FEATURE - Isuzu NLR 150 Camper
Words and Photos: Isuzu Australia
Even if retirement is still a glint in the distance, it’s not hard to imagine how you might fill your newly cleared schedule… lazy days by the pool, activities with the grandkids, hobbies, bowls, pot-and-parma lunch specials. Not a bad life if you’re keen on taking it easy.
But for those like Stephen Larissey, the wanderlust and itchy feet never quite go away, and there’s always time for another adventure.
“I’ve worked a lot of jobs,” the born-and-raised Tasmanian says. “My parents owned the largest bus service in the state at the time, Tassie Redline, but after my father passed, I moved around.
“Towards the end of my career, I was lucky enough to find myself working for a great boss but unfortunately, he died suddenly. That’s when I thought I’d better retire before it’s too late, so I packed it in at 61.”
The Isuzu Upgrade
For a soul like Stephen who has energy to spare, retirement hasn’t slowed down his pace of life one bit.
“There’s always something going on at the house,” he explains. “I’ve got a pair of young dogs, so I’ve just put in a big fence which needed a lot of building equipment and concrete.”
While utes have been the default working vehicle for people of Stephen’s generation, with time and experience comes wisdom. In this case, wisdom led to the recognition that a ute isn’t always the answer – for work or play.
“I’ve had utes for years, but I’m pretty tall and the cab of the ute just wasn’t comfortable anymore, so I upgraded to an Isuzu truck.”
Stephen went to Webster Trucks, who have Isuzu dealerships in four locations on the Apple Isle – Launceston, Devonport, Burnie and Derwent Park – and it was at the latter that he encountered salesman Bevan Coleman,
“Bevan was just the nicest person in the world to deal with,” Stephen recalls. “I told him about the camper and the trips planned, and he pointed me to the truck I needed and it’s perfect for the job.”
The truck Bevan recommended for Stephen was an Isuzu NLR 45-150, which comes with a 3.2-metre tray and an overall design that, in addition to being a very capable workhorse, just happens to be perfect for holding a slide-on camper. More on that shortly.
“I feel like, in the truck, I can drive 600 kilometres in a day and not feel tired or uncomfortable at all,” Stephen adds.
Palomino for Play
Although you might expect to find an Isuzu NLR on a worksite most days, it’s well suited to camping applications, with a tight turning circle and cab-over engine compactness that makes it manoeuvrable in awkward spots, along narrow trails off the beaten track and in tightly-packed campgrounds.
With the intention of seeing as much of the Australian landscape as possible, Stephen purchased a Palomino ‘Backpack Edition’ slide-on camper from Palomino RV Australia to suit the NLR. While these campers are made in the USA, appliances and equipment are all fitted here in Australia.
“We already do a lot of camping around Tassie, and we found, with all those little spots that we never went to before, the truck can just get us anywhere we need it to.”
The ‘we’ in this scenario is Stephen, his partner, Vicki, and their dogs, Belle and Bob, so they needed a vehicle capable of carrying all four in comfort.
“We were never able to do this kind of travel in the ute,” Stephen explains. “But the truck has a 3.2-metre tray and a payload that can carry anything I could possibly need without having to worry about weight limits.”
Stephen’s new camper is a serious piece of kit, well deserving of a great rig to match, so he polishes the truck-and-camper outfit with pride.
“The camper has a shower, toilet, washing facility, air conditioning, camp stove inside and outside, 170 litres of water, and it's even got a solar panel on the roof.”
Haul and Tow
For this lifelong outdoorsman, the cherry on top of Stephen’s new Isuzu is the ability to simultaneously tow a fishing boat by the name of ‘Just Chips’.
“That’s what you say when you didn’t catch anything, you go home with just chips,” Stephen laughs “And that’s the story most of the time you fish!
“The camper goes straight on the tray and the boat gets towed behind the truck. When everything is loaded, it's all good. It's safe, secure, within weight limits and we can go anywhere we want to go.”
The Isuzu NLR 45-150 has a GVM (Gross Vehicle Mass) of 4.5 tonnes, meaning Stephen has no issue hauling anything, from the slide-on camper and boat to all the equipment and supplies for the endless jobs he has going on at the house.
Another major advantage with the NLR is that, despite the big payload capacity, these trucks can be driven on a car licence. That means Stephen can hand the wheel over to Vicki during long trips when he feels like a break.
The Small Truck for a Big Trip
With so much territory to cover on Stephen’s bucket list, it was also important for him to get a truck that was versatile enough to handle different ground conditions and with enough power to pull him out of potentially sticky situations.
The NLR’s reputation of reliability will get a baptism by fire on an interstate journey from Tasmania to Perth across the Nullarbor Plain - where the true scale of the Australian outback is sure to test the mettle of the Isuzu.
Stephen, Vicki, Belle and Bob will start their big adventure with several family visits, including a stop to see son, Tom, who owns 106 Auto Sales in Invermay (Launceston). Following a trip across Bass Strait on the Spirit of Tasmania, there’s the long haul on the mainland from east to west, where Stephen will be reunited with his other son, James, who lives in Perth and works as a marine engineer. A holiday on the west coast will complete this trip, but more are in the works.
Plans are already taking shape for Stephen’s next adventure in the NLR and Palomino - a trip up the east coast - followed by a drive to Darwin. The Nullarbor crossing should be a good warm-up for what’s ahead, so it’s fair to say that Stephen, Vicki, Belle, Bob and their Isuzu truck are just getting started.
