(lively rock music)
(techno music)
(piano instrumental)
- Hey everybody. What' going on?
We're out here in the
middle of the Mojave Desert
with a bunch of jerks.
(Alan laughing)
Having a good time.
And we found some pretty good camp spots.
And, we've learned that,
with one member of our crew,
if they say, "Might be alright,"
it means it's gonna be an epic location.
(Alan laughing)
We've had epic spot after epic spot.
And we're going to take a
look, by popular request.
I've been posting pictures on the Gram
and everyone is like, "I wanna
see a walkaround of that G4."
So that's what we're doing today.
We're gonna do a walkaround.
This is Alan's G4.
Before we dive in,
let's get to know Alan
a little bit better.
Why don't you give everyone
your social security number?
- Sure.
(Michael laughing)
02478 (bleep)
- Tell us about you?
Where are you from?
- Yeah, I'm originally from Ireland.
I immigrated here in the
90s, I was in my twenties.
I've been living in
California most of the time.
Lived in the East Coast for a little bit.
- And now you are, you're
based in Sacramento?
- Yeah.
- And what do you do?
- I make a living as a
fireman in Sacramento.
- Great.
- Fire captain.
- That is awesome.
Thanks for that.
First responder.
- I love that job.
- Tell us about the G4.
Just basically about this vehicle, the G4.
What is the, what is the year?
And then a bit specifically
about the G4 Land Rover.
- Well first of all, you
can't miss this thing.
The bright orange.
- Yeah.
- And that can be explained.
So in 2004,
it was called the G4 Challenge.
It was something that
replaced Camel Trophy.
And what they did was is
they manufactured vehicles
for the G4 challenge, and
then what they did too
is they went off and they
took the same vehicles
they had specially made for the challenge
and put them out to market and sold them.
- And do you know the
specific differences,
some of the specific differences of the G4
compared to the standard model?
- Yeah, so mine is not exact as it was
when it was first rolled out
but will be very similar.
- I saw some shiny parts
underneath the suspension.
(Alan laughing)
I saw some new stuff.
- You have to try and find it.
But,
yeah.
It was a HSE package,
which is a higher package.
Just in the bumper, they
recessed in a winch.
And then, the drive train
was pretty much the same.
And then just in the
rear you just don't have,
or didn't have any on the
extra seats in the back
or extra seat belts, stuff like that.
The rear cargo area was left free.
And then of course, it has
a central locking diff.
This year, this is kind of the year
when Land Rover was going
with traction control.
A very typical Land
Rover, Range Rover thing
where they go, they're ahead of the game
in terms of the off-road technology.
So this is kind of a newer
thing that they had developed.
When I got it originally, it
had a very similar light setup.
And of course, they
just aged out and broke.
They were halogen and it
sucked a ton of energy
out of the battery and it
would run the battery down.
So, I updated but wanted
to keep that kinda look.
So, we've got PIAA again and they're LED,
and they're super bright.
And these nixy complement
on the front, the high beam.
And then the two central
ones again, on the trail,
we just point them out a little further.
But the nice things with the two side ones
is again, they're just
oriented out on the side
so you can make out the side of the trail.
And of course, two separate switches
so I'm not blinding the driver
who's directly in front of me.
- Alright.
Why don't we walk around this thing.
- Yeah.
- Take a look.
Alright, snorkel.
- So this is a Mantec snorkel.
Mantec does that last time for Rover.
And, the reason that it's on there
is I was messing about with some friends
and one of them also had a Discovery
and of course, we challenge each other
and you try and go as deep
as you can in mud and water.
And I was that close to
water locking my engine.
So it was actually a,
I was working with a mechanic
at the time and he was like,
"You probably should put
a snorkel on this thing."
- If you gonna run it like that.
- If you gonna be,
if you gonna do something
as silly as that.
- Now you have the snorkel
running reverse out.
A lot of people run it running forward,
and a lot of people run
it running sideways.
So, any reason for it?
What's your rationale?
- Yeah.
Because I've had that one where
people come up and they go,
"Hey man, it's pointing the wrong way."
- It's not, by the way.
It's not
- Yeah, I know.
For me it's interesting 'cause
it's something that comes up.
You have a snorkel, you end up
having conversations about it.
- Yeah.
- So, for my setup, because
I am typically, you know,
like carry-on on a heavy road, it's dusty.
- Yes, exactly.
- If I have that oriented backwards
means there's less chance of driving
the dust and dirt down as my airflow.
- You're interested more in clean air,
not cool air necessarily.
