P
icking the right vehicle
to get you and your pride
and joy from the garage
to the track is no longer
an easy decision. Once
upon a time, utes were
too horrible to drive and
four-wheel-drives and trailers were a
thing of the future.
The most common tool a few decades
back was a van. But, with SUVs now
resembling the carriage Cinderella rode
away in and trailers no longer just seen
as 10-tonne boat anchors, the world of
dirtbike hauling just got a lot bigger.
We often get asked what we use to
haul test bikes around and, over the
decade that I’ve worked for ADB, it’s
been a combination of vans and
four-wheel-drive utes. The next
question they ask is, why? This then
opens the door to a bunch of subjective
discourse as to why each person thinks
their hauler is better. I find van pilots
the stubbornest.
Our current dirtbike hauler is a
Mitsubishi Triton ute. We selected afour-wheel-drive for three reasons: it
had all-paw grip so Big Red could
drown it while fording puddles, it had
five seats and it was compact and easy
to manoeuvre.
The straw that killed it for vans as far
as ADB was concerned was about five
years ago when I was racing a grasstrack
at Portland, NSW, with Oyster Bay
Motorcycle Club. To get to the parking
area you crossed a small causeway and
then climbed a dirt road with a sharp
turn into the pits. Naturally, our Toyota
Hiace SLWB bellied out making the
turn and I was beached.
Not only was this embarrassing in
front of hundreds of laughing race
fans, but I was running late for
scrutineering and didn’t have time to
play ‘unbog the van’. After several
attempts, momentum finally got us
there but I swore never to drive a van
again. So, to help you pick your next
dirtbike hauler we selected a random
vehicle to represent each category
and weighed up the pros and cons
of each.Legend
- Category
- The style of vehicle
- Vehicle
- Our favourite machine from each category
- Cruisability
- What’s it like on the freeway?
- Nickability
- How safe is your gear when you’re out
riding? - Versatility
- Where can it go and what can it do?
- Idiot resistance
- How hard are they to drive?
- Loading
- How hard is it to load bikes and gear?
- Gangsta factor
- How cool doesit look?
- Piloting
- What was it like to drive?
- Fifth wheels
- Is it passenger friendly?
- Motel on wheels
- Can you sleepin it?
- Cash money
- Is it good value for money?
http://www.adbmag.com JANUARY 2018 | 113