Vehicle choice

[alanymarce]

Would you be able to buy in the USA (for example) and keep the vehicle registered in the USA? If you're travelling for a long period then you would not be importing it to Canada. Doesn't have to be the USA of course, you can buy somewhere you're planning to visit (we bought our "Land Cruiser" in Kenya, with most of what we needed, and then did some additional conversion there).

The Ranger is widely available around the world so would be an option - with the right engine and drive train. We're not into pickups (for us the tray space is not useful, is inaccessible, and we prefer a wagon/"SUV).

I've looked at the USA market land cruisers but they have a 43% price difference due to import fees and our current CAD to USD conversion rate.

Not sure I understand the point, if you buy in the USA I would have thought that the (absolute) price would be lower (the FX has nothing to do with it, if you convert both USD and CAD to EUR then this is more evident, however maybe I'm missing your point).

Lexus GX that is a rebadged land cruiser Prado (150) for the trip?

The Prado's approach & departure angles and ground clearance have become worse recently (less agile). We looked at a Prado when we bought the Montero and in terms of "off-road" geometry the Prado was worse. We then lifted the Montero 50mm and gave it even better agility. The two were similar in terms of equipment (and the Montero's not far off the Lexus) and the Montero was literally half the price (!).

I don't want to be there with a broken axle and have to overnight ship parts to a foreign country.

Bear in mind also that in some countries importing spares is illegal - if you have a broken axle in Colombia (And a number of other countries) you're not allowed to ship a new one into the country - if the axle is not available in the dealers in Colombia because your vehicle is not sold there you'd have to put the vehicle on a truck and haul it to a country where they allow import of parts (or where the axle is available locally).

 

[alanymarce]

Hi: if interested have a look at https://discoverthedreaming.blogspot.com for the Australia trip, https://unochoenafrica.blogspot.com for the Africa trip, and https://suramericacontraelreloj.blogspot.com for the South America trip. You might get some ideas. Happy to answer specific questions if you'd like. Posts are nearly all in both English and Spanish (scroll through alternating paragraphs for your preferred language).

 

[alanymarce]

Wow you have the experience, any advice you could give me would be wonderful. If swapped the air suspension off the Lx570 do you think it'd be a decent option due to sharing the parts with the 200 series?

I'm not familiar with the compatibility, however I'd suggest looking into whether Dobbinson's or OME have a standard suspension conversion.

 

[Thinkofsomethingkwik]

Would you be able to buy in the USA (for example) and keep the vehicle registered in the USA? If you're travelling for a long period then you would not be importing it to Canada. Doesn't have to be the USA of course, you can buy somewhere you're planning to visit (we bought our "Land Cruiser" in Kenya, with most of what we needed, and then did some additional conversion there).

The Ranger is widely available around the world so would be an option - with the right engine and drive train. We're not into pickups (for us the tray space is not useful, is inaccessible, and we prefer a wagon/"SUV).



Not sure I understand the point, if you buy in the USA I would have thought that the (absolute) price would be lower (the FX has nothing to do with it, if you convert both USD and CAD to EUR then this is more evident, however maybe I'm missing your point).



The Prado's approach & departure angles and ground clearance have become worse recently (less agile). We looked at a Prado when we bought the Montero and in terms of "off-road" geometry the Prado was worse. We then lifted the Montero 50mm and gave it even better agility. The two were similar in terms of equipment (and the Montero's not far off the Lexus) and the Montero was literally half the price (!).



Bear in mind also that in some countries importing spares is illegal - if you have a broken axle in Colombia (And a number of other countries) you're not allowed to ship a new one into the country - if the axle is not available in the dealers in Colombia because your vehicle is not sold there you'd have to put the vehicle on a truck and haul it to a country where they allow import of parts (or where the axle is available locally).

I hadn't thought of that to be completely honest, I'll look more into that. Unfortunately with my work at most I'd be given 6 months off if I beg.

I'm going to do more research into the Rangers.

For the currency exchange the price will be lower but should I purchase the land cruiser at 40k USD and import it to Canada which I would prefer to do, the total cost breakdown would be $54382 CAD plus $11,781.48 CAD in import fees & brokerages. Which would put me up to CAD $66163 without any modifications to the car. Mind you this is alot of money for me versus CAD 35K for a 2015 Lexus gx460.

How I wish we could get monteros in Canada... I drool at the thought. It's depressing that they discontinued them in north america.

Honestly I had no idea that was a thing.. so I better make damn sure I pick a reliable vehicle with support in country.

Thanks for the info if you were in my place what would you do?

 

[Deleted member 9101]

I just about purchased an f250 regular cab this year but couldn't pull the trigger. Any recommendations?

