60 Minutes

A few quotes from a 60 minutes report on gold & oil mining in Siberia:

"I'd wondered what on earth I done wrong when they packed me off to the desolate wilds of Siberia... after all, it's not the kind of place you generally visit willingly. People used to be dragged there in chains..."
"Siberia was once the world headquarters for suffering..."
Here is the article for those that are interested: http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/stories/8219565/frozen-fortunes  Frozen Fortunes 60 minutes 26/06/2011
Thought it was funny when aligned to our trip.
On our last trip, as you know we used it as a 'shake-down' to see what worked, what didn't, what we used, what we didn't and finally whether we liked it or not.
Which brings me to the topic of digital maps/navigation software. We had a system on our last trip, and it was very handy. Surprisingly, the main reason was handy is because it showed us exactly where we were.

Paper maps are much easier to read as they will typically come in different scales in a map book. You'll have a nice big country/state map to allow you to set a general direction, and a localised map to actually help you make on the ground decisions, like how far between here and lunch.

You certainly can have different scale digital maps, but the speed at which you get get perspective is instant as opposed to continually flicking windows and changing maps. You might say; Why don't you just zoom out. Well, because it's just a paper map that's scanned in, as you zoom out, the text becomes smaller.
We would certainly try to buy our paper maps spiral bound as flat out paper maps are annoying.

We did prove that you can't rely on the digital system on our last trip. To cover us in the event of a failure, we plan to mark our location on our paper map once or trice a day if we are on roads between towns. In Mongolia where there are no roads, we will be doing this much more frequently. On our last trip, the 12v laptop power supply failed. We could run it on the inverter, which was inconvenient but workable. We were fortunate as any other failure would have rendered the system useless.  Other than blowing away, getting wet, or unable to locate your position on a map, paper maps are pretty reliable.

The screenshots below show our off road navigation system OziExplorer, but we also use turn-by-turn navigation software just like your car GPS. I sold the last system (which I must say was nearly dead) and am considering buying the components to build another system. As you can see, our last implementation was slightly crude, but very effective. It was mounted in such a way that it could be viewed by the driver. In hindsight, moving it away from the drivers view would be advantageous as it's too tempting to look at while driving.

I'm of two minds in developing a new system. Whether to do a similar 10" screen but on the passenger side this time, or scale it back to a smaller and simpler 'stuck on the window' navigation device running a more compact version of the OziExplorer software called OziExplorer CE. Or, a in dash thing that kills all those birds - something like this:

Please - don't feel like you have to watch this through - it is mighty boring.

Below is a 50% scale of how the full PC version of OziExplorer software fits a screen like our old car. As you can imagine, pressing any of the buttons with your finger was nearly impossible.



 Below is a video of how the OziExplorer CE looks (he's cycling through heaps of screens all of which are customisable) - Again, boring video, but just to give you some perspective on how it's much more touch screen friendly.

I like the idea that this is separate to our laptop - if anything goes wrong, we can use the GPS/OziExplorer combination in the laptop. The other advantage is, OziExplorer CE/Dash navigation is all 'solid state' meaning no moving parts and less complexity as opposed to using a laptop for navigation and piping the video back to the dash mounted screen. Another advantage is the laptop will be off during transport, reducing the risk of damage, but also meaning it can be easily removed in our hand luggage without having to shut it down and unplug it. Excuse my stream of thoughts - wow, I say advantage alot.


On a follow-up to a previous post, I mentioned I had trouble setting the glue between the lid and the hose joiner - I bought proper plastic glue and it worked a treat.

Interesting Statistic

87% of Toyota's sold in the last 20 years are still on the road today...

It may be a throw away statistic, because most people do continue to repair cars... or scrap them so the statistic may be the same for any manufacturer.

OK, that was just a stepping stone to my next simple plagiarised topic.
"Why we are choosing a camper van"... as opposed to tent/swag/caravan/camper trailer.
-Instant setup. Doesn't matter if you arrive late to camp, or if it's teeming with rain - we can prepare a meal/relax/sleep straight away.
-Easier to select a camp site as you can just park, without needing to manoeuvre a van or have nice soft grass to sleep on. Rocks are not rough to sleep on in a car ;-)
-More economical.
-Wet ground and creepy crawlies are not an issue. Try convince your partner to sleep on the ground if you've just seen a scorpion, centipede, snake or spider. In our case, I think a car is better protection against black bears compared to a tent.
-Bail-ability. If something doesn't feel right, just start the engine and drive off.

