Modifications to Kwarachi

We have bought Kwarachi, a Toyota Hilux SR5 double-cabin, year 2000 with 95'000 km. Here are some pictures:

In order for this car to become our new home and at the same time the queen of the roads, we have made some modifications.

Modifications to the outside :

Cabin on the open section: This is done in order to give us more room to store all our things. The cabin is made out of fibreglass and reinforced in such a way that we can put a roof-rack on the top.We ordered it at Carrocerias Coral. The roof-rack was designed and installed by Tierra Negra.

Snorkel: With a snorkel, the intake for the air for the motor is no longer under the hood, but from above with a plastic tube. The advantage is that the air is less dusty, which keeps the air filter cleaner. But even with a snorkel, if you are in really dusty places it is a good idea to frequently dismount and clean the air filter, upto once a day. Moreover, the snorkel is useful to protect the engine from sucking water into the filter while driving in deep water. The " Hard Track " snorkel is installed by Tierra Negra.

Bullbar with a winch: In the front of the car we have installed a bullbar with a winch. The bullbar can protect the car in case of a crash with an object (animal, obstacle, or other). The winch (Ramsey) is useful to pull the car out of certain difficult situations: too much slope, too much mud or snow, etc. As we are generally going to be travelling on our own it is a good idea to have this kind of equipment. This equipment was also installed by Tierra Negra.

Roof tent: In order to be able to sleep with our car, we decided to go with a tent that sits on the roof of the double cabin of the car. There is even a mattress to make it very comfortable.And Anna thinks its a good idea to be high up and away from the creepy-crawlies! We bought the roof tent at Calquin4x4. The base of the roof-tent was designed and installed by Tierra Negra.

Eating corner: Unfortunately we cannot have good weather all the time, so we have made a litlle "eating room" out of plastified canvas, which will protect us from the rain but also from the harsh rays of the sun. There is enough room to install a small table and two chairs. This "tent" was made by colleagues of David, of Carrocerias Coral.

Jerrycan holders : as it is possible that we will be in regions where gas stations will be scarce, it is recommended to bring along a few jerrycans in which to carry extra diesel. It is not a good idea to carry them on the roof (makes the car too top-heavy, we don't want to topple over), nor inside the car (there isn't much room and on top of that it stinks!). So Tierra Negra have madesome jerrycan supports for the back of the car.

Auxiliary lights : We will try to avoid to drive at night. But in the case that it would be neccessary, we have installed some extra lights on the car, two anti-fog ones on the bullbar and two white halogen ones on the roof rack (as all roads are not illuminated at night, and it gives the car a cool look!).

Modifications to the inside :

Fridge: In order to be able to cok on the road, we bought a 40 L fridge that allows us to keep fresh products really fresh. Generally one finds thermoelectric 12V fridges (Peltier effect), which consume alot of electricity and don't cool down efficiently. Fridges with a compressor are way more efficient, they consume less and cool down more (but they are slightly more expensive, can't have everything for nothing!). As we cannot find compression fridges here, we had our cooler modified by Collado Refrigeration who added a imported 12V compressor.

GPS (Global Positioning System): So that we can know our exact position at any given moment, we have bought a GPS system from Garmin. The model is a "GPS MAP 76CS", which has the advantage of being multi-usage: road navigation, trekking, marine. We won't have any excuse if one day we got lost on our route.....

Drinking water: To carry at all times our own drinking water and water for showering, washing up, cooking, etc. we have installed a water tank with a capacity of 80L with a pump and a filtration system. The best 12V pumps are Shurflo pumps, we found all the equipment for the water system at Caram, that are specialised in products for RVs. Only exception: the water filter that we bought in Switzerland at Safari Centre. This filter is a General Ecology filter that cleans everything, including viruses.

Batterie: Seeing as we have installed some electrical equipment,we decided to install a second battery. We chose an Optima yallowtop battery, highly recommended for this use. We found this battery at deNauticos.net. We also installed a relay system in order to isolate the second battery from the starting battery, to avoid ending up with two flat batteries. The electrical system was installed by Gabriel (Taller Gabriel) during the big service of the car.

Structure: The back cabin serves as the storage area for all our things. We have designed and had made a metallic structure that fits in the back to help ur organise our things, but also llows us to tie everything down (a non paved road can shake everything upside down in no time!). This system was amde and installed by Carrocerias Coral.

Service :

Our car went to the garage in order to be prepared for our grand voyage. We took to Gabriel Gunst, mechaic of the argentine Paris-Dakar team in 2000! During the service (which lasted three weeks!) he did :
General revision, replacement of all filters (fuel, oil, air), replacement of all oils, cleaning of the radiator, reparation of the clutch, reparation of the gear box, reparation of the 4x4 transfer box, replacement of the front shock absorbers, replacement of the water pump, remplacement of diverse bearings, replacement of felxible hoses, replacement of the distribution belt, replacement of the brake pads, installation of the auxiliary battery and relay system, etc etc.......
Finally our car is like new, ready to drive all over the south-american continent.

Same as above,but corrected by a more knowledgeable person:
Subject: Car terms in english replaced
General revision, replacement of all filters (fuel, oil, air), replacement of all fluids (gear oil, engine oil also axel grease), radiator flush, clutch repair, repair of gear box & 4x4 transfer case, replacement of front shock absorbers, water pump replacement, remplacement of various bearings, replacement of flexible hoses, timing belt, brake pads and installation of auxiliary battery with associated relay system, etc etc...
Finally our car is like new, ready to drive all over the South American subcontinent.

Many thanks to all those that participated in this project:

Gabriel (Taller Gabriel)
Nicolás (Parque4x4)
Carlos (Calquin4x4)
Emilio and his daughters, as well as Pablo (Tierra Negra)

David (Carrocerias Coral)