Isuzu D-MAX LS-T 4x4 2020 Review

Choosing the right tow vehicle is a serious decision. While the latest US-sourced full-size pick-ups like the RAM and Silverado really do eat traditional dual-cab utes for breakfast, they can be more than you need for lunch and dinner -- unless your caravan is your mobile home.

While the American behemoths are surprisingly comfortable and well-appointed and the towing fuel economy of their big petrol and diesel engines is quite impressive, when unhitched their ability to slip into car parks and through small regional towns is less so.

Did I mention turning circle or the special challenge of negotiating a Macca’s drive-through?

So unless you're using one as a fifth-wheeler tug or B-I-G boat, are constantly on the move, or cart coffins and need all that load bed length for your living, they're probably more truck than you need.

I’m not pick-up bashing; I feel much the same way about Toyota’s 200-Series LandCruiser and Nissan’s 300kW petrol V8-engined Patrol.

Both are fabulous Outback cruisers but they struggle to remain relevant in the urban environment in which most of their owners do the majority of their driving.

At the other end of the tow vehicle scale, you’ll find predominantly European vehicles that are frankly too precious, too light and too fragile for the task of hauling a relatively heavy off-road caravan down a major Outback Highway, like the Gibb River Road, the Tanami, Strzelecki or Birdsville Tracks.

Then there are those in the sweet spot like the Isuzu D-MAX dual-cab ute. A wiry terrier of the towing spectrum – small enough to drive to the shops and tough enough to work for their owners between caravan or adventure holidays and weekends.

With its relatively narrow (1960mm) crew-cab body, a payload of 1029kg and a GVM (Gross Vehicle Mass) of 3050kg and an acceptable turning circle of 12.6m, the mid-spec Isuzu D-MAX LS-T that we recently took on a hard ‘holiday’, ticked all the right spec boxes to make it a 356 days a year family member.

We didn’t go the easy way. Ignoring family protests, we took the more direct, diagonal route from the Gold Coast Hinterland in Queensland to Memory Cove at the tip of South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula.

Goondiwindi, Cunnamulla, Thargomindah, Tibooburra, Broken Hill and Whyalla were our waypoints.

We had hoped to take the Strzelecki Highway via Innamincka and then onto Woomera via Maree, the Oodnadatta Track and Andamooka, however, unexpected (and very welcome) rain in Western Queensland and northern South Australia made solo caravan travel risky on unsealed roads.

So instead, we got stuck for a few hours south of the quaint Noccundra Hotel trying to avoid a lake in the middle of the road!

When choosing a vehicle to tow an off-road caravan, you're dependent on its strength and mechanical ability. You’re also very wise to look past its ‘rated towing capacity’ to more important figures like its maximum permissible Gross Combination Mass (GCM).

We engaged Weightcheck Mobile Caravan Weighing to check the real weight of our rig, loaded and ready to travel, when I reviewed an Isuzu MU-X prior to setting off on a trip to the Gulf of Carpentaria and Lawn Hill National Park (Qld) last year.

The result was surprising, with the MU-X coming within 2kg of its permitted GVM when fully fuelled and laden, including myself and my wife and our caravan’s 270kg towball download.

As the Isuzu D-MAX has a 100kg higher compliance-plated GVM and a 200kg higher GCM (3050kg/5950kg) compared with the MU-X’s 2750kg/5750kg, it is clearly more highly rated as a workhorse – which is reflected by Isuzu’s 3500kg braked trailer rating, versus the MU-X’s 3000kg.

That additional toughness in part comes from the D-MAX’s basic difference to the MU-X. While they both share a similar separate, full-length heavy-duty truck chassis and twin-wishbone and coil spring independent front suspension, the D-MAX dual-cab pick-up employs leaf springs on its solid rear axle compared with the softer, coil-spring independent set-up of the MU-X wagon.

In theory, this should translate into a choppy ride without a load onboard or a caravan behind, but in its most recent incarnation, the D-MAX packs a new three-span leaf spring rear end, developed from Australian customer feedback.

And while that’s true to an extent, it’s far from the ‘rip your shirt out of your pants’ worst of the working utes and quite acceptable for everyday use.

