CUNNING HACKS
OUR CUNNING HACK THIS MONTH COMES FROM THE CREATIVE MIND OF BAY OF PLENTY 4X4 MAN ELI RIKARD.
Eli Rikard is pretty much a serial 4WD owner. He bought his first, an Isuzu MU, at the age of 16 and has gone on to own over 16 Toyota Surfs since.
Some have been his daily drivers while others have been acquired for parts.
He builds his own vehicles, with help from friends and is has a set pattern. It’s got to be manual and its got to be Turbo Diesel.
As time went by, he got more and more into the outdoors freedom that a 4WD can offer and started getting into river runs and camping like the rest of us.
His last Toyota Surf was fairly highly modified mechanically and had a snorkel and lots of other goodies but he finally decided that he needed something bigger if he was really going to get into the Overlanding way of life.
The 80s were better
He settled on an old 80 Series Toyota Land Cruiser and set about making it the tool for the job. Just a few of the many modifications included a 4” lift, 3” exhaust, bar, winch, UHF and heaps under the bonnet!
Having done all of this, he’s now starting to think about the camping/Overlanding side of the fit out. He’s going to be adding a third battery with the necessary battery management system, solar blanket, charging sockets and a fridge. He also has a rooftop tent and awning.
Air apparent
The real subject of this article is coming up... He had an old air tank in his garage that he was thinking of using as a water tank. He then realised that having some compressed air on board would make “airing up” so much quicker. Many expensive on board compressors have an air tank as part of the system.
As it turned out he was having some custom Rock Sliders made up at the time and asked the fabricator to add some valves. He did, and now the Rock Sliders are compressed air tanks and can be used to inflate all four tyres at the same time! He still uses the compressor but doesn’t need to wait for the pressure to build up.
I thought that this was such a brilliant idea, one that will save time on the trackside, that I had to ‘write-it-up’ as a Cunning Hack.
I hope you agree. And remember, the Cunning Hack column is for everyone out there in NZ4WD reader-land. If you have come up with your own ‘Cunning Hack,’ or you see one on someone else’s truck that you think is worth sharing with the rest of us, email a brief (or full story, either is fine) to me (Richard Soult) at richard@ 4x4explore.co.nz or to Ross the Editor of this fine publication at editor@ nz4wd.co.nz with whatever supporting photos you might have.
And we will take it from there!