For the people who are interested in the details of the
modifications we have done to the car keep reading! We bought the car in July
2014 and started work straight away. It’s a 1990 Toyota Landcruiser 80 4.2 turbo
diesel. We stripped the inside of the car and cleaned what was salvageable. We
put in new insulation on the floor against noise and heat. The rubber around
the gearstick was perished and was releasing a gearbox oil scent. Replacing
that made driving much more comfortable. We collected some wood for the bed
frame and drove off to Oslo. This was the first time we really got to test the
car for a longer distance, which went great! No oil leaks, no strange noises
and no more strange smell.
In Oslo we had another 11 weeks to prepare the car for the trip. Luckily one of our colleagues had a workshop where we could store the car and work on it. This is where we basically spent every weekend getting our hands dirty on the oily bits doing a big service. The most time was spent on finding the slack in the driveline. After removing the front and rear differentials we couldn’t find anything special other than worn bearings and little movement between the gears. This was all easily fixable with spacers and new bearings.
With the wood we collected in Finland we made a bed frame for the mattress and two big drawers underneath. This way we can store all our stuff and still be able to sleep in the car. We had to cut about 10cm off the mattress but it fits easily now. If you are over 190 cms I wouldn’t recommend doing this, a roof tent would be a better option.
Another addition to the car was a recovery winch in front of the car. Many overland travellers say it’s not a question whether you get stuck, but rather when you get stuck. There are other ways of getting out but something told me it would be a lot easier. I found a Polish branded winch online which can handle 9500 pounds and has 30m of steel wire. They usually advise a pulling capacity of at least 1,5 times the weight of the car so we should be well covered.
After disassembling the front bumper I was amazed to see there was exactly enough space to fit the winch I had bought. They come in so many different sizes and this one fitted perfectly. I used a universal winch mount, modified it to fit the frame of the car, welded a wire guide to it and mounted it between the frame and front bumper. Wiring was easy as these came prepared with the kit, no soldering needed!
Long distances will be driven and a lot of fuel will be used. With an average of about 13l to 100 km and a tank of 90 litres our range will be a bit short of 700 kms. To extend that, you can install an auxiliary fuel tank or add some jerry cans to the car. After some research I found that the auxiliary tanks were well out of our price range so I decided to get some jerry cans. It took some fiddling around but I managed to fit 5 extra jerry cans where the spare tire used to be. Almost all the materials were laying around and the basket I made out of a car hood from a Citroen. It was the best I could do without spending a fortune and managed to fit an extra 100l of fuel on the car. This gives us a range of nearly 1500 kms! That should keep us going.
A big concession we did during the search of the car was the air conditioning. There were not many proper 4 wheel drive cars for sale that had air conditioning and the ones that did were double our price range. Another way to cool yourself in the heat is to have cold drinks. In Australia I have seen it before and it worked great as long as you have a good power setup and a proper fridge. To keep you fridge cool when the car isn’t running you need an extra power supply. During my work I’ve saved 4 19Ah batteries which I mounted under the car bonnet. Connected with a T-max battery connecter it will charge during driving and will power our equipment when the engine isn’t running. As we don’t need the fridge yet because it isn’t warm at all, we prepare to buy one on the way.
The math: Portable fridges usually run averagely on about 3Ah. The battery capacity you can actually use without damaging them is about 50% of the noted Ah, so we have 38Ah (0,5 x 76Ah) capacity. Divide that by the average running power and we have 12,6 hours (38/3) of running time before we damage the batteries. That’s much longer than any air conditioning will keep you cool without the engine running.
Music is very important during a road trip. The car came with good speakers in it, but was wired poorly and didn’t have any amplifier. It was horrible. We managed to find a cheap amplifier, wired it properly and hooked it up to a new radio with an USB port. No more cd changing, listening to the same songs or crappy foreign radio. We are properly set up now!
In Oslo we had another 11 weeks to prepare the car for the trip. Luckily one of our colleagues had a workshop where we could store the car and work on it. This is where we basically spent every weekend getting our hands dirty on the oily bits doing a big service. The most time was spent on finding the slack in the driveline. After removing the front and rear differentials we couldn’t find anything special other than worn bearings and little movement between the gears. This was all easily fixable with spacers and new bearings.
With the wood we collected in Finland we made a bed frame for the mattress and two big drawers underneath. This way we can store all our stuff and still be able to sleep in the car. We had to cut about 10cm off the mattress but it fits easily now. If you are over 190 cms I wouldn’t recommend doing this, a roof tent would be a better option.
Another addition to the car was a recovery winch in front of the car. Many overland travellers say it’s not a question whether you get stuck, but rather when you get stuck. There are other ways of getting out but something told me it would be a lot easier. I found a Polish branded winch online which can handle 9500 pounds and has 30m of steel wire. They usually advise a pulling capacity of at least 1,5 times the weight of the car so we should be well covered.
After disassembling the front bumper I was amazed to see there was exactly enough space to fit the winch I had bought. They come in so many different sizes and this one fitted perfectly. I used a universal winch mount, modified it to fit the frame of the car, welded a wire guide to it and mounted it between the frame and front bumper. Wiring was easy as these came prepared with the kit, no soldering needed!
Long distances will be driven and a lot of fuel will be used. With an average of about 13l to 100 km and a tank of 90 litres our range will be a bit short of 700 kms. To extend that, you can install an auxiliary fuel tank or add some jerry cans to the car. After some research I found that the auxiliary tanks were well out of our price range so I decided to get some jerry cans. It took some fiddling around but I managed to fit 5 extra jerry cans where the spare tire used to be. Almost all the materials were laying around and the basket I made out of a car hood from a Citroen. It was the best I could do without spending a fortune and managed to fit an extra 100l of fuel on the car. This gives us a range of nearly 1500 kms! That should keep us going.
A big concession we did during the search of the car was the air conditioning. There were not many proper 4 wheel drive cars for sale that had air conditioning and the ones that did were double our price range. Another way to cool yourself in the heat is to have cold drinks. In Australia I have seen it before and it worked great as long as you have a good power setup and a proper fridge. To keep you fridge cool when the car isn’t running you need an extra power supply. During my work I’ve saved 4 19Ah batteries which I mounted under the car bonnet. Connected with a T-max battery connecter it will charge during driving and will power our equipment when the engine isn’t running. As we don’t need the fridge yet because it isn’t warm at all, we prepare to buy one on the way.
The math: Portable fridges usually run averagely on about 3Ah. The battery capacity you can actually use without damaging them is about 50% of the noted Ah, so we have 38Ah (0,5 x 76Ah) capacity. Divide that by the average running power and we have 12,6 hours (38/3) of running time before we damage the batteries. That’s much longer than any air conditioning will keep you cool without the engine running.
Music is very important during a road trip. The car came with good speakers in it, but was wired poorly and didn’t have any amplifier. It was horrible. We managed to find a cheap amplifier, wired it properly and hooked it up to a new radio with an USB port. No more cd changing, listening to the same songs or crappy foreign radio. We are properly set up now!