The new Isuzu D-Max tipper conversion was unveiled by the company last year. Recently, Wiltshire Dave of DW Oliver Tree Services was offered the chance to put the vehicle to the test and give his honest opinion.
IF you own a chipper, you’ll need a tipper.
It’s a fact, unless your tree customers want a pile of decomposing chippings in their drive, or you fancy unloading a couple of cubic metres of woodchip from a flatbed with a shovel at the end of a hard day’s work. Also, if, like me, you run a rural business, you’ll want a four-wheel drive version, the idea being to get chipper and truck as near as possible to the actual work zone, rather than dragging branches a long distance.
This is a test of the Isuzu D-Max Tipper, kindly loaned to me for trial by Isuzu UK. I’ve heard good things about these trucks, so despite my very enthusiastic leaning towards modified Land Rover Defenders, I was quite excited about the vehicle’s arrival in my yard.
After my initial terror that the machine was too new, too shiny and that I was sure to spoil it, I examined the truck before I set off to look at some work.
The conversion from a standard D-Max, done by Isuzu itself, was professional and tidy, with a truck cab and space, with doors, behind the seats. The load bay/tipper seemed to extend a long way beyond the rear axle, to allow for the small cab extension, so I imagine you’d need to load carefully towards the front or middle of the bed to prevent the truck becoming unstable on the road.
It’s going to sound silly, but I’ve driven only Defenders for 30 years, so my initial impression was of being seated low and, when I tried them, that the brakes were very responsive, causing me to stop too sharply, making my lunch slide violently onto the floor (it was in a box, not my stomach).
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The radio was audible and easy to tune with simple knobs and buttons. I stuck with Radio 5 Live, which was mostly about COVID-19 (though I can’t blame Isuzu for this). In fact, the whole interior is laid out simply, with no unnecessary gimmicks and all easy, wipe-clean surfaces (wise in a work truck). I was pleased there wasn’t too much gadgetry to baffle me.
The Isuzu pulled easily up hills and accelerated evenly, but I did notice that if you don’t use the gears properly going up a steep hill, there is a curious, sudden drop in power, which picks up again when you change down a gear. I asked Isuzu about this and didn’t get a response, but I assume it’s some sort of rev moderator to be economical with fuel.
There wasn’t much to report on my maiden voyage outside my comfort zone (Defenders again). I liked the steering wheel, the comfy seating and the comfy ride, so I decided to off-road around the arboretum. Unlike my Defenders, the four-wheel drive has to be selected, rather than relying on a permanent diff-lock and 4WD system, so I drove in two-wheel drive into a very boggy, rutted spot to deliberately get stuck.
The selector for the four-wheel drive was easy to use, a simple twist of a knob and the Goodyear All-Terrain tyres easily got me out of the mud, so I chose a worse spot and selected the 4WD low-range. This is engaged by twisting and pushing down, again, very simple and easy to engage. The Isuzu pulled out of the rough spot with enough ease to make it acceptable. Its wheels spun a bit, but once it got a bit of forward momentum it easily pulled through the deep mud.
For normal off-road driving, rather than someone who is trying to get bogged down on purpose, the Isuzu performed well. I tested it for half an hour in the woods and it was quite fun.
The following day, I loaded some brash and tried the tipper, which is operated by a push-button control box on a lead from under the rear seat. There is an isolator key as well, which should ideally be on a chain near the switch (someone will lose it otherwise – believe me, I know).
The tipper was superb. There is a powerful ram that worked as fast going down as it does up, unlike some systems which take forever to return to travel mode under gravity alone. The load bed was not a chip box but a drop-side arrangement measuring 1,795 mm (70 inches) long, 1,530 mm (60 inches) wide and 465 mm (18 inches) deep.
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It should be bigger. I’d swap more load capacity for the small seating/tool area behind the seats, making it a single cab, rather than the crew cab version I was loaned. Chainsaws, fuel and tools can always be jammed onto the woodchip in the back, whereas, when miles from your base, with more brash to chip, you can’t add that extra bit of woodchip that is the difference between a return trip or not.
Having said that, the area for crew/tools behind the driver and passenger is serviced by a brilliant easy-to-open and backward-facing door, so you don’t have to lean over the front seats or squeeze in if you have extra passengers who don’t mind what looks like a rather uncomfortable journey. The thing is, though, for arboriculture, a team of four would need at least two trucks anyway.
If you imagine how much work four men can do, the small load area would quickly fill up with chippings. Then there is the weight, two extra men, all the tools, a load of wood chip, a chipper on the back ... You’d quickly exceed the 1,161 kg (1.2 tonne) payload. So, make the next model a single cab and a bigger tipper bed please, Isuzu.
I delivered a bag of logs too, just because it was the nearest vehicle to hand, and was pleased that it was easy to load with a tractor with the drop-down sides and easily tipped at the far end. I didn’t get a chance to tow anything in the short time I had the truck. The gross train weight is 6,000 kg (6 tonnes), meaning it will tow 3,500 kg (3.5 tonnes) without a full payload. The 162 bhp diesel engine seems more than capable, but like I say, I didn’t have time to try it.
The one thing that puts me off investing in a new tipper at the moment, other than the fact that Land Rover stopped production of the most reliable Defenders in 2007 (in my opinion), is the threat of government intervention on diesel vehicles.
Is the Isuzu D-Max available as an electric version? If so, would it be affordable and reliable?
I really liked the Isuzu D-Max crew cab that I borrowed. I haven’t tried the Toyota or Mitsubishi versions, so I can only compare it to the Defenders. If I had the choice between these two contenders? Well, my work is local, seven or eight miles from home, so the travelling is less important than the capacity, off-road capability and towing ability. If I had to travel a long way to far off sites, I’d probably choose the Isuzu as it’s much nicer to drive, has heating that works, comfy seats and you can hear the radio.
I think the Isuzu would more easily lose value as it got bashed around the woods, had bits of tree felled across it and wood chippings fired all over it, but Land Rover stopped making what I wanted, so one day I’ll have to change, and Isuzu gets my vote.
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