Kansas - Magadan (1 Viewer)

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gordigear is crap !!! took me 30 minutes to put back the travel cover but I could not get it back. Tried even with my wife but the zip is low quality and keeps separating. I would not recommend gordigear to anybody . Zips are the biggest issue on this tent. To put annex is pain in the ass , to put the travel cover is even bigger pain.
 
I have shipping arranged with Far East Shipping Company. Need to be in Seattle by Wed 4pm.
 
Update:

I left Kansas on Sunday 27th with a goal to reach Seattle on Wednesday 30th of March. I left early in the morning and stopped in Topeka to say goodbye to @half k cruiser who helped a lot with my cruiser. We also welded the 4x4 labs jerry can holder to Kaymar bumper arm. Then I left to Boulder where I arrived on Sunday evening and I had meeting with Robbie next day.

I worked with Robbie whole Monday, mostly Robbie was observing and telling me what to do and finishing some touches. We did the rear axle reseal with new bearings, changed gasket between catalytic converters. Robbie also sealed the windshield which was leaking on both corners, I had to put new boots for tie rods as I destroyed them when doing the front axle. We changed all u-joints.

Well it was around 7 PM on Monday that I left Boulder and went I-25 northbound and then I-90 to Seattle. Mostly slept in the car driving seat as I really wanted to make it in time to Seattle. I arrived to Seattle on Wednesday afternoon, parked the car in storage of the company who suppose to help with loading and went to cheap motel. The next day we were suppose to load the car into container around 11AM , the container arrived at noon and the driver was saying that we have five minutes to load the car as there is only one gate open to the port.

Well I left all what I was doing , we took the tent from the roof rack and started putting the car into container. According to custom clearance agent I suppose to take all pictures during the loading which I did. What I missed was the engine number which I didn't find. At least I took picture of chasis number.

The car is now on the vessel on it's way to Busan (Korea) where it will be loaded to another vessel to Vlad.

IMG_5530.JPG
 
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Any updates?

I would love to hear about your experiences going East to West from South Korea. I plan on doing it in the opposite direction in a few years.
 
VidereStudios said:
Any updates?

I would love to hear about your experiences going East to West from South Korea. I plan on doing it in the opposite direction in a few years.
Click to expand...

I doubt he has reached Magadan yet. When he was talking to me about his route he said they would only drive for a few hours each day. He's probably only 10-12 days into the trip right now, and thats if everything went smoothly.
 
Yeah, I figured he was still only on the beginning leg and had just started in Korea. Didn't know if he was doing live updates or if he was going to wait until the trip is done to share anything.

Do you know if he is shipping to Vladivostok or is he going to go to Japan and travel north that way?

My thoughts for my trip is to take the ferry from Vanino to Kholmsk, drive down to Korsakov, and then take the ferry to Wakkanai, Japan. The last I read is that is the only way to get a vehicle into Japan without needing a carnet. Not sure about the Korea into Japan route.
 
Ah, I just re-read that he is shipping from Korea to Vladivostok. Since he is just shipping it on to Russia, no need for a carnet for Korea.

Also, I just checked out Horizons Unlimited and the ferry from Korsakov to Wakkanai shut down this year. Not profitable enough and the city of Wakkanai didn't want to subsidize the cost. Bummer, a cool option gone. Also, found out that the carnet requirements changed at that port of entry as well. Carnets were now required and being enforced.

2017 may see a Russian ferry operator re-open the Korsakov - Wakkanai route, but nothing is confirmed. Anyway, carnets are now required before you can even buy a ferry ticket into Japan.
 
Hello,

little late but at least. I am writing this from library in Magadan where we arrived last Friday.

We started our trip on 20th of April when we flew from Kansas to San Francisco. There were some issues on the Texas airport and some flights were delayed and we were lucky that our connecting flight in Denver was not canceled. It was cheaper to buy two tickets one from Kansas to San Francisco and second from San Francisco to Seoul.

We stayed in the airport for 12 hours in San Francisco and just camped in the arrival hall where I firstly used the big teton sleeping bag. The flight to Korea was not bad , little bit long but not terrible. We stayed in Korea for four days and found some good apartment in central Korea for 30 dollars. The apartment was really good and we enjoyed the stay there. I also arranged the Mongolian visa in Seoul which was a little bit of challenge as I had only one day to arrange that.

The flight to Vladivostok was on 26th of April, all went good and we went to hotel in the center of Vlad. The car was still not in the port but it made it on 28th. The custom broker in Vladivostok has everything arranged and he is quite famous as everybody uses him (Yuri Melnikov). The formalities were really fast and he told me that I broke the world record. I can't tell you what my feeling was when I saw my cruiser in one piece in the container.

I did put the tent together made couple of things and went back to the city where we stayed for another three days. We had to get rid of all not needed stuff and we just gave them away to people (luggage, clothes etc.). We loaded the cruiser with food and water and went ahead. The traffic in Russia is crazy and me as novice driver (driving only five years) had problem in the beggining. I can say that Russians are crazy but good drivers. I had to modify only one thing which was the tent cover which I gave to one guy to change the zipper location. Now the tent cover zips very easy.

