Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Principles of Overlanding: Building a 70 Series Land Cruiser

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Principles of Overlanding: Building a 70 Series Land Cruiser · The Overland Journal Podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I am
0:06
Speaker 1: your host, Scott Brady, and for this week's conversation, we're
0:10
Speaker 1: going to go into the principles of overlanding building a
0:13
Speaker 1: seventy series land cruiser. The seventy series land cruiser is
0:18
Speaker 1: iconic and it is currently the gold standard for around
0:22
Speaker 1: the world vehicle builds. And this is because the vehicle
0:26
Speaker 1: is not only extremely durable, but it's also exceptionally reliable
0:30
Speaker 1: and in various forms. It's also very easy to live
0:33
Speaker 1: and operate out of, including in very technical terrain. Personally,
0:37
Speaker 1: I've used seventy series land cruisers around the world. We
0:40
Speaker 1: used a seventy eight series to take the same fuel
0:44
Speaker 1: drive to all seven continents with the Expedition seven trip.
0:48
Speaker 1: So we go into my experience with a seventy series.
0:51
Speaker 1: But this conversation would be incomplete without an expert on
0:55
Speaker 1: the subject, and for that we have Paul marsh. Paul
0:59
Speaker 1: is extremely experienced with the seventy series and he understands
1:03
Speaker 1: a lot of the weaknesses of the platform. So he
1:06
Speaker 1: talks at length about how to prepare a seventy series
1:10
Speaker 1: for long distance travel, the systems that he uses, the
1:14
Speaker 1: issues in the vehicle that he addresses in various ways,
1:18
Speaker 1: but we really take a pragmatic approach, a very simple
1:21
Speaker 1: approach towards the vehicle because it benefits from not being
1:24
Speaker 1: overbuilt despite its capacity for load. This is a very
1:28
Speaker 1: important conversation about a very important vehicle, So please enjoy
1:32
Speaker 1: our principles of overlanding building a seventy series land Cruiser,
1:39
Speaker 1: and a special thanks to Rocky Talkies for their support
1:42
Speaker 1: of this week's podcast. Rocky Talkies are backcountry radios designed
1:47
Speaker 1: by a small team in Denver. The radios are extremely rugged,
1:51
Speaker 1: easy to use, and compact, weighing in just under eight ounces.
1:55
Speaker 1: They have a range of one to five miles in
1:57
Speaker 1: the mountains and up to twenty five miles line site.
2:01
Speaker 1: The batteries will last from three to five days and
2:04
Speaker 1: you can recharge them easily via USBC right in the vehicle.
2:09
Speaker 1: Our team uses Rocky Talkies and we also use them
2:12
Speaker 1: recently at the Overland Expo. The ex Overland Expo, stop
2:16
Speaker 1: into our booth and say hello and check out the
2:18
Speaker 1: radius for yourself. And as a listener of the Overland
2:22
Speaker 1: DURL podcast, you can get ten percent off of pair
2:24
Speaker 1: by going to Rockytalkie dot com Forward slash overland Journal.
2:29
Speaker 1: Thanks again, Rocky Talky, So thank you Paul Marsh for
2:35
Speaker 1: being on the podcast again. For those that are listening,
2:39
Speaker 1: you can listen to Paul's story and a lot of
2:42
Speaker 1: his advice in general around overlanding in one of our
2:46
Speaker 1: previous podcasts. But today we're going to go through the
2:49
Speaker 1: principles of overlanding building a seventy series land cruiser And
2:54
Speaker 1: if I was to say if there was a single
2:57
Speaker 1: vehicle that I had the most respect for in overlanding,
3:01
Speaker 1: it would be a seventy series land cruiser. For me personally,
3:06
Speaker 1: I've trusted my life to those models on seven continents,
3:11
Speaker 1: and I've owned many seventy series and they have been
3:14
Speaker 1: a source of joy and dependability and adventure for me
3:21
Speaker 1: throughout the last couple decades. So let's start off with
3:26
Speaker 1: what was your first experience with a seventy series that
3:29
Speaker 1: you that's notable that you remember.
3:33
Speaker 2: It's got such an interesting story, And thank you for
3:35
Speaker 2: having me on the podcast. Yeah, it's great to be
3:38
Speaker 2: able to connect with you and see you after seventy
3:40
Speaker 2: years and we haven't seen each other.
3:42
Speaker 1: It seems like it was just yesterday, and that's a
3:45
Speaker 1: seventy series story which we'll get to, which we'll get to.
3:49
Speaker 2: So I done my trip through Africa and came back
3:53
Speaker 2: into Botswana where I was living, and I had my
3:56
Speaker 2: eye on a seventy series troopy. What a seventy eight? Yes,
4:00
Speaker 2: it was an old one. It was left hand drive,
4:03
Speaker 2: and I just saw this truck and I just knew
4:05
Speaker 2: I had to own this truck, but I couldn't quite
4:08
Speaker 2: afford it. And then it was a question of how
4:10
Speaker 2: was I going to buy this truck? And you know,
4:12
Speaker 2: I have a firm belief that if you visualize something,
4:15
Speaker 2: you can create anything that you want. Yeah, And I
4:17
Speaker 2: absolutely use it day in day out. I use it
4:21
Speaker 2: with my my hobbies. I fly paramotors, visualize my you are.
4:26
Speaker 3: So like, like, do South Africans get a pair of
4:32
Speaker 3: paraglider like win peramotor sailor when they when they're born.
4:37
Speaker 2: When you bought I think it's one of that kids
4:39
Speaker 2: par and then when you can walk, you get the
4:41
Speaker 2: paramot and.
4:43
Speaker 1: Then and then you're you're, you're, you're you're christened in
4:46
Speaker 1: a in a cage with a great weight or something
4:48
Speaker 1: like that.
4:49
Speaker 2: It's near enough. Yeah, we pretend not to be too rugged.
4:54
Speaker 1: That is so that is such a common.
4:57
Speaker 2: Thing too, I guess in a way. But yeah, so
5:01
Speaker 2: visualizing is really powerful. And then this was a dream.
5:04
Speaker 2: I wanted this truck and a friend of mine who
5:07
Speaker 2: I'd known for a long time, and listen, you know what,
5:09
Speaker 2: let's build this truck up together. Let's build this amazing truck.
5:13
Speaker 2: And I've come back from this amazing expedition one and
5:17
Speaker 2: a half years traveling through Africa. And that was in
5:19
Speaker 2: a high lox was it? There was in a highlux?
5:21
Speaker 2: So highlux highlux is simple, highlux, solid axle in the front. Okay,
5:26
Speaker 2: it had all leaf springs. But it was a strong
5:29
Speaker 2: Trusty truck. They're not strong as in solid for a
5:33
Speaker 2: lot of weight, but it was a reliable vehicle. Sure, Now,
5:37
Speaker 2: what I broke on it was through ignorance. Overweight and
5:40
Speaker 2: mistakes are made. But seeing that and knowing that the
5:46
Speaker 2: next truck we could have would need to be something stronger,
5:49
Speaker 2: something that could really just pound those hard roads. Now,
5:53
Speaker 2: when you drive on some of the roads and the
5:56
Speaker 2: corrugations are endless, and you know this, poor vehicles taking
5:59
Speaker 2: that at beating you know you're looking for a truck
6:04
Speaker 2: that's going to be solid. That's simple, simple, solid, reliable truck.
6:07
Speaker 2: That's right. I can put it back to that. And
6:10
Speaker 2: you know, the seventies series has got a lot of
6:12
Speaker 2: value in what they have. I guess the troop is
6:15
Speaker 2: one of my favorite trucks. The truck behind us as
6:18
Speaker 2: a trooper, and we build a lot of Troopees for clients,
6:20
Speaker 2: and people can live inside and out of a Troopee.
6:25
Speaker 1: It's such a unique configuration. And and it was the
6:29
Speaker 1: vehicle that we chose for Expedition seven, Greg and I did,
6:34
Speaker 1: was and a.
6:34
Speaker 2: Good, good, good choice really because I mean you you
6:37
Speaker 2: built that and adapted it to cater for a lot
6:40
Speaker 2: of different scenarios. And I think, you know, when I
6:42
Speaker 2: look at all the vehicles that are available, and you know,
6:45
Speaker 2: I've I've owned most a lot of them different ones
6:48
Speaker 2: and times in my life. Currently I have two Eighties,
6:51
Speaker 2: which I'm very passionate about.