Woah - is this the moon?

Had to share this video. This has to be what the moon is like:

It's a pity we won't be taking a nice comfy new 200 series land cruiser (as pictured above) however we should be happy we don't have to take the rattly old land rover (pictured second).

Non trip related issue

Well, indirectly it's trip related as it is a setback.

Today one of the work cars was broken into. It was one of a few parked on the road that were all damaged. For the great majority of the day, I was completely unfazed by this event. These things happen I said. That was until I called the insurance company - they want to charge a $~650 excess which I am struggling to remain peaceful about. When challenged, the unhelpful representative informed me that as the person that damaged the car can't be identified, I have to wear the expense. It shouldn't come as a surprise, as I understand their perspective, but when I've had 6 policies (3 I currently maintain) with this insurer and never made a claim... I struggle to see the justice. The policy costs ~$700/Year. Multiply that by all the years and I think they owe me. I will approach them with fresh perspective tomorrow to see if I get anywhere.
Initially I wasn't even angry at the thief who would have got all of $5 in change out of the car. But as I drove home in the freezing cold with a broken window in the car that I saved to purchase, service, clean and generally baby, my concern for the welfare of the individual or individuals is gone. There is glass everywhere. For seats that have never had anything spilt on, carpets that have never been uncovered, to see glass shards through everything - it's heart breaking to say the least. I'm confident I'll be finding glass for years. All for what... $5?! Thanks - *feel free to insert your own expletive*

I can't help but wonder, what you would do, if you saw the perpetrator. I imagine that otherwise placid individuals, would quickly see the situation accelerating into the perpetrator's head getting smashed on the kerb with whatever they used to damage your belongings. How are people raised with such disrespect and lack of regard for other people. I really don't know. Well, I have my suspicions, but here is not the place.

In the whole scheme of things, it's the tiniest event known to man. But, much more than the minor inconveniences of this event, is the lingering concern, that these people are still breathing and no doubt breading this filth into society.

Has anyone seen Gran Turino?

Video Testing

It occurred to me that if we are to have an awesome video camera, that we need to make sure we have enough power to edit it on the road.... unlike the technical disaster that was the 'Car PC'. It didn't have enough power to play 720p videos let alone edit and render them.

I've downloaded some AVCHD clips and intend to manipulate them together to make sure the laptop is fast enough. Most high end Panasonic & Sony camcorders record in AVCHD (After all, the format was developed by both of these players in partnership).

You might wonder why I suspect it'll be an issue, well, its a lot more data...

Click on this diagram to see a graphical representation of how much more data there is in 1080p as compared to even 480p broadcast footage.

From some rough numbers, the difference in data between 480p (Digital TV) and 1080p is roughly 7 times more data. This has flow on effects in the ability to store, process, render and upload 7 times more data.

I've been trying out numerous editing packages on the laptop to make sure they are quick enough. I'm glad I did:
-Adobe premier 8 was unable to work with AVCHD footage fast enough to be useful.
-Adobe Premier 9 was nice and fast until another layer was introduced, rendering it unusable.
-Windows Live Movie maker was flawless, working super fast in every scenario. It's a bit basic, but may suffice for our 'on the road' editing. It covers 90% of what most people would want to do with footage.
-Sony Vegas 10 was also awesome, not having any issues whatsoever. The odd thing is that I get hopeless performance on the desktop at home which should have more than double the power.

I think when we're actually travelling, our attitude towards compiling video may be very different.
Hardly anyone has the bandwidth to stream full HD video, and of the select few that do, hardly any of those will choose to watch in HD. I suspect we will capture all our video in full HD, but only upload regular SD quality. I imagine the availability of fast broadband in our destinations will severely limit our ability to upload large high quality videos anyway. And as you've read in previous posts, even a single photograph will take minutes to upload on the sat phone, so video is out of the question all together.

The hidden advantage of not publishing HD footage, is that when we show the good footage to family and friends, it will take on a whole new level of realism, resulting in a totally new experience.



