Overland Tech & Travel

Two Sahara veterans reunite

2012-05-01T21:12:10Z

In 1975, Squadron Leader Tom Sheppard led the Joint Services Expedition on the first west to east crossing of the Sahara Desert, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea—a trek that covered 7,500 miles and took 81 days coast to coast. The team used four of the very first production forward-control 1-tonne Land Rovers, two of which were equipped with powered-axle trailers driven from the rear PTO of the vehicles. In addition to completing the route, team members conducted a series of gravity measurements along the way, collected minerals, lizards, and bilharzia-bearing snails for researchers at the British Museum, and experimented with navigation techniques combining astro-fixes and sun compass bearings with calculations provided by what was then a cutting edge piece of technology: a Hewlett-Packard HP65 programmable pocket calculator.

Sheppard, already a desert veteran by that time, nevertheless learned much that would stand him in good stead on numerous solo Sahara treks by Land Rover and Mercedes G-Wagen, knowledge he subsequently shared through such books as the seminal Vehicle-Dependent Expedition Guide and Four-by-four Driving (not to mention his more introspective and lavishly photographed works such as Nobility of Wilderness and Quiet for a Tuesday: Solo in the Algerian Sahara).

Mistaken mystique: myths of tire repair

2012-03-26T01:20:02Z

Despite significant advances in technology and huge reductions in the frequency of failure (certain infamous Firestone models excepted), tires remain the number one cause of vehicle trouble, whether you’re driving your minivan to Disneyland or a Defender to Dodoma.

The minivan can get by with a single spare tire. For an expedition vehicle you need to think a little more comprehensively. A second spare is a good start, but the very best strategy is to combine that with the means to accomplish your own tire repairs. Fortunately there are many products available to make the job easier, if not always effortless.

A surprising number of the Land Cruisers Roseann and I see and use in Tanzania and Kenya still ride on stout, tube-type, 10-ply-rated bias-ply tires mounted on split rims (or, more properly, retaining-ring or locking-ring rims). I even ran this type of rim (with BFG All-Terrains) on my FJ40 for several years while guiding in Mexico. Such rims can be disassembled with hand tools to remove the tire and tube, but I found I experienced more flats with tubes, and the process to repair a simple puncture involved the same complete disassembly of the rim as a major sidewall split. I got really good at it, but it was still a pain, and the romance of having clients marvel at the procedure soon wore off.

Given todays’ availability of high-quality compressors, comprehensive tire-plug repair kits, and, for extensive sidewall repairs, various bead-breaking tools, there’s really no reason any more to use tubes or locking-rim wheels. Most simple punctures can be repaired with a plug while the wheel is still on the vehicle—I’ve repaired such holes before the tire had a chance to completely deflate.

It’s easy to become proficient at plug repairs with just a practice session or two, and that skill will handle probably 90 percent of tire problems you’ll encounter. But when presented with a tire that has popped its bead off the rim, or a serious sidewall split that demands repair from inside the tire carcass, most of us still become gripped with angst. Doesn’t reseating a bead involve flammable liquids and YouTube-prone explosive effects, or at the very least an air compressor or tank capable of producing a really big volume of air? Hundreds of posts on dozens of forums will tell you so. Even a video I recently watched from someone who should know better reinforced the idea that you need a big compressor and/or air reservoir to successfully reseat the bead on a tire.

The truth is, it just ain’t so. To prove it, I once reseated the bead on a 255/85 R16 tire using an Extreme Outback ExpeditionAire compressor, a clever product that employs a pair of toy-like AtomAire pumps each capable of no more than .9 cfm (cubic feet per minute) flow. Doing the same with any decent compressor is easy (although I won’t vouch for the $29.99 Costco variety).

No poseur machine: Tiffany Coates' R80GS, Thelma

2012-03-02T23:46:14Z

When legendary motorcycle world traveler Tiffany Coates was in the U.S. for a speaking tour in 2010, BMW Motorrad USA offered to pay for parts and repairs on her 20-year-old R80GS, Thelma, which by then had carried her well over 150,000 miles on five continents.

When Tiffany told her father the good news, his response was, “Bloody hell—had they seen the bike when they offered that?”

Speed vs. economy, or Fd = 1/2pv(squared) x CdA

2012-03-02T23:16:59Z

Diesel engines such as this fine 1HZ are inherently economical, but they still have to work harder to push a vehicle faster Fuel economy is a funny subject. Very, very few people want to admit their vehicles get poor mileage. The overwhelming tendency is to fudge the other way when the subject comes up. I know for a fact there are guys who get 25 miles per gallon at 75 miles per hour in their one-ton diesel pickups while towing their 30-foot Airstream trailers, because I hear it with astonishing frequency.

I also know they don’t.