- Not cool air, exactly.
- Not ram jetting air into
the intake, you are clean air.
- And that's where, I totally get it,
when you point in forward,
you make it very large,
'cause you're just trying to
force cold air down there.
That's not the goal.
It's to try and keep
water from splashing up
into the engine, and then
also keep the dust out.
- So I see you have the only
tire that matters on here.
- Yes.
(both laughing)
I love that tire.
- So I see you're
running BFGoodrich tires.
You have the all-terrain.
Tell us about your suspension.
Anything different about your suspension?
- Yeah, they're just bigger springs.
- Okay.
- RT Fab, which is a couple of
yards out in the East Coast,
they make a great spring.
They also gave me some
other bits and pieces
to assist with the lift,
making it a 3-inch lift,
and any ideas to approximate 33-inch tire.
'Cause the goal was, as
you know, you're lifting it
so you can put a bigger tire on it, right?
And also too, I wanted to go with a tire
that is something that you
can have in any tire store.
There's no special ordering involved.
It's a size that's quite popular
and a brand too, that's popular.
- Tell us about your
cockpit, the interior.
Anything you wanna point out there?
- I just like having.
You know over time, you
just find there's things
that you find yourself reaching for a lot,
and there's lots of things that you don't.
So it just evolves over time.
So for me, when I'm sitting in here,
my cockpit is pretty simple.
It's not a lot of stuff in here.
Just a phone, the phone's mounted
and sometimes I'll have Gaia
or some other mapping stuff.
I've got my radio, ham.
Which seems to be kinda of
what more people are going towards, ham.
Again, the licensing is--
- [Michael] That's true.
- [Alan] Yeah.
- [Michael] It's just so much better.
- [Alan] It's easy, licensing
is not very difficult.
There's people that'll
help you with the testing,
I think clubs and stuff.
- Go and get your ham license.
(Alan laughing)
- Yeah.
And it's great 'cause there's
people out there to help you,
through the testing process too.
And then once you have it, it's great.
So, it's an inexpensive radio.
It didn't cost an awful
lot, got on Amazon.
Had a friend pick the right one
and you just wire it to your battery.
- Did you mention the name of
it, which one you went with?
- It's TYT.
- How long have you had it?
- So I've had that just over a year.
- And it's working fine?
- And it's working fine, yeah.
- Cool.
- I'm sure you can get
something a bit more steady
but it works, does the job.
And then just simple things.
Like your sunscreen, bug spray,
the controller for the winch.
It's all just in this area.
There's a pair of gloves,
one or two simple tools
I think I might need,
depending on what I've been
doing with the vehicle.
Just a simple, like a 13mm
wrench, just so that I can,
the rooftop tent, so I can
tighten it down if I need to.
- Cool, cool.
Rack, is that what came with the G4?
- So, yes.
Safety Device, English company.
So this is what they
went with, with the G4.
And, so yeah.
When I bought it, this is what was on it.
And it's showing its age
but it continues to work.
I did modify it a little bit recently
by chopping off some of the basket
so I could get the rooftop
tent down a bit lower.
That's really the only
change I've made to it.
- It's a solid one-piece unit.
- It's solid.
Simple, one-piece unit.
- And, tell me about your sliders.
- What I went with was
true Atlantic British.
They have videos that typically
go along their products
so you can do it at home yourself.
- That's one of the first
things you wanna do.
People ask this all the time,
"Hey, what's your order of upgrade?"
And for us it's tires,
suspension, sliders,
and then basically work
from the ground up.
What about the middle row?
Anything, is that just
your, what's going on there?
- So for me, it all
depends on the journey,
where you're going and who's going.
So, on this trip, it's just me
but it's not unusual for my wife
and my daughter to come as well.
So, for me what I do is, the rear seats,
I can either fold them up
or sometimes I'll just unbolt a seat
and create a huge amount
of space back here.
Then on the seat as well we have,
the biggest bag is all the recovery gear.
Hoping to not use it but it has
been used a couple of times.
And it's your basic recovery bag.
We've got the straps, and we
have the D rings and we have.
It's a simple but so far,
everything that I've needed
has been in that bag when
I needed it for recovery.
And then just bags with
tools, spare parts, fluids.
And then for airing up and
airing down, I went with Viair.
- Very popular.
- Very popular, yeah.
- Yeah, yeah.
- You can just pop into a lot of stores
and just buy right off the shelf.
- If I were to ask you from 10
psi to 35 psi on these tires,
how long do you think that
would take per tire with that?
