Repair setbacks

Last week I took the Land Cruiser for a service at Börje Johanssons Bil AB in Åkersberga. They have been doing the service for it since I brought it home in 2002, so they know the car pretty well. They did a mid-service with oil changes etc. But they found some bad stuff. The exhaust system was rusty and broken, and needs replacing from the large muffler and all the way back. And one of the rear suspensions is leaking suspension fluid. Replacing the exhaust costs 15,000 SEK, and the rear suspension 10,000 SEK. (10 SEK is roughly 1 EUR/USD.) And last Friday they called and said that they did replace the rear suspension on a similar LC, and then they needed to replace some other parts as well. They cost an additional 12,000 SEK. I could chance not buying those, but if they break, the car would be unusable for a month until those are replaced...

I asked Toyota and they said it was ok to use an OEM exhaust system if I found one, but I should use original suspension parts. I started surfing Ebay and calling around, and finally found a Finnish made exhaust system which cost 6,000 SEK instead of the original 12,000 SEK. Ordering time only one week. Taken! And those other parts I also found for 5,000 SEK instead of 12,000. (Does everything at Toyota cost 12,000 SEK?!?) They will arrive between September 5 and September 15. And the service time is booked for September 18. (I have no control over the suspension parts from Toyota, but they said they will arrive in time...)

It's going to be a nail-biting September...
Worst case scenario we'll have to take the Nissan Patrol instead. Not optimal in any way, but a last resort...

By the way, Börje Johansson Bil declined to sponsor us on this trip in any way. I personally am a bit disappointed with that, considering how much business I have brought them over the years.

The planning has started for real

Today I got the 2017 Lonely Planet Morocco book I ordered a few days ago, plus a Michelin map of Morocco. Now we have two maps, since I also bought a (used) National Geographic map from the UK some weeks ago. The NG map is made from some kind of plastic material, which seems good, while the Michelin map has a much better overview/layout. I also have Fodor's guide to Morocco on my iPad. Lots of reading and planning to do!

I also fitted the new tent cover on the tent, took out the standard mattress and replaced it with our new Jysk T35 mattress we bought a week ago. It's the same width, but about 40 cm shorter (2m vs. 2.40m) so we'll think about what to do with that. The tent is so nice we just long for testing it again.

BFGoodrich Goodproject sponsorship! New tent cover. Dropouts

So, BFGoodrich chose our project as the only project to sponsor this year! I will be getting a full new set of tires from them!

A few weeks ago, we had a big tragedy when we drove into Täby Centrum parking garage while forgetting that we had the roof tent on the roof. It didn't end well. We touched the top of the tent into the ceiling at one point, making the tent all skewed and the cover scratched badly. After lots of calling around, I found a guy in Upplands Väsby who helped me straighten the tent and weld the steps. I also ordered a new tent cover from Expedycia.pl, and at the same time also a pre-tent. They arrived on the 21'st of August.

We are also experiencing a lot of cancellations from the Swedish participants. Currently it's only Bernhard and us. Even Klas isn't sure. To be continued...

Preparations, sponsorship and more

Wow, it's hard to get started with the blogging. Especially since I'm starting late...

On my way to town now to try to find a map. Yesterday I got a super good deal on a Waeco 50l cool box. I also bought a 15W solar panel. This morning I got an offer to buy a 100W panel from another overlander.