THE TRUCK OF SHAME
Only joking!… there’s no shame in needing to be recovered. Anything can happen when out on an Adventure Rally and we want to assure you that in such instances we have got your back. You may have seen the big orange taxi stationed along the route on recent rallies, bright and ominous and ready for action, so allow us to formally introduce to you the custom built RallyMoto recovery vehicle and the man behind it’s design and the wheel, Alex Golden.
At first glance you may just assume this is a regular 4×4 Ford Ranger with some extra add ons for offroad capability, however at closer inspection you’ll realise that this is a fully customised adventure bike rescue and recovery machine!
RAMPS
For example, the back was built by a specialist company as a flat bed. The sides of it are made up of two heavy duty, eight foot long ramps which are held on by studding and clips. Seperate mounts on the rear allow them to be hooked on to the back of the tray and used as ramps when needed.
WINCHES
The rear winch is used for pulling large adventure bikes up onto the flatbed, which is especially handy when the clutch is gone or there’s a gearbox or chain failure.
Even rescue vehicles can get stuck! The front winch enables the vehicle to self recover because as Alex explains:
“In Keilder Forest, if I drop into a ditch we really are screwed!”
LOAD CAPACITY
The chassis has been extended by about a meter so it can cope with GS’s. It’s designed to take two adventure bikes or three enduro bikes. It’s a king cab rather than a crew cab which allows for the longer tray, but also provides seats for 4 passengers (at a push!).
“I can also get 5 sheep on the back and a massive bale of hay”
INSIDE THE CAB
To access the live tracking information of the riders on the move, an Ipad has been mounted to the dash which runs the RallyMoto tracking software. The truck also has it’s own GPS tracker, making it easy and quick for Alex to locate riders in relation to himself.
A quadlock system mounts an iphone to the dash to provide communications with the rally organisers and mashals via whatsapp.
Whilst we’ve thoroughly enjoyed showing off you the radness of the RallyMoto recovery truck, we sincerely hope that this is as closely acquainted as you will ever be with it. However, in the case that you do break down, try and make sure you’re the first one to do so, that way you get dibs on the front seat 😉
