Tips & Tricks;

I will try to give a summary here of things that might come in handy or may be used as advice for the preparations of your own trip. I will separate 3 areas i.e. the car inside and out, equipment and the paperwork. Note that there is a big component of personal opinion in the below summary. Other overlanders might totally disagree with some of it. What I have noticed however, is that we, compared to other people, traveled almost trouble free. I think I can safely say; that wasn’t luck but thorough preparation.

-

1; Vehicle;

The first and most important tip is to buy your vehicle well in advance, i.e. minimum 1 year before your intended departure. Unless you buy a vehicle that is already fully equipped, it will take a lot of time and money to prepare the car for an overland expedition, because an expedition it is! I bought my car 3 years before departure but that is because I had no fixed plans at the time of purchase, only intentions. This long period of preparation is not only a big part of the fun but it also give you the rest to sought out things properly, to get to know your car and familiarize yourself with the mechanics of it.

An added advantage is that the expenses are spread out over a longer period which makes them easier to bear.

-

1.1; Basic vehicle condition;

The following recommendations are based on my experience and the problems we have seen along the way with the various types of cars. They are based on a car condition which is good to begin with. My recommendations are;

- install new heavy duty shock absorbers

- install new heavy duty springs, 5 cm raised . Leaf or coil.

- check and renew (if necessary) oils seals of gear box and diffs,

- check and renew (if necessary) wheel bearings

- check and renew alternator brushes

- check and renew starter motor brushes and main contact

- install new front brake pads and check rear shoes

- check exhaust brackets and reinforce them. (make it corrugation proof)

- replace the radiator core with a new one, irrespective whether it is leaking or not

- replace the fan belts; keep the old ones as spares

- install new first class tires, type is subject to the route and terrain you will encounter.

Tubeless would again be my first choice. Below more about tires

-

1.2; Vehicle modifications;

The sky is the limit. You can spend a years salary on kit and pieces such as bull bars, bash plates etc. In reality you do not need a lot of these modifications. I choose to install the following kit;

-

Weight distribution;

In general you can say Less is More. The less weight you carry the fewer problems. Main concerns are water and fuel. You can carry water and fuel in Jerry cans but Jerry cans are usually stowed on the roof rack of the car which makes it top heavy. All the weight on top of the car doesn't do much good for the stability. Several times we have been in situations that the car was leaning side ways to such a degree that I was very very happy not to have all of this weight on the top of the car. Friends of ours can confirm what happens if the car is top heavy. They had all their fuel and water on the roof and on one occasion, as the tires on one side of the car sank into the mud, the car just fell over, very slowly but unstoppable.

-

Fuel;

I fitted a (self made) under body long range fuel tank (extra 160 liter) because I wanted to have the option of going into remote areas. Having in total 250 liter of diesel on board does provide a lot of extra freedom to go where you want to go without having to worry about fuel. It was one of the best modifications I have made and I would do it again. The 2 tanks are connected to the fuel filter suction connection via a manual switch over valve. When one tank was empty we could, while driving, switch over to the other tank. Strictly seen you do not need all of this. With 4 x 20 liter jerry cans you can go a long way too.

-

Water;

I fitted a (self made) stainless steel water tank (60 L) with fixed electric water pump inside the car. We started out with an installed ceramic filter and carbon filter to purify the water. The ceramic filter however clogs easily and is maintenance sensitive. After a couple of weeks I removed the ceramic filter and started to use chlorine in the tank to kill the living organisms and the carbon filter to remove chemical pollution. It also removes the chlorine so the water comes clear and odorless out of the carbon filter. We used a camping type of water tap with a combined shower head. When the water was not rationed, we could shower, which was at times extremely pleasant. Strictly seen you do not need any of this and a couple of plastic black military 20L jerry cans will do the job. But hey, who says that camping has to be primitive.

-

Car seats;

I took out the standard seat and installed 2 Recaro type high quality seat. Adapted the mounting frames myself. Total cost for the two seats, Euro 150,- on E-bay. Worth every penny and more. An absolute must; good seats.

-

Extra batteries;

For utility consumers such as fridge, lighting, battery chargers, Laptop etc, you will need to install an extra battery, or as in my case 2 extra batteries. The Landcruiser is 24V so 2 batteries is easier. I made the mistake to install ordinary starting batteries. I did this with the idea that they would be interchangeable with the starting batteries and could function as back-up. This does work but starting type batteries are very sensitive for complete unloading. It will happen inevitably and after 2 or 3 times, the batteries will be damaged and need to be replaced. You can install all kind of low voltage protection systems but the fact remains that empty lead batteries is not a good thing. In stead it is better to install gel batteries or so called deep cycle batteries. They will tolerate unloading a lot better and can also function as starter batteries in case of emergency. Unfortunately they are twice the price of normal lead batteries but I will buy then next time anyway.

