Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Crossing West Africa with XOVERLAND: Final Miles, Fuel Range, Teamwork, and Truck Lessons

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Crossing West Africa with XOVERLAND: Final Miles, Fuel Range, Teamwork, and Truck Lessons · The Overland Journal Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your
0:08
Speaker 1: host Scott Brady, and today we're going to do something
0:11
Speaker 1: a little bit different. We're going to take the podcast
0:14
Speaker 1: that Claycroft and I recorded while we were traveling down
0:17
Speaker 1: West Africa. This is when we were almost at the
0:20
Speaker 1: end of the continental crossing, and we talked a lot
0:23
Speaker 1: about our experience, the things that we learned, the things
0:26
Speaker 1: that Clay learned along the way, how the vehicles worked,
0:30
Speaker 1: the different modifications that we had done, the things that
0:32
Speaker 1: I learned about traveling in an ex overland vehicle. Because
0:37
Speaker 1: they're so extensively modified, it was cool for me to
0:40
Speaker 1: be able to try out so much new gear. So
0:43
Speaker 1: this podcast was originally recorded and distributed to the X
0:47
Speaker 1: Overland podcast, but because we found that there were so
0:50
Speaker 1: many great little nuggets of information, we wanted to make
0:52
Speaker 1: sure that our podcast listeners were also able to hear it.
0:55
Speaker 1: So please enjoy my conversation with Clay Croft about crossing Africa.
1:01
Speaker 2: Welcome to the X Overland podcast. We are currently in
1:05
Speaker 2: Southern Africa, Southern South Africa, and today Scott Brady and
1:10
Speaker 2: I are going to be chatting about the expedition as
1:13
Speaker 2: a whole the things that we've learned, and yeah, we
1:17
Speaker 2: haven't fully completed it yet.
1:19
Speaker 3: We still have what it's is it on yours?
1:22
Speaker 1: Yeah? I do have it. It's we got three.
1:24
Speaker 2: Hundred and thirty seven kilometers to the very bottom, and
1:29
Speaker 2: this whole expedition of around forty thousand kilometers just over
1:33
Speaker 2: will be finished.
1:34
Speaker 1: It's a crazy thought.
1:36
Speaker 3: It is a crazy thought.
1:37
Speaker 1: And I love the fact that you've got this concept
1:39
Speaker 1: of the final mile, which is keeping us all really
1:42
Speaker 1: focused on safety and taking good care of the trucks.
1:47
Speaker 3: Yep.
1:48
Speaker 2: And there's two final miles, because the podcast listeners are
1:52
Speaker 2: getting a little inside baseball. There's the final mile of
1:55
Speaker 2: us getting to Cape Agulis and that's where the film
1:59
Speaker 2: will and things like that. But then there's another final mile,
2:03
Speaker 2: and that's getting the trucks to the place where we're
2:06
Speaker 2: going to hand them off and we shut them down
2:08
Speaker 2: and we leave them. That truly is the final mile.
2:12
Speaker 2: That mentality exists all the way.
2:15
Speaker 3: With people too. We keep it.
2:17
Speaker 2: I don't know if I told you this yet, but
2:19
Speaker 2: because this is your first XO trip, yeah, is the
2:22
Speaker 2: expedition for the person is not finished until you walk
2:25
Speaker 2: through the threshold of.
2:26
Speaker 3: Your door at home. Yeah.
2:28
Speaker 2: Sure, that just keeps from mentality sharp until the very
2:32
Speaker 2: very end when you're through your door. You're on your
2:34
Speaker 2: own at that point, but until then you're still on
2:36
Speaker 2: the expedition. And it served us really well. But yeah,
2:39
Speaker 2: coming into the final miles.
2:42
Speaker 1: And how does that feel, Clay, it does How does
2:44
Speaker 1: that feel? Man for you?
2:46
Speaker 3: So much effort, so much effort, and so much was
2:49
Speaker 3: on the line.
2:50
Speaker 2: But you think about the business side.
2:54
Speaker 3: All the miles in between. Are all the vehicles going
2:57
Speaker 3: to make it? Are they going to get in a
2:58
Speaker 3: car accident? Is everyone's going to be okay?
3:02
Speaker 2: There's all these things, all these reasons why it wouldn't happen. Well,
3:06
Speaker 2: you wouldn't be able to make it to the very bottom.
3:09
Speaker 2: And we saw a lot of those happen every day
3:13
Speaker 2: all around us, all around us all the time.
3:16
Speaker 1: And in West Africa it's probably the most uncertain long
3:20
Speaker 1: distance expedition route in the world at the moment. There
3:24
Speaker 1: were coups that were happening, military coup attempts that were
3:27
Speaker 1: happening just after we went through a country. We had
3:31
Speaker 1: coups happening as we were trying to go into countries.
3:35
Speaker 1: Major elections, and we had argument, we had the US
3:38
Speaker 1: government threatening military action in Nigeria just before we crossed
3:42
Speaker 1: the border we were going to be in there.
3:48
Speaker 3: It's pretty It's pretty spicy through there.
3:51
Speaker 1: It really was, and I think we've talked.
3:55
Speaker 3: About this off camera, but there's a couple factors.
3:59
Speaker 1: That make it spicy.
4:01
Speaker 2: When you're on a dedicated timeline and you have to
4:03
Speaker 2: get through a certain area in a certain amount of time,
4:07
Speaker 2: that can add complexity. It can also add simplicity, but
4:11
Speaker 2: in that case it adds complexity because we can't say, well,
4:14
Speaker 2: let's just wait it out.
