In reply to Wally :
In “The Far Green Country” documentary the couple runs into an Australian couple that has traveled almost all the world in an Isuzu 4x4 diesel with a custom camper back sort of like my picture but cooler. The documentary is weak but the 2 minutes of the Australian guy is awesome.
I have a VW Camper book. This family made it.
In reply to Datsun310Guy :
If money were no object I would love four wheel drive but I’ve read a few blogs that said it was unnecessary unless you were going into a lot of soft sand or salt flats. Daydreaming me is still cheap and a bit lazy so I’ll pass on the extra things to move and go wrong.
I vote GRM Panamerican Highway challenge. Safety in numbers!
This is a '74 but come on, this seems legit.
Id take the 200 series Land Cruiser in my driveway, because I have it already and it is a Land Cruiser.
I would leave the driveline and suspension 100% alone with the exception of getting a second matching spare tire. Rooftop tent, ARB fridge, awning, decent roof rack, aux battery and maybe some solar if I wanted to post up somewhere for a few days. 5 gallons of water, 5 gallons of extra fuel. Small folding table and chairs. That should pretty much do it. Maybe some heavy duty bumpers and rock sliders if I am feeling frisky. Heavy duty bumpers, a winch, and rocksliders would be nice. Maybe lamin-x or similar on the windshield and front lights.
In reply to 93gsxturbo :
That would be a very cool ride for the trip.
The one thing here is do you try to adapt something old and cool, something new-ish and still kinda cool, or totally new.
Like the LR and the Kombi are old and cool. Although the Kombi was heavily updated for further travel. And they showed another VW van (newish and cool) that had a Ford ZTEC engine swap in it...
Wally, it does seem that AWD isn't neccessary. But it could be very handy.
It would be super cool if I could find an orignal Alfa Romeo Van-
I kinda know how to make one of those pretty reliable.
But there are a lot of cool vans out there where one can do a super reliable swap.
For a more modern body- this would be cheap, and its very similar to a Ranger
This is an early 80's Ranger with a camper attached to it. Interesting path to go down.
In reply to alfadriver :
That Ranger is certainly interesting, the rear overhang looks a bit sketchy though. I’ve thought they’d be a nice home for one of those Ecoboost crate engines.
In reply to Wally :
It would be interesting to find one of those, and put it on a longer truck. For instance, find an extended cab, and put on a base cab with that camper behind it. Still pretty cramped inside. From what I've read, not many were made.
Or a Tacoma...
ProDarwin said:I vote GRM Panamerican Highway challenge. Safety in numbers!
If sticking to well maintained roads I’d really consider a diesel Benze wagon. If looking to get off-road a Cruiser.
Latin America is full of F-Series trucks of every generation and configuration. For this reason it’s what I’d choose. Probably go with an early 2000’s Super Duty. For the engine, I’d transplant the pinnacle of simplicity, a 6BT Cummins. And I would do it not to roll coal but for the mere fact that that engine is darn near infallible. The Turtle Expedition used a Super Duty with its native 7.3 Powerstroke but I’ve always felt that while those were great engines that will still run on less than ultra clean diesel, they tend to be a bit overly complex for the bush. They possess a myriad of sensors and modules that don’t give great piece of mind when what far from civilization. So my answer is Fummins.
The biggest concern with any of the swap vehicles is its a custom one-off. Reducing complication is really great. To that end, if I wanted a 12 valve bad enough I would just take a 96 Ram. A surprising amount of parts cross between the Ram and the superduty (all the front brake stuff for example). Superduty wins for a real 4 door cab, Dodge wins for the 12 valve/manual trans combo.
That Benz wagon is sweet.
In reply to A 401 CJ :
If not for Paul's post from Peru that points out that diesel is not as available nor as consistent on quality of gas is in South America, that would make sense. But I think the suggestion from people there would say gas would be the fuel of choice.
And if F series trucks are so common, E series vans have parts.
In reply to alfadriver :
I had always thought that diesel was universal but in a talking to the Orange group from Holland they also said it depended on the region. I was also surprised that they were using largely unmodified vehicles. Many of them had through much of Africa and Asia already in fairly stock, older sedans on all season tires which made me think vehicle choice isn’t as critical as some would lead you to believe.
