This is the final installation of our three-part Hilux Stories series. Read part one here or part two here. Alternatively, click here to read more about the Hilux #Where2next? competition.
Brand loyalists do not come more devoted than Tumelo Maketekete, presenter of DSTV Ignition’s That 4×4 Show. He’s driven dozens of bakkies, SUVs and off-roaders, but in his eyes there is only one brand that reigns supreme: Toyota.
“All my life, I’ve driven only Toyotas. That’s all I know, and that is all I drive. I don’t think there’s anybody who’s going to convince me to drive anything else,“ he says.
Apart from a Corolla for day-to-day use, as well as his partner’s Yaris, Tumelo owns a 2002 Toyota Hilux 3,0 KZ-TE DC 4×4.
His originally stock-standard Hilux has been turned into an off-road bruiser. “I’ve redone the suspension by installing MIKEM underpinnings. I’ve added 40 mm of body lift. There’s a snorkel, I cut up the back seat, and then I fitted a 60-litre fridge-freezer. It also has an awning, spotlights, 35-inch tyres, wheel spacers, spades and a Front Runner load bar with jerry cans on the roof. I’ve bought a rooftop tent and a charger for the second battery at the back. And there are ball-joint spacers to give it a bit of lift. Oh, I had an off-road bumper fitted at the front…
“All I need to do now is add a long-range fuel tank, and then I need to get a rear bumper with a spare-wheel carrier because the spare currently rests in the loading bay and takes up a bit of space.”
The Hilux has travelled through Namibia, Botswana and to Tumelo’s home town of Matukeng, Ka Ntshirele in Lesotho a number of times. His favourite 4×4 destination, however, remains Namibia because of the long stretches of wilderness and the few cities and towns in the country.
An electrician by trade, Tumelo has taught himself how to fix the Hilux if something goes wrong in the great outdoors. But, he adds that the sheer reliability of the Hilux – and the Toyota brand – has never left him stranded.
“The Hilux is easy to work on, cheap to run and I know it’s going to get me from point A to point B. And I know that she is going to come back,” he says.
Tumelo admits that, until six years ago, he knew nothing about off-roading. In 2009, he joined the Hilux 4×4 club and, accompanied by his partner Sisanda Maqina, he attended his first club outing at Berakah Eco Trails just outside Parys in the Free State.
“The bakkie was standard. Stock-standard. I knew nothing about 4x4ing. I had never been off-road and I’d never been on any obstacle. I rocked up there and there must have been about 40 guys. I had the madam with me, and I thought, ‘What did we get ourselves into?’”
The event was exactly what 4×4 rookie Tumelo needed. “It taught me so much. It allowed me to step into a world that is completely new,” he adds as he recalls his favourite memory shared with his Hilux.
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