Robert Pepper

It’s 06:55 in the morning and I’m just about to have the first coffee of the day. In about an hour I’ll be loading the family into our Discovery 3 along with my camera gear. The Disco is ready to roll as I was under it last night replacing a bashplate and checking it over. It’s full of fuel, but we don’t plan on using it all today even though we’re off on a day trip. We’ll be meeting some friends in Geelong, south-west of Melbourne and wandering off in the Otway National Park to just drive some tracks and see what happens. We’ll probably stop for morning tea, maybe do a short bushwalk or two, enjoy the scenery and drop out onto the Great Ocean Road. Or maybe not. Could be we spend five hours recovering a vehicle or two chain sawing trees off tracks.

Nigel Fryatt – editor

It always strikes me that when off-roading, you need eyes all over the place. You’re looking ahead, both sides and in the case of a long wheelbase truck like my Hilux, it’s worth watching the tail too. Of course, one of the most important areas is under the vehicle. Yes, you can look ahead, but drive over an obstacle, dislodge rocks and rubble and the track underneath your vehicle will be a bit different than what you last saw. Wading too, can be difficult. Again, you can follow all the rules, wade out and check the depth and poke and prod the ground to see if it’s firm, but you’ll never know exactly what’s there. Which is where underbody protection comes in.

Bob Cooke – contributor

The ground was soft, calling for careful progress to prevent the bar grip tyres from sinking deep into the boggy earth below; something big had passed by this way, probably during the previous summer, churning the ground into a ripple of humps and hollows among the closely-packed trees, so the effect was almost like fighting a Hobie cat through the waves on the way to the beach, attempting not to run down any of the mass of swimmers in the process. Eugene made steady progress, avoiding the deeper ruts, steering gently among the trees… until suddenly and inexplicably the Hotchkiss came to a dead stop. There seemed to be no obvious reason – the Hotchkiss hadn’t bellied down in the soft stuff, it hadn’t become cross-axled… and then someone called out: “Oy – you’ve caught it on a tree!”

Hils Everitt – Editor at Large

After two severe winters, the South East escaped relatively unscathed this time. Here on my Greensand ridge we had a light dusting one day, which didn’t last and we thought that we may have escaped after all the warnings. The weather was mild, and then we hit a really cold snap, but still no precipitation.

Temperatures dropped to well below freezing and I was glad that I had my General Grabber ATs holding up the silver machine’s four corners. The feeling of reassurance you get with a decent set of tyres in poor conditions is priceless. When the heavy snow did finally arrive on Saturday night – as predicted – in early February while I was having dinner at a friend’s house in the countryside I was very glad of my ‘GGs’.

Louise Limb – contributor

It’s been an unexpectedly slithery couple of months since my last joyful report as I looked forward to adequate road holding and relatively stress free cornering after investing in new Bridgestone tyres. While I do little serious off-roading in the Grand Vitara – it is after all my only car, so it must take me reliably from A-B at all times, I do drive an awful lot of winding country lanes, usually slick with manure filled tractor tracks or strewn with windblown vegetation. I was looking forward to tackling these hazards with gusto, confident I could stop quickly after the work on my off side brake to even up the performance of both front brakes and with the reassurance of brand new rubber between me and the road.

Hils Everitt – Editor at Large

This year’s medical check-up was a special one for my silver machine as it coincided with its 10th birthday; yep first registered in January 2002. It looks its age in some ways, such as the Jeep badging losing its lacquer in some places and the alloys certainly show the signs of a double-figure life, but in others, it looks good with the interior not bad at all. OK, so the black leather seats are rather creased, but I rather like that lived-in, comfy look and they really are still some of the comfiest seats I have nestled into – and that goes for some of the current luxury models that my backside has experienced recently.

Sue Loy

Why is it that impending MOT day reminds you of school exams? All of a sudden all confidence disappears and you are convinced you are going to fail – or in this case, the vehicle’s going to fail. No matter that the thing has been ultra reliable, isn’t making any funny noises and all the obvious bits seem to work. Somehow you still have the feeling of impending doom.