Norwegian Toyota 4wd camping van

rryd

Observer
First of all, sorry for my english, but I think and hope you understand, if not just ask and I'll try again :)

I think it's time to write a little about my 1999 Toyota HiAce 4wd camper van. I bought it february 2007 as 3 seated delivery van, the reason I bought it was to get something more comfy than my old corolla and a tent.

Well as you understand I live in Norway and we have som rules like, offroading forbidden, exept on special offroad fields, the biggest field I know about here in Norway is about 4 square km. In winter times if a road is completely hidden in snow it's not legal to drive there, no road = offroad.
And I'm happy whit it! Yeah actually, because i like to park my van beside bad roads an take a hike or mountain bike trip and lissen to the nature, not machines. Yeah I could like some bigger offroad parks, but hey I live in a small country, we are about 4,5 - 5 million peoples up her in north.
Offcourse I like offroading, we have a lot of trees up her so taking my daily
driver out on bad *** offroading is a bad idea anyway.

For real offroad driving I got myself a trail rig with 35", lockers, rollcage ++

Ohh back to my van, It have a full time 4wd system that works incredible on snowy, slippery roads (yup we got snow her also) I use to have a suzuki, a landcruiser and a chevrolet blazer, but this van is better them all of them when it comes to road manner on slippery roads.

The transfer is a a onespeed unit, I have missed to low range one time when I should pull up our boat, smelled a little clutch but everything workout great.
That's one of the reason I have a warn winch (portable)

This van is pretty low under, that's one thing I'm not so happy with, For now I lifted it approxly 1" an d with 215/65-16 tires (195/70-15 original) I will like to put on even bigger but like I begin, we have som rules... like max tires circumference is 5% bigger than original tires... well 215/65-16 is 4.8% bigger.

every second year our cars must on a goverment check, if tires is to big you gotta fix it before the car is road legal again. Well that is not a big problem, the problem is insurers. If a should crash and hurt somebody thay will tell me that because my tires is to big, a have bad steering and bad breaks so my car is dangerous to drive, it's my fault and I will have to pay the people I hurt many million dollars, well at least in worst cinareo.
So for now I stay with my tiny tires..

So yeah I bought this as an emty box, I would like to build AND register it ac a RV cause then I could remove the wall betwine the cargo area and driver area, and as a positiv thing my insurenses got half as expensive :Wow1:
Then there is some rules again... First, registred seating can not be more than sleeping spaces, and one bed must be atleast 180cm x 50cm, so my van is legally build for 3 people, yes I could maybe got a couple more beds if I had a pop top, but poptop, in norway?? nope not with my use of the van.
When I build it i really like that I could at least got 3 people in it, well now we are in 2009, I have almost never used the last seat and since all transport seat are in front of my van there is no trespass to the rear, I have to go out of my van to get back... Yeah I would like to go rear to my camper area whitout going out.
Second.. The goverment told my I must have: A kitchen (with place to cut bread?) I must have at least 3 beds in rear since I would like t have 3 transportation seat, but I also needed some seats and a dinner table in rear, and a closet, to my clotches!
Yepp, I made it, but since I feel I needed some space to put my food also there was simpely no chance to made a trespass from front to rear.

I also have 2x 75Ah camping batteries in rear, 5 gallon water tank and 5 gallon grey watertank. A porta potti and a refrigriator.
Next step is more charging (maybe a solar panel) and more camper batteries (I like it quiet when I park so no honda generator here)
The roof box used to hold my camping table and chairs, but now I have it under the rear bench so I'll guess the roof box goes, I would like a roof rack intead so I could get a place to my canoe also.

Other thing?? Well the van have a eberspacher heating system that burns diesel from the original fuel tank.
It have a camping light (21watt for now but LED is on way) over right back door.
A 12-230volt inverter sits behind left back door together with water tanks, batteries, tv antenna amplifier, the webasto and of course a battery charger (230volt)

On the roof there is a work light (reverse) light that's very useful on dark nights.

Almost forget, the powerplant: A 2.4 liters turbo diesel engine, with incredible 90 hp! It's pretty slow but gets the job done (and it's one of the best engines toyota have ever made!)

