My "new" Australian-based bike carrying 6x6

[The Bigfella]

There's been a lot of discussion at Rider's Corner over the last year or so about the Australian Army's previous generation 2 ton truck.... the Land Rover 110 Perentie 6x6. A good friend, Scooter Max (SM), was sitting at the bar with me and looking at one that was for sale in Oz. We'd viewed many adverts and followed the auctions, as they were still being sold off, despite having been replaced in service by the new generation Mercedes Benz models after 2013.

I ended up saying "if you don't buy it, I will".... and yes, he put a deposit on it and picked it up in northern NSW a week or so later - and a couple of weeks after that he'd fitted a mattress, fridge and his new Himalayan 450 into the back and he was off to northern Queensland. Fast forward a couple of months and he'd decided he preferred Chiang Mai.... so, we bought it off him. He delivered it, minus the Himalayan, to another mate's place, where I've got my remaining bike collection, etc... in Coffs Harbour.

SM had uncovered a few issues in the 34 year old beast of a thing, but that didn't phase us. I headed back to Oz earlier this month and we picked her up and moved her to Sydney for more work.

Here she is as he was using her, albeit before he fitted the mattress

and how he set up the mattress and fridge

I've changed that already. We won't be carrying bikes internally. I've got a bike trailer there already, but I'm toying with some ideas for something a bit more rugged than that.

Current plans are for a Simpson desert crossing in May 2026.

 

[The Bigfella]

Current state of the back area...

Not enough room for a bike any more, but this trailer covers that off

that's a shot from waaay back... August 2011 - trailering three bikes north, we'd just dropped one off... these two went on to Mourilyan, south of Cairns for us to start our trip to the tip of Cape York and I went on to the China border on the KTM from there. With the second axle on the trailer and brakes fitted, we can do more. Its a multi-function trailer, normally set up for one or the other of my boats, but I'm not going to be using it in the places the 6x6 can go.

This is Brett, who's in this venture with me (Rider's Tours Asia).... demonstrating one of the unusual features of the Perentie - its a gun port, of sorts. The 6x6 was set up for three across seating, with the middle soldier being able to shoot on the move. The version we have is the GMV - the General Maintenance Vehicle. It came with workbench, vice, tool cabinets (most of which we have removed). There were about a dozen different 6x6 variants... 14 from memory, including air defence (with ground to air missiles), general cargo, troop carrying, ambulance, long range patrol vehicle, for the SAS etc - about 600 in total.

These things will go anywhere....

 

[The Bigfella]

First problem to address was the leaking fuel tanks. The twin tanks have bash plates and over the years a buildup of stones between the bash plate and tank rubs away the galvanizing and .... pinholes develop. I sourced a new old stock tank for the left and Brett got the lucky job.... The tank I sourced was for the 4x4 variant and is slightly smaller and gave us some issues in fitting, but it got us on the road without fuel leaks. I will repair the two original tanks when I get back to Oz, next trip.

Here's a future project - building another one of these. Lots of folks use the cheap Chinese diesel heaters. This is a water heater built using the diesel heater from an X5 BMW. We've got the heater already... just need to spend some time on the tin and plumbing....

The trip to Sydney was done unregistered. With a permit, of course and, of course, this shot was from a fixed camera mount.... We were belting along in the Perentie. Army convoy speed is 80kph, but we were sitting on 100 on the GPS - and the noise-cancelling headphones we had were essential. Our support vehicle, a BMW X5 M50D lowered its long term average fuel consumption to 8.8l per 100km on this trip.... whilst the Perentie consumed 19l per. VMAX was a GPS confirmed 111kph. Interesting to note that the X5 had near on triple the power and double the torque, whilst consuming half the fuel.

Once in Sydney, we had access to parts and the workshop, so the tasks included sealing some leaks - it being a Land Rover, there were plenty, but new seals and some expertise helped... door locks, USB fitment, etc and then she was registered.