How to prepare a 3rd Gen Surf for African travel, on a budget. PART 2

[ST185pinjo]

Those are still my favorite 4x4. The 12HT engine is the best!
Too exspencive though for me... Great find!

[tashtego]

Those are still my favorite 4x4. The 12HT engine is the best!
Too exspencive though for me... Great find!

Yes, the 12H are the turbo ones, very nice!
Wikipedia says they came out in 1986, this one is older, non turbo but very solid. It was 'cheapish', considering the mad prices of vehicles over here, compared to Europe....

[tashtego]

Those are still my favorite 4x4. The 12HT engine is the best!
Too exspencive though for me... Great find!

If you like these 60s series, check cruiserworld.eu, they always have a few for sale.

They are in the Netherlands so you can pop in for a visit.

[ST185pinjo]

Yes m8, I have been there a few years ago for a tesdrive in the H2 engine HJ60 and the 12HT beast. Big mistake! If you drive both of them right after eachother , the 12HT is wat you want.

Fortunately both were much too expansive for me so..

The rust bothers me in the 60 series. And the price!

So like the cars, not the price.

As for my 4runner:

Love the price and the car and not as much rust as the pre 1990 cars.

[tashtego]

Here with the dry climate, and being far from the sea, rust is not a problem, even on those 80s ones. The paintwork suffers horribly from sun damage though. It will need a full respray.

Check the red Renault 4 in the background, it was driven down here from Paris.

[ST185pinjo]

Towed by the HJ60 I pressume!

[tashtego]

Ha ha, no, it did it on its own legs....I mean, wheels!!

[tashtego]

The long way round...

I have not long returned from a 6 weeks overland round trip, from our home in Malawi through to Zambia, Namibia and then South Africa. Almost 18000 Km in around 6 weeks.
We have really enjoyed driving the Surf. We got it serviced twice, at 6000 km and at 12000 roughly, just oil and all the filters and a good check. It never let us down, through hours of deep sand driving, gravel roads, corrugations that would shake the ashtray out of its slot and all manner of pot-holed roads (well, often more pot hole than road). Some long motorway stretches too, 800 km at the time sometimes, in a day.
Not bad considering it is 20 years old and has close to 200000 km on clock, if genuine.

Once the centre diff was locked and the pressure was down to 1.1 bar no type of sand could stop us, leaving some drivers of 'better' vehicles (new or almost new Hilux Double Cabs and LCs with every possible mod you can imagine, 'BF Emu, Old Man Goodrich, Warn ARB, TJM E-locker everything') scratching their heads...

The surf will now need some tlc: the chinese A/T tyres have been shredded by gravel and corrugation, the starter motor needs the contacts replacing, alignment is out, there's quite a bit of play in the steering column, exhaust is a bit rattly and things are a bit 'loose' in general. A little spruce up and hopefully it will be ready for some more adventures soon.

I am attaching a few pics.

One highlight of the trip was a random meeting with globetrotting Kevin 'Overland Tonka' from the forum in Namibia! Great guy.

Have a great weekend everyone.

[Diezel Weazel]

Great Pics n thanks for sharing ...

15+ Years of Surfs .. n Faultless to a "T" is my Yota !! Sadly 1 is going

[ST185pinjo]

Great trip and great foto's!!

[tashtego]

Thanks guys!

A few more pics found on my phone...

[ST185pinjo]

Exelent! you sleep in lodges I pressume?

[tashtego]

Exelent! you sleep in lodges I pressume?

Lodges, B&Bs, also campsites and bush camping, we carry a tent, sleeping bags and a little gas cooker.

Cheers

[ST185pinjo]

How about al little fridge?

I'm interested because i'm thinking about going toof top tent and changing the boot from sleeping to storage and equipment like a fridge, cooking, etc.

Not sure about the RTT actually, I have to do some more research on that.

I carry food and drinks with me now, but not cold. No problem, but for food that needs to be kept cool it is.

How do you manage this?

Funny to see your stock looking car and Tonka heavilly prepped.

[tashtego]

Yes Tonka's set up is really good, he has a roof tent that's really easy to put up (I forgot what brand, it is not one of the main brands like Howling Moon...), the rear seats have been replaced with a nice big fridge. There's a thin solar panel that sticks flat to the bonnet and many more mods, very clever.

I have a simple, old 'Electrolux' portable fridge which sits in the boot. It has a long cable that runs between the rear seats, then forward near the handbrake and plugs into the cigar lighter socket. It is dual gas/electric, so when you get to a site you can plug it to the mains (it has a 220V cable and plug too) or, if there is no power, you can hook it to a gas bottle.

There are some really nice roof tents around if your budget stretches.