IVECO DAILY 4X4 REVIEW Versus Toyota Land Cruiser 79 DC

I have a question. Are trucks like the Evico Daily that have over a thousand kilograms more payload than your average land cruiser, are they true contenders for overland touring trucks in Australia and Africa? I don't know but I'm determined to find out. I'm Andrew St Pier White. Join me as I share my passion for building four-wheel drive trucks and then traveling to the remotest parts of the world. So there is so much space in this thing it's a different it's it's it's not just like a big land cruiser or a big land rover it's not it's it's it's a different animal altogether. It feels like a car but it's nothing like a car. That's because standing next to a land cruiser it's a lot bigger, wider, taller and longer. But how much bigger is it in reality? It's 2.6 meters high, five and a half meters long, the wheel track width is 1.67 meters and its curb weight is 2.990 kilograms. Whereas the land cruiser length 5.23 meters, width 1.87 meters, height 2.115 meters, a curb weight of 2.175 kilograms and a gross vehicle mass of 3.300 kilograms. That means that the Evico is 170 millimeters longer, wheel track is just 115 millimeters wider, the height is close to a half a meter higher, curb weight is over 800 kilograms higher and while many of us will believe that trucks of this size will have over a ton more payload than say a land cruiser, that's actually not the case. Here we're actually talking about half a ton at most, which on the face of it might not seem a lot, but it is in fact a considerable increase. In the driver's seat spatial orientation is very very good. You sit in here you can you can gauge the four corners of the vehicle instantaneously, mainly because of the high driving position, very short bonnet and outstanding rear vision mirrors. They really are excellent. So stepping from an ordinary vehicle into a big vehicle like this has taken me no time at all. In terms of the ride though, it's quite choppy and it's not great, but this vehicle isn't loaded. We don't have it. This vehicle empty is not particularly nice to drive, even on tarmac. It's a bit jumpy. With a load, I know for a fact that that is going to improve an enormous amount. So again, from going from an ordinary four-wheel drive into a big vehicle like this, you would think it would be a huge adjustment. It's not. And of course the question you've all been waiting for, how good is the Avico off-road? We're going to give the Avico an off-road test on perhaps what is Perth's best known off-road obstacle course called the Power Line Track. Anybody who has anybody in four-wheel driving in Australia, well certainly Western Australia, has been here. This is my first visit. So we're going to see how she does. Now the low range gearing is interesting. The vehicle has two transfer boxes. I have more than your average set of choices. I don't have less low range and high range. I have another low range and high range. A second one, which is almost like an overdrive. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to leave it in high range on the low transfer box, but I'm going to keep it in low on the high ratio box. Okay. And I'm going to go through that with, but I am going to give it a chance. I'm going to send, I'm going to lock the centre locker. Okay. So I can press that in. So we are in four-wheel drive, but our axle lockers are open. The 37-inch tyres means that the Avico has massive clearance and axle articulation is best described as respectable. What's really interesting is to see how easy it will go if you put the lockers on. Okay. All right. We're just going to use a back locker. That should be enough. Has it given me a signal that it's locked? Nothing obvious in the dash that that back is locked, but I'm going to assume it. I'm going to see if I can crawl out. Oh, we got through it. First one. I'm going to stop on the flats. It's easier for me to climb inside. Notwithstanding the fact that we found a very difficult obstacle to start with, the feel of the vehicle is actually very, very car-like, except when the vehicle starts tilting. Because you're so high off the ground, that lean is exaggerated, but visibility is really good. Because you're so high, you can actually see really into really, really deep holes, which is an advantage. But the clutch and everything, getting used to it, it's not taking me a long time to do that. Yaki's now going to drive this extreme axle twister because I want to have a look at the vehicle from the outside. I want to see what the wheels do. And we're going to photograph it with cameras underneath the vehicle as well and get an idea of how good the vehicle's axle articulation really is. Helping me understand this vehicle this morning is Yaki Yuber from Quickpitch. He's a very experienced rally driver and off-roader. You'll find that in this kind of soil, it's more difficult than rocky section. Even if it's steeper than rock, you get more bike grip. There's very little grip here. It's just marbles on marbles. As far as I can tell, compression braking is really good. And I'm going to just now put it to the test where I go in full low on both gearboxes and let the vehicle drive itself with my feet off the pedals. Okay, let's go into second because that's going to take us half the week to get down the bottom of the hill. It's not a particularly steep slope, but it's a good way of seeing if the vehicle will run away. And I don't think it's second. This is second and we are inching along. This is the equivalent of most four-wheel drives low first, if not lower. And in fact, I would say on sand, you're just low range. Low first would just dig yourself in. I think it would almost be useless on sand. What I try and do is I put myself in the position of being an owner of such a vehicle and taking it on tracks and loading it up with my family and going and doing trips. And this here is, I think, probably quite typical of an overland track where there's a lumpy bit. How good is the suspension at keeping one comfortable? This is going to bounce us around quite a bit. Question is, how much? It's a little bit faster than I would normally drive this kind of thing. See what happens. It's quite satisfying to drive, the engine being a truck, the gears are much closer together than you would normally have. That's the reason for the extra transfer box. So you can stretch that if you feel like it. So again, ask the people in the back, what do you think? Backseat comfort in the back of a Land Cruiser is fairly comfortable, but far from spacious. In the Evico, it's hugely spacious, but far from comfortable. Bouncy. It was bouncy, but I mean, for the terrain, I was evaluating the terrain towards the suspension and we were going faster than what you would have, but I think it's not bad. Watch out for that tree. That was really