Full transcript of the video
- Hey folks. So today we're doing a reviewer's ride with Andrew here and his Prado. 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? 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. 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. So, which I found awesome. What about around the back? 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. 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.
- 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.