Load it up and it rides smoother, without dragging its tail as some utes are prone to do.

In fact, the 270kg laden ball load of our caravan held the same height-adjustable drop hitch further off the ground than it did on the MU-X a year earlier and at no stage – even on the very choppy bush track into Memory Cove with its load bed full – did if come close to bottoming out.

The exterior of the Isuzu D-MAX has been refreshed with the introduction of 18-inch machined-faced matte black aluminium wheels wrapped in 255/60R18 Toyo Open Country Highway Terrain tyres.

While they work well, and provided impressive all-weather grip and good traction, I think standard spec should be LT (Light Truck) tyres because of their superior sidewall strength, even at the expense of some ride comfort.

I can’t definitively blame the Toyo’s sidewalls for the rear tyre puncture we suffered half-way along the Birdsville Track, as it could have resulted from a stone piercing the tread, causing a slow puncture. But stiffer sidewalls might have saved the tyre being shredded so comprehensively.

One thing that truly impressed us though was the excellent dust-proofing of the D-MAX’s cabin, which ranks up there as among the best we have experienced on any vehicle of any price.

At the opposite end of the scale, we can rate the dust-sealing of the optional sliding load bed cover as among the worst and it vindicated our decision to keep everything valuable in the cab.

Not only did the dust pour in at a prodigious rate, but the crude latch that kept if closed refused to lock on most occasions and finally wouldn’t unlock.

The other issue with the load bed is that it has no protection for the painted metal surface, which is easily scratched when things bounce about on corrugated roads.

A spray-on coating, or a removable bed liner would also be on my wish list, especially on the D-MAX LS-T model we reviewed.

In virtually every other aspect, the Isuzu D-MAX was a star.

For a start, it steered really well, laden or empty. Tuned in accordance with Australian customer feedback, the hydraulic steering rack on all current D-MAX variants is tweaked to make it smoother and lighter.

Steering inputs at a standstill and at low speeds have been greatly improved (requiring less effort than you would expect from a commercial vehicle) while the steering feedback at medium to high speeds remains as good as ever.

The D-MAX’s 3.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine is also impressive. Although rated at only 130kW and with a peak torque of 430Nm, both peak outputs are produced at a really useful 3600rpm and between 2000-2200rpm respectively.

Diesel-normal clatter on start-up remains when accelerating in the lower gears, but once it drops into fifth gear at cruising speed, or overdrive sixth, it’s unexpectedly quiet.

The automatic transmission on our LS-T went about its business quietly; selecting the most appropriate gear for optimum economy.

We tried over-riding the auto in search of even better economy, but it knew better and our overall figure of 16.25L/100km is good considering that more than 1000km of our 5500km trip was spent off the bitumen on everything from well-graded outback highways to goat tracks. Many of the on-road kilometres were spent travelling intro strong headwinds.

The cabin of our LS-T was a comfortable place with leather seats, a good trip computer/sat-nav, plenty of cup-holders and oddment storage and enough power outlets to charge our phones, our separate Hema Navigator and a CB radio.

Even getting in and out of the Isuzu D-MAX, despite its good ground clearance, is easier now, thanks to the new-look sidesteps, constructed from Fibre-Reinforced Polymer (FRP).

We didn’t make use of the matte-black pair of roof rails fitted to the D-MAX’s cab, nor the matching sports bars in the ute bed for fear their contents might ‘walk’ if we left the ute unattended for a while, but they certainly gave it a purposeful look.

Obviously, a lot of other travellers have thought so too, as we saw many D-MAX dual-cab utes in front of caravans and camper trailers on our travels.

Spanning 21 variants, with a five-star ANCAP safety rating, a well-matched engine and transmission, good fuel economy, keen retail prices from $26,990 to $54,990, a six-year/150,000km warranty and seven-year capped price service program, the D-MAX is a hard act to top.

How much does the 2020 Isuzu D-Max LS-T Crew Cab 4x4 cost?
Price: $54,800 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 3.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Output: 130kW/430Nm
Fuel: 7.8L/100km (ADR Combined); 16L/100km (as tested)
CO2: 207g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Five-star ANCAP

Related reading:
Best Dual-Cab 4WD ute of 2019