Magazines?

I don't own a Toyota so there's not much point buying most of them...

I use to get the Overlander, 4wd monthly and 4x4 australia but have cut back to the last two as I found that Overlander just did not have the content I wanted. I like you, enjoy trip reports, interesting location suggestions rather than reading about soft off-roaders that IMHO don't suit being in a 4WD magazine.

Love looking through the letters to the editor, unusual stories and especially those maize of small advertisers in the rear of the magazines which often have great tips or products that may help me in my 4WD travels.

However, for real life experiences its hard to go past ExplorOz for the variety of credible stories and fascinating 'home spun' experiences on every subject you can think of and a few more after that.

I don't.
I live in Sydney so I go to borders and read them over a cup of coffee.
I find there are too many ads and the publishers doarticles to co incide with the ads as opposed to being unbiased.
i enjoy the reading but take most of the articles with a grain of salt.
Same as i do with ACA and TT. The only show I TV I enjoy is media watch.

Regards
Techie.

I also used to buy all 3. overlander, 4x4 australia, and 4x4 monthly.
I still buy overlander and 4x4 australia.
As for 4x4 monthly in my opinion this mag is single handedly trying to give 4wders the worst image possible.
There trip so called trips are a joke a large amount of there info on these trips are wrong and when you question them they dont care.
Most trips are based on how much booze you can drink and how many ks you can do in 5 or so days.
A few years ago they done a so called guid to the cape.
The following season We met so many people trying to follow there trip what a disaster.
Also same year there were more accidents in the cape than ever.
They also seem to need to build these monster trucks that have to crawl over anything that cant move out of there way and drink lots of booze building these things.

Well I got that off my chest.

All the best
Eric

Canoe & Kayak.

Exploring Oz from a different perspective!

Davoe, I objected to Mr Moon's propensity to push just his advertisers and am sickening to Roothy and Animals exploits and amazingly as others have said, with the booze they need to enjoy any tripping. I think the finer side is to be in a condition to enjoy the quality things in life.

I have resisted the promotional DVD and first aid kit offers when they ring every two months. I know others have said before they have 20 months subscription or even longer. I think I have other things I can look forward to but have tended towards Overlander a bit more lately.
- 4X4 Australia ditched for brand saturation in articles
- 4WD Monthly resisting marketing, but current 12 mth subscription
- Overlander more travelling interest, less bulls*!t.....

Big problem is the trees I want to recycle as the daily/weekly/monthly paper intake is The Age x7, the Fin Review, The Warrnambool Standard x6, weekly is the farming paper the Weekly crimes (Times) to flick through and several Australian and NZ farm management mags.

Australian 4WD Monthly.

Am subscribed up for the next 2 trillion editions or something like that anyway.

I love the articles, the trip reports, (The best read I have seen for a long time was the series on he Travelling Goughs....) the comparo's, the letters, the drivers profiles etc...... even the ads!

Yes...... they drink a lot and do seem to advertise that it's ok to drink.... but at least they only drink around the camp fire after the days driving is finished.... although Roothy's tech articles always rely heavily on XXXX, which is a shame 'cos you and I know that he's having a lend of us, but not everyone knows do they??? So some of 'em think that it's ok to drink and work..... that is a BAD combination! And I agree wqith Eric about the light hearted aprroach to their adventures, but surely if people decide to "do the Cape/desert/high country WITHOUT doing the necessary homework just because the magazine guys did it..... wouldn't it be fair to say that they're the ones at fault? The mag has to take some blame..... definitely, but ultimately the person who decides to drag their family and truck halfway around the country without first looking into what lies ahead should shoulder the bulk of it.

I think what I am trying to say is, I don't take it too seriously. John Rooth is a very educated man, "Roothy" is a "bush-mechanic" character portrayed by Rooth in a way that would resemble just about every "bushie" standing the bar on Saturday nights in public bars in every other bush town in Australia, if not tonight, then most certainly in recent days gone by.

Don't take him seriously!

(Oh.... and I hope one day he stops attacking that poor 40 series troopy.)

Actually my only gripe with them is they lifted the lid on a shonky driver training outfit recently but refused to name them.

Anyone know who it was??

4WD Monthly - If it's not a Toyota it's not the best.

Example:
Prado - "excellent clearance"
Pajero - "terrible clearance"
Yet the pajero has the same clearance (within +/- 5mm)

Hilux - Best ute
Yet the Rodeo was better off-road & comfort.

I believe they are all a waste of money - better off looking at some of the forums like this one, that way you can ask questions, give advice, etc.

I used to contribute articles for 4x4 Australia Mag up until the mid 90's but then the heirachy of the mag became too pushy in respect to contributions in my opinion, and I gave it away. Ron Moon is still a good mate of mine. But I seldom buy a mag these days

For a while I got into 4WD Monthly but their editorial content has become arrogant(or maybe I am in the wrong age group...lol) and their constant reference to drinking copious amounts of beer makes you a good 4wdriver bleep me off, so I don't buy their mah either.

Every time I get a bee in the bonnet about either buying the 4by opr camper trailer i resort to 4x4 Trader and Just 4x4's. I can sit for hours fanning through the pages looking and heaps of the same vehicles...hahahahaha.

4x4 Trader pulls no punches in its article about the new Nissan Pathfinder. The magazine however is owned by ACPMags ghoever as is 4x4 Australia Mag and it would seem many of their writers overlap.

When I have dissected all the various 4bies I puit the mag away and do nothing hahahaha. It is pure entertainment value.

I got sick of each of the 3 mags. Can't believe a lot of what is written. And they aren't exactly cheap.

I find Andrew Hiscock's online magazine has much better stuff in it
4wheelingSA

And its free!!

Cheers
Phil

I get overlander from the library, read it in a day and take it back. They are good for catching up on new products etc.
New vehicle write ups are just a blur unless youre interested in that particular vehicle, but even then.
4x4 Aust is about the same as Overlander and probably not worth the 5 bucks.
Picked up 4x4 monthly once, seemed poor quality and too hardcore for me.
Dean

full of ads, worthless "TESTS", biased $$$ influenced reports, and everythin' is free online now, why waste the bucks.

Women's Weekly for blokes - nothing that you don't already know and if you don't then it's not important anyway! Despite that, I still subscribe to 4X4. It is getting too comp heavy though and the trips are sparse. 10 months before having to make the decision to re-subscribe....

seems to be the same stuff over and over month after month stopped buying saved money to do more read about doing less

used to get 4x4aust but when they moved to sydney it changed and i stopped getting it delivered but i have every copy of the on the road mag and reckon its equal to this site but thaats just my opinion

steve

Nude Readers Wives (up to Volume 7) and Portugese Masking Tape Monthly.

I read them all the cost being included in my council rates.

NONE - i dont buy 200 pages of paid advertisements to read 4 pages of usable 4x4 information

Frank

Davoe,

I only buy Overlander because my boss, Vic has a column in the magazine and sometimes my name gets a mention.

Wayne

Any magazine that has more editorial and stories than it has advertisements.
There's few of them around these days.