We went from Vladivostok and kept going for whole day then we camped in the nature. For the first time we had to sleep in the tent and annex. As we went to brush our teeth we saw a fire started just 100 meters from our site. The fire got more and more aggressive and it was already night. We packed all the stuff in five minutes !! and just lef the tent open with kids inside. The fire was actually getting closer on multiple directions and were getting little bit worried. Well we survived that night with having locals visit us arguying with them as they thought that we started the fire :(

Next day we camped near Chabarovsk and we still kept going , after Chabarovsk we went to Birobidzhan which is Jewish autonomous territory. We were getting closer and closer to Chinese border and all radio stations were in Chinese, most of the time we were having lunch in Kafes where kids were eating well and I got a lot of borsch. Just after 300 km outside of Birobidzhan our daughter got bitten by the tick. We knew that we were in the tick zone with some aggressive form of lyme and encephalitide infections, unfrortunately for some reason it is not possible to get vaccinated in US. We had to return to Birobidzhan and get the tick analysed in laboratory for infections and got kids vaccinated. The vaccinatin is pretty expensive but worthy. Now we know that the tick was not infected. I got couple of bottles of permithrin from US , immediately I soaked most of the kids clothes in it to be more protected.

After Birobidzhan we kept going north on the Amur highway. The traffic was not so bad as we were travelling in festive season (May 1 till May 9 nobody works). We reached the Lena highway reaching Yakutsk , the number of cars was lower and lower. Yakutia is nice place and the beggining is with very nice hills. I was surprised how cold it was, camping in the tent was still fine as we got the good tent and also warm sleeping bag. Unforutnately I left the water outlet outside and it frozen and broken the water gun we used for shower and cleaning. Now we have water but can't control the flow :(

We passed cities of Tynda , Aldan and Tommot. The roads in Yakutia are really bad sometimes even terrible. Had couple of earlly miss situations which were scary but other then that it was fine. We were not traveling in night most of the time going really slow. Kind of funny when we were passed by Nissan Micra going 80kph on those bad roads.

We reached Niznij Bestiach which is on the other side of the Yakutsk, everybody was saying that it is not possible to cross the river. I don't know why but I completely missed this, the river when we arrived to crossing of Aldan was completely frozen with unstable moving ice. People waiting for five or ten days and nobody knows when the river will clear. We decided to get back to Niznij Bestiach and try to fly to Magadan. Fortunately I got some contacts in motorcycle club of Magadan and they arranged everything. The government of Yakutia is now keeping the cruiser in their garage, kind of strange feeling giving your keyes in the middle of Russia to someone you see for two minutes. The ice even reached the crossing of the river Lena to cross to Yakutsk. We were trying to catch the hovercraft over the river and listening to the guys talking which was is the best to not crush into the freezing waters is not cool. We boarded the hovercraft with four other Yakuts, all of them hunters. The way over frozen river was interesting and sometimes I was asking myself how crazy it was.

Reached the other side of Lena we were met with local motorcycle member who took us to the airport. We still didn't have the tickets as we did not know if we make it to Yakutsk in the morning. Fortunately we got the tickets and we went to the gate. To my surprise we were the only passangers in the plane which was 35 years old Antonov 26. Even boarding the plane was funny , kids were joking that the plane will not take off, everything was falling apart and even the mechanic was going around the plane with hammer fixing stuff (not kidding).

That's it so far, we are here in Magadan without our cruiser, we took with ourselve just couple of things as we did got rid of luggage. Our flight back to Yakutsk is on May 27th, then we prepare for the journey back and Mongolia.
 
Kinds of dissapointment, on the Aldan river crossing it is only 1600 kilometers to Magadan, we did around 3500 so far. We got really close but waiting one month for ferry ? Not thank you. Cruiser is still fine, some new sounds and smells but still holding strong. By mistake I topped up the power steering pump with engine oil but Robbie gave me one pump for free :)

BTW: this is land cruiser land, I have never seen so many cruisers in one place. In Vladivostok it was possible to see three Land Cruisers on the first row of the stop light. Amazing.

The only thing which is bad is that the car is so heavy. Sits really low and looks little bit funny. I am thinking about changing the suspension now but not sure if I will be able to purchase something in Yakutsk or Ulan Baatar.
 
We made it , finally after about 11000 miles we are save in Prague. There was not a single issue with the car other then old fusible links. Here are some photos you can take a look at:

jorge sanchez

Thanks to everybody who helped , namely Malcom @half k cruiser and other ih8mud members from Kansas.
 
Hi Jorgito

Im gonna check the pictures! Good to hear!

What is your plan from Prague onwards? how are you going to get the car back to US?
Im based in Amsterdam, if you happen to come this way I can point you to Dutch landcruiser experts if you need anything.

have fun
 
:clap: All I can do is stand back and applaud! To start by purchasing a Cruiser in October to going from Kansas to Prague via Russia and Mongolia less than a year later...major congrats to sticking to the vision and making it happen!

Thank you for sharing all the photos...I could literally go through almost your whole trip just through your album on Flickr. Thank you! Major motivation for me!

A couple of questions... In your photos on Flickr, I noticed a couple of photos of gas stations. There were two grades listed on the pumps...one was 92 and the other 80. I assume the gasoline (petrol) was the 92 grade and the 80 grade was diesel? Did you find gasoline easily? If you don't mind sharing, how much did gasoline did you use on the entire trip and approximately how much did you spend on gasoline?

Secondly, how did your tires hold up? You were running 35's, right? Did you get any flats that you had to deal with?
 
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