Ampthill, your pictures are really inspiring, funnily enough before the ‘mog came up I had been looking at one of those Bedford trucks too, but reasoned it was just too big even for my log gathering needs.

Got any more pictures from your trip?

Hi John (and Terry trail rat)

Iceland is not a serious plan at the moment (certainly not for 2014), but we absolutely loved the place on the first visit. The main killer is getting there in something big and thirsty within a sensible timescale and cost. The ferry used to do a great cloverleaf route including Scotland, Faroes, Bergen, Scotland, Iceland and Denmark. Now it just does Denmark-Faroes-Iceland, so that means drive to Harwich, 21 hour £££ Ferry to Denmark, drive up Denmark and then ££££ multi day ferry crossing. Or do overnight Hull-Rotterdam and then more than 1000km to get to ferry in Denmark 🙁

You simply can’t cross the centre of Iceland without fording multiple rivers. Not too risky as there are plenty of people doing it plus 4×4 coaches on the main routes in summer. I think the bigger problems are afternoon crossings in sunny weather as daytime glacial melt makes things a bit lively….

What does a Mog actually get taxed / registered as – truck or agricultural vehicle? (and if the latter, are there mileage constraints).

One of the best “budget” truck options would be a Leyland DAF T244. I was an apprentice at Leyland in the years when they were finishing development / running the production. A lot of development went into them and they were pretty well sorted from what I remember. Prices are good and plenty of new spares at surplus prices. Just need somewhere to store one…… And a licence unless can get it downplated to 7.5 tonne.

Also always fancied a Uaz – you can even buy new ones, although probably impossible to get it registered in UK. http://www.uaz.ru/eng/models/commercial/39625/

Mick , been a passenger in the back of one of those uaz and a uaz jeep and a ural truck …. I wouldnt like to travel anywhere in any of them .

Russian cars not fun.

Frigging ugly

UAZes are hateful.

I shall dig around later for more pics

Buts its a double tragedy. I had my camera knicked in Burundi

But i then shared a camera with a friend

He kept all the slides and the plan was i would scan them. By the time I bought a scanner he has lost the set of the best slides….

I did watch a video of a Uaz in Iceland – the bounciness suggested that it didn’t use dampers (just inter leaf friction I guess). I’ll cross it off the list of things I’ll never actually buy 🙂

Africa (1 of 1)-11 by John Clinch, on Flickr

First service in North Africa. we had the Lorry for about 3 months before leaving. You can see what we did. Benches down the side for seating and storage. 2 people could sleep on each side. 2×180 litre water tanks at the back of the benches. Additional 88 gallon fuel tank on the right.

Africa (1 of 1) by John Clinch, on Flickr

Just before we sold the lorry. You can see the big storage area up at the front. 3 could sleep on here. Plus 2 in stretchers hung in the roof. But once it was hot most of us slept around the outside, with the lorry to tie our mosquito nets to

Africa (1 of 1)-10 by John Clinch, on Flickr

We broke the main steering bearings mid desert. The ones fitted were incorrectly speced. One of the guys on the bikes flew home for the funeral and flew out with some bearings. We carried their petrol for the next 700 miles

Africa (1 of 1)-9 by John Clinch, on Flickr

To avoid the corrugations or wash board people drive to the edge of the main track. So in places the area driven over is more than 10 miles wide

Africa (1 of 1)-6 by John Clinch, on Flickr

We met a gang of proper truck runners. Every year they brought trucks to drive to Africa and sell. This was one of them. They would carry 100s of gallons of diesel as it could be bought so cheaply in Algeria. They also made a killing bringing retired truck tyres from Germany

Africa (1 of 1)-8 by John Clinch, on Flickr

Ferry probably in Zaire

Africa (1 of 1)-7 by John Clinch, on Flickr

Typical main road in zaire. One day we covered 56 miles in 8 hours. You just drive to the next mud hole. A lorry drives in and gets stuck. The next one going the other way pulls it out. That Lorry then drives in and gets stuck…

Africa (1 of 1)-5 by John Clinch, on Flickr

Africa (1 of 1)-2 by John Clinch, on Flickr

Crossing the zaire River on a stupid trip down a side road. I think it was 5 km wide

Africa (1 of 1)-3 by John Clinch, on Flickr

I put 2 wheels off the road here. It took about 20 of us 36 hours to dig it out. To then be told the road was a dead end. All a huge disaster as for the first time we had split up. We left 4 people stuck in small town for 10 days waiting for us, they had very little money..

Africa (1 of 1)-4 by John Clinch, on Flickr

Buying Fuel from a lorry that had fallen over in he dreaded black cotton soil in Tanzania. He’d been there for ages selling Fuel to buy food. I think he was even keeping chickens. Several days later we met the owner coming the other way, to see what he could do about a recovery

Mike have you been to Utah

The White rim trail would be a great family 4wd and biking venture

Sue with a big climb behind her by John Clinch, on Flickr

White Rim Trail, Close to the White Rim by John Clinch, on Flickr

I think the 4 wd rentals in Moab let you drive the Rim. Its not the best cycling but its scenic. We met loads of families with mum or dad driving and the kids cycling as as much or as little as they wanted

Plus you could do all the other Moab classics

Slick Rock Trail by John Clinch, on Flickr

A few more photos here

love the photos ampthill,

what year was that ?

must be some great memories to go with those great piccys

John – stop it stop it stop it stop it 🙂

Funnily enough we are just trying to decide what to do for holidays. Sophie always raved about Moab.