- It doesn't feel very
long, maybe five minutes.
- Okay, that's reasonable.
- That's reasonable for me.
- I'm 11.
- Yeah?
- Yeah.
(both laughing)
I know you can go bigger on compressors,
you can go as big as you want.
- [Michael] Alright, hey.
I saw you a have Overland
Pros rooftop tent.
- [Alan] Yes.
- [Michael] Tell us about it.
And then we'll look at
the other side of it too.
- [Alan] Yeah.
Well, I was introduced to the tent
by Ted and Nick, two
guys who are club members
with Northern California Land Rover Club,
and I am a member of that.
- [Michael] The guy that
recommends Okay Campsites?
- Okay Campsites.
They try not to be amazing.
(Michael laughing)
What I like about this tent is that
it fits for the environment
that we're in right now.
So, just in the desert, it
just comes out of nowhere,
especially the spring time,
you just get those pummeling winds.
And if you leave it just the way it is
and just pop it up and you
don't have the rainfly on there,
it comes right taut, which
means you don't get vibration
and you don't get that
flapping noise as much.
You can't remove it all but it has that.
And again too,
I think I've have mentioned
this more than once already
but in terms of pricing,
it's reasonable for what you're getting.
- Yeah.
- You're getting a lot of tent
for the price that you're paying.
- You don't need a rainfly
for it as well, right?
Is that right?
- Yeah, it's not.
So the material, waterproof, it's ripstop.
- [Michael] Yep.
- [Alan] The big YKK zippers
which I have tore near,
pulled and togged and, yeah.
I've battered this and
actually, it still looks good
but I've battered it a little bit
but it's holding up great.
- Okay, so is this typically,
is this typically how
you set up your camp?
- Yeah.
This is very typical.
I am like a lot of people,
which is when I drive this home
I have to now, dropping kids off,
practice, girl scouts,
picking up the groceries.
I can't have all these in here.
So for me it's,
I've got three of these Wolf Pack boxes.
Love these things.
And these boxes are set up.
All the time when I finish a trip,
I just put things back in that I used,
stack them and then slide them on a shelf
in the garage back home.
- So they're good to go.
- They're good to go.
And that goes for the cooker,
that goes for the, I do,
especially on summer time
I'll keep the fridge in here
'cause it's just super handy
to keep in all cold sodas and stuff.
But everything I just,
I'll back the vehicle up,
grab the things, slide them in,
and I have it set up in such a way
that even that there's freeze dried food
and ways of getting water and heat,
and cooking food and that's
all, it's ready to go.
And then you can add, if you want,
for the journey if I want to
but mostly I don't 'cause
I have what I need.
- Yeah.
I'm looking at.
It looks like the categories
of these three cases are
food, utensils, pots and pans, kitchen.
Like cooking.
- Yeah--
- Is that about right?
- That's about right.
And the only thing is just
that, that last box down there,
which is the one on the bottom,
extra propane, heat, lighting,
extra headlamps, and then just
a fan and all of the stuff
that can be placed inside a tent.
So those things kind of goes by priority
in terms of what's gonna get used.
So even on this trip,
that box in the bottom,
'cause my girls are not
with me, I haven't used it.
- Alrigt.
Looks like a really straightforward kit.
Very efficient.
- It's super simple.
And then, 'cause it's a G4,
what they did was, there
used to be seats back here.
Remove those and it's just
plastic wall with a lid.
So it's fabulous.
So I can put in a ton
of stuff on either side.
And this goes with me all the time
so toolkit, rain gear, the.
These fabulous things if
you run you're battery dry
you just hook it on and get going.
- Oh, are those the Antigravs?
Yeah, they are.
Those are very good, really cool.
- Jetboil,
ready to go with coffee 'cause sometimes
you don't wanna do that,
you don't have time.
And then on the other
side, tire repair kit.
More tools, fluids, just more stuff
to kinda keep the vehicle going.
- [Michael] Great.
- [Alan] And then lot's of stickers.
- [Michael] Well, yeah.
You have to add the horsepower.
- [Alan] Yes.
This changes a lot.
- Adds a little bit of horsepower.
- And this super simple thing,
it was from guys up in Bend, Oregon,
Columbia Overland, that's it.
I'd love their sticker.
Yeah, super simple.
It's just, the wall that was here
kinda stuck out a lot of plastic.
Just unscrewed it, recycled it
and then just--
- And it's just the
equivalent of, like a blank.
- It's a blank, it's exactly what it is.
And it's fab, yeah.
- That's cool.
