They kitted out and built up a NZ new 2007 Landcruiser Troopy, the 4.5l V8 Turbo diesel model.
It took them about 5 months of building, testing, replacing, repairing, testing, repairing, improving, modifying and designing before they were happy with it.
It ended up with a brand new motor after the local Toyota dealer here in Hamilton drove it out of the work shop for a test drive with no oil in the sump after doing a service and clutch replacement. It made it out of the work shop and onto the forecourt before it seized
With the space on the ship booked and payed for, the bond payed to the Aussie authorities, Easter 2011 was its final shake down before it was driven to the wharf at Auckland to be loaded onto the ship.
Here we are on its final shake down in the National Park at Easter 2011, a week out from being loaded up and shipped to OZ for a year or so:
They have been on the road for about 3 months now, the truck has been going strong bar a couple of teething problems.
The shake down on the other side was a quiet trip up to Cape York. The Telegraph track claimed a winch rope and hook after becoming stuck (very stuck) in a sandy bog where a double purchase on the 12,000lb winch was required. Apparently Ozzy trees are useless??
On the way back, the carrier bearings on the rear diff decided to give up, and 4 days later a replacement was flown into a little place called Weipa. 750k's out of Weipa and they encountered a river crossing which needed 4WD to cross, only to find the wrong ratio diff had been fitted by the work shop. No 4WD ment taking a run at the river crossing in 2WD, wet feet and a winch through the rest of the way.
So it was on to Cairns another 500k's or so away to get diff ratio issue sorted, and to find a auto sparky to fix the ECU and ECU Plug which turned out had been bodgy repaired by the local Toyota dealer here in Hamilton with the plug being plastic welded to the ECU. The plastic weld broke on the continuous corrugations and it was a long drive doing the Limp Mode, stop, reset, drive a 100k's, limp mode, stop, reset drive some more thing.
Those issues were all sorted in the first couple of weeks and its been running strong since.
We get the updates via text when they have reception so we try to keep tabs on them. Texts with info such as "Having breakfast this morning, watching 6 crocks on the beach. Can't go swiming, might get eaten
"We hadn't heard from them for a couple of weeks now, as they were heading into the Red Center, then across the desert to meet up with the Canning Stock route some where between Well 32 and Well 55, then up into the Northern territories from there.
The last report was they had made it to Halls creek after 5 days straight of sand dune after sand dune and continuous corrugations for hundreds of Kilometers. The record so far is 3 days with out seeing another soul, which is apparently pretty scary when your right out in the middle of nowhere!!!!
The V8 Diesel was made to work hard on the monster Dunes, some of them doubled up on each other. At times the the corrugations were so severe that 20K's was all that could be traveled. The "Wild" was out in full force, ranging from Dingo's and Camels to Lizards and Snakes.
There's a few pic's floating around, these are a few of the goodies:
Camping at Winjara
Somewhere Coastal
And a few more recent ones of the Canning:
The canning photo's they just posted on Facebook, its so awesome I had to share!!!
So who wants to go to work tomorrow
