Thursday, November 19, 2009

We have finished working on the truck, as we feel its well prepared for the journey into the ends of the earth. There has been an abundance of help and parts added to the vehicle in order to make it fully worthy of an adventure its going to establish.

There has been a great deal of modifications to the truck:

This list is in the order of How I recall the parts coming through.

- Tires 4x 31-10.50-15 size tires with about 50% tread left on them Mud Terrain Type
.. We had gone through 2 sets of tires here, and we werent happy with the older ones, now we are content after 3 tries. The original tires which came onthe truck were inadequate. They were huge, the rims were about 8 inches wide and the drivetrain did not agree with the size of tires. The next set we got were better, but they were on their last miles, so we were better off getting new wheels.

- A new drive shaft, well used but 100 times better then the old one.
When we had gone to recover the lost wallet, we had to 4x4 over some hills and on the way back from one we tore the exhaust, when inspecting the exhaust I had noticed that the drive shaft u joint had been cracked. With a broken drive shaft/propshaft, we would be screwed. We decided to change the u joint, but I ended up destroying the Drive Shaft by clamping the vice on it too tightly. It was a disaster that ended up turning into a real adventure.

- A new welded exhaust side mount
After the old one was cut out by hand with a small blade, we had the good Mechanics at Allrad Keba to make a new exhaust for us. We are rolling without a muffler, but the turbo absorbs most of the noise and its hardly noticable. A hole at the downpipe was also repaired with a welder.

- New front right shock
our old one had blown, so we the direction of the mechanic, he told us a new one would be good

- New Propshaft seals
The old ones were leaking and were changed, leaving dif fluid all over the place

- Most fluids were changed and joints greased
Front and rear differential oils were changed alond with, Transfer case, Transmission, and the Engine. The front left and right hub along with all the u joints and axles were greased. The radiator was flushed and fluids were changed.

- A set of extra fog lights were added.

- The transfer case filler bolt was tapped and fitted with a new filler bolt.

- New tent roof rack type, and also a roof rack

- First aid kits x2 with reflective signals in case of a break down

- a Giant tow strap Recovery , and a small one for vehicle street pulling

- A shovel, and an Axe

- A giant interior Cargo net, its affixed on the ceiling of the truck.

- 8x Fluid cans, 1 consisting of water and the rest are for diesel. Total Diesel Capasity is now at 240liters, and 26 liters for water.

- New interior foldable seats, old bench seats were removed

- Welding, the rear corners on the inside of the truck were welded by Sergei a great man with amazing skills at welding. Quite the funny fella.




- New speaker system with Wire tucked speaker system. 38 euros for them and they sound great with the sub woofer.


- Also a 240 volt inverter, and a seperate northamerican 120 volt inverter under the seats. Its quite the wiring mess, up until we tucked and affixed all the parts.

- the inside rear of the truck has been cleaned, organized and the rear bench seats have been removed, and replaced with foldable side seats. This has left us with a great deal of working space, we can still fit two extra passengers, and also there is tonns more cargo room. As you see the truck, it is fully loaded!


-You can see we installed the sandboards (used in desert for crossing and getting unstuck of sand) They are mounted on the inside of the truck with hooks and a strap. Very convienient. You can also see our second shovel and Axe on the right hand side. And in the Middle there are two 20 liter gas cans, 2 other 20 liter blastic containers for diesel and water.



our odometer reads in Miles, there are 207xxx miles, we started at about 201,050 so far we have put about 6000 miles on the truck so about 10000 kms at 1000 liters.


Well we are off headed direction to Turkey, Istanbul, in search for cheap fuel!







I want to thank everyone here in Germany for all their help, we will never forget you.


Uli and Judith Schaller
Alexander W
Sergei
Ziggi
Dedda
Jens
Martin
Simon
Arnold
Marc

If I have left anyone out I apologize in advance.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Last couple days have been busy, We have removed and cleaned the rear passenger section of the truck. The plan is to utilize space, and still uphold the ability to seat passengers. Difficult task, but we were helped.
This is before

After it has been cleaned out.




