2 Diesels, 4 Continents

[24vRHD]

This is the first post of a story that started 2 years ago in New Zealand with the purchase of a 1980 BJ-40. At present that truck has emigrated to the US and is about to begin its transformation into an expedition rig scheduled to take on South America from bottom to top in 2012. If that was all there was to the story I would have had to name the thread something else, but in the mean time I came across an HJ-47 from 1982 that had been modded into a tow truck. I did need a daily driver and the price was right so I said why not.

What will follow below is the story of these two trucks, how I have navigated the shipping and customs hurdles and more importantly, the building of a BJ-40 expedition rig and the rejuvenation of an HJ-47 Tow Truck. Enjoy!

 

[24vRHD]

BJ-40

This is the BJ-40 a week after I bought her in Christchurch NZ. She has been flipped, not as in rolled over, but someone bought an old BJ, quickly pulled it apart, painted it and threw it back together again. So looks nice on the outside, inside, if you saw the wiring it was a disaster. Had 8 previous owners according to the NZ title office but only 150k kms. It passed all the required inspections which are quite strict so it was running fine, save for the wiring problems.

The guy in NZ that sold it to me was actually from the Carolinas and had had the same idea as me, buy an OLD BJ and send it back to the states. I actually ended up sending a check to his house in the states and he trustingly signed the yota over to me right there. We drove to a post office, paid something like 5USD and they printed us a new title right there on the spot, that was it, sale done! As we got on the road we fired up the heater and it smelled like burning (turns out it just had some dust in it and hadn't been used lately) so I bought a fire extinguisher on my way out of town.

 

[crushers]

subscribed...

 

[24vRHD]

HJ-47

I work abroad in oil and gas (Unfortunately the BJ is painted the exact shade of blue as my company, hate that!) and am currently assigned to the Malaysian side of Borneo. Its an ok place and I was happy to see that old Land Cruisers were common enough. Made me miss my BJ. Then one day I pretty much had a cow when I saw a BJ tow truck! I pretty much made a decision right then and there that rolling one of those around would be better than my crap Malaysian made coffin. I took down the number off the side of the tow truck and gave him a call.

As I am sure many people on this site can relate, this guys cruiser had no price. I offered him a small fortune (by Malaysian standards) of cash on the spot and he only laughed. It took many months and similar encounters with other tow truck drivers before I finally found someone willing to sell me a Toyota tow truck. I managed to score a 1982 HJ-47 with a cool 500,000 km on it.

I must say, the straight 6 is way smoother than the 3B, and having power steering and AC is really cool too!

 

[24vRHD]

On With the Story

So hit the road for a 3 week, 3,000km drive around NZ in the new Land Cruiser. It was a blast. At sea level we were able to cruise comfortably at 90-100km/hr indicated speed. When we checked this against the GPS we found that the speedo was reading about 10% slow. That made sense because we were running 33x12.5 BFG MTR tires. So if we really rapped on it we could get to 110 indicated which was about 120kph max, which jives with what a 1980 BJ should be able to achieve.

I had dreams of 40mpg fuel efficiency but had to settle for half that, I think the trip average was 21mpg. Which also matches what others have reported. All in all we were feeling good about the rig, seemed to be running fine.

On Hills, especially at altitude (we made it up to about 3500ft) we were climbing in the top of 2nd gear. If we shifted to 3rd we didn't have the balls and would have to downshift again. No problem, we would pull over to let the others pass when we got the chance and kept on trucking. In my mind this is clearly a result of non-turbo diesel, a bit of altitude and 33in tires. So far so good.

When starting it always starts first time after a bit of glow. At altitude and on cold mornings it would make a bit of smoke but only for a min. Again, to be expected.

Off to a good start!

Here is a pick with a 1-lane Bailey Bridge, that's NZ highways for you!

 

[24vRHD]

Ghosts in the Wiring!

There was this intermittent electrical problem where the rig would lose total power, sometimes in the morning you would go for the glow plugs and there would be nothing, no click from the relay, no radio, nada. We quickly learned that if you wiggled the positive lead going to the starter it would be fine. (NB: we are a 24V "Cold Weather" BJ). This was fine, 30 years old, going to have a quirk or two right?

Well it got worse as the trip went on, would lose power while driving, engine would die out, put in the clutch, and often after 1-2 sec the power would come back, and we would keep going.

When I say we lost power, we lost EVERYTHING, even the hazards wouldn't work.

One morning at about 4am we were driving early to catch the ferry between the South and North Island and it died all the way. Of course we were in a narrow twisty ravine with no shoulder, no moon and now no lights or hazards and the only other people on the road at that time were the 18 wheelers coming through the canyon.

We pulled to the side as much as possible, grabbed a headlamp (we were somewhat prepared!) popped the hood, wiggled the wire and the truck came back to life.

I think the reason we didn't do anything to fix this quirk was that we liked the rush of adrenaline and feel of success when we would revive the cruiser. At one point we had it refined to such an art that the passenger could hop out, pop the hood and get going again in less than 20 seconds. We barely had to pause our conversation. Also, to be fair, it was rather intermittent, would happen maybe once a day.

Sounds like a loose connection right? Kind of...