The early Leyland Landmaster suffered in Africa, so we had corrugation, herringbone and 1″ / 2″ setts surfaces on the test track (sadly out of use now). Different speeds = different frequencies. If you went too slow then it coincided with the natural frequency of the suspension and was like driving on ice. Just googled this picture which is in one of my lab rooms at work – the floor is a 1100 tonne seismic block on 20mm of air suspension so we don’t shake the building down…….

http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_380343-Leyland-Landmaster.html

Corrugations must be an engineering nightmare. It certainly seems that driving though resonance is much more comfortable. Well i assume thats what happens. We often lacked the power for this. we also set up our own transverse cab resonance by badly seating a tyre on a rim…

I’ve just got from a dog walk around the edges of Milbrooke test track. i don’t think that they have corrugations either. They do have Pave and a 1:1 hill

We met two guys in what was a sort of long wheel base Land Rover kebab van. Well that’s what they claimed it had started as. They used it as motor home. But for some reason the modification changed the way that the suspension reacted to the washboard. They’d come across the desert on a much more corrugated route than us. Every they time they sped up on Corrugations the back end would step out and the vehicle got slowly move side ways. So they’d had to bump along at under 30 mph for hundreds of miles

If you can afford to get to America and can get away in Spring or Autumn Utah would be a great family holiday. Perhaps throw in some rafting or just exploring the National Parks

I think our concrete corrugations were something like 1 metre pitch, and generally driven at about 50-55 kph giving a frequency around 16Hz – 18Hz ish. Under 40kph was rather scary. Sometimes didn’t do the corrugations element for European market vehicles but was essential for Africa.

Awesome photos, very jealous!

Ampthill, those are terrific photos, what an adventure! Your truck reminds me of the Dakar-style RAID racing trucks, just cheaper! There are DAF trucks racing which look like a cheaper commercial 4×4 version would make an excellent exploration camper. Where did you get the Bedford from? I assume it was a 4×4, I can see what looks like a transmission in the front axle.
Oh, and seeing Mick’s reference to the Leyland DAF I did a quick Goog, and found this:
http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=27728 😉

Speaking of DAF trucks, can anyone remember the DAF 95 TurboTwin Dakar racing trucks from the late 80’s?

In 1982, 1985 and 1987, DAF DAF ‘Team de Rooy’ won the Truck Dakar Rally. In 1988 they literally launched the two most daring – badass racing trucks of all time, the DAF 95 Turbo Twin X1 and X2. Each truck was powered by two 11.6 litre diesel engines and each engine fuelled by three turbochargers. Each truck produced 2400 horse power, or 1765 KW. The eleven ton trucks flew past motor bikes in the desert and were faster than the Porsches and Peugeots – reaching speeds of over 240 kilometres an hour (150 mph).

Would love a Russian Kamaz, though:

Probably need to own an oil-producing country to afford the fuel bills, though!

1988 was the year DAF had the enormous fatal crash in the Dakar rally – I went to college day-release with one of the guys that survived (they sorted him an office job once recovered from massive injuries). There was a BBC documentary this year where it was great to see him interviewed.

The (Leyland) T244 and Dakar rally trucks were completely unrelated. DAF also did their own unrelated military models.

T244 was the Bedford replacement – now largely obsolete due to need for IED blast protection etc (often ground up designs around V shaped blast deflecting hulls). MAN 4×4 etc now replaced it for other general duties (Leyland / DAF chose not to tender).

Lots of buses in Iceland built on Scania and Merc 4×4 truck chassis. There were some glacier tour buses built on MAN 8x8s

For fellow dakar fans look up the polish breslau warsaw rally. Some insane stuff from there including one of the kamaz trucks above spitting water out its exhaust cab mounted exhausts on a deep water crossing not clear quite how its got in – split exhaust or if it has conrods of kryptonite….but impressive none the less.

Mick, saw a few 6×6 leyland daf tractor units in equatorial guinea working out of k5 dock the first time i went in 2009 they were splitting new fresh green paint jobs

Was back in august – they were facked. Took a walk through k5 and many had been destined to the big parts bin in the corner to keep the remainder on the road.

Not as impressive as ampthill and scuds photos but fairly modern africa/me

This road just colapsed under the bus

Rangey tow truck off to rescue the bus- note the bullet hole in our hilux dash.

Why the roads were colapsing.

Firing throuh the desert sands of turkmenistan in a toyota previa of all things ! – safer than the prado we had the second time as the driver was thinking he was in the dakar in the prado.

Nothing for miles but plenty of washboard in the sand – wasnt much sleep on those journeys.

I have a few others but i need to edit out company logos first and my laptops in the office.