4:15
Speaker 3: For a week or two.
4:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll just park our.
4:17
Speaker 3: Trucks and wait. Can't do that.
4:20
Speaker 2: So you've got the expeditions on full throttle and you
4:25
Speaker 2: just got to shoot the gap as it comes at you,
4:28
Speaker 2: and that adds a lot of tension that time.
4:30
Speaker 3: I'm glad we were able.
4:31
Speaker 1: To navigate it all but in it, and we were
4:33
Speaker 1: lucky to have so many people on the trip that
4:36
Speaker 1: could solve problems. So anytime in one day, one person
4:40
Speaker 1: could be working on the next border, the next person
4:43
Speaker 1: is working on the visa. You're working on making sure
4:46
Speaker 1: that we've got everything that we need but to support
4:49
Speaker 1: the team that the team's doing well, people are healthy.
4:53
Speaker 1: We had times when people were sick, We had time,
4:55
Speaker 1: we had times when we got folks flying in and out.
4:59
Speaker 1: A lot, lot of moving pieces.
5:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, so many variables, which is what makes it fun totally.
5:06
Speaker 2: You don't know if you're gonna in Ghana, Ghana and Angola,
5:10
Speaker 2: a lot of fuel problems, even in Cameroon a little bit.
5:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, but you didn't know where you're gonna get it.
5:16
Speaker 2: We went to thirteen gas stations in Ghana before we
5:20
Speaker 2: found fuel, and Angola just long distances between fuel and
5:27
Speaker 2: they weren't guaranteed to have it. Seeing Congo, we carried
5:33
Speaker 2: enough that we burned through Congo.
5:34
Speaker 3: But yeah, I'm glad that we had.
5:38
Speaker 2: We've talked about a bit about top equipment, and one
5:41
Speaker 2: of them is certainly if you're gonna go to West Africa,
5:44
Speaker 2: you need a lot of fuel.
5:46
Speaker 1: You got plan on one thousand kilometers of fuel range.
5:49
Speaker 2: If you have that, you'll be fine, but a thousand
5:51
Speaker 2: k's is the safety margins.
5:55
Speaker 3: I wouldn't have wanted to do it with anything lest.
5:57
Speaker 1: Not even ten kilometers left down less because we had
6:00
Speaker 1: it where we came in with forty fifty kilometers of
6:04
Speaker 1: range left. Yeah, we had really tight YEP at times.
6:09
Speaker 2: And having a lot of fuel gave us options as well,
6:13
Speaker 2: Oh we don't have to stop today, we can keep burning.
6:16
Speaker 2: We can make up some time because we do have
6:18
Speaker 2: the fuel on board. It just really allowed.
6:22
Speaker 3: A lot of flexibility from our side.
6:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, we reduced that variable or we would have had
6:27
Speaker 1: a sat in some of those lines. Oh that were
6:30
Speaker 1: hours long if we had to.
6:32
Speaker 3: That was in Angola, we saw the worst lines.
6:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was unbelievable.
6:36
Speaker 3: We'd have been there for five six hours. We would
6:38
Speaker 3: have lost the border day.
6:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.
6:42
Speaker 3: So yeah, what else?
6:44
Speaker 1: And I think when you look at West Africa, there's
6:47
Speaker 1: so many different countries and so many different cultures. I
6:51
Speaker 1: was just impressed with like how like open minded and
6:56
Speaker 1: thoughtful the locals were. They were. They were so welcoming.
6:59
Speaker 1: I never once felt like people didn't want us there.
7:02
Speaker 2: No, I didn't either. We were warned a couple times
7:05
Speaker 2: from other people saying, oh, maybe not should be probably
7:09
Speaker 2: shouldn't be here, or I wouldn't recommend that you are here,
7:12
Speaker 2: but I'm glad you're here.
7:13
Speaker 3: Nice to meet you.
7:14
Speaker 1: Yeah. It was the one guy during the election. The
7:16
Speaker 1: election just had just happened, and there was a lot
7:18
Speaker 1: of worry about safety and security and ended up being fine.
7:24
Speaker 3: It's fine.
7:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, So we had locals helping to provide better safety
7:31
Speaker 2: and a better experience for us.
7:33
Speaker 3: Not it was never the other way. It's been a
7:37
Speaker 3: great Africans are amazing people.
7:39
Speaker 1: They really are. They're Yeah, they're so open, and I
7:42
Speaker 1: think they find the fact that we're traveling through their
7:45
Speaker 1: country and through their continent. I think they think it's
7:48
Speaker 1: pretty cool. We want to see Africa.
7:50
Speaker 2: So many times we'd be driving through these little towns
7:54
Speaker 2: and we would make sure that we roll our windows
7:56
Speaker 2: down and wave at.
7:57
Speaker 3: Everybody, and a hundreds of times people you would just
8:02
Speaker 3: hear them yell out welcome, Yeah, welcome, welcome to my country.
8:06
Speaker 1: We hear them say Americans are Montana. It was so cool. Yeah.
8:12
Speaker 1: And a lot of times it our heads around the world,
8:14
Speaker 1: so they'd recognize, oh, that's a tundra or that's a tacoma, yeah,
8:18
Speaker 1: or they'd they'd recognize the even the brand they'd wreck.
8:23
Speaker 1: There were people that knew of X overland along the way.
8:26
Speaker 3: Yeah.
8:27
Speaker 2: Pretty fun, pretty cool, very fun. What are some of
8:31
Speaker 2: the surprises that you had.
8:33
Speaker 3: I have a few in my mind.
