Best vehicle to drive to Tierra del Fuego (1 Viewer)

[beckstei]

Hi all,
Not sure which forum to post this in, so I'm just jumping in here. Just joined. I'm looking for a vehicle to drive from Michigan to Rio de Janeiro via Tierra del Fuego. I'd like to be able to go into reasonably rugged areas along the way, but I'm not very young anymore so I'm probably not going to go deep into any wilderness. I'd like to put a rooftop tent on the vehicle and create some 'hidden' high security lockers because I'm a photographer and will have a good amount of gear with me.

I've almost settled on a land cruiser, 4wd, manual transmission, and diesel (because I'm concerned about the high amount of alcohol in gas in Brazil). A friend has offered me his 4-runner, but I'm not sure about it because of the fuel issue - not flex.

Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
B

 

[joseywales]

Since nobody has responded, I’ll jump in. Welcome to ‘Mud. I would head over to ExPo (Expedition Portal) and find people who have recently driven in Brazil. There will be some good info there. I would spend some time researching which Toyota’s were available in the most countries, and with the most common engines etc. That might just be a 4Runner.

What is your budget? The words “Land Cruiser” and “ diesel with manual transmission” equate to a big pile of cash when uttered together in North America.

 

[mr jits]

Hi all,
Not sure which forum to post this in, so I'm just jumping in here. Just joined. I'm looking for a vehicle to drive from Michigan to Rio de Janeiro via Tierra del Fuego. I'd like to be able to go into reasonably rugged areas along the way, but I'm not very young anymore so I'm probably not going to go deep into any wilderness. I'd like to put a rooftop tent on the vehicle and create some 'hidden' high security lockers because I'm a photographer and will have a good amount of gear with me.

I've almost settled on a land cruiser, 4wd, manual transmission, and diesel (because I'm concerned about the high amount of alcohol in gas in Brazil). A friend has offered me his 4-runner, but I'm not sure about it because of the fuel issue - not flex.

Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
B

A friend of mine did the exact trip your thinking of in an F250. He thought of using an 80 series (in fact that's how we met, we were going to do a trade of his 40 for my 80), but found that the Ford allowed him a good bit of anonymity in SA (he doesn't look like a wealthy gringo), as well as having great parts availability. He's now been all over SA, and from what I can tell, has no plans on being back any time soon (he met and married a gal from Argentina, and has now been in SA for three years, still driving his Ford everywhere).