It’s been a while since our last update. A lot has been going on and we also could not do too much until our finances had been boosted by the sale of our flat. That is sorted now and we can go ahead with some of our bigger purchases. L: That is when I get nervous, all the purchases…..ha ha.
S: In the meantime, we had decided that we definitely needed to improve the cooling in the cab and the canopy. It seemed that whenever we traveled it was always the passenger who got the sun directly on them. And most of the time that was Lesley. Also the fridge in the back works so much harder to keep cool with the sun beating directly on it. It has got an insulating cover all around it, but that seems to be more for protection from scratches than insulation.
So we decided to cover the windows with UV resistant tinted film. I found a local company that sells to the industry and I bought a few metres of film from them. It was going to be a DIY effort, well at least on the canopy. I had to take the frame and tank out of the back once again and unbolted the roll bar to get to the back windows. The whole job went pretty well considering how difficult it is to cut around the window frames on the side windows and by the time I got to the rear window it was looking quite good. Thanks Les, for all your help and encouragement.
Applying the tint for the windows
Now Lesley says it is looking like a gangster vehicle. One of the other benefits of the tint is it is more difficult or nigh impossible to see into the vehicle which is a bit of a deterrent to opportunistic theft, we hope. Anyway, the cab windows are next, but it is easier to do if the windows get taken out first. Will have to wait for better weather first, it is pouring at the moment.
Something else we had done last week was reconditioning of the injectors and servicing the fuel pump. They should be good now for the next 70 000 kms. I have started using 2 stroke oil in the diesel to keep the injectors clean. A lot of the guys on the forums recommend this and some claim it improves fuel consumption. I use 200 ml to every second tank of fuel. I have a 95 litre tank, but usually fill after about 70 litres.
I had an interesting discussion with the guy that did my service. He advised me on a few things and recommended a few places to go to. He suggested that I don’t replace my shocks if they are still good, which he seems to think they are, but rather fit air springs. That way you can adjust the rear suspension to the load. Another suggestion was to run the tyres at a lower pressure. With this combination you have a considerably less chance of breaking a shock absorber.
The other recommendation was that we not consider lugging a high lift jack around. This was rather surprising as he does a lot of extreme off road driving with his ‘toy’ and all he uses when he gets stuck is a thick piece of wood and the standard bottle jack. He says that with a high lift jack it needs to go into the bumper and then you need to jack up the vehicle until the suspension reaches its maximum travel before the wheel leaves the ground. With a bottle jack, you put it under the axle and with a few rotations the wheel is off the ground. The high lift jack can be used with an attachment that fits onto the wheel, but when you need to change the wheel that will not work. All in all, food for thought, especially as I have not got mounting points and have not fitted our high lift jack.
Cape to Ethiopia to Ireland 