We also have a rust hole problem. it makes for a really loud ride once the interior is out. We decied it was best to fix this issue while we have had the help from our friends. (Bushtaxi crew, Allrad Keba, Uli, Martin, Alexander, Mark, Arnold, Sergie the welding Ukranian)

Here are some photos, they may hurt your eyes, unless your Canadian. Europeans consider this rust pretty significant (it is ahha), they haven't seen my old Toyota 4runner back in Ottawa, or even 40% of the Ottawa winter Vehicles.

Notice the insulation, works as a sound detnener, and is an attemt at sealing the cabin.



last friday 13th, we had seen a broken down car on the highway, we pulled over and pulled him to a safe spot. Apparently his gearbox crapped the bed.


In Brackenhime we fixed put a new shock on the truck, seemed like a good idea. The truck now drives like it was supposed to.
Here is a picture of the new 2010 Toyota Landcruiser pickup. 70,000euros gets you this baby.. Roughly 105,000CDn dollars.

Alrad KEba Mechanic working on a j75 that needed a new Camshaft. Old one was worn down so they changed it...



On Monday the 16th back in Weingarten we had gone to a metal shop to get some pieces for the truck. Initially we had walked in speaking english and asking for the chef ... boss, but the one lad on the left didn't speak english. He thought we were Englishmen from the Kingdom. The second he realized we were Canadian, he began to speak to us in English and talk about his fammed Scottish Football club. It was quite funny. The younger lad on the right cut and measured the pieces of 0.6mm thick steel for the truck.

Measurements on a Madagascar postcard, don't ask how we got it, it was in the truck for a long time:


Lads happy as could ever be, thanks for the help dudes.
Manuel, had sent me an email almost right after we had left, and wished us the best of luck. Also wants to come to Canada to visit in the Future, I told him I would house him for however long he wants. Future Reliner maybe?



Fastforward to Tuesday the 17th and Sergie, one of the workers in a shop helps us with some welding. We all had to be careful with the gas tank. on the right side there needed an abundance of metal work, and the heat was getting hot. Luckily and thankfully for the amazing skills of Sergie he was able to put it all together without error!



We still haven't finished workign on the truck, today we go and fabricate some more parts for the fitment of the panels, gas tank, rear tire, sand boards and such.

Sergei came to visit us in the Cabin last night. I figured I would be owing him for all the work he has done. That night after the welding I was about to go to the store to get vodka for his help, but he ended up telling us to stay put and he will be back.

Sergei did come back, with a backpack of full of food and a 750ml of Vodka!
We sat in the cabin, with Candles and a gas heater. How romantic...
Anywho we literally had each a 100ml glass, 3 cups and it was taken as a shot, I have never done a 100ml shot of vodka, and as soon as we were done the 100ml, he loaded us up again and down she went. I thougth I wouldn't be able to do a second shot, let alone a third final 1/8th shot of whatevr was left in the bottle. that took 5 minutes, and we began to eat. There were pickes, chocolate cookies, a kebab type of pork meat, rye bread and these cheetos type things. When we had finished the vodka, I was feeling pretty good, about 10mins after we drank it, we were all right pissed. I went to the truck and grabbed whatever alcohol was there. Uli our good Karlsruhe friend had given us a bottle of Champagne, grabbed it and a bottle of wine. I went back to the Cabin, and the Vodka monster, "Sergei" said, no no no Champagne, its poison to him, but if he was going to make us pound back all that vodka we were goign to force him to drink all the wine and champange with us. So we did, and wow we got quite proper messed.

Sergei gave us a little bit of his story. Originally from Ukraine, in 83-85 he learned to become a welder from a Technical school, in 85-87 he was in the USSR military and was stationed in Germany. He worked in Moscow and now lives here in Weingarten. A raelly nice guy. has a family with 3 kids. 18-19-20. 18-19 year olds are girls, and when we asked about them he said. NOOOOO ahhaa. it was good times.