Mick, I remember the ’88 Dakar crash, but only vaguely, I didn’t have the interest in it then that I do now. Seeing what those MAN and Kamaz trucks can be made to do, I’ve always thought that converting the rear to an expedition back would make a great long-distance tough camper, but of course those things are built from the ground up for racing.
A simpler, similar style 4×4 truck would look cool, though.

This is rather what I had in mind:
[video]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1rV3dJhjla0&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D1rV3dJhjla0[/video]
http://www.unicat.com/pdf/EX61-MANM4x4-exposee-en.pdf

Aye – one of the photos i need to remove logos from is of a 6×6 man selfsufficent slickline truck

http://rallyhaus.com/around-south-america-30000-miles-one-badass-truck/

Will you lot stop it? For two reasons:
1. I have travel envy, and truck envy.
2. I cannot compete, unless you count pictures of a beige Austin Princess parked in the Lake District.

One of the guys at work comes from Zimbabwe and apprenticed as an HGV mechanic over there (now with an engineering degree he is a VERY capable guy). He worked on lots of DAF 3600s back in the day. I think the newer stuff is probably a bit lightweight for Africa (more aimed at economy and payload in Europe).

We used to make the Leyland Comet for Africa – simple and ugly rigid beast with a stripped out Roadrunner cab plonked on top. No rear dampers.

http://www.commercialmotor.com/big-lorry-blog/leyland-comets-and-other-galat

We Certainly saw leyland Comets. Apparently they were let down by politics of aid. They would be provided for a project or time period. But there wasn’t a long term spares plan or not a long term affordable spares plan

We got friendly with some people travelling in a Magirus-deutz jupiter 6×6

I think it was an air cooled V8. Certainly no synchromesh. They let me drive it. I only ground to halt once due to an inability to get it into any gear :oops:. But it was brilliant way more mobile than our thing. A huge bonnet like that is a challenge for low speed manouvres. But it did have a gauge to tell you which way the steering wheels were facing. The same guy also owned a motor home based on a Hanomag

That looked the perfect size for the tough mobile camper. I think it was one of these

Good to see your photos trail rat

I do like the Paris Dakar concept. We went through a town in Niger after it had been through.So we heard alot about the logistics. That is the logistics of getting enough prostitutes in and out of each over night camp, apparently they needed hundreds. Never mind morals this was 1988 the height of Western fear over an AIDS epidemic. So my view of the event isn’t quite what it was

This thread just gets more and more dangerous 🙂

Luckily nothing on ebay at the moment. I always end up here:-

http://www.shropshiregunbus.co.uk/vehicles.asp

But imagine the reality of a Pinz (swing axle suspension) would be pretty awful on road.

Those Pinzguars are glorious

[video]http://youtu.be/uO6qCJbKYDo[/video]

what an awesome thread! Thanks folks.

Never really got the pinzgauer – always seemed very underpowered for the size and capacityof the truck.

That video just showed how stressed the engine was – i appreciate it is in low box and negotiating a climb but that engines working its nuts off.

That said there have been some tasty conversions put together.

Liking the Pinz 6×6!

Ampthill, that Hanomag is brilliant! Looks like it’s got a traditional fairground caravan stuck on the back. All it needs is a .50 cal mounted on that roof hatch. 😀

But imagine the reality of a Pinz (swing axle suspension) would be pretty awful on road.

I found the Pinz a damn sight nicer to drive on (and off) road than the Land Rover, and I say that as a (recovering) Land Rover obsessive. Handle way better than they look like they should – that chassis/drivetrain is just genius. The old petrol ones do seem under-engined by modern standards, but compared to a Land Rover of the same vintage (we’re talking the days of 2.25 petrols in 12 seater 109 station wagons…) they start to seem more acceptable. From memory, the 4×4 Pinz is only around 9″ longer than a Landy 90 too, they’re smaller than they look.

trail rat

You may well be right about that Pinz’

But that Bedford of mine was a 5.4 litre straight 6 but only 100 hp. It only had 4 speed box. This in a vehicle designed to carry 4 tonnes. That was really under powered. Although that doesn’t stop me loving it

My sister and her husband travelled from Switzerland to Capetown in a LandRover they’d converted. The did it in a leisurely 2 or so years and it must have been truly unforgettable.

While in Istanbul a couple of years ago I spotted an overland MAN truck in a park by the Bosphorous with a couple of MTB”s locked on the back. I can’t remember the name of it,but it was a husband and wife and their 6 year old travelling round the world. They had a blog and some really good videos too.

WANT!

Loving the ebay relist for the unimog, couldn’t get any interest with the auction starting at £3500… so up it to £4000 (BIN still £6500)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271363214467?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:VRI&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2661

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1967-Unimog-404-NO-RESERVE-/131101987802?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item1e864993da

The dream…… IT LIVES 😀

Oh this is very nice:

http://bringatrailer.com/2014/02/26/mega-westy-1965-unimog-camper/

Have a really close look at the accommodation.

Want that Unimog. But is that the rear 2/3 of a VW T25?!

edit: if I’d clicked the link I wouldn’t have needed to ask. Doh.

Sweet, being it back from CA though is quite a long way from home!