8:35
Speaker 1: I think for me the fact that this was my
8:37
Speaker 1: first ever XO trip, which thank you, by the way,
8:41
Speaker 1: you're like for having me along. It has been it's
8:43
Speaker 1: been such a joy, not only to travel with you
8:47
Speaker 1: because we've known each other for so long as buddies,
8:49
Speaker 1: but to be able to plug myself into what's one
8:52
Speaker 1: of the most admirable expedition teams in the world. So
8:56
Speaker 1: has built a reputation for doing big things and doing
9:00
Speaker 1: it in very cool trucks, and so for me it
9:03
Speaker 1: was super fun as a fan of the brand to
9:06
Speaker 1: finally be able to come and drive along with you.
9:10
Speaker 1: So there's a couple of things that surprised me. I
9:12
Speaker 1: was really impressed with how you assembled a team. These
9:16
Speaker 1: are some of the most exceptional people on the planet.
9:19
Speaker 1: You look. You got Kurt Williams up here in the
9:21
Speaker 1: League Truck Baja one thousand champion, driving these trucks and
9:26
Speaker 1: keeping us safe and calling out potholes and dangers and
9:29
Speaker 1: everything else like that as we go along. We got
9:32
Speaker 1: Richard Giardano, who's traveled around the world and he's one
9:36
Speaker 1: of our cinematographers, and he's also handling a lot of
9:39
Speaker 1: the logistics and helping us solve problems. And we got
9:43
Speaker 1: Peter van Strealen, who's been traveling since he's was a
9:46
Speaker 1: teenager with his family around the world, so super well
9:49
Speaker 1: traveled guys. You get to spend time with Cyrus, your son,
9:52
Speaker 1: who I've known him since he was just a little dude,
9:55
Speaker 1: like maybe four or five years old. Was the first
9:58
Speaker 1: time that I met Cyrus. To see him as a
10:00
Speaker 1: young man doing such a great job and being so
10:03
Speaker 1: thoughtful of managing the data that we produce each day
10:07
Speaker 1: and doing an awesome job driving. And then the chance
10:10
Speaker 1: to travel with you, The chance to travel with my
10:12
Speaker 1: buddy and you and I've been across Russia together, We've
10:16
Speaker 1: done Greenland together, we did South America together, and to
10:20
Speaker 1: now be together on this journey across West Africa has
10:25
Speaker 1: just been so awesome for me. So the surprise for
10:28
Speaker 1: me was just a quality of the team. The incredible
10:32
Speaker 1: depth and capability equality of this team was one of
10:36
Speaker 1: the real surprises for me. Awesome.
10:39
Speaker 3: Thank you. Yeah, there's good guys here.
10:43
Speaker 2: For all listeners out there, that's like the best thing
10:46
Speaker 2: to strive for is find the good, find good people
10:49
Speaker 2: and go do cool stuff together, like it's so worth it.
10:53
Speaker 3: Fight for that. It makes all the difference.
10:56
Speaker 2: And we could have had a very different experience if
10:58
Speaker 2: we didn't get along, if there'd been tension in the group.
11:02
Speaker 3: And it's not that there wasn't ever tension.
11:04
Speaker 1: There's never any fighting.
11:08
Speaker 2: Nobody ever lost the Yep, yeah, not on camera. I
11:12
Speaker 2: was over in the dirt kicking it.
11:16
Speaker 1: That happens everybody.
11:19
Speaker 3: It was all good. Yeah.
11:21
Speaker 1: When you got a team like that, you can go
11:22
Speaker 1: anywhere in the world. We could take this same group
11:25
Speaker 1: of people and go.
11:26
Speaker 3: Anywhere, tackle anything.
11:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that's the thing about a good team. They're
11:31
Speaker 2: all Swiss army knives. Everybody can be sharp at one time,
11:36
Speaker 2: or they can saw through this, or they can cut that,
11:38
Speaker 2: or they're just multi tools. And you've got to be
11:42
Speaker 2: a multi tool and a small team running three trucks,
11:45
Speaker 2: navigating countries, roads, cooking water, fuel, communications, obligations, deliverables for
11:56
Speaker 2: content and photography and all the things, all the things.
12:00
Speaker 2: You've just got to be able to be a multi tool.
12:03
Speaker 1: Look at Kurt yesterday. So we start the day and
12:06
Speaker 1: he's lead truck driver and then middle of the day
12:09
Speaker 1: he's doing some wiring repair and making it not only
12:13
Speaker 1: just a fix, but something that will continue with the
12:16
Speaker 1: truck onto future expeditions. And then he ends the day
12:20
Speaker 1: helping to prepare spaghetti for the team. Talk about a multi.
12:23
Speaker 3: Tool, multi tool.
12:25
Speaker 2: And that's what drives me around all these guys is
12:28
Speaker 2: they I'm like, Oh, I gotta do better. I gotta
12:30
Speaker 2: be better. Look at how much they're pulling. They pull
12:33
Speaker 2: so much weight. I gotta pull more weight. And that's
12:35
Speaker 2: also I think a good sign of a good team
12:37
Speaker 2: that not one person's wanting to slack because the other
12:41
Speaker 2: people are putting in their work and so it just
12:43
Speaker 2: creates this environment where everyone's always pulling harder and that's
12:47
Speaker 2: a lot of fun.