Sergei took off after we finished the drinks and could hardly walk, he had to bike home inthe rain after a long day of working, helping us with our truck and drinking like a Ukranian should.

Morning came, and all of a sudden, 8-9am some guy comes running in our cabin screaming TRANSLEVANIA!!!! " we were talking about Vampires the night before on a druken rant." He looks at me, I jump 10 feet out of my sleeping bag and he launches an apple at me and says EAT! get up! "ARBITEN ARBITEN" means Work in German. and puts a bag of apples down on the table.

Thats the events leading up to now. Wednesday 1153am German time.
We are going to work on the truck now.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

क्रेजी निघत इन ःएइल्ब्रुन!

Well it was pretty nuts last night, Keane and I were invited out with a couple of the mechanics from Alrad Keba. Boy we were in for a night. I thought Friday had seen some heavy drinking, but that was an understatement.

We Started Saturday the 14th, waking from the pop up tent at Alrad-Keba. It was kinda late, 2pm, and everyone was working away and wondering what the two lazy Canadians were up to.

We get up, pack up the roof tent and begin to install the new front right shock on the Landcruier, the old one had its days, and no longer kept any fluid inside.

After the shock was done, we began to clear out the truck to repair the rear quarters inside the truck. We also want to get rid of all the Carpet in the rear, sidemouldings and any useless weight we can shed. We are in the plan of installing lighter rear foldable seats. We will skip that part because the wine started flowing at 7pm.

We drank and drank, ended up going to Creme 21 bar in Heilbronn. Wow what a place,
I had met a nice bartender named Franchesca, she introduced me to the Owner-Manager of the Nightclub. He offered us all a free round of drinks at the bar. That was humble of him. Hopefully Tommy is reading this.
It was all techno, we even got the local bar shot pictures taken of us and are somewhere posted on the internet. But luckily I found them.







All in all, I ended up eating a Curry Worst at the second bar we went to. 5am!

And we shortly went home after. What a nice with amazinglz nice people.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Oh hoy, well its been nice and fun, but we have to get the show on the road.

We are on the last leg of getting the truck ready, and tomorrow its a big day back at her :)

I am writing this from Uli's house, getting right shitterd as I speak lol.

We are working at a shop doing grunt work. Its our last days here, so the owner is letting me go to town in the shop.
Shop:

so here is what I have fabricated, its later on in the evening now and I wasn't able to take pictures of the Rack on my truck, but I will later.


Roof rack before:









Donny fabbing up the little rack



Almost the final product, I will post pictures of it added to the truck




Made me feel good, we have a roof rack tent' and this rack had to be modified to be able to fit with the roof tent. So in essence they work together, kinda like the Care Bears. Flufffy dooo minooooooo

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

गियर एंड मोरे गियर c

Gear and more gear,

Tuesday Keane and I were in the South of Germany, and today we were in the North. Total Kilometers driven: just shy of 1000kms.

This is what we got:
-Roof top tent
-Sand Boards
- Gas Containers
-stove
-mud-terrain tires
-Side Bars

We met two really nice guys off of buschtaxi.de

Mark we met down south, super nice guy with a killer attitude towards off roading
he hooked us up with 2 gas cans formaly used in the Swiss Military.

Mark also came up with soem super awesoem 31x10.5x15 mud terrain tires!

thanks dude!

Arnold, been around the world and back, he was able to give us a slue full of jamming stuff that we definately need for this trip
-airline bars for attaching the gas cans
-roof tent -- sleepy tiem;)
-stove
-Water purification tablets
-Sand Boards
-Matress
-Pillows


super nice guys! I thank you again!

Well its been a long two days, we got a good old fire burning in the back of Alex's house and we are making lamb for supper. We deserve it!

Tommorow is operation Landcruiser, where we deck it thehell out!

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Sunday, Nov 8th 2009,

Woke up, had some coffee and a shower. its not that nice out, but we got lots to do today.

