Overlander Interview - Jurgen Rudolph & Petra Armbruster

[dhackney]

Overlander Interview - Jurgen Rudolph & Petra Armbruster

Date: 21 July 2008
Location: Chile / Peru Border
Overlanders: Jurgen Rudolph & Petra Armbruster and their two year old daughter.
Nationality: German
Background: Jurgen and Petra are on a 10 month overland expedition of South America. They had six months remaining on their trip as of 21 July 2008. They did four trips to Tunisia in North Africa with their truck prior to shipping it to South America.

Vehicle: 1982 Ex German Police Mercedes 911 4x4. Jurgen believes it was a radio communications truck before he bought it as surplus. Jurgen spent three years working nights and weekends building out the camper.

Total weight: based on the axle weights Jurgen has stenciled on the body: 8.8 metric tons / 8,800 kilos / 19,400 pounds.

Comments: Jurgen and Petra were very friendly and enjoying their expedition of South America.

 

[dhackney]

update

We met Jurgen and Petra again in the Cusco, Peru campground.

They had driven the previous two days with no functioning alternator, including one hour under headlights.

Worn out brush from the alternator. Jurgen speculates they wore down so fast due to the dust and sand of North Africa.

Jurgen procured new brushes from an auto parts store in town. He also used the local Mercedes shop to bench test the alternator and voltage regulator.

I printed off some alternator troubleshooting information from our Balmar alternator and for a 914 Porsche that we used to test the alternator (applied +24V to the field current terminal to test the output).