I've provided a video which is completely boring, but gives you the opportunity to view it in standard 360p, all the way up to 1080p by clicking on the '360p' at the bottom of the video.

Story with pictures

To clarify the purpose of this post for those just joining us, this is setting up the two tanks, one is a fresh water tank, one is a grey water tank. Grey water is a fancy word for what comes out of the sink.

So, after TWO HOURS in the freezing cold hardware store, trying to select the correct pieces, this is what we ended up with:



Here is the first beautie. This is for the fresh water tank. It's a hose joiner, with one end of it coupled onto the 1/2" pipe. You can see it reaches to the bottom of the tank but short enough to turn freely in the tank without hitting the sides or bottom which would put additional stress on the connector/cap/glue when screwing the cap on and off. Once the glue dries and it can be tested, I'll put a pinhole in the cap to allow air back into the tank to prevent problems sucking up the water. This will also faciltate the tank's need to expel/absorb air to accommodate pressure differences due to temperature or atmospheric pressure changes. It will be small enough that no measurable water can be lost. Seriously - a pin hole.

I never seem to have much success with Araldite, maybe I don't use enough? Maybe I don't mix it properly. But the prevailing thought is that I don't wait long enough for glue to dry - I'm always too excited to test it. I think my hasty glue use will result in me packing inside the cap for the fresh water container with silicone.


Time for some bling! This is a normal hose connector with a twist, literally. The orange bit is a tap, allowing us to close off the water prior to changing tanks. This will greatly reduce the amount of water we will wear as we disconnect the hose from the tank. Without it, all the water from the the filter and pump could probably drain out. I suspect the way the pump works may eliminate this need, but hey, why not.


ok, on to the grey water tank. This is a tap adaptor. It goes without saying that I don't have the correct tool or skill to do this job like a pro, but the method I used worked well enough. I used a 1.5mm drill bit to 'pepper' the area I needed to cut. Then a 'quick join the dots' with the Stanley knife and I ended up with a nice rough hole. It's been glued in as well, but the glue seems to be taking much better to this bond for some reason.


 



Last but not least, a pic of the 1/2 hose, into the provided 1/2 to the 3/4 barb connector on the pump.
I'm surprised there is no flow indicator on the pump. Maybe it's reversible but, only through testing we were able to determine the flow path. I've totally forgotten again - damn, it'll need another test!

Welcome some comments about storing these tanks when they are empty. We asked each other what was the best practice - neither of us knew, so we left the lid on to stop dust getting in. Well, they seem to have developed some brown discolouration I can only assume is mould. I've bleached and washed one of them out, but suspect it's a goner now. Oh well, it can be the grey water tank and I'll buy another fresh water tank.

Everything and the kitchen sink

This is really starting to look like a shopping blog - sure, I guess it will for a while, but once we're on the road, I'm sure we'll actually talk about the trip.

So the pile of cool stuff just keeps growing. I have been researching goodies on this caravan/camper website which has heaps of cool stuff. I wanted their email address to drive a bit of a bargain with how much stuff I was buying (hey, it costs nothing to ask!). They wouldn't budge an inch, but I was prepaid to pay $40 more for the pump to buy it from Australia as opposed to the UK. Well, would you believe this website's warehouse was in Queanbeyan! So, here is our sink:

 Notice the right angle 'waste' thing. The right angle one was 3 times the price, but I may end up needing one as the design comes together in reality.
Pretty cool eh! I even bought the plug. It's some kind of resin, so it's light, cheap and small! I wanted one with a washing up draining board, and this one fits our limited space requirements perfectly! The depth of the unit was the only dimension missing - what do you know... fits TO THE MILIMETER behind the facia - that was pure ass. Also just checked that the bowl will fit in the section I need it to... again perfect fluke.

The 20mm pipe was super stiff and there was no way it was going to fit over the barbed end. Ran some hot water through it, sure enough a few minutes later it went on, with still that reassuring resistance that tells you it's never accidental coming off.

The fine line on the ground is the water pipe after also being heat treated to get it out of the tightest curl I've ever seen. I'l let it cool straight overnight and hopefully it's more usable.

 It goes without saying this was the first thing to get played with. Stuffing the little 10mm barb connector with some pipe, we headed off to the sink and gave it a whirl. It's super fun, and the pressure cut-off makes me suspect I may not end up using the super cool blue momentary switch I talked about before, but rather just a toggle switch to override this so it doesn't wake us up in the middle of the night if the pressure drops a bit.

