BT-50 built to handle all conditions

You have to hand it to the BT-50.

It’s a bit of an unsung hero on the 4x4 scene, handling everything the more popular (and more expensive) dual-cabs can while somehow not drawing a heap of attention to itself.

A bit like the bloke in the back of the pub who could go toe-to-toe with a prime Mike Tyson but will never instigate anything or brag about his ability; a quiet achiever, just gets on with the job, does it superbly, then goes quietly back to his beer without fanfare.

That’s what Royce and Gabby’s Mazda does day in and day out. At first glance it may look like just another well-sorted tradie’s ute, but once you start peeling back a few layers you begin to realise that this thing has been built to handle the long trips to the remotest parts of the continent for weeks at a time; the vehicle version of that quiet bloke in the pub.

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Unassuming and not in your face at all, but once the going gets tough, it’s the fourby you want in your corner.

Royce and Gabby are no strangers to the Mazda workhorse, having previously owned a 2012 BT that was well and truly worked. Putting out around 220 horses with all the fruit, the last one was a beast, and opened a lot of people’s eyes to what BT-50s are capable of out on the tracks.

Now, this one has been taken to an even higher level over the last couple of years, and with a few massive trips on the horizon, we thought we’d better hop in and take a look before it heads off into the bush for the foreseeable future.

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The bolt-on bits

Starting up front, the BT copped a PSR Ambush front bar with LED fog lights and bash plates to keep the engine and steering gear away from rock damage.

Keeping the LED lighting theme going are no fewer than 10 Stedi Cube lights mounted to the leading edge of the rack. In fact, Stedi LEDs are dotted all over the joint, providing camp lighting out the back and sides for when Royce and Gabby pull up after dark.

When they do, the San Hima rooftop tent is about as easy to set-up as it gets, while a Darche pull-out awning keeps the weather off the dome. There’s also a custom alloy table that attaches to the side of the canopy and is cleverly stored away on its own rack.

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It was modelled off a timber one Royce’s dad built way back for fish cleaning after a successful bait-soaking session in the beach gutters. That table held up for 15-plus years and is still going strong, so hopefully this one will follow its lead.

Doyle’s Offroad Customs sliders have been employed to keep the sills from being creased while a TAG XR rear bar protects the bum and allows a trailer to be lugged along in the rear view. Up in the cab the seats and floors are covered with Supatrim and Maxliner respectively, while a Scangauge III watches over the engine vitals.

Interestingly, and increasingly common these days, is that the GME UHF has been mounted underneath the centre console; the only giveaway is the RJ45 pass-through plug for the handpiece. It’s a neat way to get comms without having a bulky radio taking up precious real estate.

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Ride height and rubber

Gone are the days of a quick coil-n-shock swap and you pretty much can bolt up any size tyres you fancy. Like most newer dual-cabs, fitting up 33-inch rubber (or 295/70R17 to be precise) is not that straightforward, but neither is it impossible, as Royce has shown.

First item on the list was to junk the original front coilovers and throw in a set of PSR TTG coilovers that sent things four inches skywards. Of course, when it comes to IFS you can’t just lift them by that much without also installing a diff drop to keep the halfshaft angles in check, so Royce added a Munji bracket set to the list as well.

Down the back, the shocks were exchanged for matching PSR units while the stock leaf packs were swapped out for a set of 2-inch raised 300kg static-load items. Why not a 4-inch lift like the front? Most stock utes come with a ‘stink bug’ stance where the rear is higher than the front – so when there’s a load in the back it levels itself out.

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Given Royce and Gabby already knew what weights they’d be carrying they set the springs up accordingly and can always maintain a steady ride height. This is where experience and knowing exactly what you want from your 4x4 pays off.

The  17-inch Black Rhino Primm alloys add a bit more sex appeal to the Mazda’s looks, and Royce had a set of 295/70R17 Maxxis RAZR donuts fitted up as a neat middle-ground between blacktop tourability and off-road grip.

Royce has plans to add an extra inch of body lift before long, and to give the body mounts a bit of a haircut with the grinder too, all in aid of increasing clearance for the Maxxis rubber. And no, of course he’s not going to just run smaller tyres…

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Big box out back

You’d think that the canopy is the easy part of a build, right? Nah. To be fair, this one worked fine, but Royce isn’t the type of fella who likes to call 95 per cent done as good enough.

In fact, if he was starting over he’d probably do things a bit differently, but you get that on most builds. He also wanted to stress that the canopy itself, built by Fused Fabrications, is a great unit, but a few small tweaks were needed to get things how he wanted them.

There was nothing to mount the tent to on the roof, so track rails were fitted up. Then the floor was custom made so that it sat flush with the doors, making access to the 85L upright fridge a lot easier. Then the tray that the canopy is mounted on is steel, which Royce reckons would have been if it was aluminium to start with… and several other little things of that nature.

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Now that it’s all been sorted, both he and Gabby reckon the whole show works well.

All of the gullwings have LED strips for after dark beer/gear retrieval and the recovery boards, Maxtrax Indeflate and permanently mounted compressor are all within easy reach. There’s even a 12V oven for those all-important mid-trip pie stops.

Water is stored in the Ontap jerry that comes with an inbuilt 12V pump, while spare fuel is kept in the iBuilt mounts on the rear bulkhead. There’s also a 9kg gas bottle holder for the Weber that Royce and Gabby never leave home without.

Keeping the electrons flowing is a 100Ah lithium, wired up with a 25A charger and solar feed. This hooks up to a 200W panel that’s fitted with a quick release, so there’s the capability for solar to be set-up anywhere within a 10m radius of the vehicle. Just the ticket when you’re parked under some shade and want to keep the fridge running cool.

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Where to from here?

You may be wondering why there hasn’t been much in the way of engine mods? Well, Royce is saving the best until last.

There’s already a 3-inch exhaust bolted in place, a high-flow air filter, a catch-can for peace of mind, and a 4-inch air intake fed by the Fabulous Fabrications snorkel.

Even so, the ‘real’ mods will start once the PDI intercooler that’s waiting to be mounted goes in. This will allow Procheck Automotive to turn up the wick on the stock tune significantly. Given Royce’s old BT-50 runs 220hp, we’d expect to see at least that out of this 10-year younger model.

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After that, well, Royce and Gabby are just planning on enjoying the hell out of the touring weapon they’ve armed themselves with.

There’s a Cape run happening later this year, followed closely by a trip south to Tasmania. After that, they’re talking seriously about hooking over to WA to see the sights – and there are a lot of them.

No point in having a tourer that can handle everything if you throw nothing at it, eh?