Some pictures of my van.
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rryd

Observer
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That's all for now, please just ask if there is anything.
The navi unit is a HTC TyTN pocket pc btw. that's running TomTom (europeian maps and usa/canada since I used it on this years road trip in Florida (with a rental car offcourse) it's also work as a modem to my laptop and yep I could use it as a phone also :wings:

Sorry no pics of the winch yet. I have to do something with the mounting on my van so it hold better. I have to make it portable (yep another Norwegian rule) The winch is also getting synt rope this days (waiting for my brother to come help me with the rope :)
 
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spencyg

This Space For Rent
OK....Zibras....in Norway?? Why do I have a tugging feeling on my leg?

Nice van! Love the greywater solution!

Spence
 

DaktariEd

2005, 2006 Tech Course Champion: Expedition Trophy
Hilser, Rune...:wavey:
Hvordan går det?
Jeg kan bare noen få ord på norsk.

OK, that is all I know, and even that took some time. :ylsmoke:
Welcome to ExPo!
I am just beginning to learn some Norwegian for a trip I am taking next summer. :victory:
I will be hiking some in the Bergen area before exploring the fjords and Svalbard by small ship. :snorkel:

Your van conversion looks very good for the type of exploring you described. :smiley_drive:We'll look forward to seeing and hearing more about you.
Enjoy the forum!

Ha det bra!

safari.gif
 

Harald Hansen

Explorer
Nice van!

if I had a pop top, but poptop

The pop-top is also out. To qualify as a camper with the new rules as of 2009 you need a permanent standing height of 170 cm in a 170 x 200 cm area. This rules out pop-tops...
 

rryd

Observer
OK....Zibras....in Norway?? Why do I have a tugging feeling on my leg?

Nice van! Love the greywater solution!

Spence

My wife and I was in Denmark last summer, there they have this zoo where you can drive your car in the park, with zibras and lions.
We have'nt something like this in Norway so we think it was pretty cool then :) (and my wife love lions so we had a great time there)

The Greywate solution help me prevent water freeze in the cold and since I have same size of drink water and greywater, when the water is empty, the greywater is (almost) full.
 

rryd

Observer
I am just beginning to learn some Norwegian for a trip I am taking next summer. :victory:
I will be hiking some in the Bergen area before exploring the fjords and Svalbard by small ship. :snorkel:
safari.gif
It's is lovely in the Bergen area, my sister and her husband live over there so my wife and I have some trips over from time to time. (we live in south east area of Norway)
We had a small trip in some of the fjords on our way over and yes it's beautiful.
Just let me know if you need something on your trip, I will help as I can.
 

rryd

Observer
Thanks everyone.

Yesterday I mounted a new airfilter, some of my plans of the van include boost up the engine a little bit. So as a start I mounted a pipercross vectorcone filter, this can be easily washed and reused.
Later I have to see if i can give it some more diesel and maybe a intercooler.

This is the original airbox
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It looks like this, notice the air in/outlet that is 72mm
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The new pipercross
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A support bracket was made and painted
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Final result :victory:
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I have only tested it a few km, the first I noticed is a that I can really hear the turbo now but it's still not to noisy.
Did it help on the power?? Well hard to say since there is roadworks on my way to work things go pretty slow but I guess I'll find out this weekend.
Now that the engine gets a lot og air I can adjust the dieselpump and give it some more fuel and then I think the big results will come.
 
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spencyg

This Space For Rent
Do you have a fresh air supply right ahead of that filter? I recently re-discovered that hot engine air is NOT good for power, regardless of N/A or Turbo.

Spence
 

rryd

Observer
I have the original fresh air intak, you see some of it at the last picture.
But maybe I should make a heatshield between the airfilter and the turbo.
I will fit a extra alternator, when it's ok maybe I should make a heatshield between the airfilter and the turbo.

To night I have changed engine oil and oil filter, gear and transfer oil and diff oil front and rear.

I have also ordred a ladder to the backdoor, hope it arrives before the weekend. Only thing is that this ladder is in stainless steel or something, my roof rack, roof box and roof mounted awning are all painted black, so I'll guess my ladder must be painted black also.

The ladder:
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