We have been notified that some of our parts will be available for delivery on Tuesday the 10th and Wednesday the 11th of November. Today we paint, and recover from our wild drunken night in Heidleburg!

here are some more pictures of the Journey:

More shots
We know who you are :)



Oh boy


La Vie en rose?


Sacre Coeur


Day time tower of eiffle


People watchers, one lady wasn't happy that I took her picture, see her covering her face lol


well this trip woulnd't be a trip if there were no leb's, well there wasn't any, just an embassy in Paris ;) I knocked on the door looking for a shawarma, but no answer just cameras hehe



The Landcruiser being a slut and attempting a gesture at Jeeps



Jealous Jeeps


Are We in America? This is Paris...


Germany, WWI Rememberance site built and maintained by the United States


United States sent about 300,000troops in WWI, she lost 67,000 of her own.


Without traffic, there would be no paris


The LJ70 has met her Match, the J75

The 75 has been around, its a trooopie.



And finally, our Cabin, I swear that Gnome ouside keeps getting closer and closer to the front door, luckily I have an axe right beside my sleeping bag and if the bastard comes through its going to get murdered. I swear that thing moves on its own! and its Blue eyes turn red, I mean last night I spend an our looking outside the window to see if he would move..



So its 6pm right now, we head off to meet the us soldiers soon, gett right proper hammered.

Talk soon, maybe in a couple weeks or so. :)

Saturday, November 7, 2009

November 7th 2009.

We haven't been able to get an internet connection in a while.

Updates ;

On the 16th of October we had a bunch of problems with the truck.
- drive shaft was totaled.

Alexander the great man who is owner of buschtaxi.de had picked us up from Uli's house in Karlsruhe. Alex had taken us to the king of Landcruisers Alrad Keba in Brackenhime about 60 km's north of Karlsruhe.

We talked to Ziggy (owner of Allrad) and he told us to come back with the truck the next day and he would take a look at it.

Next day----

We have the truck looked at, and all of a sudden the guys start working on the truck. Installing a new drive axle and changing the fluids! I stopped them and said " we don't have much money please stop, they didn't really understand and I couldnt speak German " I only said this cause the last tiem we were in a german shop, they let us work on the truck and charged us 60euro, it was quite a shitty day.

Regardless the men said that we could work in exchange for the work being done on the truck. Great! so working is what we did for the next two days. It included an abundance of gardening and yardwork.

Missing Drive Shaft

In the end, we all became real good friends, they fed us, offered showers, let us sleep on their property. And to top it all off here is what we got for our work!

-Front dif fluid change
-rear dif fluid change
- transfercase tap (the bolt was stripped in the side of the t case) toped up and changed
- tranny fluid changed
- new drive shaft with new grease packed in
- radiator fluid flush
- new oil and filter change
- inspection of the breaks
- new rims and tires
- fog lights
- interior net for cargo
- 50liters of diesel!
- they cut and welded a side exhaust for the truck
- fixed a leak in the downpipe
- repacked the front and right hubs with grease

And with that list it does not stop! I mean these guys were amazing, there were parts cars everywhere and they were very nice to us. I thank them soo much.

Anywho after the two days, I had purchased some bfg mud-terrain tires off ebay in the north of Germany, in Koln. We had gone to pick them up, but when talking to Ziggy and looking at the tires, it didn't seem like they were a good purchase.

exhaust work


New driving lights/fog lights


Package to be delivered from Deda to Ziggy :)


Loading up on Water and Getting plums from the fruit trees :)



on the way to Koln, we had stopped at a mcdonalds, we didn't have any euro's but we did have american dollars. I had gone to exchange the american dollars at the mcdonalds... they do that there. And to our surprise the rate was amazing, for 50usd we got 37.50 euro's. I was baffled. Anyway we took it, I have a bunch more usd which I wanted to exhchange but they were closed so we didn't. Something must have been wrong with their system.