6:54
Speaker 1: But good right, yeah, yeah.
6:55
Speaker 2: They're good. The Eighties are different and they're great. It's
6:58
Speaker 2: a classic vehicle, and I guess that's part of what
7:00
Speaker 2: I like about it. But you know, when we build
7:03
Speaker 2: a troop piece, there's a lot of value in how
7:06
Speaker 2: you can build it because what you're doing is you're
7:08
Speaker 2: creating a small home. And this small home takes you
7:13
Speaker 2: to the remote places you want to go and explore.
7:15
Speaker 2: And the challenge is to build it in a way
7:18
Speaker 2: that you can use it in a comfortable way. You
7:21
Speaker 2: get what you need. You're not going to be sitting
7:23
Speaker 2: on top of each other, so you've got a very
7:25
Speaker 2: limited space. I mean, you know, the vehicle is not
7:28
Speaker 2: why it's not too long, you're sleeping in it. You
7:30
Speaker 2: could eat in it, you could, you know, I guess
7:33
Speaker 2: in Africa live more around the vehicle and outside because
7:36
Speaker 2: the weather's good. When the weather's bad, confined to the truck.
7:40
Speaker 1: You can find some respite for sure. And so that
7:44
Speaker 1: was your first one, and I'm trying to I mean,
7:46
Speaker 1: the first time that I ever drove a seventy series
7:51
Speaker 1: was when I had the amazing fortune of being sponsored
7:57
Speaker 1: to race in the Outback Challenge in Morocco in Africa,
8:02
Speaker 1: and Patrese Ryder, who who's a wonderful, wonderful human being,
8:08
Speaker 1: took a huge chance on chance on me. George Crusos,
8:12
Speaker 1: also from Extreme Outback in the United States, who's.
8:16
Speaker 2: The one who introduced me to Patrese.
8:17
Speaker 1: But Patrise basically said he wanted to bring over the
8:21
Speaker 1: you know, an American driver that could also generate some content.
8:25
Speaker 1: And he handed me the keys to a PZJ seventy.
8:28
Speaker 2: Three with.
8:31
Speaker 1: Thirty five inch tires and a fast winch and a
8:36
Speaker 1: good suspension. And and that was my first exposure to driving.
8:44
Speaker 1: And it was and that was in two thousand and six,
8:47
Speaker 1: and it was so early on in my travels. I mean,
8:49
Speaker 1: I had really not traveled to Europe other than when
8:52
Speaker 1: I went there in the military.
8:54
Speaker 2: Uh.
8:55
Speaker 1: And I actually just didn't even know if France was
8:57
Speaker 1: right or left hand drive. I can't, I couldn't. I
9:00
Speaker 1: didn't know. I just didn't. This was so early days
9:03
Speaker 1: for me. And the things that that seventy series endured
9:09
Speaker 1: in race conditions, very technical conditions, you know, technical terrain, winching,
9:14
Speaker 1: everything else like that unbelievable.
9:17
Speaker 2: How strong they are. And that's the thing I think,
9:19
Speaker 2: you know, you hit the nail on the head there.
9:21
Speaker 2: They're strong. Yeah, they're strong. They've got a lot of chassis.
9:24
Speaker 2: It's a strong chassis. You know, good engines that the
9:27
Speaker 2: Toyota engines have always been good. Maybe they're underpowered in
9:30
Speaker 2: certain circumstances, but it makes them reliable. They're reliable. You know,
9:35
Speaker 2: you drive to the place and you have probably the
9:38
Speaker 2: best vehicle you could have plundering around the bush, and
9:40
Speaker 2: it doesn't take away. You get great vehicles all round,
9:44
Speaker 2: you know. It's just in particular I think. If I
9:46
Speaker 2: have to look at Africa as a footprint, and probably
9:50
Speaker 2: Australia too, the Toyota has dominated that platform in a
9:53
Speaker 2: big way. I think. You know, thanks to Toyota, they've
9:56
Speaker 2: done a lot of work on putting dealerships and supply,
10:01
Speaker 2: but the reality goes down to the reliability. If I
10:05
Speaker 2: spoke to hunters in Africa question. When I went through
10:08
Speaker 2: Africa on my big trip, the initial one, I was
10:12
Speaker 2: fascinated with the weak points of vehicles, so I'd stop
10:15
Speaker 2: off two to dealerships, hunting camps, sure where if I
10:19
Speaker 2: could find, you know, what are the problems on the trucks,
10:22
Speaker 2: And you know, I got to learn what the weaknesses were.
10:25
Speaker 2: And the seventi series had very few weaknesses. I mean
10:28
Speaker 2: you'd see them if they were tired, you know, and
10:30
Speaker 2: I find when I see it today, well they're kind
10:35
Speaker 2: of running at about one hundred thousand more. You know,
10:38
Speaker 2: and I genuinely mean that. You know, if you take
10:41
Speaker 2: these engines and you drive them, people people cringe when
10:44
Speaker 2: you say, I've taken a vehicle of five hundred thousand kilometers,
10:47
Speaker 2: build it into a truck and actually, if it's not
10:50
Speaker 2: burning oil and it's not smoking, and do the injectors
10:54
Speaker 2: and put a time belt pump on, it's going to
10:56
Speaker 2: keep going.
10:58
Speaker 1: So and they do, they do.
10:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you know, if you look at sort
11:03
Speaker 2: of the workhourse of Africa, the land Cruiser has to
11:06
Speaker 2: be one of the vehicles that's very respected on that field.
11:10
Speaker 1: And I believe that a lot of travelers their primary
11:14
Speaker 1: consideration around a vehicle is reliability. I don't want it
11:18
Speaker 1: to break down on me in the middle of nowhere,
11:20
Speaker 1: and if I do have a problem, I want to
11:22
Speaker 1: be able to service it. So that's where Toyota has
11:25
Speaker 1: such an advantage because it is the least likely to fail,
11:30
Speaker 1: and then if it does, there are Toyota dealerships around
11:33
Speaker 1: the world that oftentimes sell the same vehicle, particularly if
11:37
Speaker 1: you're doing long overland trips. If you're in South America,
11:41
Speaker 1: you're going to be able to get parts for seventy series.
11:43
Speaker 1: If you're in South Africa, you're going to be able
11:45
Speaker 1: to get parts for seventy series. Same with Australia or
11:48
Speaker 1: anywhere else that really comes to mind. For the most part,
11:50
Speaker 1: there are very few markets that don't sell the vehicle,
11:54
Speaker 1: other than in North America, which is so sad. It
11:58
Speaker 1: is so sad, so sad. And you know, it's it's
12:01
Speaker 1: not Toyota's fault. You know, there's you and me and
12:04
Speaker 1: Greg Miller and about fifteen other guys that want that
12:08
Speaker 1: would really buy one. They're just and that I guess
12:12
Speaker 1: it is also important for us for those that are listening,
12:16
Speaker 1: it's important to talk about the downsides of the seventy series,
12:19
Speaker 1: which the one that really stands out to me is
12:22
Speaker 1: that it is not you talk a lot about, you know,
12:26
Speaker 1: is it safe, is it reliable?
12:29
Speaker 2: You know?
12:29
Speaker 1: And for me, one of the challenges of the seventy
12:33
Speaker 1: series is it's a less safe car on the road.
12:36
Speaker 2: Yes, it is.
12:37
Speaker 1: It is much higher center of gravity, it's a very
12:40
Speaker 1: narrow track. They've kept the track fairly similar to the
12:45
Speaker 1: land cruisers throughout history, so the breaking is a little underpowered.
12:52
Speaker 1: Then you also run into the problem where the rear
12:55
Speaker 1: axle is a different track with than the front, which
12:58
Speaker 1: can actually create dynamic situations, especially in mudern ruts.
13:03
Speaker 2: And you feel it, you actually feel it, and I
13:05
Speaker 2: think that's that's the challenge. You know, yes, you can
13:08
Speaker 2: overcome that problem a few different ways, and you know
13:11
Speaker 2: there's no right or wrong solution to that. It's about
13:14
Speaker 2: how you approach it. But the point is, in my mind,
13:18
Speaker 2: that should have been fixed long ago by Toyota. It
13:20
Speaker 2: should have been they widened the front axle to accommodate
13:23
Speaker 2: the V eight at that point, they should have widened
13:25
Speaker 2: the accel at the rear and Toyota, if you're listening,
13:28
Speaker 2: widen The reactions were tired of having to make compromise
13:32
Speaker 2: fix it, So that's probably the one. Is it a downside, Yes,
13:36
Speaker 2: it is a bit of a downside. Is it a
13:38
Speaker 2: weakness yes, because if you're going to repair that axle
13:42
Speaker 2: width correction, you've only got a couple of ways to
13:45
Speaker 2: do it. You're are they going to fit an axle
13:46
Speaker 2: that's made wider? And now you limit the same problem
13:49
Speaker 2: with if you break something or damage something, it's intrepare it.
