1996 FZJ80 Pan-American Build (1 Viewer)

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Nice build! I am planning to go the same route with the Dometic drawer fridge. Curious why not drive the 80 all the way down to South America? My wife drove our 80 from Guatemala to here and in the next few years, I'll be retiring (military) and plan to drive it down there. We have a vacation home in Guatemala.
 
Nice build! I am planning to go the same route with the Dometic drawer fridge. Curious why not drive the 80 all the way down to South America? My wife drove our 80 from Guatemala to here and in the next few years, I'll be retiring (military) and plan to drive it down there. We have a vacation home in Guatemala.
Two reasons for skipping CA. Time and overall risk relative to SA. My hope is that my son and I will complete the entire route in separate trips some day.
 
I am just curious, why are you planning on skipping Mexico and all of Central America?

Cheers
Time and risk. Patagonia is the ultimate goal and I just don’t have the time to do both CA and SA at the moment. Also, I’m much more sensitive to risk when I’m traveling with my son so parts of the CA route give me pause.
 
On board air system is finally wired in and plumbed. I went with a Viair 485C with their 2.5 gallon 200psi tank. The tank is mounted on the driver's side between the frame and the Metal Tech sliders. There's a Parker quick connect fitting on the front bumper. It's activated by a switch which I will mount on the front bezel next to the Victron gauge.

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Here's my air tools setup. I used the ARB airdown tool last weekend and it did really well. Once I got my head around how it operates I was able to attach it and air each tire down pretty quickly.

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The most challenging part of the build has undoubtedly been the hot shower system. It was a tortured path to the end result with several wrong turns but I finished it today and it worked like a charm. Connected the heat exchanger to the rear heater coolant loop, turned on the heat and ran the circulating pump and like magic the temperature on both sensors started climbing. The thermostat is tucked away in back where I can’t monitor it easily so I put a separate sensor display up front on the console.

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The most challenging part of the build has undoubtedly been the hot shower system. It was a tortured path to the end result with several wrong turns but I finished it today and it worked like a charm. Connected the heat exchanger to the rear heater coolant loop, turned on the heat and ran the circulating pump and like magic the temperature on both sensors started climbing. The thermostat is tucked away in back where I can’t monitor it easily so I put a separate sensor display up front on the console.

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I know, I know. It’s soooo much fun the first time you turn it in and see the gauge go up. And then the smile when you are naked in the middle of the desert next to the car, mid day in the sun taking a hot shower and air dry. 😂.

Are you storing the hot water in the PVC tank? If so how big is it?

Cheers mate! Nice job.
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I know, I know. It’s soooo much fun the first time you turn it in and see the gauge go up. And then the smile when you are naked in the middle of the desert next to the car, mid day in the sun taking a hot shower and air dry. 😂.

Are you storing the hot water in the PVC tank? If so how big is it?

Cheers mate! Nice job.View attachment 3166431
Thanks Ofer. I literally couldn’t have done it without you. I had a custom polyethylene tank rotomoulded to my dimensions. It holds 15 gallons. It has a lower melting point but I don’t ever plan to get the water over 115-120 degrees F.
 
LOL. NV #2. I saw your IG ! YOU MADE IT

!!

CONGRATULATIONS !!!!!!! I would love to meet and have a coffee and hear your experiences !

Absolutely and deeply happy for you !!! Amazing !!!

Cheers,

G

NV, I saw you made it to Colombia ! Congratulations ! Hows the rest of the trip? Hhope all is well. !!!! 🤞

@

69 Pigboy

Did you make it to Colombia or Equator? Would love to know ! I am in H-Town too !

Hope you did !

Cheers,

It's kind of a strange way to start out a build thread but I'm going to start out by giving credit to the often maligned Previous Owner. I saw Nate's beautiful 1996 FZJ80 on here and was blown away by the attention to detail reflected in the listing. Here's the original post.

Here's a pic of the rig before she was mine.
 
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