A FortNine review (always good) of the Yamaha Ténéré 700.
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The KTM 1190 Adventure R was a 150 hp off-road beast that actually had quite a bit of finesse. It also looks like the last KTM Adventure bikes to come with analog gauges. The video above shows amazing, beautifully shot off-road action. The one below is more of an in-depth review. If you speak Australian, you might understand a bit. 😉
The Fast Lane Car makes a compelling case that the 1st-generation VW Touareg is the ultimate off-road sleeper. I didn’t know they were available with optional front and rear differential locks. Apparently the front locking diff. is a very rare option.
Last year my wife gave me these Caterpillar-branded, LED work lights and I want to recommend them because I think they’re great. These 500-lumen work lights run on four AA batteries and have an 8-hour life on low power. The best thing about them though is that they’re magnetic. When I check the oil on the truck at night I take one out of the back and pop it under the hood. It’s such a joy to have the engine bay so well lit. They’re also great for sticking to the side of the roof rack as area lights for when we arrive at a remote camp at night. They’ve made a good addition to the truck.
They’re available for about $34 on Amazon. There are other versions (not CAT-branded) that are plug-in rechargeable. Reviews on those are mostly good.
Maxtrax are often the first thing overlanders grab when they get stuck. They’re easy to deploy. Just do a bit of digging and stick them in front of the wheels. A set will cost you about $300, which seems like a lot for two injection-molded plastic planks. Have you ever wondered if knock-offs are a viable alternative to an original set of Maxtrax? The verdict seems to be favorable according to this video.
How good is the most expensive Lexus? The YouTube channel Ignition aims to find out.
Andrew St Pierre White, the South African dean of overlanding, stalked around the German overlanding expo, Abenteuer Allrad, this year asking, “What tires are overlanders using?” His aim was to get a sense of which tires the overlanding community is adopting. He also weighs in with his own experience with various brands.
He didn’t have confidence in my previous tire, the Yokohama Geolandar A/T-S, though I liked them. He had good things to say about the tire I’m currently running though, the Cooper Discoverer S/T. I’m happy with that one too. It’s a tough tire with plenty of grip.
See which tires he pans and which ones he gives a nod of approval.
Chris Harris, one of my favorite YouTube presenters, gives a quick overview of the Mercedes-Benz G350 G-Wagen for the UK car magazine Evo.
A guy in the auto mechanics class I’m taking recently told me about a smart phone-based scan tool app called Torque. Scan tools are the devices you plug into your car or truck’s OBD or OBD2 diagnostic port to display engine trouble codes, a handy thing to have if you’re working on your own truck. (Trouble codes are generated by the vehicle’s computer when the check engine light goes on.)
Besides reading trouble codes, the app can display all kinds of vehicle information on your phone or tablet in real time: mass air flow, boost (on turbocharged cars), coolant temp, fuel flow, the list goes on. And, because it’s running on a smart phone, it can also display things like pitch, roll, GPS position, and compass heading. The app even has a function that will record video of the road ahead, through the phone or tablet’s camera, while overlaying vehicle data into the frame. Pretty cool.
The video gives a good overview. Things start getting interesting around 4:06.
All you need to make it work is the app, which is $5, and a Bluetooth scan tool, which plugs into your OBD2 port. These can be found on Amazon for about $23. (The OBD2 port has been required on vehicles since 1996, though cars a year or two earlier may be equipped with it. Older cars have the OBD port, which unfortunately won’t work with this system.)
Self contained scan tools can cost hundreds of dollars and don’t have as much functionality, one of the many reasons that the Torque app and a Bluetooth scan tool make such a compelling package.
Check the links for a CNET review, the app, and the bluetooth scan tool.
Links:
CNET: Monitor your car’s performance with the Torque app for Android
Google Play: Torque Pro Scan Tool app
Amazon: BAFX Bluetooth OBD2 Scan Tool (this one is compatible with Android only)