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Kiwi's in Australia

mkamp

New Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2013
Messages
14
Country Flag
australia
Hi All,

My wife and I have just aquired a '91 75 series Landcruiser Troopy with the view to fix it up and drive around Aus doing the Outback Tracks as we go. If everything goes well, the plan then would be to ship the car to South America and do the same thing there.

We're reasonably new to this sort of thing, we hired a landcruiser from Britz a couple of years ago and did the Oodnadatta track in South Australia. We absolutely loved it and wanted to just keep going.

The car I have picked up is in OK condition, but needs some love. Its got all the basics, AC, power stering, duel tanks, but needs to be fitted out so we can spend 6 moths on the road.

The first job is to get it mechanically reliable. I have a guy down the road looking at it later this week, but being a Mechanical Engineer, I should be able to do most maintenance jobs myself. My question is, what things should I look out for in this vehicle and what preventitve maintenance/upgrades should I preform to make it reliable? Rebuild steering knuckles ect?

Cheers

Marcel
 
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Ah, you beat me to that one ;-)

Saw it on gumtree last week, looks to be a good one. As I think we now have enough for a Melbourne Branch of the club we should have a get together.

Just moved to Melbourne today, you'll see Ben on here too.
 
Hi Paul, Welcome to Melbourne.

Yeah, Im keen to have a get together sometime.
I have been tralling Gumtree for 6 months to find a suitable vehicle, and they kept being snapped up from under me too :)
It needs a bit of work to get roadworthy, but otherwise its in good shape.

Got it home last night, and it only just fits in the back yard, between the house and roller door, literally half an inch to spare on each side, and just scraped under the roller door. Didn't think the vehicle was quite that big when I was looking at it!
 
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I'll have to sort out coming down to Melbourne at somepoint and meeting up with people...

Looks good, there's a guy in town here with a Troopy that lives on the driveway because the garage isn't big enough for it. You could always deflate the tyres to get it!

The other thing is at least you know it fits in unladen; if it was fully loaded and brought into that space, and then unloaded it could have been a problem...
 
I get the feeling that this one will live on the road, as getting it in and out is a bit of a PITA.
Glad it didn't come with roof racks, as I probably wouldn't have though about it when driving in, could have been a bit embarrising.
 
Welcome to the club Marcel. :thumbup:

I Love 70's and yours looks great. :clap:

I'm also planning on shipping a cruiser to South America one day. :icon-cool:

I want to drive from the tip of South America all the way up to the tip of North America. :think:

Ah, you beat me to that one ;-)

Saw it on gumtree last week, looks to be a good one. As I think we now have enough for a Melbourne Branch of the club we should have a get together.

Just moved to Melbourne today, you'll see Ben on here too.

Get together sounds good. :dance:
 
Hi Ben,

I suggested to my wife the other day we drive from the top of the west coast of Alaska, down the West coast of the US to the tip of South America. She didn't say no, but I feel like there might be a bit of convincing to be done. Unfortunately there is a 130km section of Columbia where there are no roads at all, so you have to take a boat.
 
Nice looking truck.

If it were my truck I would also get it mechanically 100% to start - things worth spending money on are good quality suspension (you've probably already experienced the corrugations in Oz) and the cooling system (rad, water pump, new coolant, etc). And then the first things that I would add for an extended trip is solar, fridge and water tanks - these are real game changers in terms of where you can go and for how long. Two spare wheels/tyres are also advised for many tracks. A well thought out storage system will also make a lot of difference - unpacking the truck on a regular basis to get to things gets ordinary real quick. You might want to start thinking about where you are going to sleep (rooftent, swags, etc), but an awning will come in handy regardless (unless you get a camper trailer, then it is a luxury). I would also recommend doing as much work as possible yourself - it makes it so much easier to deal with the unexpected if you are familiar with the truck.

If you end up near Brisbane, let us know.
 
Thanks for all the advice Fridayman,

I've got about a year to get things properly sorted before we haed off for any big trips. Like you say, I'm keen to learn as much as I can about the vehicle as I can. Am getting my hands on a workshop manual, and am going to systematically work my way through it checking everything. We will definitely will have to get it well organised if we are going to live out of it for half a year!

Are there any recommendations about what sorts or suspension I should be looking at?
 
Suspension options.........careful, you'll be asking what tyres next :icon-wink:

Seriously though, since going over to Tough Dog after fitting Ironman I am convinced it was the right move.
 
OME, TJM, EFS, Kings, Dobinsons... should all do the job. I've also been very disappointed in Ironman, and will avoid wasting money on cheap suspension again.
 
OME, TJM, EFS, Kings, Dobinsons... should all do the job. I've also been very disappointed in Ironman, and will avoid wasting money on cheap suspension again.

Totally agree. :thumbup:

I too will never waste my money on Ironman suspension again! Its cheap for a reason! :thumbdown:
 
Good to know Ironman isn't worth touching. Suspension will probably be the first thing I will do (after a new clutch and a roadworthy), My first engineering job was fitting heavy duty suspension and axles to large Hino trucks, cant imagine the process is much different, just a different scale.
 
OME, TJM, EFS, Kings, Dobinsons... should all do the job. I've also been very disappointed in Ironman, and will avoid wasting money on cheap suspension again.

Good to know Ironman isn't worth touching. Suspension will probably be the first thing I will do (after a new clutch and a roadworthy), My first engineering job was fitting heavy duty suspension and axles to large Hino trucks, cant imagine the process is much different, just a different scale.

Interestingly just been in touch with a mate who deals in Ironman, EFS and Terrain Tamer; I've asked him to price up a kit for my 4Runner (Hilux Surf) and the Ironman Foam Cell kit was $1400, and he said that the Terrain Tamer kit is unlikely to be cheaper, and the quality won't be as good, and he thought that the EFS kit is probably on par with Ironman quality wise.

King's are spring manufacturers, so they are often used in conjunction with other manufacturer's shock absorbers... I think they may even make the springs for OME kits, but I'm not sure, nor can I remember where I read that.

Good luck!
 
Suspension options.........careful, you'll be asking what tyres next :icon-wink:

Seriously though, since going over to Tough Dog after fitting Ironman I am convinced it was the right move.

Do you have the adjustable Tough Dog shocks - does the adjuster actually make a difference? And are they std or the bigger bore version?
 
I have the Big Bore shocks and +2" heavy duty springs on the front and +300 KGS for the rear, although it was more like 4" when they were fitted. They had to be specially made but no worries when the manufacturer is local :)

The best bit is the return to centre steering damper. Was a bit unsure about it, but it makes steering on the corrugations so easy and still gives loads of feel. Fitted the Tough Dog caster correction as well as they needed doing anyway, and did most of the other bushes at the same time.
 
Be interested to see how yours last - the fancy yellow coating on my TD springs was gone in 3 months and one front shock is totally fubar, and most of the bushes the same after 26 months - of course, TD absolutely not interested in any form of support so I'm saving my pennies to rip it all out and start again.

Clearly not designed with UK winters in mind ...

:( :(
 
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