tracks seems to be just enough to get you in and out without having to carry any jerry cans.
It is top of the range. You've got a full leather interior, including the seats, so straight away
you need some Supafit seat covers. Because you can imagine Simon getting this truck grody as hell.
Now everything's at his fingertips, including the new Xtrak from Uniden. So it's a uhf radio
in-car. We've got controls for our mirrors. Don't forget the compact, so fully controllable from
inside the car. Also if you had things like lights and you had blind spot and cameras, they can all
be fitted into the mirrors. So if you're thinking about recording the next crash that you're going
to have, or you literally just record your entire adventure as you're driving along,
then you're going to need one of those Uniden dash cams which we have installed in this truck.
Now last but not least, because we do a lot of towing, definitely do a lot of towing in the bush,
we've got the Tow-Pro from Redarc. Fully-adjustable, automatic or manual,
depending on what sort of driving that you're doing. Off-road, we're using the auto
as well as the manual. You got to hand it to it, this truck is set up really well. It's even
got controls for the front winch inside the cab with a press button in and out.
So you wouldn't build a rig to this extent without putting a canopy on the back.
So the guys at Norweld have gone and put the All 4 Adventure D-MAX canopy on the back, new and
improved. Now I would have to say that the Norweld canopy has to be one of the toughest canopies
that we've ever used when it comes to off-road touring builds. This one especially, with its new
improved design features, no doubt about it mate, it makes home away from home really simple.
Norweld makes canopies that suits most popular four-wheel drives out on the market these days.
The way we make our our product is is we make them strong. One of the best out on the markets.
We engineer our mounts. We engineer a lot of our products. And we have exclusive products that are
just solely built for Norweld. The boys from All 4 Adventure there, they choose our canopy
because I think it works for what they do. Jase and Simon both like the look of our canopies.
They work well, ergonomically well for what they do. They've always come back from their trips
and singing our praise and saying that nothing broke. And this is where those guys come in handy,
and they test these things for us. And then we may be able to put it out on the production line.
It ticks all the three boxes for them: the ergonomics, the styling, and I guess,
the weight of the canopy as well, because they do load their trucks up a lot. So these canopies can
handle that, but they're also light enough to be able to pack a lot more in their vehicles.
The externals are the same dimensions, the same, just the internals we have changed
slightly to suit Simon's needs and also put in a modular shelf on the driver's side to pack
some of his stuff in there. There are some safety features that have been added to the
new D-MAXs now with their blind spot sensors and their rear reverse sensors. We've been able to
work with Isuzu Australia in removing their tubs and putting our canopies on and making
them work. So yeah, we are seeing a lot more coming through now, and yeah it's good to see.
Now when you set the canopy up, you're going to have to start
to think about what sort of power we're going to put into it.
When you're off grid, you need 12 volt power. So you're going to need solar power, you're going
to need batteries, and you're going to need a management system to run it. So with Redarc,
we've got the Manager30 running the whole system, and we've got their new lithium batteries as well.
Redarc 2000 watt inverter, 30 amp battery management system, RedVision display.
The Easyslides that are in this canopy are there to not only house the fridge,
but they're also there to hold the Clearview pantry. Now it's got a lot of space, because
you've got to put a lot of food in this truck. Because we know how much Simon likes his tucker.
Now there's no doubt about it, there's a lot of storage room inside these canopies.
Not only inside, but in the toolboxes on the sides.
There's also a rear drawer which I found is perfect for all your CampBoss recovery gear.
Now mounted on top of the canopy is, of course, where you're going to sleep.
And I'll tell you what, I'm really excited to announce that we have got
on top of this canopy the new Campboss clamshell rooftop tent.
And it has to be one of the easiest rooftop tents to set up on the market. We've designed it
so that it's easy to set up and very comfortable. Now the material that's used in this rooftop tent
is a 280 gsm canvas. Waterproof, it's windproof, it's really good for those hot nights up in the
top end of Australia, but also just as effective if you're using it down south in the cold weather.
Let's face it, a lot of time, a lot of effort has been put into this truck.
And it's those little details that really make it,
right down to, you know, the guys at Signorama that have wrapped this truck from front to rear
that give it that awesome look. It is Australia's, probably I reckon, Australia's toughest D-MAX, but
it's also set up for touring. It's not just a show pony. It also can handle the tracks.
Nothing like speeding through a water crossing.
This is nuts.
Maxy2, don't let me down.
It's all going on.
Oh yeah.