Is it possible to get one of these hightop TroopCarriers (or reasonable facsimile) in North America?

[TooSteep]

I 'think' this is my dream vehicle. They are relatively common in Australia, but I have never seen one here in Canada. What is the closest thing to this in North America? I like the reliability, the ruggedness, the compact overall dimensions, and the extra height. I can visualize an interior build that would fit our needs perfectly. But I have never run across anything like this while searching Craigslist and Kijiji here.

In Canada, we have access to 2003 and older JDM cars. There are loads of Land Cruisers on there, but no TroopCarriers from what I can tell (are they unique to Australia?). Sorry for all the questions, I'm new to this and trying to get my head around the gap between the practical vehicles you see in Oz, and those that are available here.

 

[lugueto]

They aren't unique to Australia, but they are utility vehicles.

You're more likely to find them in places where remote, unsupported work is common. Mining & logging operations, third-world-country road systems are your best places to look.

Those high tops aren't factory. They're usually fiberglass aftermarket replacements. Maybe you can import one of the states and get yourself a "regular" troopie to transplant it to?

 

[vintageracer]

All depends upon the year model of the truck.

 

[battleaxe]

There's nothing in North America that comes close to this, aside from maybe a Sprinter van.

Import one?

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

Everything is available with enough money

 

[CraftsmanCollaborative]

Expedition goals.
For the price of import I would think you could get something made by a van hightop shop. We have a shop down here in San Diego, fiberine vans, that does all sorts of molds/shapes.

Set on hightop over pop top?

 

[TonyLC]

Importing and building a Troopy isn't all that difficult. Just don't expect a showroom condition rig. These were used as workhorses. You'll need to fix stuff and mod it to your liking.

 

[Dog_River]

I am in BC and might be interested in a similar vehicle, we could split a seacan on the shipping.

Dog_River

 

[umpqua]

Mine came out of France. Left Hand Drive. Cut off the top.....put on an Alucab Hercules. Built the inside. Still working on it a year later. Nice truck and works great as a camper.

 

[Deshet]

View attachment 474878

I 'think' this is my dream vehicle. They are relatively common in Australia, but I have never seen one here in Canada. What is the closest thing to this in North America? I like the reliability, the ruggedness, the compact overall dimensions, and the extra height. I can visualize an interior build that would fit our needs perfectly. But I have never run across anything like this while searching Craigslist and Kijiji here.

In Canada, we have access to 2003 and older JDM cars. There are loads of Land Cruisers on there, but no TroopCarriers from what I can tell (are they unique to Australia?). Sorry for all the questions, I'm new to this and trying to get my head around the gap between the practical vehicles you see in Oz, and those that are available here.

What site do you look at for JDM cruisers? I have had bad luck with Japan Partner. I placed a $4000 deposit on a specific truck via PayPal and bid $2,000 over what they thought that it should go for. I did not win the truck. They tried to keep my deposit and it took 4 months to get it back. Prior to getting my deposit that answered the skype calls quickly and always responded to email. They went silent once I wanted my deposit back and had no interest in a Nissan Skyline or Delica. I actually had to create a new Skype account for them to answer my call. Luckily PayPal refunded my deposit.

If you have a trusted resource please point me in there direction.

Thanks

 

[umpqua]

There's a LHD Troopy for sale on Mud right how. $30k.

 

[Christian P.]

Short answer yes it is possible. Since you are in Canada, it needs to be 15 years or older.

However if you are in Quebec, then you cannot register a RHD vehicle in that province. If you are elsewhere you should be okay, but hurry up because B.C. is looking into closing that door too.

We did just that. We flew to Sydney, bought a pop-top HJ75 and drove it all over the world for years then sold it to a friend in Belgium. It just got sold to Greg Miller for his Land Cruiser museum in Salt Lake City. I think it is getting here like this week. I thought about buying it back, but did not for 2 reasons - I want a LHD because of Central America restrictions, and I want the 1HZ engine. Even though I had almost zero problem with the 2H, it is a very old engine by now, even by African standards.

Budget about $15K to $40K for the truck, then another $5K for shipping and you should be in the right ball park.

However one last piece of advice...these are slow trucks. If you are looking for something for North America, I don't think it would be my first choice. They are extremely reliable, but you're not going to have much fun crossing the Rockies in the slow lane or trying to keep up with traffic on Highway 5 on your way to Baja. My friends have one in South America right now (www.wanderlibre.com), and I travel with them with my 4Runner 3rd Gen, and I couldn't believe how slow I had to drive...

But if you are looking to go explore Africa, then there is no better choice.

 

[nosedive]

I thought about buying it back, but did not for 2 reasons - I want a LHD because of Central America restrictions

As a tourist, you can drive through every Central American country with an out-of-country registered RHD vehicle. You just can‘t register or import RHD vehicles in certain CA countries.

To the OP, you can find many 15+ years old, LHD HZJ78/79 here in Western Europe in fair condition. Ship them from Hamburg via RoRo to Halifax and pick it up there. Shipping isn’t very expensive with RoRo (about 1500-2000 Euros if I reckon correctly).

 

[Christian P.]

As a tourist, you can drive through every Central American country with an out-of-country registered RHD vehicle. You just can‘t register or import RHD vehicles in certain CA countries.

While technically (and legally) correct, there has been numerous reports of overlanders having problems with out-of-country RHD in Salvador and more recently Costa Rica. Seems to be quite random...possibly resolved with a special "fee" - nonetheless annoying.

More here:

https://expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/no-right-hand-drives-allowed-in-el-salvador.119465/

and also:

http://wikioverland.org/Costa_Rica

Driving side of road[edit]
Right.
Right hand drive vehicles are not permitted.
A couple got refused at the Costa Rican border coming from Nicaragua in January 2016. They got told that RHD are no longer allowed in Costa Rica and that there is no such permission as in El Salvador. What the couple did, they slept at the border and tried it the next day in the morning again and then they could enter, only because the officer didn`t notice that it`s a RHD.

We crossed the Costa Rican borders 6 times in a RHD between August 2015 and February 2016. Five times out of six we had no issues whatsoever. Our last crossing turned into a major hassle. When we asked the officials how come we were able to cross the country 5 times and no one mentioned anything about RHD, all they could say that the system was malfunctioning.

 

[nosedive]

@Christian P. oh wow.. that indeed seems quite random. It has been a topic in a German speaking forum but so far, I haven‘t heard of anyone actually getting rejected at the border. Thank you for the links!

By the way, is there a reason Canada and the US mostly imports RHD cruisers from Japan and Australia? We have a lot of nice LHD Land Cruisers in Europe which fit into the 25 or at least 15 years import rule.