Gareth is spending six months with Isuzu’s venerable D-Max DL20 pickup truck to find out what life’s like living with this towing champion.
He’ll be putting its capabilities to good use with a mixture of towing his race car to circuits, transporting his puppy Ace to various corners of the country and hopefully getting it muddy too by putting the truck into its natural habitat – mud. Find out how he’s getting on below…
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Update 1: Welcome to the fleet
When it comes to pickups, the Isuzu D-Max is one of the best you can buy. It’s a seriously capable machine, with superb road manners, genuine off-road capability, a practical design, and best of all, a braked towing weight of 3.5 tonnes and the ability to carry up to a tonne in additional weight at the same time.
And frankly, that little lot stacks up to make it one of the most appealing vehicles for my lifestyle, so I’m going to be spending the next six months reviewing the one you can see here to see if it works as well as it appears to on paper. There must be some reasoning behind the fact the company sells 80% of its vehicles to private buyers, after all…
What makes it so well-suited to me? Well, the towing ability it a strong selling point. I’m intending on spending the summer at motor racing circuits with my ‘60s Sunbeam Alpine, competing in historic events, and as such I’ll be making regular use of the towbar on the back to pull the car and its trailer to the four corners of the country.
But furthermore, my racing means carrying a LOT of kit, from tool boxes to jerry cans, and pit boards to spare wheels. It doesn’t all fit in a ‘normal’ car, and that’s before we consider the fact that I’m often joined by my wife and parents. I reckon the D-Max will mean I can carry everything and everyone I need, as well as pulling the car. It could be the ultimate do-it-all vehicle.
I’ll be making use of the off-roading capabilities too. The D-Max has switchable four-wheel drive, a low-range gearbox, so it should be able to tackle all terrains, and where I live that can come in seriously handy. I’m in the middle of nowhere in rural Northamptonshire, and we regularly go off the beaten track to walk Ace, my seven-month-old Golden Retriever.
I suspect the ride height will come in very useful as well, because around here the verges are very high and it’s going to be brilliant to be able to see over them. Ace is going to have to learn to climb into the back, though!
What spec is your Isuzu D-Max?
This one’s the DL20 manual, which means it’s got a six-speed gearbox with gear lever. Just over half of D-Maxes sold are manuals, so it makes sense that I try this one. The ‘DL’ stands for Diff Lock, which means it has a rear axle capable of being locked for extra traction in slippery conditions. The 20 is the lower of the two DL models, with it and the 40 sitting in the middle of the range above the Utility and below the V-Cross.
Equipment highlights for the DL20 include:
- Heated fabric front seats
- Rear parking sensors
- Cruise control
- Automatic headlights
- 18-inch wheels
- CD player with four speakers and Bluetooth
I quite like the fact that this vehicle doesn’t have a massive screen to control all the multimedia – they rarely work that well in my experience. But that doesn’t mean I’m planning to live without my creature comforts either…
I’m a huge fan of Quad Lock, the smartphone mounting system I use on my motorcycles, and I’m going to grab an air vent mount for the Isuzu to take care of all that. It means I can use my phone’s voice control, which takes away a lot of driving distraction, and will display Google Maps (better than any built-in sat-nav) and stream my music through Bluetooth. It actually sounds like a better solution as I’m typing this, so it’ll be interesting to see how I get on.
With the race season in full swing, it’s not going to be long before I start getting the best from this award-winning pickup, and I’m excited to get going! Stay tuned for more updates over the coming months…
Update 2: Back for the future
On this specification of D-Max, I did notice a glaring issue with what I’m planning to do with it, though. The open load bed with over-rail liner had no way of covering or locking, meaning while in theory (on sunny days) I could transport my race gear to circuits, I couldn’t keep it secure if on an over-nighter.
To address this, I spoke to local Isuzu dealer Close Motor Company in Peterborough, about installing an Aeroklass E-Tronic canopy to the D-Max. This would cost £3113.40 including fitting, painting in body colour and VAT, and would liberate the biggest rainproof load area imaginable, complete with locking and tinted glass to keep my kit away from prying eyes in the paddock.
