More details after emailing the seller:
We still have the truck but there are some people coming to see it next week. We have never figured out our exact MPG but other owners say they get 15-17MPG. There is a device called Ignition123 that apparently helps the MPG and gives you more horsepower. We never did get around to checking into that further. On level ground it will do 100 k/h or 60 m/h plus but it is a little slow on the hills. As you can imagine it is geared more for off road than fasts highway speeds. It's about the same as a Volkswagen van on a steep hill. Road noise and engine noise is rather high. When talking from the front to back seats you do have to raise your voice to be heard. Partly due to tire noise and partly because the engine sits between the front and back seats. Comfort wise it's not bad. I'm not sure I would drive it across the country but it's fine for day trips in relative comfort. This was our main camping vehicle and we took my brothers kids in it all the time. They love it and so do we. The only reason we are selling is I bought a pickup with a huge camper for a 6 month trip. Since buying the new truck two years ago, we just haven't used the C303. I'll paste a copy of the trucks history and a bit more info below.
The truck was imported to Canada from Norway in 1999. We did a lot of the work on it about 10 years ago. The original engine needed too many parts. My mechanic friend searched and found a good used engine, checked it thoroughly and changed some parts. I'm not a mechanic and I can't honestly remember what he did to it. The engine is a B30 from a Volvo 164. It's basically the same B30 engine that comes with the C303 and the ignition is 12volts . It runs on regular gas, but prefers the higher octane premium (not leaded). Since putting in the engine 10 years ago we have put on less than 15,000km. The odometer says 100,000km. It runs great. My friend did a lot of other mechanical work to the truck. We ordered over $3,000 worth of parts from Sweden. Basically the entire steering, front wheel assemblies (reduction gears), wheel bearing all-round, seat belts and other miscellaneous parts. When you add everything together, parts, engine, labour, tires, roof rack, lights, electronics, and custom interior we spent more than $8,000. When the truck was imported it came with extra body parts. We changed the entire rear tub, the section around the back door, and all 4 side doors. The last time we painted the truck was about 5 years ago.
We design the truck for camping and did most of the custom work ourselves. There's lots of storage in the rear, the drawers and on the roof rack. The bed comfortable sleeps 2+ with 4” foam. The truck has a 12volt alternator, 2 deep cycle marine batteries along with the regular car battery. It has a battery selector switch to isolate the batteries to prevent the main battery from draining while camping (so it will always start). The custom light bar on the roof has 5 - 50 watt lights facing forward, 2 lights facing 45 degrees for turning corners, and 2 facing back. There is a remote controlled spotlight on the roof controlled by a joystick between the front seats. It's wired for a solar panel on the roof and a controller inside (we removed the panel and controller). The stereo is also a DVD player hooked up to a 10”TV in the front. We found it can get fairly hot in the truck (in the summer) with the mid-engine design. We put a blower fan on the roof in the back blowing air in and 2 small fans on the sides blowing air out. There is also a fan in the front. We also put in a swamp cooler. It's basically an evaporative cooler that cools the air by about 10 degrees Celsius. It was great on one trip when the temperature went up to 44 degrees Celsius. The fridge has a cooling element from a 12volt cooler. It worked with limited success; we mainly use it for storage.
There are a couple of minor issues. The temperature gauge doesn't work (possibly the sender), the monitor for the back-up camera flickers and the display for the stereo doesn't work (can't see what station it's on). These trucks use a vacuum system to engage 4wd and Posi. The 4wd diaphragm kept tearing so we removed the hose put in a manual system to engage it. There are a couple of spots where it looks like some small surface rust might be under the paint. The front boots can be a problem with these trucks. In the 13 years that we've owned this truck we replaced them three times, one on the left and two on the right. We just replaced the one on the right. I think it might be caused by turning the steering too far to one side or the other putting stress on the boots. The steering can be adjusted. We were able to find the part at a local Volvo truck shop for I think it was about $80. That's a lot cheaper than getting them shipped from Sweden.