A gasser F250 would definitely do the job! You'd have no problem carrying all kinds of stuff to keep you comfortable.

You could use a slide in camper had have looots of room , safety, and comfort compared to an RTT.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I'd go with a regular cab, full size, 8' bed. Stronger in every way than a Tacoma and has much more room. A mid sized will be at its GVW by the time you pack your stuff in it.

I honestly wouldn't worry about using the same vehicle for Australia and Africa. I'd worry about that when it actually happens.

+1

Full-size anything will carry anything a midsize will easier/faster/better... and more of it too.

Despite their physical growth modern midsize trucks have rather lackluster payload ratings.

Ranger was designed by Australians for Australians. But they changed the frame, bumpers, engine, Trans and axles for the US market. Rear axle is the same used in better Jeeps and I think the Colorado. Trans is a version of the F-150’s with a slightly smaller case and made to fit a different engine/tcase. I think a lot of the suspension design carried over.

When I was talking to the Ranger team at the launch they kept touting it as basically a new truck for the US market.

They are good trucks but don’t think you can stroll into Autozone Australia and they are going to have everything on the shelf for it. Probably similar to dragging a Taco into hilux turf. And no matter what you get it is going to be a freak either here or over there, there is no true “global” version of anything.

 

[Grassland]

2015+ xl/XLT F150 with base V6. Put Falcon shocks on it, maybe and add a leaf if you have a lot of load in the bed at all times.
Should be borscht cheap used, "nobody" wants the "underpowered" base V6 trucks. They are slightly lighter than the V8/EcoBoost trucks and the high trim jobs. Weigh in around midsize curb weight.
Won't rust body.
Lots of room.

 

[Deleted member 9101]

2015+ xl/XLT F150 with base V6. Put Falcon shocks on it, maybe and add a leaf if you have a lot of load in the bed at all times.
Should be borscht cheap used, "nobody" wants the "underpowered" base V6 trucks. They are slightly lighter than the V8/EcoBoost trucks and the high trim jobs. Weigh in around midsize curb weight.
Won't rust body.
Lots of room.

Add to that the Heavy Duty Payload Package and it'll be able to haul all kinds of stuff.

 

[Deleted member 9101]

To the OP: you're from Canada... Have you given any thought to how you're going to get a good night's sleep in sweltering heat with no A/C?

 

[al_burpe]

There are some global vehicles sold in Canada and the US. They might not be as exciting however. The ones I can think of would be Toyota RAV4, Toyota Highlander (Kluger elsewhere), Suzuki Vitara, first and second generation Pathfinder.

 

[ChasingOurTrunks]

That's a completely fair point, it's unfortunate that we've been seemingly burdened by manufacturers with non global platforms. Do you think the ranger is robust enough as a platform?

Short answer - yes. I wouldn’t hesitate to use one for a run to Argentina, but the caveat there is I’ve never done it, and perhaps someone with more experience in that part of the world can weigh in. I do see second-Gen Rangers on TV all the time, seemingly no matter where the show is filmed - that tells me they are a reasonably popular platform world-wide, but as others have mentioned each market will have market-specific versions even of their ‘world’ platforms.

A lot of people get hung up on needing a “perfect” vehicle for a trip like that, and want truly universal support for their rig. That won’t happen with a decent NA 4x4 — as @85_Ranger4x4 said, every market has unique things to it that change the vehicle, especially for NA markets. But, I don’t think that is a dealbreaker — even if you take a really scenic route, you’re almost certainly looking at less than 50,000 kms of actual driving to go from North to South. MOST modern drivetrains on any vehicle are perfectly acceptable for that much mileage without major work. Instead I’d focus on stuff that is more likely to be accidentally damaged or wear out within that mileage and need replacing — headlights, shocks, springs, brake components like lines, calipers, Pads, CV joints, and wheel bearings. Cooling system is another as the occasional stick through the rad, but again that’s a fairly easy part to replace on a ‘world’ platform like the Ranger (Headlights are a ’maybe’ - they may have different front facia on international vs US market rangers, but that’s the kind of thing you may need to look at). Whatever isn’t interchangeable — and it’s a lot of work to build your own interchange manual, but a worthy investment in my mind — but if you can’t interchange the part, you’d be wise to bring it with you.

The real benefit of taking a world platform isn’t so much in the major parts and components in my view, it’s in the familiarity of the local dealers to work on it and get it right. The part number they are swapping is less consequential than them being familiar and comfortable with the platform to make sure the part is swapped properly.