12:48
Speaker 1: Because we care about each other, we want to support
12:50
Speaker 1: each other, and I think that's such a key component
12:52
Speaker 1: of a great expedition. Maybe let's talk about the trucks
12:55
Speaker 1: a little bit, because that's been another surprise for me. Yeah,
12:57
Speaker 1: but you always see these X Overland trucks and they
13:00
Speaker 1: look so rad but until you get a chance to
13:02
Speaker 1: live out of one, you don't really see the thoughtfulness
13:05
Speaker 1: that goes in. You guys have had fifteen plus years
13:08
Speaker 1: of building expedition trucks for traveling around the world and
13:12
Speaker 1: for me to kind of come in at the peak
13:14
Speaker 1: of all of your learnings. I was super impressed with
13:17
Speaker 1: how comfortable these trucks are to live out of we
13:20
Speaker 1: spent I'm trying to think about the number of nights,
13:23
Speaker 1: like thirty forty nights camping and these maybe more on
13:27
Speaker 1: this one leg.
13:27
Speaker 2: Alone, one leg alone at least, I think, yeah, I
13:30
Speaker 2: think we're probably pushing thirty five forty nights right now.
13:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, with you here.
13:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, And that's how comfortable these things are. That and
13:38
Speaker 1: a lot of times we'll say, Ashul, we go grab
13:40
Speaker 1: a place or whatever, like nah, we're gonna go camp
13:42
Speaker 1: in the trucks rather just staying on totally. Yeah, And
13:47
Speaker 1: then you start the day with good coffee, and the
13:50
Speaker 1: way that you've set up these trucks with lots of
13:52
Speaker 1: battery capacity of the fact that to start off with that,
13:56
Speaker 1: they're Toyotas, which means that they're going to be super
13:58
Speaker 1: durable and reliable. These trucks have not even given us
14:01
Speaker 1: one single issue all the way down West Africa, and
14:04
Speaker 1: that says a lot for a brand new drive train.
14:08
Speaker 1: I mean, those trail hunters, that's a whole new concept
14:11
Speaker 1: for Toyota, a lot more payload, super heavy duty drive train.
14:15
Speaker 2: In fact, the two trail Hunters that are sitting here
14:18
Speaker 2: are the first two trail Hunters. They're within the first
14:22
Speaker 2: batch of the first day rolling off the assembly line.
14:26
Speaker 1: That's amazing.
14:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they're out here doing.
14:28
Speaker 1: This and they did it without any issue, any issue.
14:32
Speaker 1: So I think it says a lot about that new
14:34
Speaker 1: global platform. The same platform that's used for the land
14:37
Speaker 1: Cruiser is now used in the Tacoma, which is why
14:40
Speaker 1: it has so much more payload than before. These hybrid
14:43
Speaker 1: drive trains, they we've given them some bad fuel, yeah,
14:46
Speaker 1: and they have never shut off on us. They've never
14:49
Speaker 1: failed to run.
14:51
Speaker 2: They never said no, I can't do it, yep, I'm
14:53
Speaker 2: gonna give up, or going to limp mode or anything.
14:55
Speaker 1: You've not seen a single limp mode.
14:57
Speaker 2: You saw power reductions. But that's what happened. And you
15:00
Speaker 2: have bad gas. Can't fault the trucks for that, give
15:03
Speaker 2: it bad food.
15:04
Speaker 1: It's just it's just happened. To back off on the
15:07
Speaker 1: power a.
15:07
Speaker 2: Little bit and then you get good fuel right back
15:09
Speaker 2: in it and off it.
15:10
Speaker 1: Went, and pretty good fuel economy. The whole time we
15:13
Speaker 1: didn't need to have You always think about it, you
15:14
Speaker 1: gotta have diesels, but we didn't need to have diesel.
15:17
Speaker 1: We did all of West Africa with petrol motors. Imagine
15:20
Speaker 1: if you had a modern diesel. I think it would
15:22
Speaker 1: have been much more difficult. You couldn't get the right diesel.
15:25
Speaker 1: Ye couldn't get that ultra lo soul for diesel.
15:28
Speaker 2: And of course all of our new death requirements. I
15:32
Speaker 2: don't know how we would have had to do a
15:33
Speaker 2: deaf delete and.
15:34
Speaker 3: All that, which we're now. We're modifying the engine itself
15:38
Speaker 3: to do those things.
15:39
Speaker 2: But I think a gasoline hybrid is a great choice for.
15:44
Speaker 1: All of this plenty of power. I think it has
15:47
Speaker 1: a lot of safety. When you're going to pass agreed,
15:49
Speaker 1: you know you've got plenty of power to get around
15:51
Speaker 1: that truck or whatever for some oncoming traffic hits.
15:54
Speaker 2: And that I think that would be maybe a surprise
15:56
Speaker 2: to a lot of other people that haven't done it.
15:59
Speaker 2: I remember it being surprise to me during East seven
16:02
Speaker 2: when I first started doing the bigger trips with you,
16:04
Speaker 2: and it was like, oh, the most dangerous thing we
16:07
Speaker 2: do is drive these interstates and the highways. And that's
16:10
Speaker 2: two lane passing. We all want to think the romantic
16:14
Speaker 2: ideas it's the river crossing or it's whatever.
16:17
Speaker 1: But it's not.
16:18
Speaker 2: No, it is the every how many times per hour
16:22
Speaker 2: that you're navigating some sort of traffic or a person
16:25
Speaker 2: on the road, or a donkey crossing the road, or
16:27
Speaker 2: somebody passing you on the left side where there is
16:30
Speaker 2: no lane. They're just ripping down the dirt and passing you.
16:33
Speaker 3: It's that stuff.
16:35
Speaker 2: So having that power and that hybrid train be able
16:38
Speaker 2: to get up and get out of the way, get out,
16:40
Speaker 2: get around, and get back into your lane before that
16:43
Speaker 2: corner comes up. That is a huge safety margin.