I went for this option, and couldn’t be happier with the result. Most pickups I see around these parts have some sort of load cover like this – whether for transporting farm machinery, dogs, sheep or almost anything else you can imagine. My D-Max fits right in.
The process was amazingly simple too. I didn’t have to lift a finger! Close came to our office, collected the car at 9am, and it was back transformed into an imperious load-lugger by 4:30pm. I was kept informed about the whole thing in a friendly, personable manner by Parts Manager Staffan, and on first inspection everything fits and works brilliantly. I’m a happy boy.
On the other hand, another modification I’ve carried out is far cheaper, easily D-I-Y-able, and arguably just as helpful. I mentioned in my previous update that there’s no screen for multimedia or navigation on the DL20 D-Max, and to address this, I’ve installed a brilliant bit of kit: a Quad Lock magnetic phone mount with air vent attachment and wireless charging.
This device couldn’t be simpler: I just place my phone on the magnetic pad and it’s held in place, with charging taken care of via the USB socket in the D-Max.
I’ve been familiar with Quad Lock for years, having used their modular kit on several motorbikes. They provide a phone case with one of their patented fixings on the back, and that opens you up to myriad fixtures and fittings that bolt together to connect a smartphone to bikes, boats, walls, chargers, tripods, selfie sticks and plenty more besides.
It’s become a bit of a lifestyle choice for me over the years, and as well as on motorcycles, I’ve used it when sailing, to charge my phone at my desk, to carry my work pass and credit cards around using the magnetic card holder (pictured below), and even to film myself using the tripod. It’s clever kit and very well built, so seemed the ideal addition to the D-Max.
In terms of cost, the Mag case for my Google Pixel 7 Pro was £31.99. The vent mount is £29.99 and the Mag wireless charging head is £39.99, and includes a USB-A to USB-C cable so I can plug into the Isuzu’s dash-mounted USB jack to power it. That means for £102 I’ve got the full functionality of my smartphone including voice control, permanently charging and streaming through Bluetooth to the truck’s speakers. That’s considerably cheaper than upgrading to the DL40 D-Max, and ditto cheaper than any aftermarket touchscreen stereo.
With these two additions, I honestly believe the D-Max is going to be a wonderful companion, and I can’t wait to start putting it to good use.
A few first impressions…
I’ve spent a bit of time with the Isuzu D-Max DL20 now, and it’s time to offer some initial impressions on what life’s like with it, and a few things you might want to add, depending on your use case.
Let’s start with the moment I sat in the truck. The commanding view out from the high driving position immediately made me feel as though I was in a large vehicle, with the vast steering wheel highlighting the more ‘agricultural’ feel.
This impression didn’t change as I turned the key in the ignition barrel, giving the glowplugs a chance to heat up, before firing the punchy 1.9-litre diesel engine. It grumbled purposefully to life in a manner befitting a much larger motor, with the entire vehicle gently shaking, and in particular the gear lever. It felt like it meant business.
The clutch is quite heavy, but first gear engages with a pleasing solidity and to drive, it’s no different to any manual diesel car, albeit with a monstrous 360Nm of torque.
Pulling onto the open road, that big steering wheel needs quite a bit of work because the steering itself is quite slow, but thankfully it’s light enough and you soon get used to it. Furthermore, it’ll come into its own when reversing with a trailer, where quick, darty steering can cause accuracy issues.
Anyway, it’s much more comfortable than I expected, especially given it has a leaf-sprung rear axle for carrying heavy loads. This often has an impact on ride comfort, because it’s unable to control the wheels’ movement in the same way more advanced systems can. Isuzu claim to have done a lot of work in this area, improving the mounts for the body as well as the suspension damping, and it shows.
Now, it’s time to start really seeing what the D-Max is made of… tune in next time for an update from the race track.
Update 3: Towing with the Isuzu D-Max
I’ve already used the Isuzu D-Max DL20 for plenty of towing this year, including four race meetings – Silverstone twice, Thruxton and Donington Park. This has given me a fantastic insight into its capabilities as a tow car over both short and extended journeys.
