FG in a box!!!

[VicHanson]

vehicles swap instead of shipping?

Has anyone every swapped vehicles with someone else on a different continent for a few months or more, instead of shipping? Seems like it would be a good option instead of spending $5000 or so shipping. I am hoping to go to Europe in a few years, but definitely won't be shipping my camper due to costs.
Vic

 

[Harald Hansen]

The people I mentioned considered outright buying a vehicle in Australia, and selling it at the end of their trip. They decided against this, as other people's experiences added up to a loss of on average approximately the same amount as shipping their own vehicle would cost. Less hassle when they didn't have to deal with buying and selling as well.

 

[whatcharterboat]

The people I mentioned considered outright buying a vehicle in Australia, and selling it at the end of their trip. They decided against this, as other people's experiences added up to a loss of on average approximately the same amount as shipping their own vehicle would cost. Less hassle when they didn't have to deal with buying and selling as well.

Hey, Harold. My brother just sold his 110 Defender (really well set up too) for the approximate equivalent of $5000 USD (supposed shipping cost).

 

[gait]

thanks for the pics John. Good to know it fits with the large wheels - phew!

 

[kerry]

Has anyone every swapped vehicles with someone else on a different continent for a few months or more, instead of shipping? Seems like it would be a good option instead of spending $5000 or so shipping. I am hoping to go to Europe in a few years, but definitely won't be shipping my camper due to costs.
Vic

I've swapped with a couple from England. (at least they used ours, we haven't used theirs yet).
In 2001 I bought a Mercedes 307d motorhome in the UK. Used it on three separate trips to Europe, keeping it a farmer's barn when I wasn't using it, and sold it at the end of the summer of 2003. Paid $1700, sold it for $2100.
I had planned a swap in Australia last summer but the daughter of the guy I was going to swap with decided to get married so couldn't swap.

 

[dzzz]

I'm curious what the realistic largest vehicle size would be? I believe the door is 8ft 5ins by 7ft 5 ins wide on a high cube.

8' 3" x 7' 3" ??

my unimog is 9'10" on 47" tires with 20" rims.

 

[Ford Prefect]

So take the tire off the wheel, and just pull it in on bare rims???

Thanks for the thread, this has been interesting to look into. WOW they are going to do a lot of driving in the next five years... Wish them the best of luck!

 

[Ford Prefect]

By the by....


Do you have any photos of the truck with the roof raised? Any one how they did that? Any on the interior? Would love to see a bit more about the vehicle it self, but their page says very little. Any sort of build thread that you can point me towards?

Cheers
Brian

 

[Lynn]

Went down to Brisbane to help with the loading of the RTW truck bound for South Africa. //snip// Originally we thought that the 4 x 19.5" wheels would have to be swapped for standard wheels with some old 7.50R/16 tyres to lower the height as the long travel suspension sees it sitting up quite a bit higher than normal. So we got 4 together beforehand in case. //snip// In the end we had to swap the front wheels only.

Hey John, what am I missing here? If I'm reading this correctly they shipped the truck off for their African adventure with a spare set of 'standard' rims/tires to haul around? I assume that they will need them whenever they ship again, right? Did you discount the use of simple disk wheels that you have talked about in other threads?

 

[Willman]

Cool thread...

Any tighter.....butter would have been plan "B"

Keep us posted when you open her back up!

 

[whatcharterboat]

Do you have any photos of the truck with the roof raised?

Brian I have plenty of pics from the beginning. We built the base frame on the chassis but didn't have time to build the whole thing so the owner took the next best option and got us to do what we could and a local offroad caravan builder to build the living quarters on top of that. There was always going to be issues when you get different companies involved in one build. Obviously we would have preferred to do everything but it just wasn't going to happen in the timeframe with all our other job commitments.

Sorry rambling.

Any one how they did that?

Originally the lift was done by an RVAirlift (google them, very cool, cheap, easy) but because they couldn't fit a 4th scissor on the left side under the awning, the roof didn't like to lift evenly so we were later asked to come up with something as an alternative. We used 4 x IP65 rated electric actuators run through a synchronized control module. True synchronized operation. Unfortunately they had to go on the outside but could have been planned for earlier and concealed. AHH, maybe I'm being too critical. BTW I'm going to post a heap of pics on that MAN we built next week. It's got a hydraulic lift that is pretty neat.

Any on the interior?

Looking aft. Shower and toilet in the front righthand corner. Fridge at the front on your left as you enter. Only have a couple of the living quarters being built but don't feel right about posting build pics from someone else's factory. I'm sure there will be plenty more on the Doubledutchworldsafari website in time. BTW every time you load the homepage a different batch of pics loads.

Would love to see a bit more about the vehicle it self, but their page says very little. Any sort of build thread that you can point me towards?

Hey, you can see the old RVAirlift a little better here. So anyway, I already posted a couple of when the bar work and suspension was getting done. I'll have a look for some others.

John

 

[whatcharterboat]

Hey John, what am I missing here? If I'm reading this correctly they shipped the truck off for their African adventure with a spare set of 'standard' rims/tires to haul around? I assume that they will need them whenever they ship again, right?

Hi Lynn, Well as I said, they only put the small wheels on the front and that was cause the comms guy hardwired the sat antenna to the roof rack which was originally intended to be quickly removed from the scrub bars for just that purpose. So even removing that would have dropped the height enough not to change the wheels. Actually he could have got by on the big wheels and tyres and just dropped the pressures but as he had the wheels on standby, he thought it would be safer to go that way.

BTW they won't be carting them around. That was never going to happen.

Did you discount the use of simple disk wheels that you have talked about in other threads?

Yer, Lynn. They were only going to work on an FG if you were loading into a double ended box. You still need to crawl under the diffs to get out remember. But you could save quite a bit of height by going to discs or a better way of looking at that would be you could have a higher body on the back. Maybe not high enough to get away with a permanent hard top though so why bother.

I do remember talking discs awhile back but after this experience I can't see the need. It was pretty easy when you got a couple of experienced shipping guys together.

The tyres you see in the front of the truck are the 2 from the front axle and 2 spare casings that they are going to carry on the roof rack. As well as the tie down straps you can see, the truck was chained or tied securely around the wheels. The ones you see were to limit body roll.

 

[Lynn]

Thanks, again, for continuing my education. You have been a font of knowledge, and I really enjoy looking at the trucks you guys build.

BTW they won't be carting them around. That was never going to happen.

I assumed that they would have to carry them for whenever they ship the vehicle again, but I guess they should have plenty of time to redo the GPS antenna mount.

 

[whatcharterboat]

I assumed that they would have to carry them for whenever they ship the vehicle again, but I guess they should have plenty of time to redo the GPS antenna mount.

Yeah, They could have easily made it removable and it won't be that hard to do in a workshop in Africa. We just weren't going to tackle it outside the container door for fear of damaging anything.

The owner certainly wasn't worried at all. He said if he really had too he would just pick up 2 more wheels in Vladivostok or where ever. OR let air out. He was a little concerned about dropping air out too much and damaging the tyres over the long trip while tied down.

 

[Ford Prefect]

Wow, what a build.

Personally I could not see myself setting out on a trip that big, but I guess after having done several trips of shorter durations they are ready for something this long. Amazing thought.

VERY looking forward to the MAN build thread, thanks for sharing.

Thanks also for the photos inside. Do you have any with the new lifting system holding open the roof?

Very interesting indeed. I wonder how well it will do in the cold weather...That canvas section between the cabin and roof seems like it would let a lot of heat out.

Brian