-

Electric or hydraulic winch;

You will most probably not need it. We have crossed the African West coast (jungle) during the wet season. It was at times extremely muddy and slippery but we never needed a winch. For security I had a Tirfor 1600 kg with sufficient cable, plasma rope and shackles. We did not need the Tirfor either. The investment and weight of a winch are not justified unless you intend to do some Camel Trophy challenges. It the desert a winch it is utterly useless unless you are with other cars. Sand anchors are useless to in the desert.

-

Bull bar, side bars;

If you won't take a winch then you won't need a bull bar. I never had a moment that I wished I had side bars. You car should have sufficient clearance.

-

Extra front lighs;

Although it should be a golden rule not to drive at night or after sunset anywhere in africa, and I assume the same rule applies for other adventurous areas outside africa, it sometimes just can not be avoided. During our one year trip we had to drive in the dark 4 or 5 times. We did not have extra lights but at these times I wish I had installed them. Next time I will fit some extra lamps, nothing fancy though.

-

Roof rack;

I had a (self made) stainless steel roof rack which proved to be very good and handy. A roof rack is a very sensitive piece of equipment and we have seen so many broken roof racks that we lost count. The problem with roof rack is that they have to flex with the car. If the rack is too ridged, it will break due to car flexing. If it is too weak, it will break because of the load on the rack. The professional safari equipment roof rack will probably be fine but they are also very expensive. The roof racks that you see driving around on commercial vans will probably be fine too if you reinforce the clamping system to the roof. The standard clamp system of commercial van roof racks are definitely not strong enough and need to be replaced. It should have minimum 8 supports of 10 cm wide x 1 cm thick. The supports must be reinforced with gussets between support and rack to prevent lateral movement. Secure all bolts with Locktite.

-

Snorkel (with air cyclone);

The purpose of a snorkel is primarily for installation of a cyclone. The cyclone filter will pre-filter the dusty air which you will encounter all over africa. The air intake filter will remain cleaner and function longer. It will keep your engine happy. A snorkel without a cyclone is only useful for water crossing, deeper that approximately 80 cm to 1 meter. For a normal overland trip this will be an exception. We came across such deep water only once. Nonetheless, a useful gadget which will increase your vehicles versatility. I would say, yes install a snorkel but definitely fit it with a cyclone filter.

-

Car vault or safe;

We have not encountered any problems with break-ins or other problems but it is a fact that a solid vault or safe gives a lot of mind piece. I installed a (self made) safe of three mm steel with a four mm door which could hold our valuable paper work, a laptop and our video and camera equipment. Not the lightest piece of equipment but I was happy to have it in the car on the occasions that we had to leave the car for some time.

-

Tires;

The choice of tires should be subject to the route and terrain you are going to cross. If you do not intend to do a lot of off roading A/T tires will probably be good enough. If you intend to go off road as much as possible, in mixed terrain, you will probably be better of with M/T. Mud Terrain tires are superior in mud (obviously) but also on stony rocky underground. They are equally good as A/T in the desert! They are a bit difficult if you need to brake very hard and suddenly on wet asphalt. As far as I am concerned, this is the only disadvantage of the M/T's. The massive thread blocks of the M/T tires are much more resilient against rough, stony terrain compared to the serrated (water discharging) blocks of the A/T.

Now this is important; M/T tires tend to become noisy when they are worn but I have found out that this can be completely avoided by never changing the direction of rotation of the tires. Because you need to change tires with spare tires to keep even thread depth, this is easies done if you buy 6 tires but for an overland trip you need 2 spares anyway. Always keep 3 tires for one side and the other 3 tires for the other side of the car. This works perfectly fine. My M/T tires have done sixty thousand km through africa, they still have about six mm of thread and are as quiet as new tires! It is not necessary to  take two spare wheel (with rims) but one complete wheel and one tire only is enough. The extra rim is very heavy and you do not need it.

-

2; Equipment and kit;

-

Fridge (compressor type only)

Strictly seen not necessary and if you have limited auxiliary battery power (less then 70 AH) it will be a constant worry during days that you are immobile and you don't have access to external power or you don't have solar panels on your roof. The fridge will drain the battery in one or (max) two days. On the other hand, cold drinks and fresh meat are really nice to have. I would not leave home without the fridge. Absorption Coolers are a nono. They are cheap but they do not work above 30 degrees C and they will drain your battery in a matter of hours. If you take a fridge, buy a compressor type make Waeco or Engel.