16:47
Speaker 1: And they're quiet, and they're quiet and comfortable. You don't
16:50
Speaker 1: you don't finish the day feeling completely spent. Yeah, if
16:55
Speaker 1: you're in a classic overland vehicle that a lot of
16:57
Speaker 1: people think is what you should be driving, which are
17:00
Speaker 1: great too, but they're super fun in their own way,
17:03
Speaker 1: but you would certainly be doing less kilometers and you'd
17:06
Speaker 1: be a lot more worn out at the end of
17:08
Speaker 1: the day. I've never finished a day driving in this
17:10
Speaker 1: Tundra and felt completely spent.
17:13
Speaker 3: Yeah.
17:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can lay down, you can lay down the
17:15
Speaker 1: kilometers in these trucks.
17:17
Speaker 3: True global touring vehicles.
17:20
Speaker 1: And then on top of that, we've been able to
17:23
Speaker 1: really rely on some premium fluids in the vehicle. We've
17:27
Speaker 1: used Mobile One fluids in these vehicles, and that's something
17:29
Speaker 1: that you and I have used on some serious expeditions.
17:33
Speaker 1: When I crossed Antarctica, I relied entirely on Mobile one
17:37
Speaker 1: fluids because of the low operating temperatures. We were a
17:41
Speaker 1: month at minus forty so even the differential fluids were
17:45
Speaker 1: specifically from Mobile One to be able to operate the
17:49
Speaker 1: air lockers at that low temperature. Wow. And the same
17:52
Speaker 1: is true on this trip. We are relying on these
17:56
Speaker 1: fluids to get us to the end.
17:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a big deal. Keeps everything lubricated and moving.
18:04
Speaker 2: It's it's the lifeblood inside the engine literally difts and all.
18:09
Speaker 3: That, and it'll be We've been.
18:11
Speaker 2: Running a very special and unique oil on this expedition,
18:15
Speaker 2: and we've been guinea pigs and we signed up for that,
18:18
Speaker 2: and I'm excited to see how all of the results
18:21
Speaker 2: come back. We've got some of the results back in
18:24
Speaker 2: the performance of the oil was holding up extremely well,
18:28
Speaker 2: but we haven't pushed and Mobile I has not pushed
18:32
Speaker 2: an oil this hard to date that we know of
18:35
Speaker 2: that they knew of.
18:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, so pretty cool.
18:39
Speaker 1: I think it's very cool. So you take that combination
18:41
Speaker 1: of reliability and durability of a Toyota, and then you
18:46
Speaker 1: add one of the most specifically tuned series of fluids
18:51
Speaker 1: for expedition travel that we've ever seen. You combine those
18:54
Speaker 1: things together and you end up with quite the combination.
18:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, other surprises.
19:36
Speaker 2: I remember thinking that, oh, we're gonna get into real
19:39
Speaker 2: bad roads somewhere around Cameroon and the d r C.
19:42
Speaker 2: And then we got to Ghana and my perspective was like, oh,
19:47
Speaker 2: these can't be the bad roads.
19:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's that's all.
19:49
Speaker 1: In front of us, down the Guinea roads.
19:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh sorry Guinea.
19:53
Speaker 1: Yeah.
19:54
Speaker 3: And Guinea was just the worst. It was horrible. Think
20:00
Speaker 3: you think bad roads. And then Russia had some bad roads.
20:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, Central America had some bad roads.
20:10
Speaker 3: South America has some bad roads, but not like Guinea.
20:14
Speaker 1: It was bad. It was bad. There were days that
20:17
Speaker 1: we fought to get two hundred kilometers and that's only
20:20
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty miles in an entire day of driving.
20:23
Speaker 2: A dedicated moving driving, and you're just swerving potholes. You're
20:28
Speaker 2: going down into holes in the road that are about
20:32
Speaker 2: half the height of the vehicle. Yeah, you're just going
20:34
Speaker 2: down into it and back up something. Deil trying to
20:37
Speaker 2: go back and forth through this stuff too.
20:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were rough. They were so hard.
20:43
Speaker 2: It were so difficult, And I wish looking back, I
20:46
Speaker 2: just thought the rough roads were still coming.
20:48
Speaker 3: I would have filmed those more.
20:50
Speaker 2: We should have spent more time filming that because I
20:53
Speaker 2: didn't realize that they were the worst roads.
20:55
Speaker 1: We got lucky. It felt like West Africa was being
20:58
Speaker 1: paved just in front of us, except they skipped Guinea.
21:02
Speaker 3: They skiped Guinea.
21:03
Speaker 1: Oh, we had some bad roads at Cameroon too. It
21:06
Speaker 1: was there were times that you'd be going along on
21:09
Speaker 1: fresh pavement and then it would just turn to the
21:11
Speaker 1: rubicon and then your fuel drive and your claw on
21:14
Speaker 1: your way through.
21:14
Speaker 3: That was a surprise to me too.
21:16
Speaker 2: Like you've heard that China has been engaged with a
21:19
Speaker 2: lot of African countries, we can, We've put our eyeballs
21:23
Speaker 2: on it. China is in all of these countries putting
21:26
Speaker 2: in roads, and we drive by a lot of Chinese contractors,
21:30
Speaker 2: Chinese equipment, Chinese signs, Chinese man camps, and that was
21:36
Speaker 2: an interesting thing to actually physically see what the world politics.