Next stop we go to a town called Mombris where we have met a man named Deda, and he owned a tire shop. We still needed tires after getting new rims were needing some good mud terrains or all-terrains.
Deda was another amazingly nice German, he had told us to come back in a couple weeks so he would have time to find some good tires for us. He sent us back to Ziggy's and gave us 2 packages to deliver. He also ended up giving us 120 liters of Diesel! could you belive that!!

That night we drove back to Ziggy's and slept in the truck, Keane the crazy bastard slept outside in the neighbours back yard and was accused of being a Polish Gypsie ahhaa.
Dropped the packages off and left out of dodge, we drove back to Karlsruhe, met up with Uli for a couple drinks and headed off to Paris to meet a friend that was flying down for the week.

On the way to Paris we had stopped in Luxumbourg, got right smashed and partied with the locals. Well They were young, couple 18 year olds and some 16 year olds.. good times good people :)

We started again for Paris, early that mornign, about 2-3 am. Filled up with cheap gas, 100liters.

We got to Paris stayed with my friend for the 7 days enjoyed the sites and scenes. Its quite the beautiful and expensive place. Took my pocketbook for a spin I will tell you that much.
truck relaxing in Paris 11th district


Showing the misses the way


A picture by the water



and you think we have a problem with traffic in Ottawa, or a problem with bus fare ahah. Its nutz in Paris and expensive.


The Louvre !

So the Vacation ends its November 1st and we leave our friend who flys back to Ottawa. We head on over to see Alexander in Weingarten, but bump into good old Uli Sunday night 1st of November. Uli invited us to sleep that night, I felt kind of rude going over because it was soo late. But Uli didn't mind, he just said, 1 pack of smokes and 1 six pack of beer. And we were off! Good night sleep and an amazing meal the next day. We had taken Uli Octa and Judith out for a chicken dinner in the Rhine to thank them for all of their accomodations and help! Really great people.

Monday we took off to work for Alexander, He was happy to see us. ( I hope he was ahha) Alex needed a bunch of yardwork done, Keane and I worked from Monday to Saturday (today november 7th 2009). We have done labour and lots of yardwork, its been rewarding and Alex is helping us find parts for our landcruiser to keep it up and going.

Last night ( 6th of November ) We ended up in Heidleburg, a U.S. army camp is based right in town there. We ended up walking around drinking in the streets (legal in Germany). Gettin right pissed and looking at all the beautiful girls. To our surprise the beer we had purchased was only 2.5%, we each had a 6 pack of 5ooml bottles, and once finding out the such low alcohol content we began smashing them down like water.

Next thing you know we bump into about 6-8 youths, guys must ahve been in the ages of 18-21 little trouble making shitters. haha, but they were nice to KEane and I. The youngings offered us Jonny Walker, I drank like it was my last time. They were soo nice, giving us all the alcohol they had. Then all of a sudden, I hear scream smash smash... The little clan of bastards started to brawl with another group of young men. Punches swinging and kicking. It was kaos, these little pukes were acting like a bunch of somalians. I had enough so I ran in and tried to through some kids off and break it up. Well it kinda worked. Then the victims began to run, and the shits gave chase. We ran up and tried to stop it again, worked a little. Then all of a sudden the shit disturbers run away, and that ended the fight.

at this point we are pretty wrecked, We walked into a bar in which we had a friend named Ali inside. ( I didn't mention that we had been in Hidleburg on Wednesday and had met him outside the same said bar) the bounccer wouldn't let us in, but we kept insisting, he gave in and we were inside.

Booom party time, we bump into 2 men and one chick, we thought they were German, they thought the same. But then I hear accents, well what do you know... Its American soldiers. We jammed with them the whole night, until 5am. It was a great time. We set to meet them again tonight at 9pm.


For now its been calm, getting organized and doing an abundance of research for the next leg of the journey. We are still waiting for truck parts and the truck, were hoping will be transformed by next week!

oh and I almost forgot, in the back of the shop we are working at, they have a cottage type cabin, its where we sleep. It gets cold at night, but we have the proper sleeping bags. Its cozy and has a good camping type feeling to it.