Here's the tap and water filter. The tap has three positions. Off, Momentary press down and up which locks it on. Very cool.

To add a bit of meat to this post as I was walking to the car with my arms full of gear, it occurred to me that this stuff only had one purpose. It was for our trip. Sounds ordinary, but I can't think of anything else we have that is purely for this trip! (Don't get me wrong, we will be using this gear for other trips around the place)
That feeling coupled with the though that this is going into a car we don't have that we'll be taking this gear around the world... and relying on it to work was overwhelming. It's like I almost don't believe it'll happen.
It brings to surface so many sinking feelings about the trip:
-Will we actually get there?
-Will I be able to leave work?
-I can't believe we won't have insurance
-Will we be able to do all the paperwork?
-Will we actually make it?!
-Will this exercise be the biggest waste of time money and emotion I've conceived this far?
The thoughts were running like a torrent through my head - and I must say, every one of them still feels as valid now as it did at 3PM today walking between the warehouse and the van.

It's getting far too cold to be on the computer typing (shivvvvveringgg...), so I'm off to bed. Night.

The power point

As mentioned in the last post, I am assembling some old used parts to make the inverter more useful for our needs (without permanently damaging it as previously proposed)

Here is the assembled unit. The idea is that the plug in the background will plug into the inverter in the last post. The black box will be behind the fascia and is in place to prevent a any chance of coming in contact with the back of the power point. Considering it's completely out of the way and seldom ever live, it's unlikely someone would get electrocuted, but for $7 why risk it! 

Because the wire in even a 10AMP thick power cable is so thin, I cut the insulation back 50mm and folded the wire in thirds to make it nice and thick.

 After they were folded, I 'tinned' them with solder to make them relatively solid.

Here it is all assembled. Note the large knot in the black wire to reduce any accidental strain on the cable.
Also notice the connectors above the blue wire, these will actually be used to directly switch the 12V required for the inverter. I'm sure some electricians would frown on this, but hey. It seemed super logical to switch the inverter on/off right next to the power outlets. Considering the 12V input for the inverter is quite high amperage, it made sense to use a provided heavy duty power switch.
It feels nice to reuse stuff we just had around the place. I can't even remember where the power point came from, but it's been in the garage for years unused. And who doesn't have an old appliance which is destine for landfill  Give me the cord!

The above was actually an exercise, so I don't want to hear any comments about how the active/neutral might be the wrong way round. I used the thicker cord, but unfortunately it had a UK plug on it (so it was heading for the bin anyway) I will be redoing this when it comes time to actually install.

I stumbled across Tristan from high school today when sourcing the black box. I asked if he'd seen 'Long Way Round' to which he replied it was his favourite thing ever. It goes without saying that his eyes lit up when we mentioned we were doing the trip in reverse.

Today I made some offers on eBay and all going well I will have another exciting goodies to show you.
OK, so I don't actually expect you to be excited, but hey, it's something to write about and keep me from going insane.
Today's activities are vain attempts to keep my mind off the continuing server downtime we are experiencing at work. The frustrating thing is that we can only sit on our hands as it's certainly out of ours. I write this so that when I look back with some perspective, it may not seem like such a big deal. I can't help but wonder, that watching the sun set over green hills in Mongolia with not a care in the world may make me think the lifestyle we all accept as normal is too far from away from our grass roots. I doubt the family who is kind enough to invite us in for tea cares about downtime.... to the extent its interpretation would be vastly different.

Goodies in the post

I seem to have filled the absence of the car with researching an acquiring the fruit that will go in it. I'm being careful to only buy things that the car will absolutely not have.

The first bit of kit to arrive is this. It's a fused distribution block. Wow you might say......... Well, it's actually pretty cool. It's purpose will be to:
A) Distribute power to the appliances at the back of the car without running heaps of wires back to the auxiliary battery
B) Provide individually fused power sources to resulting in less likelihood of fire or damage.
C) Conveniently centrally locate all these goodies to make it look professional and make it easy to diagnose problems.
D) I'm a man, I don't need to justify my reasoning!

