HZJ75 Around the World... (1 Viewer)

[ivan29]

Hello everyone,

We are a French couple traveling around since 2007, we started from France, New Zealand, Australia, Samoa, Bali, Thaïlande, Cambodia and back to France! At this time we were mostly backpacking and buying cars on site when we had enough time/cash and selling them at the end of the visa.

We bought a Toyota Ace in NZ and a Nissan Patrol Y60 in Australia.
our blog from NZ: http://2008lodysseedeskiwis.blogspot.ca/
our blog from OZ: http://2009lodysseedeswallabies.blogspot.ca/

When we came back to France in 2010, we realized that our life was now to be on the road!
We decided to hit the road, so we saved some cash by working like crazy and building a 4WD to live in on the road, since that time we never stopped...

We started from France in September 2012 and made it, 13 month latter, to Vladivostok,
here is our blog France to Russia : http://2012lodysseedugobi.blogspot.ca/

We are actually in Canada on the East coast, traveling south and will be in the USA in a couple of month, here is our blog Alaska / Ushuaïa : http://2014iletaitunefoislesameriques.blogspot.ca/
So if ever you see us, don't hesitate to stop by!

Back to the car:

One morning we found an add for a Toyota HZJ75 near our place in Bretagne, you know the story, we just give a call and go to see, just to have a look... Well, we came back with the truck the same day!

We bought the car in 2010 and 1.5 years latter we started our trip around the world, here is the building of SPUTNIK...

Here is the car when we found / bought it:

About the truck:

It's a HZJ75 from 1995, 327000kms, had 3 different owners and the last one got the car since 3 years and never used it as he didn't have the time...
It's a left hand drive with documents for 5 persons, so it came with the rear bench.
Came with a Trans and Tcase in the trunk as they have been change with the last owner...
So on the Car, "new" (5000kms) clutch, rebuilt Tcase and Transmission.
Get all the bills and documents from the beginning so... why not!

The first thing was to clean it all and start listing our needs...

To be continued...
Thx Ivan.

 

[scrapdaddy]

Look forward to seeing what you did to it.

 

[Awl_TEQ]

You two are inspiring to say the least. It was awesome to meet you here in Calgary last December. It was even more fun being a very small part of the work done to repair your transmission and get you on the road again. I already tell people I was a "big part" of an expedition around the world LOL

I'm going to take some time and go through those blogs.

Kevin

 

[cruiserpilot]

A bilingual blog! I will enjoy reading them as you travel along. Such a great adventure.

 

[ivan29]

Well, I continue a little, (please forgive my english...)

We have our HZJ, cleaned and not too rusty, whatever ...
It remained to define the specifications. As we've already spent one and a half year in Australia living in a Nissan Patrol (see blog post cited 1) so this time, with the dimensions of HZJ, it'll be a palace!

Here is the list:

- Carring enough gas to go everywhere
- having the main power instaled, 220V, and be able to have it runing for enough time
- having enough room to carry all our gear, filming, diving, fishing...
- enough to cook and store some food
- having a setup nice enough to be able to spend some time inside when the weather is to crappy outside... Or when there is to many mosquitos!
- As we are going to spend some time traveling during winter time we'll need to get some device to keep us warm inside.

So we started buying stuff:

- 1 stationnary diesel heater, Webasto, 24v Air top,
- 1 fridge Vitrifrigo 42l with separate group 24V,
- 1 stove working with alchool as we found it easier to find on the road... (working with Etanol, Methyl Hydrate...)
- Found some LED system from Ikea for the inside...

With all that in stock we just had to start working!

First thing, just to gain in autonomy and power to run the auxiliary heater without taking the diesel from the main tank we decided to fit a second one.

as we are actually in a "squirel mode" for saving the money for the trip, we decided to build it ourself!

The target here is to replace the spare wheel (fixed under the vehicle) by an additional tank without limited the ground clearance of the car.

We have chosen not to connect the tanks, or use a 3 way connector. For us, it will be a diesel transfer pump. That will transfer the contents of the second tank in the original tank by a switch located on the dashboard.

After some time spend drawing, cuting cardboard for a making a template, we sarted working on the tank.

It's made of 2.5mm aluminium with bulkhead to stop the "waving of the diesel" and hold 97L. So that will give us 91L + 97L = 188L of diesel. So far we are good for around 1600/1800kms, perfect for us!

The Tank will fit at the place of the spare wheel under the truck in a bracket made of steel,

Here is the tank ready to go:

There is a lid on top and on this plate are located the following: Diesel gauge, Webasto intake, Pump intake and overflow when refueling...
The tank is hold in the bracket with some spacer that I built out of PMMA on a milling machine as I'm a machinist... I also glued a sheet of rubber under the tank to prevent any damage from vibration...

Here is the tank in position:

I also add a plate fixed on the bracket to protect the tank, made of 3mm aluminium .

Now that the tank is fitted on the truck we just need to connect it to the main one and the filler,

Here is the filler pipe from the main tank where I had a pipe to connect the second tank:

Then connected:

The diesel pump fit perfectly over the tank, on the old sprae wheel holder bar:

 

[Dubbinchris]

Great looking tank. When are you coming through the midwest of the US, if at all?

 

[ivan29]

Great looking tank. When are you coming through the midwest of the US, if at all?