13:53
Speaker 2: You need special parts along the drive shafts. You know
13:56
Speaker 2: that goes through and if you put spaces on, which
13:59
Speaker 2: is an option, you've got to be very responsible at
14:01
Speaker 2: how you manage it, look after it.
14:02
Speaker 1: Because constantly making sure that they're to torque.
14:06
Speaker 2: And that you know, people question the whole what's right
14:10
Speaker 2: and wrong? There isn't a right and wrong, but are
14:12
Speaker 2: you going to manage it responsibly? And it's like scuba diving.
14:15
Speaker 2: I taught scuba diving figures and always said to be
14:18
Speaker 2: but it's a safer sport until you break a rule. Okay,
14:21
Speaker 2: break the rule.
14:22
Speaker 1: And you'll die some very good chance.
14:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So you know, when you look at
14:26
Speaker 2: what can go wrong, we manage that. You know, as
14:30
Speaker 2: you say, it's narrower.
14:32
Speaker 1: It's got higher center of gravity gravity, So again the
14:36
Speaker 1: right quality isn't quite that of like if you were
14:39
Speaker 1: to take a two hundred series land cruiser, it would
14:42
Speaker 1: be safer, it would be just as reliable it would be.
14:46
Speaker 1: It would be safe. It would be safer for sure.
14:49
Speaker 2: And not as practical to build up that.
14:51
Speaker 1: I think that they have less interior space and then
14:56
Speaker 1: more complicated.
14:58
Speaker 2: So what you've got with you know, the what we're
15:00
Speaker 2: still quite fortunate about in South Africa is we can
15:02
Speaker 2: still buy these trucks with a very basic engine in
15:06
Speaker 2: the classical one age Z engine is a beautiful engine
15:10
Speaker 2: because it's reliable and it.
15:12
Speaker 1: Will normally aspirated and that's worth thirty. No, there's no
15:16
Speaker 1: turbo and in general, although you will hear significant banter
15:22
Speaker 1: on the internet about people who will turbo these engines,
15:24
Speaker 1: in general it's not a good idea.
15:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, the thing is, we've done it. When
15:29
Speaker 2: you do something like that, again, it's a massive responsibility
15:32
Speaker 2: on the driver. You put everything in place to try
15:34
Speaker 2: and make sure that you mitigate any danger or damage
15:38
Speaker 2: to the engine. Ultimately you will damage the motor in
15:41
Speaker 2: some way, so it's better if you had a choice.
15:45
Speaker 2: I mean, what we do and have done is we've
15:47
Speaker 2: taken some of the older engines because we want the simplicity.
15:49
Speaker 2: So we've taken engines out of the eighty series, the
15:52
Speaker 2: twelve one h t T motor or the twenty four
15:55
Speaker 2: valve one HTFT motor, both mechanical injection pumps, and we've
16:00
Speaker 2: them into the Troopee. You've got a turbo diesel and
16:03
Speaker 2: you've got it. You can put it back to full
16:05
Speaker 2: permanent full will drive, stronger gearbox, so Yeah, the seventi series,
16:10
Speaker 2: these Troopers, they had some weaknesses in the gearbox. I think,
16:14
Speaker 2: for if you bought a brand new truck in the
16:16
Speaker 2: lifetime you own it, you probably wouldn't notice that if
16:20
Speaker 2: you've bought an old one. We always pull the boxes
16:22
Speaker 2: a path to inspect them, and that's probably when you
16:24
Speaker 2: do the sort of upgrades. Yeah.
16:27
Speaker 1: Sure, And when we drove the seventy eight's in Expedition seven,
16:34
Speaker 1: we had a single failure in the entire trip, and
16:38
Speaker 1: it was not a reliability issue. Was actually the brush
16:42
Speaker 1: on the canning Stock route actually wore down the wiring
16:47
Speaker 1: on the rear locker solenoid. It actually actually ground it
16:51
Speaker 1: down until they shorted out and it stopped working. So
16:55
Speaker 1: it wasn't even a piece of plastic. And eighty thousand
16:59
Speaker 1: kilometers seven continents with those vehicles unbelievable. The reliability of
17:06
Speaker 1: that platform and the interior space like you talk about,
17:10
Speaker 1: because we slept inside the vehicles, so being able to
17:12
Speaker 1: sit upright inside of a wagon. You also remove the
17:17
Speaker 1: passenger rear doors, which saves weight, it gives the structure
17:22
Speaker 1: better integrity. It actually improves a little bit of security,
17:26
Speaker 1: particularly if you go with a wagon with.
17:29
Speaker 2: A van style, but it is very much. You've got
17:31
Speaker 2: the two front doors, two doors at the back yard,
17:34
Speaker 2: and so you're quite right. You don't have as much accessibility. Yeah,
17:37
Speaker 2: but when you're building a vehicle, these are built for
17:40
Speaker 2: two people. Yeah, so you know you're not building it
17:42
Speaker 2: for three or four. And if you are, it's a compromise. Yeah,
17:44
Speaker 2: and we done it. We had it compromised. Yeah.
17:47
Speaker 1: We kept the receipts so we can take passengers.
17:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then you know it's there isn't People often
17:52
Speaker 2: ask what is the most ideal vehicle you could possibly have?
17:56
Speaker 2: There isn't one, okay, because your needs and the needs
17:59
Speaker 2: so you've got to learn to be flexible. So that
18:02
Speaker 2: also comes in a number of ways. You know, these
18:04
Speaker 2: have two fuel tanks, so they are two ninety liters
18:06
Speaker 2: fuel tanks, which is fantastic. Do you need more fuel
18:09
Speaker 2: than that? You don't? And if you do, for one
18:11
Speaker 2: small trip or one big trip, should we say take
18:14
Speaker 2: a fore jerry cans, add it into the tank and
18:17
Speaker 2: probably give those cans away And that's what I'll have
18:19
Speaker 2: to worry about it you're done with it, and then water.
18:21
Speaker 2: What we've done in this particular one. We've actually wrote
18:24
Speaker 2: them all that I would water tank, so we've got
18:26
Speaker 2: water tanks in the cavities. So left and right cavities
18:28
Speaker 2: are twenty five liters on each side and a fifty
18:31
Speaker 2: liter tank at the back behind the rear tank. So
18:34
Speaker 2: now all the water one hundred liters of water and
18:36
Speaker 2: twenty liters in the life save a jerry can gives
18:39
Speaker 2: us enough water capacity, so you've got enough water and
18:43
Speaker 2: enough fuel. Those are too heavy payloads and these can
18:46
Speaker 2: carry the payload. So if you have to. There's three
18:49
Speaker 2: different models or four. Actually, if you've got the seventy
18:52
Speaker 2: nine single cab, double cab seventy nine, you've got the
18:55
Speaker 2: seventy six Wagon, which is similar to this with four doors.
18:59
Speaker 2: It's a nice it's a nice car because it's well balanced.
19:02
Speaker 2: The roof's not quite as high. You can build it
19:05
Speaker 2: out for two people. Little bit short base two undred
19:08
Speaker 2: million milimeters shorter, so your roof sleeping capacity is a
19:11
Speaker 2: bit shrunk. Here in South Africa, we couple of companies
19:15
Speaker 2: do roof conversions for them, so you can still cut
19:17
Speaker 2: the roof for from put a roof where you can
19:19
Speaker 2: access it from inside. So the one advantage of building
19:23
Speaker 2: a vehicle like the seventy six TROOPI is that you
19:25
Speaker 2: can have access to your sleeping accommodation from inside. For
19:29
Speaker 2: some people that's really valuable. You come down at night,
19:32
Speaker 2: you can have a quarterloo in the middle of Oh
19:34
Speaker 2: you can you don't have to get out the truck.
19:36
Speaker 2: You know, basically you could sit down and you could
19:39
Speaker 2: make a coffee. So that's the one way of looking
19:42
Speaker 2: at it.