But then — let’s not get too hung up on that either. There’s a story of a fellow who was run off the road in Mongolia on his Triumph Tiger. There aren’t many triumph dealers in rural Mongolia, after all, so he was in a bit of a pickle. The bike was beyond written off - bent frame, clocks busted which meant no ignition, damage to cooling system and fuel system, and more. But between E-Bay and the local junkyard, he was able to resurrect his Frankentiger — it now has headlights off a Lada, a Russian clock, and a frame re-welded in the back of a shipping container workshop and the last I read of him on ADVRider, he’s now enjoying exploring Australia with the same Tiger. So, don’t stress — with the right attitude and some creativity, you can fix almost anything On any platform, almost anywhere — just some are easier than others!

Full-size anything will carry anything a midsize will easier/faster/better... and more of it too.

Despite their physical growth modern midsize trucks have rather lackluster payload ratings.

They aren’t as far apart as they used to be. The gladiator gets 1700 lbs payload, the Colorado/Canyons are at 1550, and the Ranger is at nearly 1800 lbs. For comparison, a Chevy 1500 is about 1900 lbs, an F150 is about 2000 lbs (but as low as 1200 lbs in the Raptor package) and the Dodge Ram is a paltry 1600 lbs for the 2020s.

However, in exchange for that minor bump in payload of only a few hundred pounds, the footprint of the vehicle is much bigger in many cases, and more importantly the vehicles often weigh 1,000 lbs + more than their midsize counterparts. That has a ton of ramifications for usability off road.

All of these numbers are taken from Edmunds.com; my view on it is that payload capacity is not really a major advantage between the full size/mid-size debate, but cabin space and cargo volume are. Payload gains start getting really seriously good once we step up to the bigger full-size market which also have the advantages of the cargo space and payload volume, like the F-250, GM/Chev 2500s, and Ram 2500s — again more weight, but similar footprint to the 1500-series for some real payload gains. And they are competitively priced with their 1500-series friends, too.

 

[Deleted member 9101]

They aren’t as far apart as they used to be. The gladiator gets 1700 lbs payload, the Colorado/Canyons are at 1550, and the Ranger is at nearly 1800 lbs. For comparison, a Chevy 1500 is about 1900 lbs, an F150 is about 2000 lbs (but as low as 1200 lbs in the Raptor package) and the Dodge Ram is a paltry 1600 lbs for the 2020s.

Soooo..about that. If you get the Heavy Duty Payload Package the F150 has a payload of over 3k, depending on how its equipped.

 

[ChasingOurTrunks]

Soooo..about that. If you get the Heavy Duty Payload Package the F150 has a payload of over 3k, depending on how its equipped.
View attachment 593375

I honestly didn’t know that was a thing, thank you for informing me of that! That would make a huge difference in the value proposition of a full-sized Ford for Overlanding - a nicely equipped brand new f-150 with the payload package and a lot of off-road goodies can be had for about $45k CDN, which is a pretty good deal all things considered. And, their curb weight is actually very comparable to the Ranger (The Chevy I have is about a thousand pounds more than my Canyon, but I see that is not the case with Fords), so the payload compromise isn’t actually a compromise at all. I still prefer a mid-size to drive off-road for it’s overall size, but in terms of other specs the f-150 and ranger aren’t too far apart after all!

 

[alanymarce]

How I wish we could get monteros in Canada... I drool at the thought. It's depressing that they discontinued them in north america.

Thanks for the info if you were in my place what would you do?

I think I'd look into buying in the USA and leaving the vehicle in the USA until you head out (and doing any further mods there). If you live close to the border this would not be a major logistics issue). I'm pretty sure you can own a vehicle outside Canada even if you're resident in Canada (lots of snowbirds own vehicles in the USA). Alternatively look into buying in South America: you'd have to verify how you can do this and pick the right country (for example, buying in Chile is troublesome in terms of the process). You'd also have to do any modification work wher you buy the vehicle - although it will be cheaper in terms of labour costs than in Canada or the USA. Compare these options with buying and modifying in Canada. I'd keep looking for suitable vehicles (Land Cruisers, Rangers, HiLuxes (maybe there are still used Monteros/Pajeros/Shoguns around?) in Canada, where you can then do any further mods locally, get your carnet through CAA, etc., more conveniently.

 

[alanymarce]

Short answer - yes. I wouldn’t hesitate to use one for a run to Argentina, but the caveat there is I’ve never done it, and perhaps someone with more experience in that part of the world can weigh in.

I know that when a company in Argentina with whom I've worked renewed their fleet of pickups last they bought Rangers (2500 of them). I've travelled in Argentina in these and they're good. Last time we rented a pickup there we rented a HiLux 4x4 - it was better than I expected, however still has the handling of a pickup...