Gardening made easy with the willing Isuzu D-Max Extended Cab

We drive many bakkies in all shapes and sizes, but rarely do some real-world work with them. So when a gardening project was drafted over the December holidays, our long-term Isuzu D-Max Extended Cab was heaven-sent.

The Obsidian Grey cab-and-a-half in LSE 4×4 guise duly arrived in December for a three-month stay and was begging to do some proper bakkie stuff. We might have settled for a cattle truck to carry the intended cargo, so having access to the best-specced extended cab in Isuzu’s portfolio was a bargain.

Best of both worlds

The end goal of the DIY landscaping endeavour was to install three rear tractor tyres as vegetable and herb planters in this writer’s backyard. So the Isuzu was the weaopn of choice for relocating the retired rubberware from its agricultural environment in the Magaliesburg countryside to a suburban setting to shelter seedlings during retirement.

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Slotting in between a single and double cab, an extended cab bakkie offers virtues of both the other two body styles. One is the space behind in the rear of the cabin, limited to grocery bags in our case as it is illegal to carry more than two passengers in front.

The other big advantage is the loadbin being bigger than that of a double cab. This made loading the three tractor tyres onto the back, which measure 1 805mm by 1 530mm and are 490mm deep, very easy. Bringing these big boys back to Randburg, rolling them off the back and into position before cutting away the sidewall with an electric jigsaw was the easy part.

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Isuzu D-Max gets down and dirty

These eager planters required some soil and the Isuzu D-Max’s 140kW/450Nm 3.0-litre turbodiesel engine was fired up to head for the nursery yard for a load of proper gardening mix. According to an online volume calculator using the inner dimensions of the tyres, one cubic metre of soil, how it is usually sold wholesale, was going to be touch and go.

So we made our way to the nursery, paid for a cube of fresh gardening mix and watched the rear suspension drop ever so slightly as the Bobcat filled the loadbin. Just as in the case of transporting the tyres, the oil-burner mated to six-speed auto box took the cargo in its stride. It is after all why a bakkie exists.

Once back home and after dozens of wheelbarrow trips between the bakkie and the fast-filling planters, we realised the soil was more than enough for our needs. Another visit to the online volume calculator confirmed that the volume on the Isuzu D-Max Extended Cab is actually around 1.3 cubes. Not only did we score a bit, but we had soil left over to refreshen up the rest of the garden too.

Normal service has resumed

Using a spade to offload the soil from the standard rubberising on the loadbin was a pleasure, without any fears of damaging the bakkie. Afterwards, it was even easier hosing the loadbin down.

After a quick wash, our workhorse was every bit the flashy bakkie it sets out to be as Isuzu’s top-spec Extended Cab.

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