Hils Everitt – editor

After enjoying some excellent offroading in the lee of the rolling hills of Herefordshire, our Rodeo Denver Max LE pick-up truck has been put to more everyday use. Over the years the longterm pick-ups on the magazine fleet have been extensively used for hauling stuff around – and on many occasions shifting various bits of furniture.

This time our blue machine became the removal van for bookcases, rugs, tables and chairs and various other bits of furniture from Sevenoaks to a fl at in London. In all our pick-up tests the Rodeo has always lost out to others with its loadbed dimensions, with an area of 0.7m3. We put that to the test and did find that, as you can see from the picture, a 174cm bookcase just couldn’t fit in, so we had to leave the rear window ajar to transport it. Even an ironing board only just made it. The huge protruding wheelarches don’t help matters. A trip to the garden centre to fill up with plants is fine, but if you want to carry skis, furniture, long planks of wood and still have the security of the trucktop then this isn’t ideal for load-carrying.

Louise Limb – contributor

You can imagine my dismay when, flicking through what passes for my vehicle paperwork, I found that my warranty had run out. I’d just given the Suzuki main dealer over £350 to service my vehicle and their cheerfulness was annoying. Yes, it would have been covered under my warranty but don’t worry, they chirped, it’s not an expensive repair and we’ll be kind over the man hours it will take as you’re a regular’. I groaned inwardly; Barclaycard’s well-spoken, if slightly stilted, automaton would be on the phone again just checking that yet another three-figure purchase on my account was really mine.

Garry Stuart – freelance photographer

Over the past month or so the Terrano has served as transport to several assignments in Cornwall and Dover plus single trips to Anglesey and Northumberland, racking up the mileage in the process. Touch wood, there has been very little to report as the truck itself has been running as smoothly and reliably as ever. The heater matrix has not yet been repaired, but the water levels have remained constant, not even needing a top-up after covering thousands of kilometres. Strange, it must have repaired itself. Maybe some debris got lodged in the hole?

In Devon, the Terrano was put to light offroad duties carrying me and my kit around the expansive grounds of Newnham Park as I photographed the three-day ALRC Nationals for sister magazine Land Rover World.

Kevin Baldwin – contributor

Shock horror, the 90 has encountered its first real problem in 12 months of ownership. The metallic creaking sound I heard through the open window as I pulled away from my local filling station didn’t bode well at all. Luckily for me, I was less than five minutes from our workshop, where with the 90 wheels jacked up we assumed that a failing CV joint was the likely diagnosis. Stripping the hub to get at the CV would, instead, reveal a bone-dry front wheelbearing.

Ann Lockley – contributor

Like lost puppies, I have brought home several automotive lemons in my life but none quite like ‘Kelsey’, my 1991 Range Rover Great Divide Edition (GDE). Like a dog that has been rescued from an appalling situation, she had more proverbial baggage to work on and repair then I care to list, but, in the end, has proven to be the best of companions.

I came by ‘Kels’ in February 2007 when she was bought from a Boise, Idaho location on eBay by my good friend, Stuart Longair, to be the sister of his ‘Chelsea’, GDE #319. I was in need of a Land Rover to use as a daily driver that could double as a trail rig since my immaculate Rutland red 2004 Freelander SE3 was not up to the latter and thus for sale. I bought Kels from Stuart thinking that the Range Rover would be an extremely capable intermediate vehicle until I could import a 110 from the UK.

Bob Cooke – contributor

The Cherokee is my off-road plaything but everyone else sees it as a big truck. Hence whenever anyone has something big to move, who they gonna call? ‘Oh, Bob’ll move it, he’s got that big Cherokee!’ I keep trying to tell them that the Cherokee is a compact 4×4, but no-one listens.

The first call came from Tim who’d bought a doghouse at auction for Elaine’s Chocolate Labrador Conker. “It won’t fit in Elaine’s MX5,” he said. Of course not – and we were only able to squeeze it into the Cherokee after we’d knocked off some of the roof-edging trim. Then Kerrie needed the scenery for her travelling play shifted, so the Cherokee was again called into service, with seven sturdy 4ftx7ft stage flats strapped to the roof and the cargo bay bursting at the seams with props, including a fake fireplace and two heavy supporting beams. Last, but by no means least, Saffron decided to have a couple of chickens for her birthday which meant – you’ve guessed it – I had to collect the chicken shed needed to house her two feathered friends. There followed an 80-mile round trip to Herne Bay to collect and deliver the chicken shed, which was only just wide enough to scrape through the Cherokee’s tailgate opening, but being a foot too long I had to tie the tailgate down against the shed with a ratchet strap wound round the tow hitch.