The top section is a convenient place to connect all the earth wires without having to have bolts piled up with earth connectors.
The second section (starting at the red wire) is all the individually fused sections. I've put a 15 and 35 amp fuse in just for illustration, the rest are blank at the moment)

Inverter idea:
OK, so you'll be fortunate to shortcut the thought process through the use of pictures!

 So, I opened the case to see how I could extend/hijack the power leads from the back of the outlet, to run into my double power point. It's not that I'm running excessive loads on this little thing, it's just allows us to charge two low current devices at once and also allows me to locate the inverter away from the bench face.
The der moment occurred when I figured I could just use an old power lead from something that has broken, then wire it to the power point. Check the next blog for details.

Hard yards

I don't pretend to have a hard life by any means - I've got to be one of the luckiest people around! I continually remark at how fortunate I am to have great health, air to breath, water to drink, food to eat and people to talk to. I think we take for granted the freedoms that we have as human beings. No animal has the freedom to have a day off, or just do something for the fun of it - life is nothing but work for animals. Take this a step further, how many of us have the freedom to choose how we spend our time? Sure, most Australians have this luxury to a degree, but I would challenge that most people in third world countries do not. I'm sure hunger keeps them awake at night. If we skip a meal our hunger is somewhat debilitating... can you imagine this compounded by never really getting a proper meal, yet working harder and longer days with poor health - I shudder to think.

This is what I do - I discredit my problems by holding them relative to others and suddenly they don't seem so bad. But they still are important to me. By writing this blog I get to see my thoughts in black and white which seems makes them clearer. And typically I'll have a rant and be better afterwards.

Without the big picture in front of you, it's easy to get lost in the short term difficulties we face striving to build dreams.  We get tired. Cassie has 11 weeks of class time remaining, 5-7 weeks of work placement and then her final exhibition. She's worked hard her whole life, in addition to these two and a half years of additional study. We work hard and sometimes don't see the benefits.

I get tired. Trying to build a business but spend more of my time swimming in pointless politics than actually contributing to the bottom line. Naturally I'm remaining restrained in my outburst as we rely on a particularly petty client to keep us on track - without them we'll be taking a step backwards. I find myself continually tiptoeing around their ridiculously over sensitive ego's... trying to keep everyone happy.
What happened to the days of everyone being happy with your work? Why is it such a fight these days?
I resent being beholden to anyone - the only way out is up - we will need to secure more clients so we are not seemingly reliant on flippant decision makers. The truth of the matter is we don't rely on this client, but without them it'll be uncomfortable and jeopardise the trip.

I don't see this adventure as the chance to 'get away from it all'. I'm not the kind of person who runs away from problems. I want to have this adventure AND be able to relax to the idea that I will have a business and a job when I return. I want to simplify my life and give perspective to the ups and downs that life brings. After all, what has it all been for if I can't have this.
I have been in business for 7 years and had one month off. I think I deserve a break.

My Family's Crazy Gap Year

Comment Followups:
Tom - thanks for the advice about Toyota LSD's - I couldn't remember if they were good or rubbish - turns out they are rubbish. Oh well - I'm sure it'll get us there.

There's a great program on ABC TV called My Family's Crazy Gap Year. You can guess what it's about.
The common motivation for these families is to show their children how other people in the world live. Check it out.

Security of car:
It's been a gradual lingering concern in my mind surrounding the inability to obtain comprehensive car insurance for our car whilst it's outside of Australia. I've called the big name insurance companies, the little specialist 4WD insurance companies - none of them will cover the car outside of Australia.

The Kingsmill's overland adventure (pictured below) has provide a wealth of information regarding the countries we will be travelling through and just how they did it. It's such a relief to see others have success with our endeavours and the contacts they provide have been invaluable. Here is a summary of their findings: http://dreamers1.com/russia/Practicalities/Russia_Mongolia_Practicalities.htm


You will find by reading that site that they managed to secure insurance in Russia & Europe, but no Mongolia... oh well.

