South America, 2008 - The New Cruiser

[RobinP]

Ok, finally we're on the road, about 3 weeks behind schedule. We'll be in Mexico tomorrow, laying back on some beach relaxing before heading in earnest to Panama, shipping the truck, and continuing on down into South America.

The route isn't really planned, but the many other things are!

As we get on with it we'll be updating our website and posting tidbits on the forum. You can subscribe for email updates or the RSS feed if you want to receive the directly.

More to come...

[Desertdude]

[Wild Kingdom]

Great Luck!

[RobinP]

So, finally we've finished the first part of the trip. We're in Panama City right now, and have just spent the day completing the paperwork to put our truck on a ship this coming Friday for Columbia.

It's been 5 weeks now and we're a little tired. The road has been long and hot, and we haven't taken the time to enjoy the people or places that made Central America dear to us the last time we were in this part of the world. This is a South American expedition, so the USA, Mexico, and Central America were, well, just in the way.

I don't say this with regret though. As always, with eyes and minds open, little sparkles of the good stuff have helped us on our way.

Here are some highlights:
- A surprise reunion with some 15 year long lost friends of mine in Tucson, Arizona
- A wonderful and relaxing stay in Kino Bay, northern Mexico
- A not so wonderful repair to the fuel filler pipe, while trying to find the source of an 18 mpg to 12! mpg drop
- Another not so wonderful fabrication of a new rear shock support cross member
- A great stay at a sea turtle farm in southern Mexico
- A wonderful family in El Salvador who put us up for the night
- Another wonderful stay with Steve and Jocelyn Broyles from sandcuiser.com in Tamarindo, Costa Rica
- And now, in Panama we've met up with a Mexican couple who are proving that South America can be driven on waste vegetable oil in their VW Eurovan.

Really though, I'm so glad to that I've come down this way in the past. Driving through Central America like this is terrible - you see the dregs of the society. Sketchy border towns, transient people, livelihoods made and broken on highway traffic - it's like a veil covering up the beautiful people and land that really makes these countries great places to visit.

We're really excited for this Friday when we will load the truck into a container and arrive in Columbia where we can take the time that these places deserve.

[mountainpete]

That's great Robin! Looking forward to hearing more and travel safe!

[RobinP]

Here are some stats for our trip to date:

Distance travelled: 9201 km (5689 miles)
Total Fuel Burned: 1414 L (363 USgal)
Avg Fuel Economy: 15.5 L/100 km (15.7 mpg)
Total Cost of Fuel to Date: $1435 USD
Avg Fuel Cost/km: $0.145 USD/km
Avg Tank Range (90 L Tank): 585 km (365 miles)
Max Tank Range: 685 km (428 miles)

Trip Cost/Day for USA, MX, C.A. not including pre-trip prep costs: $135 USD
Trip Cost/Day for C.A. only: $97 USD

Both of the above trip costs are travel heavy and we've spent more time than usual in hotels due to long driving days. The trip budget is for $100/day average, which we will just be able to meet especially factoring in shipping to Columbia and home to Vancouver from (likely) Chile.

We've stayed in 13 hotels, 10 camp spots, and been housed with 2 different friends.

We've repaired:
- a broken wiper
- a broken window
- a broken fuel filler pipe
- a broken shock cross member
- and last night someone side swiped the driver side mirror, so that is still to be replaced.

We've lost/had stolen:
- video camera (poor judgement with door locks...)
- a pair of Raenelle's capri pants (bad laundromat service)

We have 450 photos on our hard drive. Robin has taken 8 of them, Raenelle has taken 442 of them.

We've been stopped by 8 police, and paid 1 bribe.

We've had 1 fight, 5 spats, and there have been about 4 silent treatments.

Raenelle tries to make Robin smile at least once per daylight hour, and he tries to keep a stone face an equal number of times.

It rains about 100 to 300 mm per night, especially here in Panama.

[RobinP]

Some of you may not know: I built the New Cruiser. This was 6 years ago. And I'm not talking about a cool custom bumper, or a leaf spring install, or a bolt-on turbo kit, or an interior purpose-built for extended travel. I'm talking about all of those things and more - the whole body, fabricated from marine grade aluminum sheets, completely welded together. Some call it cool, some call it ugly, and I shrug, knowing that everyone is right. And then I smugly call it mine.

Attachment 22148
The truck just south of the Nogales border crossing in Sonora, Mexico.

Believe me, when you set out to design and construct the body of a vehicle, you learn a lot, and you overlook a lot. These oversights eventually become the cause of serious headache. This story is about one of those oversights, leading to one of those headaches.