Turns out we did make the ferry in the end...

 

[morgoon]

Subscribed...awesome!!!

 

[mailking]

Hi Zach,

This looks like a real nice adventure where you are heading! Keep it up. And be sure to meet up with us somewhere in South America! Good luck. The 3B is great! Like you said, it's not a race monster, uphill it's like a tractor and on altitude it loses power, but who said you are in a hurry?

Adventurous greetings,
Coen

p.s.: rated and subscribed

 

[24vRHD]

Whats it gonna take?

So, The problem persisted all the way until we dropped the truck off at the dock to get it shipped to US. We were pressed for time and since the cruiser was still driveable (in less than ideal form) we kept on keeping on.

Dropped it off with the freight forwarder in Auckland with a note on how to get it going and that was it. 2.5 months later my bro went down to the docks in Baltimore to pick it up and found it sitting on the very edge of the pier all by itself. The receiving agent said that was never a good sign. Sure enough, the port police and customs tried to help jumping it but no love (They didn't realize it was 24 volts, lord only knows what they did to their own vehicles let along mine!).

Towed it to the house and put it on the 24V charger.

Sorry, long story short, it was the fusible links. I'm trying to find a picture of them. They were not in their original state as someone had done some interesting wiring on them. Anyway, they have since been replaced with a fuse panel. Since then haven't had a single electrical problem save for the odd bulb going out and being rusted in place...

 

[waiting for time]

Nice, subscribed.

Whats with the front fender lights?

 

[bj40green]

Subscribed!
Why is the bezel upside down?

Rudi

 

[waiting for time]

Subscribed!
Why is the bezel upside down?

Rudi

It's the other side of the world.

 

[mailking]

I like the side lights idea not sitting on the fender! I should have thought about that in Bolivia!

 

[24vRHD]

Support!

Hey guys, thanks for all the support. This build is going to be fast so watch this space as I will try and update it every day.

A bit of background. I am on an overseas assignment right now so my cousin in Colorado will be doing the work for the build. Basically I get to pay for it and update IH8mud and he gets all the fun of playing with it! Truth be told hes a great guy and if it weren't for his huge commitment to this trip there is no way it would happen. Thanks Rob! P.S. Anyone around Boulder Colorado that would like to help we welcome your support! The truck will arrive by car carrier in CO around the 20th of October (10 days) and will be loaded into a 20' container to South America on the 30th of Nov.

To answer your questions. The Bezel is upside down... you are totally right! I suspect it is a result of the guys that flipped the truck, there is plenty of cosmetic work that looks good from about 100ft or more but once you get closer... I am going to stick with Michael's response that it is the other side of the world!

I suspect the fender lights were positioned like that when the fenders were replaced with fiberglass.

In NZ the annual inspection is very tough on rust. So a lot of the LCs down there have replaced their fenders and wheel wells with fiberglass.

 

[24vRHD]

And now some questions for you

Coen,

Tell me about starting a 3B on a cold morning, on Bolivian Diesel in La Paz. I've heard that the altitude + questionable diesel + cold can really be a challenge to get the 3B running.

I know I will lose 50% of my power at altitude (15,000'!) but since I am not concerned with speed and have plenty of gears I am sure I will get there. I am worried about the mornings when it comes time for a cold start.

What was your experience, and what tricks did you use? Thanks for your input!

 

[crushers]

manual glow with plugs that actually work, if the compression is good on the 3B then it will start to -35C with no issues...
make sure you test the glow plug for how long it takes to get bright orange, some glow very quickly some take 25 seconds or more. go with the quick glow and glow for a few seconds, start, hit the glow again till it runs smoothly.

 

[24vRHD]

Thanks for the input, if we do opt for new glow plugs do you have any you recommend? We are planning on having plenty of juice onboard. We will have the stock alternator charging two red-tops in series for our 24V and having a 2nd alternator charging a 12V housebank of two yellow tops in parallel. That way if we ever need a jump or more power we have the option to put the yellow tops in series and self jump if you will.

Hoping it never comes to that but if we NEED it once, we reckon it will be worth the investment. Plus being able to run-down the house bank without having to worry about starting in the morning is worthwhile.

 

[crushers]

seriously, research batteries again. those batteries are peices of junk. there are much better units to choose from (interstate are fantastic)
a glow plug is a glow plug, it is the volts that you are after. a 6V will heat up quickly but if you don't get off the button then you can burn them out pretty quick. if you are the only one using the rig then you can test the glow plug in a vice with a set of jumpers, record the time needed to make them glow brightly and then make a note.
once running the airflow will keep them from burning out.
11V are slower to heat up, this can be a PITA when it is -35C and your hands are freezing but they will stand a bit more abuse.

 

[24vRHD]

Oh, I see what you mean, especially those red-tops have gotten a bit of a reputation. After reading around it seems that Interstate dosen't make an AGM. (We are going for the AGM on this trip, with reliability and vibration concerns AMG seems like its the path forward) Right now my understanding is that the best bang for your buck in the world of AGM is Sears Die Hard Platinum. Will look into those.

Thanks for the heads up!

 

[crushers]

we call the Die Hards the "Die Easy" back in the day.