For years we had suffered with our Stockton Wheels on The Turtle V. They were never true, and because we had gone from dual rears to singles, the offset was different from front to rear, meaning we could not swap the rear or spare to the front. Rickson Truck Wheels came up with a compromise […]
Back in the days of our 1967 109 Land Rover, (https://www.turtleexpedition.com/vehicles/turtle-i-2/), we had two vents under the windshield. We called that AC. Funny how we’ve become addicted to the luxuries of air conditioning, power steering, power brakes and cruise control over the years. Our AC had been malfunctioning off and on for months and recharging […]
Driving back from Chico, the traffic was heavy. I stepped on the brake and it went all the way to the floor. Hummm! That’s not good. I managed to limp home and stop with the emergency brake. Turns out there are three brake lines running forward from the master cylinder to an ABC device under […]
On an extended expedition like our upcoming Trans-Eurasian Odyssey from Lisbon, Portugal to Shanghia, China, the only thing worse than major health problems would be an engine failure. Even with our Amsoil Dual Filter Bypass system, we need to carry an adequate supply of quality oil for occasional filter changes and normal consumption. Quality synthetic […]
Storage in a small expedition camper like The Turtle V is critical. Clothes for four seasons, medical supplies, camera equipment, computers, tools and spare parts, food—it’s a long list, whether it’s for three days or three years. In addition to the Weatherguard box on the front rack, we needed more storage for light equipment and […]
A day’s drive north from Lee Power Steering in Sun Valley, we stopped at the Hellwig facilities in Visalia to have our Heavy-Duty Sway Bars and Hellwig Air Suspension bags checked. Everything looked fine, but for long-term reliability, the sway bar bushings were changed and new Hellwig drop-arms with replaceable bushings were installed. New Contitech […]
Following our brief stop at MagnaFlow Performance Exhaust, we continued up the California coast to Huntington Beach for a visit to the Dynatrac headquarters and factory. Dynatrac has been an important sponsor since they introduced their Free-Spin Heavy-Duty Front Hub & Bearing Kit which replaced the problematic factory unit-bearing on all Ford 4X4 Super Duty […]
Heading north from San Diego, our next stop was the huge R&D facilities of MagnaFlow Performance Exhaust (www.magnaflow.com). We have relied on MagnaFlow’s quality and expertise since The Turtle V was first built. We needed a custom exhaust that would give us the best performance, be high up out of harm’s way, exit to the […]
As we returned from the 2012 Overland Expo, there were several of our sponsors we visited to make final mechanical checks on The Turtle V before we head east to ship to Europe for the beginning of The Trans-Eurasian Odyssey. Our first stop was National Spring in El Cajon, Calif. (www.nationalsprings.com) They have been designing […]
Once we had all the cabinets removed, Integrated Plastic in Rancho Cordova (www.integratedplasticsusa.com), made a quick repair reinforcing the fill tube corner and redoing the vent and outlet ports which could have been the next big problem. With the leaking tank out, we cleaned up the damaged floor, replacing the 1-inch marine–grade plywood that fit […]