cool. Time now to take it to another off-road destination and on the way, learn more about it on road. At speed, maintaining 90, 100, 110, no problems at all. The engine is great, the gearing is fantastic. I think you get used to really sprung seats. You can set them to your own weight. Once you've got it right, it absorbs a lot of the vibration. There is more vibration than you will get from an ordinary four-wheel drive. It's nice to drive. It's relaxing to drive, but it is quite noisy. Now, most of that noise, without question, is coming from the, there is also a fair amount of engine noise, which can be sorted with more sound insulation and tyres. I probably wouldn't put such aggressive tyres on a vehicle such as this, if I owned it, because there's not a lot you can do about very noisy tyres and the noise levels in here are pretty high. Another four-wheel drive playground, close to the city of Perth, are the Lancelin Dunes, where it's sand, sand and more sand. I've got sand in my face. The part of the vehicle that I'm finding the most difficult to get used to is getting in and out of it. Right, let's see how well this thing does in soft sand. Given that it has 37-inch wheels, we have reduced the pressures down to 16 psi. I'm thinking that it's probably going to be rather good. I'm in low. Okay, let's pull off in low second. Okay, so actually, if I go down this slope in low first, it'll probably stop. Where's my stop? That's low first. Have a cup of tea. I know, let's have a game of table tennis. There's almost enough space in here to have a game of table tennis. It's low first. I'm trying to think of something intelligent to say. Oh, the dashboard is pretty plain. Ventilation system works well. People complained in the back that they were getting too cold from the aircon, which is a good sign. There's bags of space to put stuff. Not that many pockets to put, you know, and only was a cup holder down there, but it's about seven feet below me. Not as many cup holders as I'd like, but these are just little niggly inconsequential things. And the gear change itself, as long as you don't hurry it, it's like an ordinary car. This thing has seriously low gear, which really means that in sand, it's going to be able to chew up and get out of almost anything. And the engine has got so much power at such low RPM. This thing is really good. It's really good. So let me try a side slope, because a side slope is a great measure of a vehicle's power. In a situation where you, you know, to drive on side slopes, you need power. So now fighting against the slope, actually fighting the car against the slope and seeing what the car does against the slope. This thing's climbing the slope and you just keep the RPM steady and up she goes. It's not fun like a, like a, like say an FJ cruiser, which is just fun with capital F on dunes, because it's light and it's maneuverable and you can chuck it around, which is not the case here. So now the, the gear sticks do take a bit of getting used to, but you actually have 18 choices of forward gear, which sounds ridiculous, but it's actually not, because now once you get used to a vehicle, you will know that this particular terrain will, that's what you do and it works like my Land Cruiser. Low range third gear with this, up she goes. It's just a magic gear. So that's what we tried. We got low, the red lever back, so high range on the low transfer gearbox, high range on the, the high transfer gearbox and second gear. And that's what is being suggested. Let's give it a try. This of course is the single cab version with a full length tray camper on it. And this is how I would see me traveling with an Evco daily. This vehicle is perfect for the kind of traveler, like a Grey Moon Nomad, wants to do an extended trip, months, years maybe, traveling around Australia, across America, wherever, where you're living out of the vehicle, but you're also traveling to extremely remote places. Because let's face it, a lighter camper van, similar size, smaller wheels, is going to use less fuel, it's going to be nicer to drive and you'll have just the comfort in the back and probably more comfort in the front. But the difference between this vehicle and that kind of camper van is that this can travel the most difficult, challenging roads you can imagine. It has everything built in it. So if you're one of those people that want to live out of your truck, but you want to find yourself in the world's most remote spots, this is the best I've seen and driven so far. Bushcruiser, that's answered a question for me. I was always wondering, with these large vehicles like the Bushcruiser and the Earthcruiser, are they too big to be allowed in game reserves like this? This just answered my question. I didn't actually have an answer. Obviously they are big enough, which is really good news, because I'm going to be trying one out quite soon. One of these bigger camper type vehicles. To summarize, what do I think is fantastic about the Uveco Daily? Gearing. The fact that you've got so many forward gears is one thing, but the second thing is that they're so well planted. There's this gear for everything and I love it. Off-road, it's performance off-road, yes it's very big, it doesn't feel that big, it's agile, it's great. I love the engine. This has an amazing engine and I think that this kind of engine, you know, even in a sedan car would be amazing, but for a four-wheel drive, it's easy, it revs high when you want it to, it's got lots and lots of torque at low rpm, it's really really good. What don't I like? The fact that I have to climb a ladder every time I have to get in and out. That to me is the biggest single thing about the vehicle that I would find the most difficult to get used to and I think that would apply more to me than most operators because I'm always getting in and out of the vehicle as I make my films. On a trail, I'll get in and out of it 30-40 times during the day, so that's not it for everybody. So that is the only thing I think that I would have to work hard to get used to and I would be very fit after an average three or four week trail. Other than that, as a platform for a camper, it is brilliant, really really good. I'm very impressed. So what would stop me personally from getting in a vehicle daily? One major problem that I have personally with a vehicle in that the amount of energy I would expel getting in and out of it would make it a very tiring vehicle to own. On an average shoot, I would be getting in and out of the vehicle 30-40 times every single day. I just couldn't do it. So if you're the kind of traveller that stops really really often and you're in and out of the vehicle all the time, all of the day, then I would have a very close look at staying with a smaller sized vehicle because this size vehicle could easily be hugely frustrating.