21:40
Speaker 1: You can see the geopolitical changes happening in Africa. China's
21:45
Speaker 1: basically offering infrastructure in exchange for access to the raw
21:51
Speaker 1: materials that they need to continue their their massive industrial
21:56
Speaker 1: complex that they have in China. So they need access
21:58
Speaker 1: to lithium, and they need access to aluminum, and they
22:01
Speaker 1: need access to gold and all these other rare earth
22:04
Speaker 1: minerals that and would even by when the Congo, we
22:08
Speaker 1: saw these huge semi trucks with massive loads of hardwood
22:14
Speaker 1: and they all had Chinese language characters on the end
22:18
Speaker 1: of the wood describing what it was and the length
22:21
Speaker 1: of it and everything else like that. So it's pretty
22:23
Speaker 1: interesting to see how the geopolitical shift is happening, at
22:28
Speaker 1: least in West Africa. As France pulls out, as the
22:33
Speaker 1: UK pulled out, even the US and places pulled out.
22:36
Speaker 1: It's now created a bit of a vacuum that China's
22:39
Speaker 1: really stepped into.
22:41
Speaker 2: And you can see why they do it, because the
22:43
Speaker 2: roads and the infrastructure is terrible and the Chinese are
22:47
Speaker 2: putting in good things.
22:48
Speaker 3: It's that road was really nice.
22:50
Speaker 1: That was nice.
22:51
Speaker 3: This overpass is actually.
22:53
Speaker 1: Real giant bridge. Yeah.
22:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's just interesting to watch and see what else.
23:02
Speaker 2: I thought we would have a lot. I don't know
23:06
Speaker 2: about a lot, but I knew we would have food
23:08
Speaker 2: problems through West Africa, and there were some, but it
23:12
Speaker 2: was very manageable. I'm really glad that we had the
23:15
Speaker 2: dehydrated meals that we did so that we always had
23:18
Speaker 2: the option to do whatever meal we wanted that night.
23:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, what's the brand of that? Because they actually tasted good.
23:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, Peak is what we've been running.
23:26
Speaker 1: They actually tasted good, which isn't always the case with
23:30
Speaker 1: dehydrated meals.
23:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, they were great, So that was good. I would
23:35
Speaker 3: have done that again.
23:36
Speaker 1: We did a lot of top ramen.
23:38
Speaker 3: I'm done on raman for a while.
23:40
Speaker 1: Did a lot of good. We also had some great
23:45
Speaker 1: meals together. We had some awesome spaghetti meals and we
23:50
Speaker 1: cooked up all kinds of yummy things along the way.
23:52
Speaker 1: Did the best of the group of six dudes.
23:55
Speaker 2: And none of us are like or cookie people. Yeah,
24:00
Speaker 2: I don't cook a lot at home. Yeah, I'm glad
24:03
Speaker 2: we had some guys that do kind of do that
24:04
Speaker 2: because yeah, we made it work.
24:06
Speaker 3: Probably eating a lot more bad meals.
24:08
Speaker 1: We made it work. We made it work for sure.
24:11
Speaker 2: Another cool thing just looking at the trucks ahead of us,
24:13
Speaker 2: we were able to fly a spare tire in.
24:16
Speaker 3: We didn't know if that would work. That worked. Yeah,
24:18
Speaker 3: well that's cool.
24:19
Speaker 2: So if you gotta fly a spare tire in up
24:21
Speaker 2: to a thirty five inch tire, you can.
24:24
Speaker 3: At least we did.
24:26
Speaker 2: I'm gonna probably try it again coming up on future trips.
24:30
Speaker 2: The trail hunters are still running stock front trail hunter
24:34
Speaker 2: suspension and it's they've been holding up fantastic and performing
24:38
Speaker 2: really well.
24:38
Speaker 1: Yeah.
24:39
Speaker 2: Great, So the rear shocks are VP fifty ones. We
24:43
Speaker 2: put those in Germany to account for the additional extra weight.
24:47
Speaker 2: But all the way up Phase one, phase two, we
24:49
Speaker 2: ran stock suspension on those trucks. But we just knew
24:52
Speaker 2: going into Africa with all these terrible roads and a
24:55
Speaker 2: lot of speed bumps and tope just full flex potholes. Yeah,
24:59
Speaker 2: we're we need more in the rear because we're going
25:01
Speaker 2: to damage trucks. Because while it would have been cool
25:05
Speaker 2: to prove that stock suspension could make it, it would
25:08
Speaker 2: have been a stunt.
25:09
Speaker 3: It's not what you should do.
25:11
Speaker 2: We were outside of the speck of that shock what
25:14
Speaker 2: it was designed to do. So we put the bright
25:17
Speaker 2: one in and and everything worked great.
25:21
Speaker 1: It's incredible how well these trucks have held up and
25:25
Speaker 1: we've just we've not had any major failures of any
25:28
Speaker 1: of the systems. It just shows how far ex Overland
25:32
Speaker 1: has come just learning what works and what doesn't work.
25:38
Speaker 1: We've done little stop and fix here and there, tightened bolt.
25:42
Speaker 2: Here and there, or whatever, attach a wire or tightened
25:45
Speaker 2: a battery one day, things that happened from just rattling
25:49
Speaker 2: around a bunch. We had had some beer casualties in
25:54
Speaker 2: a box one day. Talking about no con sequence problems
26:01
Speaker 2: so far. Yeah, Now, if I were to build these
26:05
Speaker 2: trucks again, if you were to rebuild these trucks and
26:08
Speaker 2: go do the same trip again, what would.
26:09
Speaker 3: You do different?