Flame suit on.
How about a new EcoSport 2.0 AWD?
They were designed and built for developing economies, are fuel efficient, are starting to make their way into richer economies, are newish so Ford dealers should have spares, are small and efficient so fuel needs are limited, they have a track record of surviving poor roads, they have an available full size spare carrier, can tow, and don't convey a sense of actually being rich.
I can't be arsed to check right now, but I imagine you can get a new EcoSport in most of the countries you'd pass through. You could even get yourself some EcoSport Storm trim while out on the road, just to add a little flair... Er, flare...
This would get the job done. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1985-toyota-land-cruiser-fj60-21/
In reply to Mike :
I could get behind something like that depending on where I wanted to travel and how many people. A solo trip, staying in hostels, and sticking to main roads it’d be doable. I have often thought an older Forester would be ideal if parts weren’t such an issue.
Still my vote if sticking to maintained roads:
https://classics.autotrader.com/classic-cars/1981/mercedes_benz/300td/101125561
build thread on the one I posted earlier:
https://expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/mercedes-w123-expedition-300td.37908/
My experience bouncing around the Sierras is that there's always someone with way inferior machinery who gets much farther up the canyon than one would expect. Point being that 8/10ths of the battle is frame of mind. I had an uncle in deep Alaska who drove an old diesel Mercedes everywhere. All the truck guys made fun of him, but he prevailed with that thing for years.
Don't assume that your popular local brand will be ubiquitous. Toyotas rule in California, but I've found places in
Central America and Mexico where they're scarce as Corvettes.
Just do it!
The Superduty idea is a good one. Mechanically pretty simple (in gas or diesel form), plenty of space and weight capacity for bringing everything you'd want to, a few spare tires, spare parts, extra fuel to bridge areas of sketchy fuel availability, etc. Not having it loaded to or above its max weight rating can go a long way towards being able to do some off-roading without breaking stuff as easily.
Sometimes it’s counterintuitive. I read an article in Autoweek one time about the inaugural Baja 1000...or whatever distance they were running back in ‘66 or ‘67. The conventional wisdom at the time was that a Jeep Universal (CJ5) would be the natural choice. As it turned out, and I can’t remember if it was Parnelli Jones or someone else who said it, but it was quickly determined that a worse car for racing that course could not have been designed easily. What did work? A simple pedestrian Volkswagen.
Kreb said:My experience bouncing around the Sierras is that there's always someone with way inferior machinery who gets much farther up the canyon than one would expect. Point being that 8/10ths of the battle is frame of mind. I had an uncle in deep Alaska who drove an old diesel Mercedes everywhere. All the truck guys made fun of him, but he prevailed with that thing for years.
Don't assume that your popular local brand will be ubiquitous. Toyotas rule in California, but I've found places in
Central America and Mexico where they're scarce as Corvettes.
Just do it!
Speaking of Corvettes, I stood right there beside the double-decker bus in the middle of Ushuaia on New Year’s Day 2011. What came cruising down the pot hole strewn street? A C6 Z06. Not claiming it was driven down there but yet there it was.
A 401 CJ said:Kreb said:My experience bouncing around the Sierras is that there's always someone with way inferior machinery who gets much farther up the canyon than one would expect. Point being that 8/10ths of the battle is frame of mind. I had an uncle in deep Alaska who drove an old diesel Mercedes everywhere. All the truck guys made fun of him, but he prevailed with that thing for years.
Don't assume that your popular local brand will be ubiquitous. Toyotas rule in California, but I've found places in
Central America and Mexico where they're scarce as Corvettes.
Just do it!
Speaking of Corvettes, I stood right there beside the double-decker bus in the middle of Ushuaia on New Year’s Day 2011. What came cruising down the pot hole strewn street? A C6 Z06. Not claiming it was driven down there but yet there it was.
A corvette can do it
https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a15150377/the-road-to-remorses-the-road-to-divorces-feature/
That corvette is in the Corvette Museum:
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