-

230V battery charger

I did not have one and missed it dearly. When you are on a camp ground with external 230V power it is only too easy if you can hook up and don't have to worry about flat auxiliary batteries anymore. When will you be on camp grounds with power… in the whole of southern africa.

-

12 or 24/230VAC inverters;

I had a 500W inverter installed for the Laptop and for small electric hand tool. The problem with such a big inverter is that even if it is running on low loads (laptop only) it drains the batteries in record time (4 hours). The efficiency of these things is very poor (80% or so). Next time I will take 12V or 24V hand tools and a small 100W inverter for the laptop only. Less load for the batteries.

-

24/12V converter

Because the Landcruiser is 24V, I need the converter to make 12V. An essential piece of electronic to power the small batteries charger, lighting, radio, GPS, etc.

Don't buy the cheapest one but buy the best one, which matches your power requirement.

-

GPS

I can write 50 pages about the GPS but I will keep it simple; buy the nicest, biggest, meanest GPS (Garmin) that you can afford. You won't regret it. Together with the long range fuel tank by far the 2 best investment of the trip! One tip; do not wait until the last day. It is a complex piece of equipment and it requires study. Buy it as early as possible and familiarize yourself with it. Check out the Tracks4Africa site for extremely detailed maps of southern africa

and the more common overland routes. Real adventure is to know where you are going, not to ask where you are going!Also very handy if you are stopped by the police (kenia and tanzania) with speed check laser guns. Usually these are fakes or broken hair dryers (really) but its difficult arguing. With the GPS (to them a magical piece of equipment) you can bluff your way out. The GPS has exactly recorded your car speed and so you proof that you did not go to fast! We never had to use this bluff but for friends of ours it worked.

-

Laptop

Almost impossible to leave it at home with the digital camera's, web sites to update etc. Make sure you can stow it away dust free and bone jangling road proof. We met some people with broken motherboards. We had two laptops and only some small problems due to dust.

-

Music (MP3)

Since there will be hardly any radio station along the way, you will need a good selection of music. CD's won't work with the bad roads. Creative Zen or Ipod with a big hard disk for MP3's is common now. We had the Creative Zen 30Gb with a Belkin FM transmitter! Worked flawless for the whole year! 

-

CB radio/Walky Talky

I had a CB radio but never used it. Nobody else had one so that was a worthless piece of equipment to carry around for one year. We also had a set of cheap walky talkies. They were a lot more useful. When driving with others, you can communicate over the WT. Next time I will buy a set of much better ones, Motorola orso.

-

Solar panels

A good investment if you intend to keep the car after your trip. Too expensive if you will sell the car afterwards. Technically a good thing to have if you intend to bush camp a lot. Keeps your auxiliary batteries alive when you are camping in the bush for more than a day or two. I am considering buying one for future trips.

-

Awning (fitted to the side of the car)

If you decide to take one, make sure that it can be set-up and folded away in max 2 minutes with very little effort otherwise you won't use it! We took one with us which did not comply with this requirement. Result; we hardly ever used it, even though we wanted to, for instance for a 30 minute lunch break in the burning hot sun with no trees around. I bought an Ezi Awn in south africa (set-up time 1 min, fold up time 1 min) and we used it all the time. I am really happy to have it.

-

Camping gear

Cooker, pans, plates, cutlery etc. No need to waste words about these items. Chairs and table. Buy good quality and comfortable chairs. Make sure the chairs fit the height of the table. The “tube type fold up chairs are comfortable but usually too low as dining chairs. This can be solved by lowering the table or buying a table with adjustable legs.

-

Stowage boxes

An important piece of kit are the stowing boxes! I have spent months finding good ones. The aluminium boxes are sturdy but expensive and not practical. I wanted transparent boxes because it is so much easier to find stuff but they are usually not very strong. After a long search, I found the Really Useful Box from Office Centre. They are available in many sizes, transparent, square and very strong. We had about ten of these boxes from very small (medicine box) to large (clothing). During the one year trip, only 1 box broke, after it was launched through the car when we jumped, because I forgot to lash it down! We used them to do our washing in, to have a foot bath, storage of food, small gear, vegetables, etc. Truly Really Useful Boxes!

-

Sand ladders

Bulky, expensive, heavy (even the aluminium ones), dangerous when used wrongly, difficult to stow but indispensable if you intend to visit desert areas. Can also be used in muddy circumstances. I will take them any time.