19:42
Speaker 1: It definitely from my experience, it seems to be the
19:45
Speaker 1: most common long trip to person platform is the seventy eight,
19:53
Speaker 1: and then you can even get a seventy which is
19:55
Speaker 1: a two door, short wheel base, and.
19:57
Speaker 2: Those are they're great.
20:00
Speaker 1: They raised very rare, super charming. And then for a
20:04
Speaker 1: period of time they made a midwheel base, so they
20:07
Speaker 1: made a seventy three and a seventy four. Yeah, I
20:11
Speaker 1: raced the seventy three. I owned a seventy four with
20:13
Speaker 1: a thirteen BT and we drove that for the longest
20:17
Speaker 1: time right hand drive. We got it out of Japan.
20:19
Speaker 1: And then they even had the light duty seventy series,
20:22
Speaker 1: so they had a seventy one and a seventy seven.
20:26
Speaker 1: So no, Actually at seventy eight, I had an LJ
20:28
Speaker 1: seventy eight, so it had like basically high lux or
20:32
Speaker 1: four runner drive train in it, the small two LTE
20:36
Speaker 1: diesel light duty five speed. It had the heavy duty
20:40
Speaker 1: land cruiser transfer case, but then it had the light
20:43
Speaker 1: duty highlux axles, so that was another variant of the
20:46
Speaker 1: seventy series. So there's so many. But if you're looking
20:49
Speaker 1: to buy something used to travel yourself or with one
20:53
Speaker 1: other person, I tend to push people towards the seventy eight.
20:56
Speaker 1: Would you feel like that that's I think for.
20:58
Speaker 2: Two people, it's probably one of the vehicles that you
21:01
Speaker 2: could take. There's two things to consider, And I asked
21:03
Speaker 2: the question to my clients, I go, are you wanting
21:05
Speaker 2: to travel out of Africa? Okay, because if you want
21:08
Speaker 2: to go to South America, you're going to need a
21:10
Speaker 2: turbot motor in some form because the elevation the elevation,
21:14
Speaker 2: so you know, if you drive the film maybe one
21:16
Speaker 2: age Z and we can't in South Africa get the
21:19
Speaker 2: petrol version of these in and we can't get the
21:22
Speaker 2: Vight version of this. Now you know, I'm not going
21:24
Speaker 2: to knock the Vight, but the vates a sensitive engine
21:26
Speaker 2: with the fuel quality of fuel you have, so you
21:29
Speaker 2: have to be much more careful with them.
21:30
Speaker 1: We experienced that we would have to change filters much
21:33
Speaker 1: more often.
21:34
Speaker 2: You're changing filters more often. You've got to, you know,
21:36
Speaker 2: manage your fuel, check the fuel quality and that. So
21:40
Speaker 2: if they're not traveling to South America, then you know
21:42
Speaker 2: the one age set is not going to be fast.
21:44
Speaker 2: You're going to know that when you're coming up behind
21:46
Speaker 2: a big truck. You may not have the power of
21:48
Speaker 2: a tak as you like, but it's never going to
21:51
Speaker 2: let you down. And the clients we've actually swapped engines
21:54
Speaker 2: out and done those conversions here gives them that extra power,
21:58
Speaker 2: which is very nice. But it's an expense. It's quite
22:01
Speaker 2: an expense.
22:02
Speaker 1: Do you need.
22:02
Speaker 2: It's a lot of money to add into a car.
22:05
Speaker 2: So I'm very happy to drive the one age that
22:07
Speaker 2: might be aspirated long. It slays me down, slows me
22:11
Speaker 2: and then you kind of done.
22:12
Speaker 1: It and that's safer. I mean those V eight seventy eight,
22:16
Speaker 1: I mean we we were doing the equivalent of one
22:19
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty kilometers in our North American roads, and
22:22
Speaker 1: that is a Those are checks that that chassis may
22:25
Speaker 1: not be able to cash. Yeah, so I actually think
22:28
Speaker 1: that the one AC is so well paired as well
22:31
Speaker 1: for the engine or for the vehicle, because it's just
22:34
Speaker 1: slows you down. Eighty kilo kilometers an hour becomes the
22:37
Speaker 1: new one sixty's.
22:39
Speaker 2: So you know, when we look at a truck like
22:41
Speaker 2: this and we've had there's a new one outside actually
22:43
Speaker 2: for one of our clients, and then you know, you
22:45
Speaker 2: look at the new one and then you look at
22:47
Speaker 2: what we've done to it. And the process of going
22:49
Speaker 2: from the basic out of the factory ruck to something
22:53
Speaker 2: that's sitting behind us is a fair process. So I
22:57
Speaker 2: break it down into phases. So there's phase one, which
23:01
Speaker 2: you're going to do the exterior boltons.
23:04
Speaker 1: And what do you normally focus on for the exterior
23:07
Speaker 1: boll times?
23:08
Speaker 2: Well, well, we'll always put a bullbar, okay.
23:11
Speaker 1: And what are your thoughts around bullbar? What what are
23:13
Speaker 1: some brands you like or what are some of the key.
23:16
Speaker 2: The key things bullbar is really about? Has it been
23:20
Speaker 2: well manufactured so I don't want it to rust, okay?
23:23
Speaker 2: And I think has it been tested? That's another thing?
23:26
Speaker 2: Some sort of the air bags still bag? Ye? If
23:29
Speaker 2: it's fitted with air bags, that must still work, you know,
23:31
Speaker 2: and not everyone can vouch for that, so yeah, that's important.
23:36
Speaker 2: It's the question is is it good to have a billboar?
23:40
Speaker 2: Not good? Well, you know it's kind of save your
23:44
Speaker 2: vehicle if you're in the middle of nowhere you hit
23:45
Speaker 2: an animal. Sure, okay, and that's for sure. So if
23:48
Speaker 2: it relies on you getting out with your vehicle and
23:50
Speaker 2: being safe, that's one safety feature you're putting on. Sure,
23:54
Speaker 2: it's it like anything, you know, how you drive your
23:57
Speaker 2: vehicle responsibly. You can have a normal bump on you know,
24:01
Speaker 2: you trash your vehicle and you've got a problem. But
24:04
Speaker 2: the bullbar is something we do it. Sure, so billbar
24:07
Speaker 2: underbody protection the rear bumper.
24:10
Speaker 1: Of the You always fit a winch to the bullbar.
24:13
Speaker 2: No, no, not at all. It depends where the client's going,
24:16
Speaker 2: you know.
24:16
Speaker 1: Not everyone going with the desert. You really don't need
24:18
Speaker 1: a wench.
24:19
Speaker 2: Well exactly looking up to.
24:22
Speaker 1: And usually a MAX set of Max tracks does the tricks.
24:25
Speaker 2: You know, Max tracks, a highlft jack and a shovel
24:27
Speaker 2: or might go to and always say to folk, if
24:29
Speaker 2: you've got a set of Max tracks, a highlift jack,
24:32
Speaker 2: a wheel lift that you can hook on, we lift
24:34
Speaker 2: to some of your hook on the wheel and you
24:36
Speaker 2: jack up the wheel and axle together. You're jacking the
24:39
Speaker 2: high lift jack from the side and not from the
24:41
Speaker 2: back or front, which means you don't lift the whole
24:43
Speaker 2: body up. You lift the axle and then you can
24:46
Speaker 2: so effectively if your vehicles bog down to the chassis,
24:50
Speaker 2: to the axles, you want to lift that up before
24:52
Speaker 2: you start trying to winch it out and get it up,
24:55
Speaker 2: especially if it's in the mud. So you know that
24:58
Speaker 2: those bits of kit and knowing how to use it.
25:01
Speaker 2: You know, highlft's got really bad press and you get
25:03
Speaker 2: the more modern hydraulic versions of a highlift jack which
25:07
Speaker 2: are really good. But learn to use that. It's a tool.
25:10
Speaker 2: It's a tool that is invaluable in recovery, so learn
25:13
Speaker 2: to use it safely.
25:14
Speaker 1: And it can even be used for winching or to
25:16
Speaker 1: complement a winching in operation.
25:19
Speaker 2: You're going to you know, and again if you understand
25:21
Speaker 2: how that can happen and be used so that another
25:24
Speaker 2: vehicle is better than a winch because you've got so
25:27
Speaker 2: much more flexibility backwards, forwards, whatever. But do you have
25:31
Speaker 2: enough length your rope, you know, on your tour rope
25:33
Speaker 2: or your toach strap or your to straps ten meters.