26:11
Speaker 1: Oh, that's an interesting question. I am really impressed with
26:14
Speaker 1: these Alucab campers, so I would do those again. And
26:18
Speaker 1: they're not overly complex, they're not too heavy. They're heavy,
26:21
Speaker 1: but they're not too heavy. So I think that it's
26:24
Speaker 1: within the speck of the vehicles, So I like that
26:27
Speaker 1: a lot. I do the fact that the Tundra has
26:29
Speaker 1: a winch on it for self recovery, because we were
26:32
Speaker 1: very fortunate with the rainy seasons. If the rainy season
26:36
Speaker 1: in the north had extended a little bit longer, or
26:40
Speaker 1: if the one or if the one in the south
26:42
Speaker 1: had come in a little earlier, I maybe would have
26:44
Speaker 1: wanted a little bit more self recovery options. But that's
26:47
Speaker 1: about it. I'm really impressed with how well these things,
26:51
Speaker 1: even with the all terrain tires. I would have traditionally
26:54
Speaker 1: thought you'd want a mud tire for West Africa, but
26:57
Speaker 1: we didn't need it. No, in fact, we may have
26:59
Speaker 1: needed it, but we didn't. We didn't eat it.
27:01
Speaker 2: It's really because the thought of the contingency of getting
27:05
Speaker 2: into really bad muddy roads and we saw them. Oh yeah,
27:09
Speaker 2: if this road had been raining for the last week
27:11
Speaker 2: or even a day or two, this would.
27:12
Speaker 3: Have been a nightmare, biblical biblical bad.
27:16
Speaker 1: It's got really lucky.
27:17
Speaker 2: The data set. If you were to run this trip
27:20
Speaker 2: exactly the same all train tire was.
27:22
Speaker 1: The perfect tire, Yeah, exactly.
27:24
Speaker 2: Had they or been the rain that you're talking about,
27:27
Speaker 2: the mud train tire would have really come in handy
27:30
Speaker 2: because we would have been stuck.
27:32
Speaker 3: Every vehicle would have.
27:33
Speaker 1: Been stuck yep.
27:34
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's just it's very circumstantial to the conditions.
27:39
Speaker 3: We nailed it.
27:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think I would have done anything different
27:42
Speaker 1: than maybe consideration of lightweight front bumper or a winch
27:48
Speaker 1: tray on these tacomas. The likelihood of a small fender
27:52
Speaker 1: bender on a trip like this is actually pretty high high,
27:55
Speaker 1: so having some kind of a curb feeler or a
27:58
Speaker 1: bumper on the front those tacomas would have been good.
28:01
Speaker 1: Fortunately we were lucky and we didn't have We didn't
28:04
Speaker 1: have any accidents or anything like that though that could
28:07
Speaker 1: have been a trip ender. But usually in those cities
28:10
Speaker 1: there's a lot of mayhem, but it's low speed, so
28:15
Speaker 1: a bumper is usually all you need for that.
28:18
Speaker 3: That's what I would change to.
28:20
Speaker 2: I would have added a front bumper with full hoop
28:24
Speaker 2: like what tundra has to the front, just for that added.
28:28
Speaker 1: Or an animal strike, a strike anything.
28:31
Speaker 2: When we talk about animal strike, it's not just it's
28:33
Speaker 2: not that rhino you think is running out. It's the
28:36
Speaker 2: donkey that you didn't see that hops out of the
28:38
Speaker 2: brush on the end because the guy's whipping it from
28:40
Speaker 2: the backfield and he just comes running out on the road,
28:44
Speaker 2: So it's all kinds of stuff that you would want.
28:46
Speaker 1: To or a big goat or shoot any of that
28:49
Speaker 1: kind of stuff that can make a difference.
28:52
Speaker 3: I'm glad we had really the factory stock.
28:54
Speaker 2: Skid plates on trail Hunters are They're very strong, but
28:58
Speaker 2: they're also still not over built, so we weren't carrying
29:01
Speaker 2: a lot.
29:01
Speaker 3: Of extra steel that we didn't need. But we had
29:04
Speaker 3: all the protection that we needed and we used them.
29:06
Speaker 1: There was definitely times we made contact with skid plates.
29:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I think I don't think.
29:09
Speaker 1: I don't think I would have changed anything else. I
29:11
Speaker 1: just really like the way that they work. It's easy
29:15
Speaker 1: to lay down the miles, the just the infotainment systems,
29:18
Speaker 1: these really big screens. You and I are watching watching
29:21
Speaker 1: the map right now as we're going along. We're able
29:23
Speaker 1: to charge our phones throughout the day. It's amazing how
29:26
Speaker 1: stuck we are on electronics in the modern day. But
29:29
Speaker 1: we've got starlink running on all three trucks, so you're
29:32
Speaker 1: able to stay connected with family. You're able to do
29:35
Speaker 1: evses while we're driving yep. So we were able to
29:39
Speaker 1: be really efficient get work done while we were driving.
29:42
Speaker 3: That made a huge difference.
29:44
Speaker 2: Surprise, there was no starlink in Angola or Namibia. Yeah,
29:49
Speaker 2: at this time, the recording is completely shut down.
29:53
Speaker 3: As soon as we got back into South Africa, turned
29:55
Speaker 3: right back on a DRC.
29:58
Speaker 1: Worked everywhere.
29:59
Speaker 3: Everywhere where else it worked.
30:00
Speaker 1: Togo it didn't work.
30:01
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's right, Togo did not work. But we
30:04
Speaker 2: were there for about four seconds.
30:07
Speaker 3: So it didn't matter.
30:07
Speaker 1: Only a couple hours, right, literally a.
