If trucks were people, I reckon the Renault Lander would come across to people meeting it for the first time as a girlie girl:....
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....Pretty for sure. A little sophisticated maybe. And likely to run out of puff if the going gets tough, shriek at the sight of mud....and complain if it has to carry more than the truck equivalent of a nice leather purse.
And yet....despite appearances and preconceived ideas, there’s evidence around that this seemingly soft, strictly-metro-and-main-roads Parisienne is really “un garcon manqué.” Yeah – that’s right: A French tomboy. And a pretty damn capable little customer, at that. Nothing like what you’d expect.
Take the first Euro 5 Renault Lander we tested: That one was doing the tough stuff – put to work as a Northland logger. And veteran truckie Craig Turner was adamant that his Lander was “the most underrated truck in New Zealand.” Couldn’t be much more explicit than that.
One thing he really rated, a little unexpectedly, was the Euro’s traction. And now, as we’re testing the automated manual version of the Renault – in the form of an 8x4 Lander curtainsider truck and trailer unit – we’re getting the same message about just how capable it is.
Even down to driver Zane Layne singing the praises of its offroad performance. WTF! This is a highway rig if you ever saw one – on general freight duties – and he’s talking offroad traction!
Ah....well it turns out that actually, despite appearances, this particular curtainsider spends up to maybe 20% of its time off the road – part of the deal really, given that it’s working for Tokoroa-based RJ Lincoln Cartage Contractors....a company that specialises in carting freight for the farming and forestry industries.
And that often includes delivering fertiliser, stock feed, timber, grain and silage direct to farms for key customers like rural supplies retailer RD1.
So when Zane says it’s good, he’s talking from the standpoint of regularly driving in and out of farms – twice in the last six months getting it knee-deep in mud that he reckons would have stopped his previous mounts (both 450 Hinos), in their tracks.
And, with the push of a button, the Lander and its automated manual transmission got its traction act together and drove on through. The button he speaks of engages the truck’s EBS+ system, which incorporates ABS, emergency braking assist, wheelspin reduction, drag torque control, brake harmonisation of the truck and trailer, hill start assist... and management of the diff crosslocks and inter-axle locks on the Renault P2191 axles. It even allows the diff lockup on the move – at up to 10km/h.
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