Hello Dubbinchris,

Well as we don't have any plan yet... all I can say for now is that we'll be folowing the East cost from the Maine to Florida the next months... Thinging being around New York early April, and by the way, we are actualy looking for a place to park/stay for a couple of night as we would love to spend some time in the town... knowing that you are not from there but maybe some one in the forum can help...

Thanks, Ivan.

(PS working on thread too...)

 

[Dubbinchris]

Yeah I'm definitely not along the coast but if you come through the state of Ohio you're welcome to park in our driveway for a night or two. Hopefully others along the coast will chime in.

 

[97 greenmonster]

I'm in Pittsburg PA area if you come threw love to chat and let my daughter hear about your advantures. Thanks and have fun.

 

[ivan29]

Hello, Thanks for following and offering help or place to stop by on the road! That's why we are traveling!

Well I keep going with our HZJ, the tank is on just need to connect and fit everything...

here is the back right lights panel:

the 50mm filling pipe:

In Red to the left the filling, in red to the right the overflow in blue, the vent when I'm transferring from the 2nd to the main.

for under the car I built a 90° angle in stainless, inside the side panel:

under the car:

The result:

Then all the line or fixed like that:

with the gage on the dash:

Now it's time to start working on other stuff, changing the sits for some newer ones (Origin Citroen BX...) So for that i just machined an aluminum plate to match the fixation points.

After that we start working on the insulation and deferents shelfs and storages ...

We keep the back heater in plus of the webasto:

Thanks, Ivan.

 

[scrapdaddy]

Very nice work!

 

[arellanon]

OH wow this is really great! Keep us posted!

 

[ivan29]

Well, Sorry for the long silence as we are now in Nola I got a bit of time to update, here is the following...

We used 5mm plywood for the side and built-in some storage:

Here is the webasto HL18D.

Then we started working on the inside setup:

We received our stove, an origo 4100 working with alchool:

And our fridge a Vitrifrigo C42:

The webasto cover,

and inside:

We choosed a fridge with a "non include" conpressor (a danfoss DB35):

As we save some room in the fridge!

All take shape:

The rear heater vent:

And with bench and table:

 

[ivan29]

So, as the inside is almost done, it's time to work on other things:

We choose a tint film for the windows, that is special for anti breaking it's 0,2mm and fit with a special glue:

First removing the frames:

Then painting the frames and film the glass and but everything together...

Same for the rear doors:

During this time I worked on a new cabinet above the stove:

 

[ivan29]

As we wanted to protect the engine we decided to built a bull-bar that will do the job!

start from a beam that I had,

then cut, weld, grind, paint...

A friend of us had this from a KZJ so why not using it?!

I cut it and changed angle to make it fit, then weld the bracket to the beam:

then painting:

That's it for the front, let"s work on the top now...

As we well need to carry extra stuff we decided to built a roof rack. We had a roof rack left from a Renault Trafic new generation that will be perfect after few modifications...

To wide and to long we decided to make it fit!

Stainless feet :

then a bit of painting:

Then on the car:

 

[ivan29]

Here is the location of the auxiliary batteries

As the car is in 24v, we decided to keep the fridge and the webasto working in 24V,
We choose 2x AMG 850A - 90Ah

It's time to test the led:

Thank and don't hesitate if you do have some questions...
Ivan.

 

[scrapdaddy]

WOW! You've been busy. It's all coming together. What are you doing for water? Drinking, washing cooking, etc.

 

[ivan29]

Hi Scrapdaddy,

Actually the car is finish since 2012 as we are on the road since... actually in Nola.

About the water, we choose to use normal water jerrican, as it's easy to refill anywhere, easy to remove from the car when needed and also no risk or less risk of spilling in the car and create more damage, the last reason is the risk of contamination of a unique big tank...
We do carry one of 13l and one of 20l plus an other of 3l so 36l (around 9 galons) so far never add trouble even in Iran or Mongolia.

Thanks.

 

[ivan29]

The Auxiliary batteries get charge from the alternator so we connect them using a Cyrix-i 12/24 V 100 A et 225 A from Victron.

To keep an eye on what's going on with the power we add a panel on the side of the fridge cabinet:

To operate, Fridge, heater and common 12V from a converter (24v / 12V 10A).
We also fit an inverter (24V/220V).
We can also control the Tension of the batteries engine and Auxiliary .

during the process we also received some parts from one of our sponsors Euro4x4parts, so it was time to work on the suspensions...

So we fit New leaf springs Maxitrac +300kgs and also add a leaf at the rear to make it a + 700kgs news chocks absorber Tough Dog, steering chocks absorber OME and a new radiator.

 

[ivan29]

Almost finish, just needed a Snorkel, a pre filter fg500 and of course some boxes on the roof rack.

I found some fiberglass boxes from the army but they were to high for the roof so we had to cut them and removed about 8cm then re fiber them.

Just needed a good painting so let's do it!

The last thing was to get some cushion for the inside. We found a foam mattress from the boat industry that was perfect.

so here is the result in table configuration:

here are the storage behind the sits:

Here on bed setup:

So in about a year we went from that:

to that:

So we started traveling in September 2012 from France to Mongolia, then shipped the car to Vancouver Canada, from there we drove North to Alaska them Quebec, enter the USA in Maine, all the way down to the Keys and are on the road to Wyoming... done about 100.000 kms with Sputnik so far and impatient to do more!

Thx for having a look. Ivan and Katia.