25:36
Speaker 2: Quite often we'll take a synthetic winch cable and we'll
25:39
Speaker 2: just put two eyes making an extent, make a much
25:42
Speaker 2: longer extension to pull something.
25:44
Speaker 1: And they're a lightweight in their life.
25:46
Speaker 2: They're very compact exactly that. So you know, when you're
25:49
Speaker 2: looking at recovery and how you're going to recover a vehicle,
25:53
Speaker 2: your question is do you need a winch. Well, no,
25:55
Speaker 2: but it's certain people. If they're said to me, I'm
25:57
Speaker 2: going to go through West Africa and I'm going to
25:59
Speaker 2: engage a lot more mudge and stuff, Well, it's like
26:02
Speaker 2: an insurance policy. Hopefully you don't use it. If you've
26:05
Speaker 2: got it, you may need it, but yes, would you
26:09
Speaker 2: put it on there?
26:09
Speaker 1: And also I find that in scenarios like that you
26:14
Speaker 1: can really help locals. You can people have slid off
26:16
Speaker 1: the road and then you're not exposing your vehicle to
26:20
Speaker 1: so much stress and strain doing a recovery. You can
26:23
Speaker 1: just slow things down, use the winch, pull the vehicle
26:26
Speaker 1: back up on the road. You've done a good deed.
26:28
Speaker 1: That's nice to do, you know, absolutely, But I think
26:31
Speaker 1: and sometimes they're blocking the road and it's the only
26:32
Speaker 1: way through. You got to get them out.
26:33
Speaker 2: You've got to help them. And that's always the case
26:35
Speaker 2: when you're traveling. You know, you know how many times
26:37
Speaker 2: you've helped someone?
26:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, but then again, know how.
26:40
Speaker 2: To use the equipment safely. A winch is very dangerous.
26:44
Speaker 2: How to use it safely? Yeah? The loads Yeah, and
26:47
Speaker 2: then you know people are hooking wenches up and expecting
26:49
Speaker 2: them to pull a car where it shouldn't be pulled out.
26:52
Speaker 2: They're going to pull a bump roof. So to go
26:55
Speaker 2: back to what we do, you know you're bolting on
26:57
Speaker 2: something on the front or to protect the car. Your
27:01
Speaker 2: suspension is carrying the weight, so you're really going to
27:03
Speaker 2: calculate that out and are you putting You know, a
27:06
Speaker 2: suspension which is parabolic suspension has a place in the market. Absolutely,
27:11
Speaker 2: it's a little bit more comfortable. It's coming out a
27:13
Speaker 2: small favored and some of the guys like the right
27:16
Speaker 2: of a parabolic suspension as opposed to a normal leaf suspension.
27:20
Speaker 2: But you've got to get the suspension right, you do,
27:23
Speaker 2: you know, too high, too hard, it doesn't work. So
27:27
Speaker 2: you know, if people understand the springs are there to
27:29
Speaker 2: carry the weight correctly. I'll start with the shock resorbers,
27:34
Speaker 2: and I've seen a lot of people request the most fancy,
27:39
Speaker 2: most expensive shock absorbers that they never learn how to
27:42
Speaker 2: adjust properly. So you know, again, if you're fitting a
27:45
Speaker 2: suspension that's a specialized suspension, do you need it, don't
27:48
Speaker 2: you need it?
27:49
Speaker 1: You know, and making sure that that suspension is serviceable
27:53
Speaker 1: or that it has a long service life. A lot
27:56
Speaker 1: of the race suspensions they're designed to for a race
27:59
Speaker 1: or two and then to be rebuilt, and you don't
28:02
Speaker 1: want to try to do that in the middle of nowhere,
28:04
Speaker 1: and you you definitely don't want to change the suspension
28:07
Speaker 1: where stock components can no longer be fitted. Because if
28:11
Speaker 1: you break a coil spring and you're in the middle
28:13
Speaker 1: of Zambia, it's a good chance you can find a
28:15
Speaker 1: stock seventy series spring and maybe you're sitting a little
28:19
Speaker 1: low on a corner, but you can make it to
28:21
Speaker 1: the next city to DHL in a replacement or something
28:25
Speaker 1: like that. You can actually get something. So you definitely
28:27
Speaker 1: you want to really avoid customization on the suspension. Custom
28:31
Speaker 1: shocks their shocks.
28:33
Speaker 2: You know, they are guys who do some remote reservoir shocks.
28:37
Speaker 2: Some of them are absolutely great. You know, do you
28:41
Speaker 2: need them? Well, you know it's going to improve the
28:43
Speaker 2: ride for sure, you.
28:44
Speaker 1: Know, and then they just have so much more fluid volume,
28:47
Speaker 1: so they're less likely.
28:49
Speaker 2: Likely and you know, but again, have you carried spare bushes?
28:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
28:52
Speaker 2: So when you're looking at what you're doing to the vehicle,
28:54
Speaker 2: at the same time, you've got to look at, if
28:56
Speaker 2: it's an older vehicle, what are we're replacing, and what
28:58
Speaker 2: spares can I keep from the old parts of taking off?
29:01
Speaker 2: And what spares do I need to replace and carry
29:04
Speaker 2: without carrying too much because the whole thing is weight.
29:07
Speaker 2: So your aim is to keep the vehicle to get
29:10
Speaker 2: the load and load, as we all know, as low
29:12
Speaker 2: as possible, to keep that center of gravity load for sure,
29:15
Speaker 2: as we all know that's important, especially under seventy. Yeah,
29:19
Speaker 2: the double cabs are worse than the fact that the
29:22
Speaker 2: double cabs don't carry the weight as well. They tend
29:24
Speaker 2: to sit nose up. You know, you're putting a lot
29:27
Speaker 2: of springs on the back because you've got a great
29:29
Speaker 2: big fuel tank behind the rear axle, rear bumper, two
29:34
Speaker 2: spare wheels, so you've got that here in South Africa.
29:38
Speaker 2: Some of us, the clients will extend the chassis and
29:41
Speaker 2: then you can put the spare wheels behind the cab,
29:44
Speaker 2: between the load bob bin and the cab, so that
29:48
Speaker 2: brings your weight further forward, which is what you're trying
29:50
Speaker 2: to balance that out, so getting the vehicle to drive properly.
29:54
Speaker 2: And also tire choice. Now I've watched people, you know,
29:57
Speaker 2: do you go for steel rooms or alloy rooms? Question?
30:00
Speaker 2: What's well if someone's going out of Southern Africa, definitely
30:05
Speaker 2: steel rooms. Within South Southern Africa, you're going to find
30:09
Speaker 2: a pretty good type place you carry two spares.
30:12
Speaker 1: Something wrong with that.
30:12
Speaker 2: Low rooms you might damage them a bit if you
30:15
Speaker 2: use a wheel lift on them, but they balance up
30:17
Speaker 2: well and you spent the money on them already, so
30:19
Speaker 2: they're good.
30:20
Speaker 1: They're strong enough, you know, especially like a factory.
30:23
Speaker 2: To fact, talking about factory, they're quite strong and they
30:28
Speaker 2: they light and they're good. Once you're going further north,
30:31
Speaker 2: you're going to find that often if you have to
30:32
Speaker 2: repair tires, not always with a machine to tire leaders,
30:36
Speaker 2: and then you can damage the room and then it
30:38
Speaker 2: does feel so yeah, you know when people come and
30:42
Speaker 2: do trading. We'll teach them how to plug tires carry
30:45
Speaker 2: I actually pack in patches to repair the side walls,
30:49
Speaker 2: knowing that they may not do themselves, but a guy
30:53
Speaker 2: who can fix tires might be able to repair the
30:55
Speaker 2: tire side And if it's a temporary fix as a spare, it's.
30:59
Speaker 1: A gets you to your next city.
31:02
Speaker 2: And then the rear bumper is important if you're going
31:04
Speaker 2: to fit a rear bumper because a lot of aftermarket products,
31:07
Speaker 2: some of them are not all expedition designed for serious expedition.
31:12
Speaker 2: So you need to understand, am I actually building this
31:15
Speaker 2: truck to go on extreme expedition. We are going to
31:18
Speaker 2: be using this truck and getting in it for a
31:19
Speaker 2: year long trip, and that's going to influence the different
31:22
Speaker 2: products that I would choose for the truck, and they're
31:26
Speaker 2: based on the quality of the product. You know, does
31:29
Speaker 2: it what are we are the chances of something breaking?
