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HORIZON WARATAH 4X4 TESTED
MALCOLM
STREETWords
& PicsO
ne of the benefits of being the boss
of your own company, say Horizon
Motorhomes, is you have a considerable
amount of influence if you want to build
your product for personal use. Such is the
case with the Waratah motorhome owned by
Horizon's proprietor, Clayton Kearney.
The Waratah is based on a Mercedes-Benz
Sprinter van conversion which, unlike most
Sprinters, has the added bonus of Benz’s four-
wheel-drive system. This is very useful when
exploring the outback roads of Australia.
It’s slightly less of a challenge but it’s also
good for exploring some of the back roads
around the hinterland area of Ballina. I took
a little drive up to the Nightcap National Park
because I have not seen much of that area
before and the Waratah proved to be quite a
handy vehicle for doing that, especially given
the heavy rain that lurked from time to time.
Getting down to a few more precise facts,
the Waratah is built on a long wheel base
Sprinter 519CDI. Which means the van has
a 4490kg GVM (downgraded from 5000kg
for driver’s licence reasons) and a maximum
power of 190hp/140kW. No idea why all the
metrified Euro vehicle manufacturers still
rate their engines in horsepower but they do.
Currently this particular Sprinter model gets
a five-speed automatic gearbox but the next
generation Sprinter, currently arriving on our
shores, will get the same seven-speed, as fitted
to 2WD Benz vehicles.WORKING IN TANDEM
A little question to consider, is the Benz 4X4 a
real four-wheel-drive or not? Well, yes and no.
How it works is that when in normal 2WD, the
engine drives the dual rear wheels but it does
have high and low range 4X4 when required
and it’s all operated by buttons, rather than
gear levers.
In addition, it all works in tandem with the
4ETS (four-wheel electronic traction control)
and Adaptive ESP, an electronic stability
program. Thus, wheel spin on any wheel is
limited and the vehicle is kept under control
to minimise skidding or other loss of control.