30:09
Speaker 3: Couple hours, seventy kilometers across. That was our shortest too.
30:14
Speaker 1: We did four total border posts that day. That was
30:17
Speaker 1: a big one.
30:18
Speaker 3: It was a big day.
30:19
Speaker 1: Yeah.
30:22
Speaker 2: When it comes to the vehicle selection, if I was
30:24
Speaker 2: to be by myself or with say Michelle and I
30:27
Speaker 2: were to come back and travel, the truck that I
30:30
Speaker 2: would drive around in is legion the six foot bed
30:34
Speaker 2: with the family camper top on it. Even if it
30:37
Speaker 2: just had the two man pop we've been fine. But
30:39
Speaker 2: the family camper for two people on a six foot
30:42
Speaker 2: bed built into the Tacoma size so good.
30:46
Speaker 3: It's pretty perfect.
30:48
Speaker 1: It's so. I do notice though, that the Tundra is
30:51
Speaker 1: a full size truck, and they just don't have full
30:54
Speaker 1: size trucks for the most part in Africa, so even
30:57
Speaker 1: that trail coming out this morning, it was tight. It's
31:00
Speaker 1: tight because it was built for a HIGHLX or for
31:03
Speaker 1: a land cruise, so that extra six seven inches or
31:07
Speaker 1: so of width sometimes you notice it. So I think
31:09
Speaker 1: you're right. The Tacoma size is just right, the size
31:12
Speaker 1: of a high LOX.
31:13
Speaker 3: Now, if I was to make it absolutely perfect.
31:16
Speaker 2: I had to put a bone customs bed on the
31:19
Speaker 2: six foot so you have outside storage capabilities, a little
31:23
Speaker 2: bit more cubby spots for things, but keep the goose
31:28
Speaker 2: gear interior design because that's awesome. But then also have
31:32
Speaker 2: a bone customs outside storage compartments.
31:37
Speaker 1: And they look craves looked so good. Yeah, yeah, a
31:44
Speaker 1: big expedition, Clay, you should be really proud of yourself.
31:47
Speaker 1: I'm proud of you. It's just incredible to see what
31:51
Speaker 1: Exoverland has accomplished over the last fifteen years. You guys
31:56
Speaker 1: continue to do bigger and more ambitious expedition and you
32:01
Speaker 1: share it with the world. You guys have done such
32:03
Speaker 1: a great job of encouraging people to get out and
32:06
Speaker 1: explore by whatever means that they have. You don't need
32:09
Speaker 1: to have a fancy truck. You can do it with
32:11
Speaker 1: whatever you got and go see the world. You guys
32:13
Speaker 1: have always had such a message of get out and
32:16
Speaker 1: do things you love with people you love, and I
32:18
Speaker 1: think that's the most important thing.
32:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so adventure makes better people.
32:23
Speaker 3: Travel makes you a better person.
32:26
Speaker 2: And if we all had a little bit more adventure,
32:29
Speaker 2: spend a little more time around the campfire, saw a
32:32
Speaker 2: couple more countries, I think the world would be a.
32:35
Speaker 3: Far better place.
32:36
Speaker 1: It be a lot more tolerant.
32:38
Speaker 2: It helps round off the edges, you know, when you
32:40
Speaker 2: actually get around the fire and go see something. And
32:43
Speaker 2: so to all the listeners and everything out there that
32:45
Speaker 2: are out there doing it, awesome, keep doing it, Grab
32:47
Speaker 2: your friends, grab your mom, go make go do more
32:50
Speaker 2: of it. And I want to reiterate too always that
32:55
Speaker 2: we are very fortunate to be able to build and
32:59
Speaker 2: drive these edible machines and be sponsored and have them
33:03
Speaker 2: built the way they are. But we have come across
33:06
Speaker 2: so hundreds of other travelers who have made it work,
33:10
Speaker 2: and they're in their.
33:12
Speaker 3: Own machines and they're very cool and they're loving it,
33:16
Speaker 3: and they don't look like this.
33:18
Speaker 2: So it's it could be very misleading that it has
33:22
Speaker 2: to look this way.
33:23
Speaker 3: It does not take the vehicle. You got make it
33:25
Speaker 3: work and.
33:26
Speaker 1: Leave go and go, go see some things.
33:28
Speaker 3: Like Christoph, who is three cars behind me, get out.
33:31
Speaker 1: Go.
33:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's his channel like that.
33:34
Speaker 2: That's great, So yeah, good, all right, And three hundred
33:38
Speaker 2: and fourteen kilometers we will be completing the circumnavigation of
33:42
Speaker 2: the globe. We have gone from Alaska to Argentina and
33:47
Speaker 2: from Nord Cap to Cape Town or Cape Agullis, which
33:51
Speaker 2: is the farthest points drivable points on the hemispheres, in
33:57
Speaker 2: both hemispheres. I'm saying that, yeah, and which is a
34:02
Speaker 2: big moment for us.
34:04
Speaker 3: So thanks for listening.
34:05
Speaker 2: As we're getting down to the very end, we'll catch
34:07
Speaker 2: you on the next one. And as long as something
34:10
Speaker 2: doesn't happen between here and three hundred and fourteen kilometers,
34:14
Speaker 2: we can say that this.
34:14
Speaker 1: Mos staying sure, we're staying Sharpshire.
34:16
Speaker 3: Shut down to the last mile.
34:19
Speaker 2: That's right, cool, all right, thanks for listening to the
34:23
Speaker 2: X Overline podcast. We will catch you on the next
34:25
Speaker 2: one wherever we are in the world.