I guess my biggest fear is that we will have everything perfect, the car, communications, supplies etc... we'll stop in for a lunch somewhere and come out with the car missing and everything we have built. We'd be lost in a country with no shelter, money, documentation, communication. With this in mind I can imagine us continually looking out of our hotel window for the car to make sure no one is breaking in or stealing it.
Part of me thinks an immobiliser would be a good idea, but the majority other half of me thinks it will be a bad idea. The only advantage to be gained would be central locking. Apparently they have a factory immobiliser but I'm not quite sure how it works. It's a diesel with no computer, I'm sure the only immobilising it could have is to break the starter circuit.... which I could just as easily do with a hidden switch somewhere.
ok, now that the emotion of it all is out of the way its time to think rationally. On our last overseas trip we both had bags to keep our most important stuff in. Cassie had a roomy shoulder bag (almost 1/3rd the size of one of those satchel bags) and I had a backpack. We took them everywhere. Cassie's bag had her passport, purse, photocopies of my documentation, cash and travellers cheques. Mine was the same but with the addition of a laptop. Thinking about it, there's no reason why we can't do the same this time.

It'll be slightly embarrassing in the sense that mine will be full of technology - none of which would be helpful if our car was lost. We'd at least be able to document our reactions in full 1080p, upload them via a laptop and sat phone ;-)

Buying Winches... and general rant.

Anyone who's reading this blog could easily confuse this for some kind of home shopping network - all I seem to do is talk about products. I think this happens because I need to work through the reasoning myself, and this just happens to be a convenient way of thinking through ideas.

So, assuming the car we get doesn't have a winch (in a way I don't want a used one anyway), we'll need to buy one. OK, like everything, there is a plethora of choice when it comes to buying winches.

I'm an adamant believer in "you get what you pay for". One could argue that we always see what we expect to see, but I continually see people disappointed with having 'cheaped out' on cheap and nasty, single use products. I struggle with the 'cheaping out' approach on two levels. I resent the idea of using something once and then throwing it to landfill - regardless of the price. Secondly, "the poor man pays twice". I interpret this to say the man who buys a cheaper product needs to take it back for repairs at inconvenient times ultimately leading to more 'cost' than the higher single upfront purchase.

We continually see this with customers who buy cheap or used computers. "Why is it so slow"... er because you paid $400 for it. That's fine, they think they're winning, but they spend money on our time and a stick of memory, just to catch up with something even slightly more expensive. Not to mention their wasted time, stress and productivity. One could argue that they were sold something that didn't suite their needs, but when have you ever been encouraged to buy the cheaper product in any store - it's ultimately your cheap ass fault.

Only in my later years I've began to save money and buy once. The pressure to just 'buy a tool' to do a job once is overwhelming compared to spending 2-3 times the price on something that will last a life time. 80% of the time I execute my 'buy it once' mentality, and the other 20% of times I don't, I usually regret it.

So... this brings us to the topic at hand. Winches vary in price sooooo much.

The rule of thumb for working out an appropriate capacity winch is 1.5X the GVM of the vehicle.

The nominal weight for a diesel 78 series landcruiser is 2135KG. If we apply the magic rule, we should be looking for a winch with 3200KG of pulling capacity.

The max weight the vehicle could be is 3200KG or roughly 4800KG of winching capacity we should be looking for. I don't suspect we will be ever loaded up this much so hopefully we can round that down a bit.

Now, to make it interesting - and downright difficult to calculate, I'll quickly explain how the line pull figures are calculated. The basic idea behind the quoted 'line pull' capacities is how much weight the winch could lift vertically against gravity.

You might say, hey, if the car only weighs 3200KG max, then why would you need any more capacity than that?! Well - two reasons:

1) The max capacity specification is for a best case scenario ie. first layer of rope on the drum. The winch is strongest (and slowest) when it is nearly out of rope. Most the time this isn't the case - you would normally have 2 or 3 layers on the drum which may reduce capacity by a 1/3rd
2) The resistance provided by a deep bog hole or steep step is very high. In theory it would be easier to lift the car straight up out of a bog as opposed to dragging you through it.
This coupled with a slope and less than ideal battery conditions - you might find yourself out of capacity.
This site provides a calculation - but I must say is a bit too advanced for me: http://www.firstfour.co.uk/p0/choosing-your-winch/235982.htm

Now the good news is, all this evidence is based around a single line pull. You can use a pulley (or for some unknown reason people call them snatch blocks) to double the pulling capacity of a winch.
It's a great solution to reduce stress on the winch.
Please find below a picture of a 'snatch block'

You can see that she is setting up a double line pull

So, all the theory aside, it seems that the most appropriate winch for my needs is a 9,500lb winch (or 4300KG for us metric people) Perhaps it's even slightly more capacity than I need, but 'the poor man pays twice' remember.

