2001 Land Cruiser KDJ95. Arctic Adventure completed!

[johanso]

I was just kidding. Gothenburg is awesome. But compared to Texas the weather is kind of lousy. A lot of rain. On the bright side is really nice atmosphere, great sea food, nice costal line to explore by boat. Personally I only see one draw back and that's the lack of proper winters.

 

[johanso]

Next stop was Khibiny mountains in the central part of the Kola Peninsula. We spent a couple of days here exploring the offroad tracks and hiking.
Kirovsk, the closest city, has a ski resort which supposedly is good.




For street driving I usually run the tyres at 39 psi for maximum fuel economy. On the Russian roads we went down 29 psi. In the mountains we first tried around 20 psi and then aired down to just over 16 psi which worked wonders. Suddenly it was almost comfy to drive on the stoney tracks and the tyres absorbed the rocks.

 

[johanso]

Way up in the mountains we met a couple of really nice guys from Moscow. They were one few people we met that actually could speak English which was a lot of fun. They also had a Land Cruiser 95 but they had managed to squeeze in 33" tyres. They gave us a lesson in Russian offroad driving and their skills were impressive and gave us a glimpse of what these trucks are capable of with the right person behind the wheel. Although I must admit they were a bit more risk taking than we might be up for with our truck 3000 km from home. With fallen of parts tied to the spare tyre it was obviously not without casualties….

 

[thebigblue]

Hi there from Denmark

I´m planing a roadtrip to the North-cape this summer from Denmark, could you reveal information about that desolated track in Norway?
I will appreciate this.

Thanks
Peter

gwagendays.com

 

[johanso]

Hi Peter,

The track in Norway is called the old postal road (Gamla Postveien) or Gargiaveien. There are a couple of videos on Youtube from motorcycle riders driving it. Anyways, it starts just outside Kautokeino and ends in Alta. It's two parts and you cross the main road in the middle. It's about 100 km. The first part is in worst condition and contains a river crossing because of a collapsed bridge. https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=ztMXK5sjoPI0.kLtocfr-F7hU

I really like your site and the truck! Let me know if you pass Stockholm on your way up.:beer:

 

[thebigblue]

Thanks!

I will give you a shout when near you capital, either when going north - or south! Thanks for the info. Did you get a VISA for Russia... I guess - was it difficult?

Peter

gwagendays.com

 

[johanso]

Thanks!

I will give you a shout when near you capital, either when going north - or south! Thanks for the info. Did you get a VISA for Russia... I guess - was it difficult?

Peter

gwagendays.com

You do need a visa to enter Russia. Compared to getting a US visa for instance it's rather complicated and time consuming. A lot beurochracy and different documents that needs to be filled out. But nothing that can't be done.

 

[hoptroll]

Great truck and great story. Looking at the same roof box today. Lots of inspiration here!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[johanso]

No interesting updates here really. Changed oil and filter today. Other than that the truck has been resting over Christmas. We went to Oman for two weeks and explored the country in a rental Land Cruiser 150. Trip report and review of the LC150 here: http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/136622-Christmas-in-Oman-with-Land-Cruiser-150

I'm not to fond of the bull bar (if it even qualifies as a bull bar..) that I have today. Arctic Trucks in Iceland has a really neat one that looks way better than the one I have. I will try to find someone that can fab it for me. Besides the aesthetics it would allow me to fit a third driving light and also get the lights slightly lower to get better airflow to the intercooler.

 

[Shanfari]

Nice Landy there All the Best Johan :victory:

 

[johanso]

Thanks Muhammad! And thanks for the advices on where to go in Oman. Next time I'll make sure to make it down to Dofar :safari-rig:

Cheers

 

[johanso]

Finally came around welding up a new frontbar. Lots and lots of measuring and thinking. It's my first real metal fabrication project so everything takes a lot of time. I'm starting to understand the welder a bit better and the welds are slowly getting better. I made it in 1.5" tubing.

Can't decide what kind of lights to go with. The initial plan was to go with three 9" round lights. Two flood lights and one pencil. But then I figured 3 big lights might look odd on a bar with 1.5" tubing. There are also decent 7" lights that might look better. Or I can stick with two 9"...

 

[johanso]

Here is the final result with the front bar painted and the lights mounted. As you can see I went with three 9" lights from NBB. Two flood lights and one pencil. They're halogen lights but with 100w bulbs the performance is really good.