The rig I’ve been using is as follows: I’m pulling my Sunbeam Alpine racing car (circa 950kg) on a braked Ifor Williams CT136HD trailer (circa 510kg unladen).
The D-Max has a braked towing capacity of up to 3500kg, which is miles over what I’m asking of it, but it’s always sensible to have a good bit of headroom when working out towing weights, because otherwise you’ll be straining the engine and gearbox and fuel economy and performance will suffer as a result.
I’m also using the covered back to transport all my race gear, including 40 litres of spare fuel, a couple of heavy tool boxes, four spare wheels and all manner of other motorsport detritus. Thankfully, the D-Max’s one-tonne payload limit is way above what I’m carrying – I estimate the kit all together is around 400kg.
To give you some sort of indication how vast the load area is with the cover on, I can actually load up and still see out of the interior rear-view mirror, so there’s plenty of room left should the need arise, and that’s including stuff for an overnight stay.
It also leaves the cabin completely free for four fully grown humans, which makes this one of the best race support vehicles I’ve ever used. It’s a very comfortable vehicle over longer distances – Isuzu has done a lot of work on the rear suspension to make the leaf springs as refined a driving experience as possible, and we were all glad about that when navigating the 300-mile trip to Thruxton and back. It’s just a shame the Alpine didn’t do quite as well as the D-Max, but that’s a story for another day…
How do you set up an Isuzu D-Max DL20 for towing?
It couldn’t really be simpler. This D-Max has a fixed towbar so first of all, you need to reverse the truck so the ball is close to the trailer hitch. This is easier than you may think, because the parking sensors are configured to let you know when you’re close enough, although I always prefer to have a spotter there to ensure I’m safe and sound.
Some other vehicles provide you with either a reversing camera or a graphical representation of what’s happening behind, which naturally makes reversing onto a trailer easier, but it’s no challenge with the Isuzu.
Then it’s a case of hooking the hitch onto the ball using the height adjustment on the trailer. The D-Max is relatively low at the rear end, and I noticed at Silverstone Festival’s trailer park – which was on a slight slope down towards the back of the truck – that I had to stand on the trailer to get it low enough to hook onto the ball. This isn’t a problem with the truck as much as a feature you may need to manage if you’re using a low trailer like me.
Next up, you need to fit the breakaway cable and ensure it’s not able to touch the floor while driving (because you’ll quickly run through it if it’s dragging, rendering it useless). On the D-Max I pop it through the top of the towbar assembly and clip it to a hole underneath.
Then it’s time to connect the electrics. My trailer has a 13-pin plug for this and so does the D-Max, so it fits right on, but some trailers have a seven-pin set-up so in that case you’ll need to find an adaptor. They’re easily available from most trailer hire places and online supermarkets, but check beforehand to avoid a distressed purchase.
I won’t go too deeply into best practice for towing because that’s for another article, but I always check the lights are working (running lights, brake, reversing and indicators), and periodically ensure tyres are correctly inflated as per the sticker on the trailer.
What’s it like towing with the Isuzu D-Max DL20?
In a word: easy. The D-Max feels like it was born for this sort of work. You make good use of the ultra-short first gear to pull away, but it never feels under-powered, despite it’s relatively small 1.9-litre diesel.
That engine has huge punch in the mid-range and drags my rig with ease. I carried out a fuel economy experiment and noticed a 10mpg drop – from 36mpg to 26mpg – when fully loaded with everything I’m carrying. That didn’t seem to bad at all to me.
If I’m being very picky it does sound a bit gruff when working hard, but it’s not a Bentley… this is a working vehicle. What’s more important is its capability, and it’ll haul up to 60mph fully loaded without breaking a sweat. That’s the maximum speed I’m allowed to travel on UK roads with a trailer.
I think I’d test drive an automatic version for my use case and see if that’s easier to live with over longer runs, because it can get slightly boring working up and down the manual six-speed ‘box in the D-Max when you’re sat in traffic or navigating roads with roundabouts and so on.
Anyway, I’m absolutely loving life with this vehicle right now. It’s not perfect but it’s so impressively capable that I genuinely look forward to giving it its next challenge. And I reckon it’s one of the best cars out there for towing.