Lets just put three contenders on the table.

The WARN 9500XP (9,500lb) is a quick, name brand model that has been around forever... costs ~$2500.

The Tigerz11 12,000lb winch - ebay special but comes with dynamica rope and wireless controller ~$850

TJM 9,500lb winch - meant to be pretty good ~$1000

Looking at the Tigerz11 winch (which I'm sure just was their eBay name that stuck) you can just see how cheap it is. The labels look like when they get wet the would peal off. If this is just the outside I can't help but assume the internals would also be rubbish.

I'm struggling to justify more than double the price... I'm not sure if I can. Is it a brand name? why are the Warn winches so much dearer? The sum of the discussion is, I won't know which one to get until I actually get the car because apparently they have different mounting patterns.

Why I'll be installing a differential lock

Welcome to class kiddies. This may be obvious information for some, but useful for others.
First lets explore why all cars have differentials:
For some people these videos are not loading - sorry I don't know why.



The landcruiser/patrol/pajero has a rear limited slip differntial (LSD) and an open differential at the front.
In the simple examples above where one wheel is on a slippery surface, a LSD is usually effective in maintaining progress.
It continually comes as a surprise to most people that find their expensive 4WD is rendered imobile when traction is lost on opposing corners. Examples of this include any occasion where two wheels have more weight on them, like when climbing an uneven step or undulating surface.
It gets a little more complicated than that as well. Due to the design of an open differential, these two pictures below illustrate the bigger problem at hand... when all the power goes to the wheel in the air, that means NO driving force is going to the wheel that is on the ground.

Any time you have a wheel in the air, you've effectively got a 2WD vehicle. Now, consider that all the force required to continue motion up the hill is only driving the back wheels, that's sometimes more traction than the rear wheels combined have and this scenario will often push the drive out the easiest path. Illustrated below:

See how the left front wheel is off the ground (meaning no front drive at all) and the resulting drive going to the back diff only results in spinning the rear left wheel. This calculation all results in no drive going to the ground.

Even one axle with a differential lock makes a huge difference as it doesn't allow this 'cross axel' drive loss to occur. You all understand now? Good.

Once you've decided you want a diff lock a few more questions are put on the table:

What kind?

There are many different kinds of diff locks with many pro's and con's. One of the most common is an air operated locker. These are typically the most expensive option, but they do have the ability to lock and unlock by driver command. The system relies on positive air pressure to hold a locking mechanism in place for duration of the lock. The only problem with this design is it's complexity. It requires air lines to be plumbed into the differential housing, running air lines to a compressor, dash switches, pressure regulators etc. 

The other options are two kinds of automatic lockers.  One is known as a Detroit / Eaton locker which has a interesting set of worm gears that manage to allow a wheel rotation or two before locking the diff. Obvious advantages included lower cost, automatic operation and seemingly unchanged on road performance. I have heard though that you can cause them to lock unintentionally in harmless onroad scenarios like roundabouts - which can have surprising consequences on a wet day.

The other option is an Aussie Lokka - as you guessed, designed and manufactured in Australia.

This is an interesting contender as it's more of an automatic UN-locker. It's locked all the time unless you cause differential action such as turning a corner.

The biggest selling point is the warranty - they will cover it for some 3 years regardless of it's use. You can use it in competitions, super huge power input - no worries. That says to me that reliability must be outstanding.

Which end would I fit it?

There are die-hards that tell you that if you're going to fit a diff lock, you must fit it in the back diff. I challenge these people. Toyota's typically have quite good limited slip differentials in the back diff, so I propose putting the Lokka in the front and leaving the LSD in the rear. Best of both worlds. Excellent on-road manners as it's all factory and epic traction and power delivery when you lock it in 4WD. The funny thing about the picture above with the Jeep, is that it has a rear locker. This guy removed the factory LSD and replaced it with a locker. It's only giving him a little more help in this scenario - installing it in the front would have been smarter. You can see that his right hand front wheel has excellent traction - pity it's receiving no drive.

