'Desert Ute' ~ A pickup for the Sahara
in association with the Matt Savage Ute Institute (MSUI)

Stage One

The production line (right) at Matt's Institute has been humming along like the Mayfly AGM after a few too many pollen lagers. Matt's kids have grown up, left home and got jobs while he's locked himself in his Operations Barn of weeks. The results are on the left: the Desert Ute is on the road.

To be honest I don't know what's come over him. I sneak up out of a drain for a surprise inspection at 4am and find him and Barry drilling, grinding and hammering away like two ferrets in a steel mill.

As with all custom jobs it has all taken much more work and been fraught with complications (or so I am advised by the Institute's financial services department), but I've been there and done that so the less I have to know about that the better. They've certainly cracked on in a few weeks they been at it while I just pick up whatever work that's going to pay for it all.

With nothing available in the UK at any price we sourced some OMEs from Italy (below right) - as usual the price was substantially less than in the UK... Along with the new BFGs the pickup was now right on its tiptoes and the barely long enough shocks were getting dizzy under the strain. This was without the full back body, let alone 400 liters of Mauritanian gasoil so we're hoping it will settle down a bit once it's all built up. I do wonder if I may have gone OTT with the '400kg-permanent load' springs which the VW will exceed only occasionally. Time will tell if it rides like the Forth Bridge or if we need to try and take a spring out of the back. I suppose this is where those airbag assisters (p.112 of the book) would come in handy but it's just another thing. I want to keep this one as simple as.

Two spares and worm gears explained
Recognising the OME set up might lead to spinal injuries we decided to mount two spares right at the back rather than 'Dukes of Hazard-style' inline off the roll bar. Being big BFGs they take up a lot more space when they're off the axle (a kind of reverse-tardis effect) but as luck would have it, they just squeezed in between the back springs and pipe. And once Barry moved the tyre-winch crossmember up a bit they fitted in top down without buggering up the departure angle too much. To spare the tyre winch a hernia the top spare is wing-nutted directly to the crossmember on long studs while the lower, more readily accessible spare tyre is held on by the winch chain as normal. Holes had to be cut into the tray rearmost cross members to enable the crank handle to get in there and do its thing.

I got to thinking how is it that Tojo spare tyre winches hold the tyre in place over all terrains so securely but just simply wind or unwind on the crank handle without any rachetting or locking. Dr Matt drew on his pipe, tucked his thumbs under the unfashionably large lapels of his lab coat and explained: it's probably all to do with worm-drive gears and ratios. A worm drive (a gear like a drill bit with spiraling teeth) actuates on a regular roundy-round gear to hoist the wheel up because the ratio is set at a Newtonian optimum. But the wheel - attached to the regular big gear by the chain - can't undo the worm because the ratio is too high. Worm can crank the 20kg tyre easily but tyre can't undo the worm anywhere near as easily. That's what we guessed goes on inside a Tojo tyre winch assembly. We could all be terribly, terribly wrong.

Anyway, 40kg of tyres fitted in, out of the way, giving the stubborn OMEs something to think about.

Tray bien
With that done (and a quick waxoil spray job all over the back chassis and area while it was easily accessible) Baz the Rod could spring into action and get on with finishing the back body, levelling it off on rubber mounts and filling in any holes to limit internal rust.

One thing they mentioned was that when ordering steel to build something like this, it's a whole lot less work to order exact lengths from the supplier instead of buying in a whole stock of 2x4 or whatever. This way the ends are perfectly cut on an ion particle saw and not at a variable parabolic 8.5° angle using your junior hacksaw and a lot of blades. Makes butting up for welding a whole lot easier too.

The tray frame then got painted and 18mm marine ply (invented 4000 years ago, no less) was pressed into position with latex arm bands and a steam iron. All three flaps or gates fold down but can be levelled off for use as long narrow banquet tables with corner post chains. Talking of which, the back two corner posts as well as the tops of the roll bar posts have welded on JATE rings (well actually old shock absorber ends) to help lash down motorbikes, canoes and the like. They also enable air portability for hooking up to a Chinook - a missing feature on all my previous desert cars.

Even though there's plenty of room in the back, it's still handy to have things out of the way so I requested a cantileved platform/rack extended forward off the roll bar over the cab roof, giving a few quick instructions. I went up the Pennines for a few days, came back and the job was done exactly as I'd envisaged. With no roof rack to hop onto, this rack will be a handy viewing platform when lost or separated in the Sahara - something that is more useful than you think in my experience.

With the tray fitted and wood in place, Matt sourced some robust plastic mudguards out of a trailer and caravan catalog, sawed them in half and nailed them under the tray. They give plenty of clearance for shovelling away sand when bogged - one thing pickups have in their favour. Mudflaps to limit spray are on the list.

Apart from lights and a number plate, that's about it. Still have not had a close look at their work or even taken it for a drive but by the time you read this the VeeDub will be up in the far northwest of Scotland on a sponsored test run (aka: 'our hols'). Looking forward to getting an idea of the fuel consumption and hoping it will be in the high 20s (9kpl) or even low 30s (11kpl).

I drove the old red Hilux back down the other night, straight to Portsmouth docks for export to Niger. Even with a Land Cruiser engine and gearbox in the back (and then some), the old banger managed to keep its speed and pull away sharply (admittedly on 205s - not 750 x 16s). And the ancient springs didn't even bottom out. I'm reminded how, over a short range, how light and pleasant a Hilux is to drive after a TLC tank, without necessarily being any less tough.

While up in the Northwest, I'll pin down some ideas and refinements for Stage Two, mainly based around concoting some nifty under-tray storage as well as mods in the cab and engine. More news and pics in late August. Thanks for visiting.

mid-July

Read Stage Two