vehicle

Vehicle Prep

Getting Duzi2 ready for the journey

Aside from general research, preparing the vehicle has taken up the majority of our efforts so far.

With a very small budget to play with, we are having to do most of the prep work ourselves. Sometimes this has mean't learning about things that are completely new to us, and making mistakes. Ultimately though, this is preparing us personally to be able to understand circumstances and provide solutions to them further down the road.

Duzi2 used to be a National Grid / Transco vehicle and therefore had a fleet service history for at least the first 91000 miles. The chassis had also been re-inforced and heavy duty springs fitted. A full length Brownchurch roofrack was a bonus, as were the BF Goodrich Mud Terrain tyres. The original colour of the vehicle was a treefrog type green, but at least the outside had been sprayed white at some stage. Adds character though ...!!

We removed some bits and pieces from the vehicle which we either wanted to upgrade or didn't need at all. We sold all of these at Sodbury Sortout. These included:

    • Eberspacher Diesel Heater: This was mounted in the space beneath the driver's seat and had it's own fuel line from the tank at the back. It was basically a mini diesel engine that was used to heat air and pump it into the vehicle through piping to the back seats. After carefully removing this and cleaning it up, we sold it for £200.00.

    • Aluminium Side Sills: These were replaced by steel rocksliders, and were sold for £2.00.

    • Original Wooden Cubby Box: Sold this for £20.00 and replaced it with a steel lockable cubby box.

  • Protective Tubular Side Bars and Steps: These hung down rather low and might have interfered with our clearance in certain situations, so we sold them for £55.00.

    • Air Intake and fittings: After fitting a Safari Snorkel, these were no longer needed, and managed to sell them individually for a total of £9.00.

    • Rear Brownchurch Roofrack Ladder: The steps in this were extremely thin and painful to stand on barefoot, so we sold it for £10.00 and bought an upgraded tubular version from Brownchurch at Billing.

  • Rear Fold Down Steps: These were rock-solid, but hung down really low taking a huge chunk out of our potential clearance. After hammering, drilling and attacking these on and off for about two months, I managed to eventually get them off with a combination of my desperation (& embarassment) and the help of Simon and his qualification as a Mercedes mechanic. Sold these eventually for £1.00.

And now for the additions and changes:

    • Tyres: One of the first things we needed to find was a used set of tyres to drive on while preparing for the trip and thereby save the BFG's for Africa. Constant searching online and at Sodbury Sortout eventually paid off. We found a set of five tyres with very good tread being sold for £50.00 on a website called Freeads or something, and that included the wheels. Seemed too good to be true, but worked out fantastically.

    • Wraparound Bullbar: Picked this up at Sodbury Sortout for £15.00, after Emma & Jasper's eagle eyes had spotted it on the back of someone's trailer on the way there.

    • Lockable steel cubby box: Managed to buy this from Scorpion Racing at a bargain price, again at Sodbury. This has now been riveted to the body work between the two front seats by way of a hinge, allowing the box to be tilted upwards towards the gear lever, giving access to the recess underneath, while still remaining firmly fixed. The radio has now been relocated to fit into the front space of the cubby box, away from prying eyes, and lockable.

    • Mantec Swingaway Spare Wheel Carrier: Could not believe we actually found this bargain. Someone was selling this brand new at Sodbury for £100.00. Took a while to fit, but is definitely worth it.

    • Steering Guard: Bought for £50.00 at Sodbury. This is a mission to fit, especially seeing as we have a non-standard heavy duty front bumper, which interferes with the mountings. Managed to get everything to sort of fit correctly after a bit of bashing and lots of swearing. Had to modify it slightly by cutting away part of the upper lip which blocked off the front tow-hitch mountings on the bumper. Now Duzi2 looks like it's got teeth.

    • Diff Guards - Southdown Rear & QT Front: Bought from Southdown and QT stands at Sodbury. Managed to get these fitted for us.

    • Back Door Panel - Aluminium Chequer Plating: Stumbled across exactly what we needed at Sodbury again, for £10.00. Have finally managed to fit this, and have done so over the existing back panel to provide further insulation and rattle-proofing. Looks fantastic.

    • Mantec Rear Window Guards: Heidi spotted someone selling these for £50.00 at Sodbury and they are exactly what we need. After modifying the central guard slightly to accomodate the rear windscreen wiper mechanism, I now know that these are a nightmare to cut through, which is great. Have now fitted them, covering all three rear windows. The back is therefore neat and secure.

    • Safari Snorkel: Bought online from Paddocks and managed to fit it successfully one afternoon. This is one of those accessories that seems to add a certain air of ruggedness just by being there, but is extremely useful for all those dusty areas we will be travelling through, and possibly some river crossings. Contrary to popular opinion, this isn't mainly to allow the vehicle to breath while underwater, but rather to allow the engine to take in cleaner air above the dust cloud created by the vehicle. Does also help with water though.

    • Rockslider Bars: These replace the aluminium panelling along the side of the vehicle beneath the doors, to protect the bodywork from large rocks being driven over. The bars we bought, from a stand at Billing Landrover Show, are jackable & fitted with tree guards, which prevent the bodywork from being damaged while passing very close to large trees.

    • Headlight Mountings: The old mountings were pretty much rusted through, and we thought it sensible to replace these as headlights are so crucial. Besides they are very cheap, especially when buying from suppliers at Billing.

    • Starter Battery: We were forced to buy a new main battery quite early on as the existing one was no longer holding any charge at all. We bought this from Kwik-Fit and will eventually use it as a second spare during the trip. We will shortly be buying an Optima Red-top Starter battery as the main battery to use for starting the vehicle during the trip.

    • Optima Yellow-top Deep-cycle Battery: This will be used to power all the extra electrical goodies around the vehicle, such as fridge, lights, shower, inverter, radio, laptop, gps, ipod, .... HAIRDRYER ... etc. We bought this from APB Trading in Kidderminster, who were the cheapest at the time.

  • X-Eng Split Charge System: This is a much more affordable method of keeping both batteries charged while driving. It allows the charge to flow in one direction only, to each battery, meaning the starter battery stays fresh even if the appliances, etc have drained the deep-cycle battery completely.

This page is still under construction. We've already done a huge amount of work on Duzi2, and we'll gradually give you a breakdown of that, hopefully with a few pictures.

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