I know it's simple, but I'll explain it just to round out the story: A leaf spring is somewhat parabolic. On one end is an eye, on the other end is a shackle. When a leaf spring compresses, it gets flatter and longer, and the shackle rotates to compensate for the extra length. In doing so, it causes the tire which is bolted to the axle which is fastened to the spring, to move not only up with the compresson but (in the case of of the rear axle) backwards.

And that was the point of my oversight. Right - the tire will move backwards, about 2 1/2 inches when it compresses into the wheel well.

I designed the fuel filler pipe to run inside the rear passenger wheel well, thinking that the clearance I gave it would be enough. In short order I realized that the tire was rubbing the pipe and would eventually wear through. The easy fix was to lower the bump stop on that side of the vehicle. I did that, and it worked for years. Recently, that bumpstop was removed (another story), and prior to embarquing on this trip I failed to replace it. And so, under the extreme flex due to the extra expedition load in the truck, the rear tire began to rub again.

Attachment 22136
The fuel filler pipe showing bad signs of wear from the rear passenger tire.

I kept hearing that awful scrape, with that silent hope that the schedule 40 aluminum pipe would have enough meat to last 6 months, and around 25,000 kms. Of course, reality sunk in, and one day I woke up to 12 miles per gallon.

The truck normally gets 18.

We were in Mazatlan when I realized what the problem was. Of all the places this could happen, this is where I wanted to be. A large city, on coast, with a port. That would mean aluminum specialists, tank fabricators, and all the good stuff I might need to get the job I needed done. And, at the end of the day, there would always be a warm ocean to clean off in.

So, I found what I needed. An aluminum shop, who could repair tanks. Diesel was everywhere under the truck, which made it impossible to be sure where the leak was, even though I suspected the filler pipe. So, there I was parked on the side of a stinky Mazatlan street, in the 35 degree humid sun, siphoning out my own tank into empty 4 L water jugs.

Attachment 22147
Siphoning the tank into a jerry can and water jugs.

I dropped the tank, and brought it inside the shop. I was pleasantly surprised when the owner pulled out a box of various rubber stopper plugs and sealed each port on the tank, and then procured a little paint brush with soap and coated each welded seam on the tank while putting just enough compressed air into it. Bubbles would form at the location of any leak in the tank. This was the same procedure I used when building the tank to ensure I had fully sealed my welds. This made me very happy.

Attachment 22140
Diesel tank with rubber stoppers in each port.

And so, with full confidence that the leak was from the filler pipe, we then went in search of a solution. The aluminum pipe had to be removed. So we cut it off, and (after a long search through town) we found a suitable fuel hose pipe and installed it in place of the hard pipe. To protect it we bent up some 1/4" aluminum plate and bolted it to the top of the wheel well.

Attachment 22142
Filler pipe cut off. My arms are sweating and full of diesel by now.

Attachment 22138
New replacement hose placed on pipe stub.

Attachment 22143
Hose fastened to tank.

Attachment 22139
Using a tiger torch to bend up the aluminum plate.

Attachment 22144
The new plate fastened to the truck.

Attachment 22145
Ready to refill the tank (thanks to mountainpete for the expo sticker).

And so, the story is hopefully over. It was about 3000 km's ago that the fix was completed, and to date it is holding up perfectly. I'm not sure I'm completely happy with it as permanent, but I can wait until I get home to come up with a more solid solution. In the meantime, while headaches are trying, Raenelle and I can walk away proud of another successful field fix.

[RobinP]

Douglas and Stephanie Hackney started a really great program they've called Giving Pictures - you can read about it here. And we think it such a great idea that we're doing on our trip as well.

We were in El Salvador, on the coast, 26 km from the highway. It got dark. We didn't have a place to stay. The hotels wanted $50! dollars a night to camp (that really confused us).

So we drove along a lane a block from the beach, avoided a violent drunk man, and rattled someones fence. A family stepped out from their hut, and they invited us in to stay where it would be safe.

We had a great time, a moonlit walk on the beach, trading languages and doing our best to speak broken spanish and their best to speak broken english. In the morning they cracked a fresh coconut and we feasted on the fresh juice and tender meat.

I took out my camera and lined up the family for a quick photo. They thought it was a great idea, since I would be able to remember them. I disappeared into the truck for a moment, plugged the camera into the photo printer, which then spat out a perfect 4x6 family portrait.

It is an unbelievable feeling to hand this over to a family, and to watch the 73 year old great grandmother smile so wide and completely, to be able to see herself with the family she has put her whole life into, there, in front of her, in one full picture.

I feel like that one night of safe shelter this family gave us was paid back by the dozens.

Attachment 22149

[SafariPacific]

Awesome trip!

Very cool truck as well. Nice to see someone thinking outside the box, or should I say building their own box....

[RobinP]

We helped a fellow Land Cruiser out yesterday. Raenelle did a great job filming, and the movie was fun to produce. Click here to read the story and to watch the movie (link takes you to our blog).