- [Alan] The only thing
is, when we were talking
about just strapping things down,
everyone has a way of doing it.
So what I did was, I
just got cargo netting.
I believe it's US cargo,
it's the same netting they use
in the back of semi-trucks,
it's bomb proof, it's crazy strong.
- I know talking to Nick that the cover
is taller than it needs
to be to make it easier.
- Again, simple idea, just someone
who's actually out there using the tent,
and saying, "This is
something I would like,"
and I was impressed with that too.
I don't have a lot of
stuff in there right now
but you can leave sleeping bags, clothes.
You can leave items,
compressible items, up there.
And that's kind of also
been the debate too
about putting a rooftop tent up.
And I'm taking away storage
area that I have up top.
- [Michael] Yep.
- But you're also putting
things like sleeping bags,
jackets, clothing and stuff which takes,
frees up space in the
interior of the vehicle.
And you're not putting a tent
in there as well, of course.
- Let's see, what else?
Is there anything on the passenger side
to point out or is it basic?
- Again, basic.
It's just kinda like, just
handy couple of bits and pieces.
Extra straps, 'cause we
have the basket upfront.
I kept that.
Which is handy for special
things like firewood,
that extra bag, or actually
even an extra ground tent.
I could just slide it up there.
The straps stay here 'cause
there's room for them
and I could just quickly do it.
And then, I don't think we
need this in the Mojave,
but don't forget your bear spray.
- Yeah. (laughing)
- Quick access for that.
Yeah, that's it really.
And then I keep, typically I keep,
I love paper maps.
That's my thing.
- They work without batteries?
- They work without batteries.
They're fail safe.
Just look at your topography
and you can typically
figure out where you are on a paper map
and get yourself where you
need to be, which is nice.
So yeah, keep them up top.
And then as you go through each adventure
you end up with a couple of maps you like
and they just stay in there.
- Tell us just some of the
driving characteristics.
How do you like driving the rig.
It's been performing great out here.
We're on day 16, five, four, I forget.
Anyway, we've been out here--
- We've been out here
for a couple of days.
- How do you like driving it?
- We made this recent
change in suspension.
- Yeah.
- One of the, you learn
as you do it, right?
As you go along.
I'm very happy with it right now.
Previously, I had smaller wheels
so I was inclined to
hit things periodically
on the center diff, just kind
of hit stuff but never had a,
on the D2 that front differential
is a lot thicker than it was
on the original Discovery
so it is actually quite thick.
But again, didn't have
any of that on this trip.
The old springs that I
had, they were just older
and they were rated for a lighter load.
We're adding a lot of water
and fuel and all the things.
You just need a bigger, stronger spring
which is what I have and
that's performed great.
It feels very solid on the
freeway, at freeway speeds,
75 miles an hour, 4.6 liter V8,
with, they call it the Bosch engine,
so a lot of the stuff that's on top,
the air and fuel management
is basically a BMW or Volkswagen product.
- What is cruising speed?
On the freeway, a
comfortable crusing speed.
How fast will it go?
- So, right now with
the tires, suspension,
everything's going, it can do 75.
And it's without the vibration,
without excessive noise,
the steering wheel feels
good, everyone's comfortable,
not an excessive amount of noise.
It's an older vehicle so seals and things
aren't as good as they used to be.
But it's actually surprising
it has held up well over time.
It's actually a comfortable ride.
So that fatigue that you
might get as a driver,
especially getting to your destination,
it's not that bad.
You're pretty comfortable.
Leather seats and air conditioning.
- Yeah, that's great.
Alan, thank you.
Thanks for sharing your ride.
- Pleasure.
- Is there anybody you
wanna give a shout-out to,
anything like that?
Does this have an online presence?
Can people check anything out
(Alan laughing)
or are you Mr Stealth guy or what?
- No, nothing like that.
I live in Sacramento.
You can't miss this vehicle.
- What's your unit?
What's your fire department unit?
- Station 15.
- Station 15.
- Yeah, they call us the Night Hawks.
- The Night Hawks.
Thanks to all those guys.
Thanks to your group.
- Oh, and I have to say hi to
Mave and Jill, very important.
- Hello to Mave and Jill.
Right on. Good deal.
- We miss them.
- Hey, thanks a lot.
Really appreciate it.
- Yeah.
- And, we still got a few
more days on the trail.
- Yes we do.
- Let's not break it.
- Yeah. (laughing)
And if we do, we'll have fun
putting it back together.
- Exactly. Right on.
Cool.
(soft music)
