Our new BT50 GT

[Millsy]

Hi Guys

Here's a pic of our new BT50 GT, picked up on Saturday morning, immediately christened as 'Barry'! We have purchased Barry to tow our new Jayco Sterling Outback, which we should be taking delivery of around March next year.



Drove straight from the dealers down to Lorne for a quick weekend away, knocking up 400 odd kays.

Heres our initial thoughts -

- Love the lowdown torque, combined with the auto makes it very easy to drive.
- Auto wipers are awesome, as are auto headlights.
- Bluetooth phone/audio streaming works very well.
- Satnav is pretty easy to operate.
- Power seat makes for very easy seat adjustment when there is 8" height difference between you and SWMBO.
- Its big! Not noticed so much when driving, but you become aware of its size when parking.
- Dual zone climate is great, particularly when I always seem to like it a bit cooler than SWMBO.
- The diesel noise is something that will take a bit of time to get used to, with our few previous cars being petrol V6s.
- The voice control is a neat party trick to show your friends, probably not something we will use much.
- Suspension is very firm, something that will receive attention sooner rather than later. Was aware of this trait from research.

In regards to accessories, we had the dealer fit the factory towbar, factory snorkel, bonnet and headlight protectors, window tint and twin rear recovery points. We fitted the set of Sandgrabba mats that we had purchased earlier in the week. Also waiting on black steel side steps, which shall be fitted at the first service.

A list of aftermarket gear is also planned to be fitted -
- EGR Canopy with one slide and one lift window
- TJM Deluxe bullbar (apparently available in 3-4 weeks)
- Winch
- Narva 225 Ultima HID
- Narva 12 LED Lightbar
- Prodigy P3 Brake controller
- Suspension
- BFG All Terrains, possibly aftermarket wheels as well
- Uniden UH7760 UHF
- Dual battery system with DC-DC charger
- Cig and accessory sockets in tray
- Drawers and fridge slide
- Reverse camera system for Barry and the van.

Hopefully all of the mods should happen in the next month or two, so I shall keep this thread updated.

Cheers
Shane

 

[leesy]

Congrats, lots seem to be heading the BT way, are they much cheaper then the Ford?
Cheers

 

[Millsy]

Congrats, lots seem to be heading the BT way, are they much cheaper then the Ford?
Cheers

We didn't go with the Ranger for a few reasons -
A - We don't like the interior or exterior styling of the Ranger
B - I could never bring myself to part with so much coin for something with a blue oval badge on it!
C- The extra bits the Ranger has over the BT50 were not important to us

I believe with onroads the GT works out about 4 grand cheaper than the Wildtrak (top of the line Ranger). The Ranger does get a few things the GT doesn't such as heated seats, reverse camera and sensors, trayliner, and a power socket in the tray. The reverse sensors I dont care for, nor the heated seats. The reverse camera would be no good for us as it wouldn't allow integration of another camera on the rear of the van. Trayliner doesn't matter as we will be fitting drawerss, and power sockets I would rather fit our own from our dual battery setup.

Sucker price (oops, I meant sticker price!) on the GT is around $58,000 onroad. We paid $53,500 with the towbar, snorkel, window tint, steel side steps, rear recovery points, bonnet/headlight protectors and a full tank.

Cheers
Shane

 

[macca]

Millsy, if you want, reverse sensors and camera can be done later. If put them on my BT 50. Sensors really easy, camera a bit harder more time consuming but I did the whole rear vision mirror type. Sensor kit was around $20 delivered.

Geoff

 

[Millsy]

Millsy, if you want, reverse sensors and camera can be done later. If put them on my BT 50. Sensors really easy, camera a bit harder more time consuming but I did the whole rear vision mirror type. Sensor kit was around $20 delivered.

Geoff

I'm not a fan of reverse sensors, but thats just me. I will be fitting a reverse camera system for the car and the van however, with the ability to switch the van camera on whilst driving. I'm also considering the rear view mirror type; aesthetically there aren't many options for monitor mounting. I'm an auto sparky, so installation will be a snap

Cheers
Shane

 

[albo42]

nice one Millsy, congrats, looks great in white (are you a Barry White fan?!).

 

[macca]

I'm not a fan of reverse sensors, but thats just me. I will be fitting a reverse camera system for the car and the van however, with the ability to switch the van camera on whilst driving. I'm also considering the rear view mirror type; aesthetically there aren't many options for monitor mounting. I'm an auto sparky, so installation will be a snap

Cheers
Shane

Yep, thats the one I have, i replaced the mirror, not a fan of the clip on ones.

 

[MolongMick]

Milsy, I got the delux bar on my BT, it is an awesome bar, looks great.
Check out my build here.
http://www.expandasdownunder.com/showthread.php/1328-My-NEw-Tow-Vehcle/page12

You will love the BT, we love it, the best car I think Ive had in a while.

 

[achjimmy]

Congrats on the new ride. They are getting very popular.

 

[Antman]

Congrats mate. Looks great.

Ants

 

[cruza driver]

:first: Awesome mate, I can't wait to get mine now but its a few weeks off.

And I agree the BT's are hard to pass up for value and what you get as standard.

I too have heard about the suspension and noted it when I was test driving it too. What set up are you thinking about getting, I'm leaning towards Tough Dog after going in Moto Moto's BT, plus the feed back he has given me after his trip to Tassie.

I will have to pursue my dealer about the rear recovery points too as he had never heard or been asked about them but thats no biggy.

Congrats mate I look forward to following your build as I have the other BT threads on here :thumb:

 

[Millsy]

nice one Millsy, congrats, looks great in white (are you a Barry White fan?!).

Haha! Well played sir well played! We never made the connection! I would probably be the polar opposite of a Barry White fan!

