Club der Ehemaligen
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...und hat diesen Thread vor 6469 Tagen gestartet!
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 Verfasst am: 09.11.2007 12:32:12 Titel: |
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Fazit:
Not on her wheels – as was done wrongly during her incoming voyage – but on the front and rear bumpers where they are attached to the chassis. Let's hope it keeps her steady this time and leaves her without body damage. When the car is secure, the roof tent is put along one side of the container and strapped as well. The doors are closed and the seals placed. For "Wa Bashasha" her Africa Tour 2006 is over! By and large she did what we expected from a Land Rover III: to get us safely through Africa over tarmac, gravel and stones, through rivers and gullies and up mountains of 3000 m high. For over 27.000 km she served us well. From Marc's Land Rover Defender the shocks sheared off and the Toyota Landcruiser we hired near Mount Elgon in Kenya got so stuck and damaged that it took us almost two hours to get her on the road again without rear drive shafts. Our never let us down and we did not have to walk once. The troubles we experienced were all related to our lack of experience and that of the people who we paid to prepare the car for the expedition. We had the wrong springs mounted: parabolic springs. At the start in Cape Town, we corrected this by mounting two Firestone aircushions in the rear. The rear springs held, but we broke one of the front springs on our way back in Zambia. Since nowhere in Africa parabolic springs for a Land Rover can be obtained, we had one forged by a local blacksmith! To our surprise that spring brought us all the way from Livingstone to Cape Town. Then we had, right from the beginning, the malfunctioning mechanical petrol pump . Only in Windhoek, Namibia, we learned that all 2.25 litre suffer from this ailment at high altitudes and high temperatures. In Njoro in Kenya a mechanic came with the solution: an electrical petrol pump in line with the mechanical one. In our case it worked miracles: when the mechanical pump began failing we flipped a switch on the dashboard and the electrical pump cut in. Our third problem was of a different nature: a roof rack and its contents bashing the window frame and its securing bolts to pieces. Again in Njoro, this was remedied within two hours by welding two rods from the roof rack on to bulkhead. Topsleeper in Vessem should have known that his roof rack would not hold and he put us at considerable risk. Surprisingly, and apart from the three nuisances mentioned, no other problems were encountered. We used five oil filters, a complete set of brake linings, a petrol pump, four petrol filters and two rear oil seals. All that, however, is nothing beyond the ordinary. Whether you believe it or not, we did not have one single puncture! The South African General SAG 7.50R16 tube tyres, which we had mounted in Holland, were the best choice we could have made. Once Wa Bashasha is properly serviced in the Netherlands and once the front springs have been exchanged, she is ready for her next overland adventure!! | |
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