31:31
Speaker 2: And if it does break, is that a weakness in
31:33
Speaker 2: the product and that that has You're not going to
31:36
Speaker 2: find that in all the sales gun You.
31:38
Speaker 1: Don't sure you find it from talking to other people.
31:41
Speaker 2: People who and some people say that's the rack I
31:44
Speaker 2: don't want because of this weakness or you repair it
31:47
Speaker 2: and you just make stronger.
31:48
Speaker 1: Sure, And what's the rear bumper that we have here
31:51
Speaker 1: on this So.
31:53
Speaker 2: This is one of my favorite rear bumpers. This is
31:55
Speaker 2: made locally in South Africa. It's made by gobi X.
31:58
Speaker 2: Gobi X is a company I have a lot of time, respectful.
32:02
Speaker 2: It's owned buckriss Ingram and Shane Garcia and these guys.
32:05
Speaker 2: Chris is the founder member and they've built a fantastic company.
32:10
Speaker 2: This particular bumper. They've developed bumpers pall most of the vehicles,
32:14
Speaker 2: all the seventy series. They've got some front bumpers they've developed,
32:17
Speaker 2: they've got underbody protection. Their wheel carriers are if you
32:21
Speaker 2: want to test a product, give it to the higher company. Sure,
32:25
Speaker 2: because we higher companies people drive the trucks either don't
32:29
Speaker 2: have the experience or don't care. So your products, if
32:32
Speaker 2: it's going to break, it's going to break on a
32:34
Speaker 2: high for sure. So I'm always kind of you know.
32:36
Speaker 2: And these have been through the mill. These guys have
32:39
Speaker 2: refined their product and.
32:41
Speaker 1: Again it looks it looks good. You can even see
32:43
Speaker 1: that that delryn pad, that the that the swing out
32:48
Speaker 1: slides up on looks quite robust.
32:50
Speaker 2: So it's got a it's got a gas shock and
32:52
Speaker 2: it holds itself open. They've got service kits for them.
32:56
Speaker 2: So you know, when I look at products like in
32:58
Speaker 2: South Africa, if it wasn't available in my country, would
33:01
Speaker 2: I imported? Well, I'd see what's available because whatever is
33:04
Speaker 2: available is going to be your best line of getting service.
33:07
Speaker 2: And hell, as long as it's built and it's going
33:10
Speaker 2: to last. So anything we're bolting onto the truck, you're
33:13
Speaker 2: looking and saying, will it last the longevity or the
33:16
Speaker 2: expedition or the lifetime of what I'm doing? And can
33:19
Speaker 2: I service it? And can I get spares and help
33:22
Speaker 2: if I need some support?
33:23
Speaker 1: And your primary goal with the rear bumper is to
33:26
Speaker 1: fit a second spare too, yakay, So there's.
33:30
Speaker 2: Always that debate do I take one or two spare? Well,
33:32
Speaker 2: just think about it. In your middle of nowhere, you
33:34
Speaker 2: use your spare, you high and drive. You haven't got
33:37
Speaker 2: a second spare. Sure, so they're looking forget if something
33:40
Speaker 2: happens again, and you always say it doesn't, but hell,
33:42
Speaker 2: I've had used up both spares and more. Yeah, and
33:45
Speaker 2: you probably have, and not often you know, maybe it's
33:49
Speaker 2: five percent even not even as much as that. So
33:52
Speaker 2: it's the what if and do I take the risk
33:55
Speaker 2: of don't?
33:56
Speaker 1: And the seventy has the payload to be able to
33:58
Speaker 1: take the second?
34:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, it does, you know. And I think with most vehicles,
34:04
Speaker 2: if you can look at where your balance is on safety,
34:08
Speaker 2: that would be a high criteria for me that I
34:11
Speaker 2: know I've got good tires and well I'm going to
34:13
Speaker 2: be prepared to pull a tie for tie leavers and
34:15
Speaker 2: fix it and put a tube into reinflate it. Different sure, yeah,
34:19
Speaker 2: for sure. So so yeah, that that said, and I also.
34:22
Speaker 1: Really like a front and rear bumper because one of
34:26
Speaker 1: one of the the realities of traveling in unique places
34:31
Speaker 1: or developing places is that you were in the cities
34:35
Speaker 1: and getting getting an accidents happens, And by having these
34:43
Speaker 1: big bumpers on your vehicle, it does inspire a bit
34:45
Speaker 1: of respect by the locals. They do give you a
34:48
Speaker 1: little bit more space when they're steering at that bullbar
34:53
Speaker 1: on the front.
34:55
Speaker 2: That's true.
34:56
Speaker 1: So I think that that's one of the other advantages
34:58
Speaker 1: of a bumper is the minor fender benders, or when
35:02
Speaker 1: you're parked along a road and somebody you know, mismanages
35:05
Speaker 1: the clutch and they roll into the back of your vehicle.
35:08
Speaker 1: That I mean, you made it and did not even
35:10
Speaker 1: notice that it happened other than their paint on your bumper. Yeah,
35:14
Speaker 1: so I do like it. So it's insurance.
35:16
Speaker 2: I mean, I've got a time to in testing his
35:19
Speaker 2: brand new truck like this, and he had a big
35:23
Speaker 2: accident that wasn't his bolt. That's a big accident. Had
35:27
Speaker 2: it not had a fun bullbart, it would have written
35:29
Speaker 2: the car off. Wow, just built the car like So,
35:31
Speaker 2: I don't want to tell you the amount of money
35:32
Speaker 2: spent on it right off his trip before you've started. Wow.
35:37
Speaker 2: So you know. Yeah, again, we're looking at you're taking
35:41
Speaker 2: a truck which is your home, and you that you're
35:43
Speaker 2: putting all your safety and everything in there. You want
35:47
Speaker 2: to make sure that it's going to get you there
35:49
Speaker 2: and back. Absolutely.
35:52
Speaker 1: So, talking a little bit more deeply about the seventy
35:56
Speaker 1: series on the seventy eight, how do you normally like
36:00
Speaker 1: to build out storage living area? What are some of
36:04
Speaker 1: the key things that you have found works in the
36:08
Speaker 1: seventy eight.
36:10
Speaker 2: So you've got quite a limited space, Okay, So you're
36:13
Speaker 2: trying to maximize everything in there. So it starts off
36:16
Speaker 2: by looking at saying that the biggest component that's often
36:19
Speaker 2: going to determine what you need to the layout is
36:23
Speaker 2: your fridge, your water. Okay, Now, in this particular vehicle,
36:27
Speaker 2: as I said, we've got water tanks we've designed and
36:29
Speaker 2: they're in the cavities, so we've taken any water that
36:32
Speaker 2: would normally sit inside the car or under the car,
36:35
Speaker 2: and we've kept that space just for living.
36:37
Speaker 1: So you've removed those side pain panels and you've put
36:41
Speaker 1: water tanks in the gat there and we've clever. Yeah,
36:45
Speaker 1: they've worked well, We actually incredibly clever.
36:47
Speaker 2: They rot to males were designed by a friend of
36:49
Speaker 2: mine who earns a company who builds the troop piece
36:51
Speaker 2: for me, and we've basically done that. He's designed the
36:55
Speaker 2: malls and we've wrote and molded the tank so they
36:57
Speaker 2: filled from the rear quarters on each side that both
37:00
Speaker 2: tanks can carry twenty five meters and then the plastic
37:03
Speaker 2: tank under the back carries fifty.
37:05
Speaker 1: And do you and do you connect the two together
37:08
Speaker 1: or neke two bills.
37:09
Speaker 2: So you can isolate them. It means you can keep
37:11
Speaker 2: twenty five meters separate and you can sort your water
37:14
Speaker 2: up or you can enayle feed from the bottom tank,
37:17
Speaker 2: and then what we've done with that so that the
37:20
Speaker 2: basic process looks. When I sat down and started the
37:23
Speaker 2: design process, it was like I built a lot of troopees.
37:27
Speaker 2: What really worked and what didn't work? Now, one of
37:30
Speaker 2: the things I felt people got wrong was using the
37:33
Speaker 2: space carefully. That you can access the space. Okay, So
37:36
Speaker 2: when I say that, I mean you've got to If
37:40
Speaker 2: you're going to cook, want to be able to get
37:42
Speaker 2: what you need for cooking. If you're going to get
37:44
Speaker 2: your recovery gear, you don't want to open up the
37:46
Speaker 2: whole back of the car to get your recovery gear
37:48
Speaker 2: because you make yourself vulnerable. So where am I going
37:51
Speaker 2: to store everything? So I really had to. I took
37:53
Speaker 2: the list of all the kits that we normally put
37:56
Speaker 2: in and figured out where would we put everything. It
37:59
Speaker 2: doesn't help to build a vehicle and then give someone
38:01
Speaker 2: a checklist of what to go and buy.