If it was a constant 4WD vehicle, I would be inclined to use air-operated diff locks as you can't unlock the hubs and you can't disengage 4WD. Our 4WD choice is a part time 4WD - If there were any disadvantages in our Lokka choice, we can simply unlock the hubs and the disadvantages are gone...  Also being around 1/3rd the price is a great help.

This brings me to the topic of Maxtrax. I've had them for years and they are awesome, but they have one downside which is totally user related.

1) You only decide to use them once you've exhausted all other options. Sounds stupid I know, but they work best before you're down to your sills in mud or sand.

2) Usually, after you've left it too late due to the above point, you often only have one front wheel, and one back wheel spinning. Again due to the 'cross axle' condition I describe earlier in this topic.

3) Because you're now down to your sills in mud/sand you struggle to get them in front or behind the back wheels. So, your front wheels are usually the best bet.... however only one of them will spin!

So do you see now how it's all connected? Maxtrax work best with a diff lock.

This is just clarification of one of the reasons I'll be installing a front diff lock! It means climbing up the very occasional step like this on the road of bones should be slower and safer.

Landcruiser Video

I think this video is a good commercial for the reliability of Toyota's - enjoy.

Some may argue that if it was super reliable, the spring wouldn't break... be that as it may, the rest of it is still going fine regardless. See the video to the end, there isn't a straight panel on it!

Water Ideas

In the interest of having plenty of drinkable fresh water, these things need to be true:

1) There actually needs to be a source of water
2) You need to be able to store enough between sources
3) You need to be able to treat any water to make it drinkable

We proved on our last trip that we can be very frugal with our water. However at one stage we were not consuming enough water... all the warning signs came on very quickly. Although we did carry enough, we were a far too economic with it. This was due to the difficulty of retrieving our stored water and naivety on how much our bodies were using.

So in the interest of improving our situation I've devised a possible solution which merges convenience, accessibility and reliability - comparable to the luxury of town water that we take for granted.
The solution will use three 20L jerry cans stored in the car. The jerry cans will rotate between the 'active' position under the sink position and the two 'standby' positions just behind the front seats.
Connected to the 'active' jerry can will be a fairly low flow (4.7L/Min) electric water pump which will pump out of the jerry can, through a mesh filter, through the pump, through a .5 micron water filter and out the tap on our sink. The mesh filter is only fine enough to protect the delicate membrane in the pump from sand and debris.
The ceramic filter however is fine enough to filter chlorine, bacteria, Giardia and Cryptosporidium, dirt, rust, sediment, slime, heavy metals such as lead and foreign organic compounds. In summary... improving taste, odour and purity without necessarily having to treat our water with chlorine.

Don't get me wrong, we'll certainly be taking the chlorine tablets with us, but we'll save those for drinking out of puddles. If we use chlorine pills, the water will taste horrid and the resulting meals and beverages that include water will also be horrible.

Where the idea gets clever:
A) We can pick up nearly any water source provided it's fairly clear and not sludge and it will still filter it.
B) If we get a bad batch of water, we have 40 litres of known good water to fall back on.

Filter, hose, tap and fittings

Electric water pump

Of course this isn't worth doing unless you have a reason to use this cool blue push button switch for the pump.

One would argue that storing water outside the car must be a better solution but it has a wealth of drawbacks.
Just to list a few:
-Risky keeping all your water in one source with regards to contamination, damage or loss.
-Difficult to retrieve if it's on the roof, or difficult to fill if it's mounted to the car.
-In most cases the water tank doesn't permit the fitment of a towbar.
-Would need to drill a hole in the body for the water pipes - not cool.

Keeping everything 'factory' with my last car paid off. I was very close to throwing out all the unused seats, seatbelts, carpets from my old car because I thought we were taking it around the world and dumping it. My car would have been virtually worthless to another buyer in this state. You can see below the location beneith the sink. A door will cover these jerry cans normally.

Not visible in the picture above is the connection from the sink to our 'Grey Water' tank. Our Grey Water tank is simply what goes down the sink. Depending on the weather, we would typically wash up outside, but if the weather is rough we can be self contained. We'll need to be mindful to use environmentally sensitive soaps as I imagine we'll be emptying it randomly along the roadside and we certainly don't want to damage any waterways. The sink does give us a great deal of flexibility for washing dishes, clothes, self etc.