 

[Millsy]

Thanks fellas, we are wrapped with it. We had a few issues regarding delivery, but they were dealt with very promptly and professionally by our sales guy. Sometimes its not so much the problems you have with a purchase but how they are dealt with that makes the difference in terms of customer satisfaction. Everybody has their bad days!

:first: Awesome mate, I can't wait to get mine now but its a few weeks off.

And I agree the BT's are hard to pass up for value and what you get as standard.

I too have heard about the suspension and noted it when I was test driving it too. What set up are you thinking about getting, I'm leaning towards Tough Dog after going in Moto Moto's BT, plus the feed back he has given me after his trip to Tassie.

I will have to pursue my dealer about the rear recovery points too as he had never heard or been asked about them but thats no biggy.

Congrats mate I look forward to following your build as I have the other BT threads on here :thumb:

Counting the sleeps yet mate?!
I'm also leaning towards the Tough Dog, I'll give them a call at some stage and discuss what they would recommend for our needs.
Our sales guy looked at me funny when I asked for the rear recovery points too! Their local network was down so I had to get the phone out and show him! Push them hard on price too, in the first instance he quoted retail at about $220 a side and $77 to fit! Bollocks to that I said! I think they ended up adding about $200 to the total price once the bargaining was done.

Cheers
Shane

 

[Millsy]

So Barry has had his first non dealer mod today........some new headlight globes.



These are a new product for us at work so I thought I would give them a burl. I have had Philips X-treme +80 and +100 in our other vehicles and have been impressed with the improvement in light ouput for the relatively small outlay. From all reports these are supposedly better than the Philips and Narva equivalents. Once I have actually driven with them at night I shall report back!

Have picked up a couple of these........

http://www.narva.com.au/documents/item/83

.........one for the BT and one for the van (when it arrives!) to cover all accessory wiring. I have done a couple of Rangers and BT's at work now and the factory battery terminals and placement of the battery make it hard to keep all the wiring looking neat and tidy once more than a couple of accessories get fitted. The included earth return and the ability to run dual 12v inputs are neat features.

Other extractions from my wallet have included the full complement of TJM underbody guards, which should arrive next week, and have also placed an order for the TJM Deluxe bar, which most likely won't arrive til early in the new year.

Barry also goes in for some new shoes on Saturday, BFG LT A/Ts. Had toyed with the idea of going up to a 265/70/17, but have decided to stick with the original size 265/65/17. Pics to follow, stay tuned...........

Cheers
Shane

 

[Stan53]

Well done Milsy. Those things are huge. Look like a Mack truck.

 

[Moto Moto]

Nice work Millsy.

My BT has just ticked over 20,000km this week. I sure have been racking up the KM's this year. Now she is run in she goes even better, great for towing duties.

I have the tough dog kit, with meduim duty springs in the back and foam cell shock. The jury is still out for me, originally it was very stiff, but seems to have settled down a fair bit after a lap of Tassie (possibly wouldn't have gone the foam cells if i had previously experienced how stiffly dampened they were).

 

[Millsy]

Nice work Millsy.

My BT has just ticked over 20,000km this week. I sure have been racking up the KM's this year. Now she is run in she goes even better, great for towing duties.

I have the tough dog kit, with meduim duty springs in the back and foam cell shock. The jury is still out for me, originally it was very stiff, but seems to have settled down a fair bit after a lap of Tassie (possibly wouldn't have gone the foam cells if i had previously experienced how stiffly dampened they were).

Thanks for the info Moto. What accessories have you got fitted? Bullbar, winch, canopy etc etc?

Cheers
Shane

 

[Moto Moto]

Hey Millsy,

I have an ARB canopy with roof bars, ARB bullbar, towbar, dual battery in tray and my 40 Waeco pretty much lives in the back too. With that alone (no camping gear, or tools etc) the car was just about riding on the bump stops in the rear and the leaves were inverted. No way in hell would the standard suspension handle 1 ton, but that is standard with any ute, they are all setup to ride comfortably in the showroom when you test drive it. But add a load.............
She well and truely handles a big load now, no worries at all.

 

[Millsy]

Hey Millsy,

I have an ARB canopy with roof bars, ARB bullbar, towbar, dual battery in tray and my 40 Waeco pretty much lives in the back too. With that alone (no camping gear, or tools etc) the car was just about riding on the bump stops in the rear and the leaves were inverted. No way in hell would the standard suspension handle 1 ton, but that is standard with any ute, they are all setup to ride comfortably in the showroom when you test drive it. But add a load.............
She well and truely handles a big load now, no worries at all.

Thanks for that mate. I would have thought that the Tough Dog would have been better damped (dampened?) than the factory setup, which is pretty firm, although mine has less than 1,000 kays on it so probably hasn't loosened up much yet. Oh well, I guess I'll find out exactly how the Tough Dog goes, just ordered the same kit you have I'll prob have a bit more permanent weight with winch on the front and drawers in the back with a 65l fridge. Might be a pretty stiff ride for a month or so 'til all the other bits go on!

Cheers
Shane

 

[Moto Moto]

Thanks for that mate. I would have thought that the Tough Dog would have been better damped (dampened?) than the factory setup, which is pretty firm, although mine has less than 1,000 kays on it so probably hasn't loosened up much yet. Oh well, I guess I'll find out exactly how the Tough Dog goes, just ordered the same kit you have I'll prob have a bit more permanent weight with winch on the front and drawers in the back with a 65l fridge. Might be a pretty stiff ride for a month or so 'til all the other bits go on!

Cheers
Shane

I think with the drawers etc in the back and winch in the front, the setup i have would be perfect for you. No need to worry