38:03
Speaker 1: Sure and they sit there for I was trying.
38:06
Speaker 2: To figure out how they get to pack it, and
38:08
Speaker 2: then it becomes a nightmare. So we figured out and said, okay,
38:11
Speaker 2: where is everything going to go now? Ergonomically, when you
38:15
Speaker 2: sit in the back of the truck. Remember, we've cut
38:18
Speaker 2: the roof off these roofs of this truck, and we've
38:21
Speaker 2: put on a roof which pops up to create a
38:24
Speaker 2: tense sleeping area. And when the roof pops up, so
38:27
Speaker 2: does the floor go up, so you can actually stand
38:29
Speaker 2: in the vehicle when you're not sleeping. Sure, Equally, you
38:32
Speaker 2: can put the floor down and you've still got a
38:34
Speaker 2: space at the back that you can climb up to
38:36
Speaker 2: the top. All come down, sit down and make a
38:39
Speaker 2: cup of coffee. Sure.
38:41
Speaker 1: Sure, Now the floor early riser in the crew.
38:47
Speaker 2: It's your wife saying, honey, you make me a cup
38:49
Speaker 2: of coffee. Sure. So the other thing that I found
38:56
Speaker 2: is that people build the storage too high and it's
38:59
Speaker 2: a small a space, and if you know ergonomically, let
39:02
Speaker 2: should I say aesthetically in a small space, you need
39:05
Speaker 2: to keep things low. So we try and keep as
39:08
Speaker 2: much light into the vehicle. So you can keep the windows,
39:12
Speaker 2: all the windows, some of them you can add goal
39:14
Speaker 2: wings that you can open up fully, so you're looking
39:17
Speaker 2: for access, and.
39:18
Speaker 1: That also creates this forced lower center of ravity too.
39:22
Speaker 2: And then you look and say, well, okay, where do
39:24
Speaker 2: we put a fridge? Okay, now most people want to
39:26
Speaker 2: put the fridge right at the back door. So I've
39:28
Speaker 2: divided the vehicle up and go if this is my
39:30
Speaker 2: kitchen area. Now you know one of our designs, the
39:34
Speaker 2: left hand side pulls out and we've got a cooker
39:36
Speaker 2: and we've got a cutter in door chopping board, and
39:39
Speaker 2: that's your cooking station. You can equally take a multi
39:42
Speaker 2: fuel cooker and you can go and put it on
39:44
Speaker 2: the table. On the left hand side. We've got a
39:47
Speaker 2: table that falls down which allows you to cook outside. Okay,
39:52
Speaker 2: so you can cook outside there, you can come into
39:55
Speaker 2: the vehicle if you very few people cook in the vehicle.
39:58
Speaker 1: Remember, cooking in the truck is more for Europe for sure,
40:01
Speaker 1: and the smells that come you need all the cooking.
40:04
Speaker 2: You've got all the cooking, the mess. So generally, and
40:06
Speaker 2: you know, I'll look and I'll say, well, if you're
40:08
Speaker 2: going to stop and make a coffee, that's the one
40:11
Speaker 2: pleasure I have. And I think often people don't take
40:14
Speaker 2: that time to stop because they don't have quick access to.
40:17
Speaker 1: Their coffee, can't get happened quickly, So.
40:19
Speaker 2: Then it's it's a hassle. Yeah. Sure. Whereas if you
40:22
Speaker 2: stop and we've developed a coffee station which actually sits
40:25
Speaker 2: in the back door here. Now you've got a coffee station.
40:27
Speaker 2: You can stop, open one door, drop it down, jet
40:30
Speaker 2: boil tea coffee, sugar milk, and you can have a
40:33
Speaker 2: nice coffee. Nice. Okay, when you're closed up in camp,
40:36
Speaker 2: you want to climb into the vehicle. You want to
40:38
Speaker 2: be able to sit there if you wanted to do
40:39
Speaker 2: any work, and you want to be able to sit
40:41
Speaker 2: in there if you needed to for bad weathers, in
40:44
Speaker 2: clement weather. That's the value. One can sleep, one can
40:48
Speaker 2: sit down, watch a movie, do some work. So you're
40:51
Speaker 2: trying to make this multifunctional vehicle where you live in
40:55
Speaker 2: and out.
40:56
Speaker 1: Sure, so a side warning gives you.
40:58
Speaker 2: Cover over the outside area is on a two hundred
41:01
Speaker 2: and seventy in degree perimeter, so you've got a bit
41:03
Speaker 2: of shade. And then you're looking at how do we
41:07
Speaker 2: how do we do the electrical power? So we went
41:10
Speaker 2: and built a wiring room for the struck for security.
41:15
Speaker 2: We added lights on the outside to give perimeter lighting
41:18
Speaker 2: at night. You can have once everything's up, you can
41:21
Speaker 2: put perimeter lights on and animals you can see if
41:24
Speaker 2: you can, you can see the lines, the light whatever
41:29
Speaker 2: they're sitting just in. But that's very true.
41:34
Speaker 1: It's a good perimeter, it is, and it just gives
41:37
Speaker 1: you that one little space to go out and use
41:39
Speaker 1: the loo real quick.
41:41
Speaker 2: So, and you know, that's one fear people have. It's like,
41:43
Speaker 2: oh my god, I'm going to go down the lines
41:45
Speaker 2: are going to eat me. No they're not, so you know,
41:47
Speaker 2: you that's that's understanding.
41:49
Speaker 1: At least it's not likely that they will leopard. Maybe
41:53
Speaker 1: they're clever, and.
41:54
Speaker 2: They're clever, clever. But you know, the other thing is
41:56
Speaker 2: you get to you get to see some amazing animals
41:58
Speaker 2: at night. And always don't forget that the night animals
42:01
Speaker 2: come out at night. You've got a light torch you
42:04
Speaker 2: can put on. It looks stunning. You can ketch these
42:06
Speaker 2: animals right in your campsite.
42:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, so incredible.
42:09
Speaker 2: Now, what folks don't think about is sometimes you've got
42:11
Speaker 2: to remove all us get you know, and in these designs,
42:15
Speaker 2: we've got air eaters, we've got hot water heaters running
42:19
Speaker 2: off the diesel. But what if you have to take
42:23
Speaker 2: this all out? Yeah, so when it's built, the floor
42:26
Speaker 2: goes down, the floor gets fitted to the floor of
42:29
Speaker 2: the vehicle and then everything else gets fitted to the
42:31
Speaker 2: floor that you can quits. Yeah, it's module nice. So
42:36
Speaker 2: it's it's important. So you know, the focus is to
42:39
Speaker 2: to modular. So when we sat down into the designs
42:42
Speaker 2: and Sculpt cleverly designed everything. The idea was, can we
42:46
Speaker 2: build it in a way that we can modularly do
42:48
Speaker 2: it with a few offerings because the biggest challenge you
42:51
Speaker 2: have with any vehicle that you build up custom is
42:54
Speaker 2: that it doesn't get tested until you test it because
42:57
Speaker 2: it's a brand new built. Sure, it's like a house.
42:59
Speaker 2: You go into a brand new house and new test
43:01
Speaker 2: everything and hopefully it all works and if it doesn't,
43:03
Speaker 2: kind comes back and tweaks it. If you build the
43:06
Speaker 2: same house seven times by the seventh rendition, you've got
43:09
Speaker 2: it pretty much right. That's right. So that's exactly what
43:13
Speaker 2: we've done here.
43:14
Speaker 1: Then it just looks fantastic. I even yeah, I mean
43:18
Speaker 1: the Mollie panel for attaching small items on the back,
43:21
Speaker 1: and it just looks and the floor looks very durable.
43:26
Speaker 1: Just what a neat what a neat setup you've got
43:29
Speaker 1: in there. And then what do you normally like to
43:32
Speaker 1: do for tires, what's your what's your current go to.