-

Hand winch (a.k.a. Tirfor)

Bulky, heavy (even a small one of one-thousand-sixhundred kg) and expensive if bought new. It is a consideration if you do not have a bumper winch to take a hand winch. On an earlier trip to australia, I had very little recovery equipment with me and because of that (and I was traveling alone) I avoided certain tracks and areas because of the risk of getting stuck. A winch provides additional freedom of movement. I am still in doubt to keep the hand winch or install a bumper winch. For normal Overlanding you do not need a bumper winch. If you take a hand winch, make sure you have enough shackles, pulleys and (plasma) rope, or steel cable to hook up to a tree or rock. The hand winch cable is usually not more than ten meters and very stiff.

-

Spare part list

See log 31

-

Medical check list

For a medical check list you can try; www.joho.nl

-

3; Paper work (Dutch Citizens);

-

Double passports

Via employer or, if you are self employed, by writing a letter, you can apply for a second passport. Very handy for obvious reasons of thievery but also because of the available extra space for Visas. Some countries have the tendency to place more than one stamp (one by Immigration, one by Gendarme and another one by Security Police!) The visa space evaporates like snow in the sun. We needed 1 ½ passport for all the Visas. Recent tip I got is to make several colour copies of the ID part of the PP and laminate it. These look like formal ID card and can be left if the they are conficated for bribe money. (This hapened to us only in Cameroon by the way!)

-

Carnet de Passage

The Miracle Document! Good for everything! Intended for temporary import of a vehicle into a country. Basically designed for international truck transport . For some countries you do not need it. For others it is essential. It is not possible to enter egypt without Carnet. Some countries issue a Lassai Passe for temporary import. Most border officials know the document well so border crossing is easy. On obscure borders you may have to tell Customs what they are looking at and how it works. It is absolutely worth getting one (25 pages).

Added functionality; we have used it on several occasions when Police or Military asked for other documents than the regular docs. For instance if they ask for a Vignette? (to corner you for a bribe). At such situations we always showed the Carnet. The document looks so official that none of the police officers that stopped us dared to deny the importance or legality of it. It is the license to carry a roof rack, a bull bar, have sand ladders on the side, drive around in a dirty two tone colored car, etc. J. The argument was always that it has been allowed in to the country as it is by the Customs so the Police have no jurisdiction to disapprove anything about the car.

-

Maps

I have plasticized all our maps. It is a bit of work but they last forever. No problems with rain, coffee, thee etc. Really advisable to do so.

-

International drivers license.

Cheap and easy to get and even easier to leave behind as a bond with corrupt police. Same as for the Passport , make several colour copies of your regular drivers licence and laminate it. These look like formal licences cards and can be left if the they are conficated for bribe money. (This hapened to us only in Cameroon!)

-

International Car registration

Same as International Drivers License. My ICR is still waiting for me to be picked up at some police post in Cameroon J

-

Inoculation book

In some countries Yellow Fever inoculation is required. Only way to proof that you have it is this book. We needed it several times. Even police has asked us for it a few times.

-

Money and credit cards

North West and Central West Africa (all French speaking); Euros and Visa (only)

Angola; Dollars and Visa

East Africa; Dollars, Mastercard and Visa

Namibia and SouthAfrica; anything.

-

Visas

Make sure you have a plan! Make a list of which embassies are where and issue what visas. We have met too many people who had to go back (sometimes more than thousand km) just because they assumed that... etc....With visas and embassies; do not assume but be sure! It is an important part of your preparation before you leave. In case of doubt check on Travel forums (like www.horizonsunlimited.com) and ask for actual and recent information. Situations on embassies and visas can change per day.

-

Travel Budget

There is the budget for the car and you have the travel budget. If you buy the car well in time, the pressure on your travel budget will be less! You can spend as much money on the car as you want. Ball park I would say, a reasonable car will be Euro 5.000,- a good car Euro 8000 to 10.000 and for Euro 10.000 plus you should get an excellent car. On equipment and gear described above you can spend another Euro 10.000 if you want but count on a minimum of Euro 5.000.

The travel budget is easier; we spent with 2 persons in one year Euro 55,- per day. That includes literally everything! Note that 50% of this budget was for diesel. Our Landcruiser used on average 1 litre per 6,5km. If you have a more economic car you will be able to save a lot of money.

-

Road Tax (for Dutch citizens only)

Per April 2009  Dutch road tax (and APK and Insurance) can now be suspended via internet.  

.

No doubt that I forgot half of what is interesting but if you have any questions, please don't hesitate and send me an email. I will try to answer as soon as possible.

-

Cheers

-

Noel