Not the least important part of any vehicle, the drivetrain of The Turtle V has been carefully selected and designed to do a job, reliably. The front differential of the F550 is a heavy duty Dana 60. We added an ARB Air Locker and protected it with the Dynatrac Pro Series off-road differential cover. […]
The Turtle V gets a Buckstop front Bumper The front bumper is a custom design by Buckstop Truckware in Oregon, incorporating some of the features of our previous bumpers like lockable storage compartments, two trailer hitch receivers, headlight protection bars and rock deflector in front of the steering cooler. Mounts for a Go Pro camera […]
The Turtle V project was full of challenges. First, we had to get rid of the dual rear tires. Duals don’t work on rocky roads and they plow sand, mud and snow. Michelin XZL’s and Rickson steel wheels After some experimentation, we chose Michelin XZL 335/80R20s and mounted them on custom 20X11 Rickson steel […]
The latest in the 48-year dynasty of Turtle Expedition research trucks, The Turtle V and its European-style Tortuga Expedition Camper have gone through a continuous process of refinement since it was conceived in 1999. Back then it was an experiment. Now, with over 200,000 miles on the odometer including a two-year/40,000-mile expedition through 26 countries following […]
Let the truth be known, one of the main reasons Monika and I wanted to visit Japan was to see the amazing Snow Monkeys. In the frigid valley of Japan’s Shiga-Kogen (Shiga Highlands) near Nagano, the site of 1998 Winter Olympics, there is a thermal spring that has been discovered by a troop of Japanese Macaque monkeys. […]
In case you never get to visit Japan, we wanted to give you a quick glimpse of some of the amazing parks and temples we saw. While every big city in the world has beautiful parks, those of Kyoto were spectacular. It seemed that almost every leaf and twig and branch had been exactly trimmed. […]
Food is such an important part of traveling to new countries. While we do most of our own cooking in our self-contained camper, we never miss the opportunity to try the local specialties. Wandering through the market place in Kyoto, without a translator standing next to us, the question was, “What is it?” While there […]
Whatever images might come up when we think of Japan, Toyotas, Nikon cameras, Sony TVs and Sushi, the beautiful and mysterious Geishas should be included. When Monika said she wanted to go to Japan to see the Snow Monkeys, I immediately imagined going to spa and having a nice massage by a Geisha. Well, that […]
With The Turtle V safely on its way back to California, we had a little time to burn. One of the countries we had always been interested in visiting was Japan. Being so close to South Korea it was easy to take the overnight ferry to Osaka and the “bullet train” to Kyoto. The Bullet […]
Coming to the End of a Great Adventure is always a little sad. We headed south toward the megapolis of Busan. With a growing population of 3.6 million, we had no reason to drive into the city center, and in any case, we probably would not have found a parking place for The Turtle V. […]