43:36
Speaker 2: On it's more about what's available, you know. And on
43:40
Speaker 2: the troop piece, you know, the one age that's not
43:42
Speaker 2: a massively big engine, you know, and you're also looking
43:45
Speaker 2: at what's available. So two sixty five seventy five sixteen
43:49
Speaker 2: we keep to the sixteen instroums because they're available. We
43:53
Speaker 2: look at what some people go to eighty five because
43:55
Speaker 2: they just look a bit better. Yeah, okay, going to
43:58
Speaker 2: get the It's always a compromise.
43:59
Speaker 1: I think that I think that the two sixty five
44:01
Speaker 1: seventy five sixteen has a lot of a lot of merit.
44:05
Speaker 1: We ran the two fifty five eighty five sixteen mud
44:09
Speaker 1: terrains because we knew we were going to be in
44:11
Speaker 1: so many different conditions in our travels around the world.
44:16
Speaker 1: But I'm also seeing that a lot of the newer vehicles,
44:20
Speaker 1: even in Africa, they're on a seventeen inch wheel. Now,
44:23
Speaker 1: so there are two sixty five, seventy or seventeen.
44:28
Speaker 2: The thing is you've got you've got more on a
44:30
Speaker 2: sixteen inch rom So you remember, this is a very
44:32
Speaker 2: basic shue. So if I have a problem and I
44:34
Speaker 2: go into a hunter's camp or large or something. They'll
44:38
Speaker 2: have a like to have a help. Well, then we attire,
44:40
Speaker 2: that's right. So that's we're always looking at what if.
44:45
Speaker 2: That's what if scenario and how can we resolve that? Yeah, sure,
44:48
Speaker 2: and yes it's not wrong to pull and narrow ties on.
44:51
Speaker 2: It's in fact they're really good. You know, they go good.
44:54
Speaker 1: But how do you replace them?
44:55
Speaker 2: That's what you're gonna look at, you know, if you
44:58
Speaker 2: if you need a time.
44:59
Speaker 1: We were lucky because we had well at one point
45:02
Speaker 1: we had eight spars, so between the four vehicles, I
45:07
Speaker 1: didn't have a single flat. Yeah, in all the travels.
45:10
Speaker 2: But yeah, look, the mud terrains are great tires generally,
45:14
Speaker 2: if someone's going into East Africa and around all you
45:16
Speaker 2: just don't. I won't use mud terrains a great tie
45:20
Speaker 2: as you said, for what you use, they get noisy.
45:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, very noisy, and fuel economy goes down. Yeah. So yeah,
45:26
Speaker 1: for for West Africa, I think it makes sense, but
45:29
Speaker 1: for East Africa not so much. And for most of
45:32
Speaker 1: the world in all, terrain is just a great choice.
45:34
Speaker 2: It's a good choice, less fatigue on.
45:36
Speaker 1: The driver and better wet weather stopping handling. If you
45:41
Speaker 1: get into ice and snow, you know, they perform better
45:44
Speaker 1: than a mud terrain.
45:45
Speaker 2: Does you know when you talked about what are the
45:47
Speaker 2: weak points on the vehicles again, you know, one of
45:50
Speaker 2: the safety issues upgrading the brakes. Yeah, and that's something
45:53
Speaker 2: that gets done on the order of our trucks. We'll
45:55
Speaker 2: upgrade them. And you've got a number of options you
45:57
Speaker 2: could do to upgrade the breaks. So I think the
46:00
Speaker 2: important part is making sure you've gone through the weak
46:04
Speaker 2: points of vehicle, making sure you've got the safety elements right,
46:08
Speaker 2: and the suspension, the tire choice, the upgrades that you
46:13
Speaker 2: need to put in the suspension, and sure you get
46:15
Speaker 2: that right, to get the weight in a position where
46:19
Speaker 2: the vehicle feels comfortable to drive, you know. And then again,
46:24
Speaker 2: you know, is the layout where you can access everything.
46:27
Speaker 2: So it's it's a very fine balance.
46:29
Speaker 1: It is a fine balance, isn't it. So you've probably
46:33
Speaker 1: built hundreds of seventy series land cruisers in your thirty
46:38
Speaker 1: years of this profession. What's your favorite model seventy series?
46:44
Speaker 1: What's your favorite?
46:46
Speaker 2: The favorite has to and all of them are built.
46:48
Speaker 2: I mean the seventy eight is really yeah, you know,
46:51
Speaker 2: I think the I just love the fact that if
46:54
Speaker 2: you want to, you can climb in the back, you
46:56
Speaker 2: can be the water. So it's got for me the
46:57
Speaker 2: most amount of flexibility. Yeah, for sure. And I think
47:00
Speaker 2: that's probably the real option, that I can sleep in
47:04
Speaker 2: the truck without the room. Yeah, I can climb in
47:06
Speaker 2: the back of the water hole. It's yeah.
47:10
Speaker 1: And if and if you were to give people advice
47:13
Speaker 1: on the the top three things that they need to
47:16
Speaker 1: make sure that they do for that seventy eight, what's
47:20
Speaker 1: the top top three items that they.
47:22
Speaker 2: Need to on any model of I think get the
47:25
Speaker 2: suspension right. I've seen too many people with you know,
47:28
Speaker 2: the suspension is not right, you know, And then choose
47:31
Speaker 2: a suspension that you can get spares and components for.
47:35
Speaker 2: That's really important. You'll allow out. You need to get
47:39
Speaker 2: a lot of thought. You're allowed because you spend a
47:41
Speaker 2: lot of money on building the interior, and it doesn't
47:45
Speaker 2: have to have everything. It can be a simple.
47:47
Speaker 1: Lut that just boxes to start, sure, And I think
47:50
Speaker 1: often he might be a great place to start, because
47:52
Speaker 1: then you can move the boxes around and say actually
47:55
Speaker 1: I like it this way, or I like it, or.
47:57
Speaker 2: Just to get a feel. So I think often people
47:59
Speaker 2: start down the journey of building their vehicle from all
48:02
Speaker 2: the pictures they've seen, from all the Pinterest photographs. You
48:07
Speaker 2: know how many people bring me interest photographs and they
48:10
Speaker 2: actually haven't got enough experience. Sure, so I go with
48:13
Speaker 2: less and add to it as you go along. If
48:15
Speaker 2: you need it, the safety critical stuff you have for sure.
48:19
Speaker 2: So yeah, that's the second thing I'll says.
48:21
Speaker 1: Really, so if someone is ready to build their seventy
48:25
Speaker 1: series to go around the world, how do they find
48:27
Speaker 1: out about you? How do they contact you?
48:29
Speaker 2: So if you go onto my website Allmarshball Buffo dot com, okay,
48:34
Speaker 2: they can connect with me, and what we normally always
48:36
Speaker 2: set up as a way to have an initial discussion.
48:40
Speaker 2: I'll consult to them and then I'll project manage the
48:43
Speaker 2: entire build using companies that I have endorsed. And then
48:47
Speaker 2: what we'll do is we'll make sure that the car
48:50
Speaker 2: can be from purchase to when they go with training
48:54
Speaker 2: so they feel confident to go. That's the aim of
48:56
Speaker 2: book b.
48:57
Speaker 1: Well, and I've used your help in the past. We
49:00
Speaker 1: built the seventy eight series for for Gregging me to
49:05
Speaker 1: take to Antarctica, and we put somehow managed to shoehorn
49:10
Speaker 1: some thirty eighths on there for a short period of time.
49:13
Speaker 1: So I've seen your work in action. I've seen your
49:15
Speaker 1: industrious nature and your ability to pull together key suppliers
49:20
Speaker 1: and support to get projects done on time. So I'm
49:24
Speaker 1: grateful for the work that you do and I'm grateful
49:26
Speaker 1: for your time today. The seventy series is what I
49:31
Speaker 1: like to call a pinnacle overland vehicle. There are very few,
49:35
Speaker 1: and that is one of them, so it's something. And
49:38
Speaker 1: now that even in North America, they're twenty five years old,
49:42
Speaker 1: many of them, so you can and you can start
49:44
Speaker 1: importing them. So don't be afraid of a twenty five
49:46
Speaker 1: year old.
49:47
Speaker 2: Well, I think that's the vehicle to look for because
49:49
Speaker 2: done a few, Yeah, exactly, find one, rebuild it and
49:53
Speaker 2: off you go, Off you go. Thank you, Scott, Thank
49:55
Speaker 2: you for the time. Thank you appreciate it.
49:58
Speaker 1: Catch up again, and we thank you all for listening.
50:00
Speaker 1: Go take a look at that seventies series and we'll
50:02
Speaker 1: talk to you next time.
50:03
Speaker 2: Thank you.