I never say as much when presented with these or similar absurd boasts, because there’s simply no profit in doing so. All I do is raise my eyebrows and say, subtly, “Wow. That would be impressive.” To show skepticism, much less outright derision, provokes the same peculiar outrage one receives doubting someone who claims to have been abducted and studied by aliens. There’s just no point in arguing.

There’s also no point in arguing with the laws of physics—especially those relating to speed. Note that formula in the headline. In plain English it states that the drag (Fd) on a solid object moving through a fluid medium (which in physics includes air) is a function of one-half the density (p) of the medium times the speed (v) of the object, squared, times the drag coefficient (Cd) of the object times its cross sectional area (A).

Note in particular the reference to the square of speed. That means that as speed goes up, the drag that results rises on a logarithmic curve. If speed doubles, drag quadruples.

Touring tip: When it's tool time on the road

2012-01-10T20:57:18Z

Published with the permission of RoadRUNNER Motorcycle Touring & Travel Magazine for Overland Tech & Travel / Overland Expo only. Not for sale or distribution.If you’re like most adventure motorcyclists, you don’t want any type of mechanical problem to deal with during a motorcycle tour. And, of course, the best way to keep that from happening is a heavy dose of preventative medicine before your bike ever leaves the garage. But unforeseen mechanical malfunctions can and do happen out on the road. So, taking selected tools with you and knowing how to use them are sensible precautions for any touring rider.

Key Assumptions: If you ask 10 different riders for their list of necessary tools to have along, you may get 10 different lists. That’s probably because of the assumptions each person is making in several key areas:

Length of Trip: The longer you expect to be on the road the more likely it is that something on the bike will need repair. If your trip involves going around the globe, then many more tools and spare parts will be needed than for a weekend jaunt to the mountains.
Type of Bike & Riding: All other things being equal, dual-sport riding and adventure touring are more likely to result in something coming loose or a bike going down than while street riding.
Riding Environment: Riding in remote locations usually requires riders to be more self-reliant in fixing whatever needs repairing.
Number of Riders in the Group: The solitary rider must carry all of the tools and spare parts he or she might need. In group riding situations the load can be spread amongst the riders.
Mechanical Expertise of Rider(s): There’s no point in carrying a lot of tools and spare parts if you don’t know how to use them to make the repairs. Riders traveling long distances in remote areas, however, should have the requisite mechanical expertise and equipment to repair most any type of mechanical malfunction.

Is Gross Vehicle Weight Rating . . . Overrated?

2012-01-08T22:57:02Z

We all know most of America is overweight these days. But 2,000 pounds overweight?

Scott Lesak wrote us regarding his 1997 Mitsubishi Montero (the one in front here), which he has outfitted extensively for overland travel (his brother Mark owns the one following). Recently, Scott weighed virtually every piece of gear that goes into the Montero for a typical camping trip, and after adding in the curb weight of the vehicle, plus occupants, was concerned, if not really surprised, to find the total nearly 2,000 pounds higher than the factory’s listed 5,700-pound GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating includes empty vehicle weight plus all fluids, occupants, and cargo). He wondered if by carrying that much excess weight he was, a) risking damage to the vehicle, and, b) compromising safety on the road through reduced braking performance, etc.

To which, of course, the short answer is yes and yes.

Vehicle rentals in New Zealand?

2011-12-22T22:09:01Z

My wife and I are headed to New Zealand in March and I wanted to see if you knew of anybody down there who did vehicle rentals? We are looking at renting a pop-top camper van to spend our 2 weeks traveling around the south island. Any leads would be helpful! Thank you for your help.

~ Beau Johnston (www.LivingOverland.com Gourmet Cooking * Travel * 4WD) via email

10 Great Last-minute Christmas Suggestions

2011-12-13T16:54:18Z

Whether your preferred mode is motorcycle, truck, bicycle, or foot, Overland Tech & Travel editor Jonathan Hanson offers up great last-minute gift suggestions for the overlanders on your list—or a treat for yourself.

Fenix E11 LED microlight ($27)

I remember when I thought a halogen flashlight that produced 70 lumens from two expensive lithium batteries (for one hour) was hot stuff. The E11 puts out 105 lumens for almost two hours from a single AA battery—or a walking/reading-level 32 lumens for eight hours on low. Astonishing. Headed to the developing world? Take several—they make genuinely useful trade items or gifts. Fenix

Why I hate Nalgene bottles

2011-12-12T17:35:33Z

Few outdoor product manufacturers have attained the market dominance enjoyed by the Nalge Company, once an obscure maker of laboratory storage containers, after company president Marsh Hyman discovered his son’s Boy Scout troop was using their one-liter bottles as canteens early in the 1970s. The subsequent rebranding of Nalgene Outdoor Products was successful beyond the wildest dreams of marketing people who had previously relied on guys wearing lab coats and pocket protectors as customers. So successful, in fact, that I seriously doubt anyone reading this has not at some point had a drink of water from a Nalgene.

I drank the water, and the Kool-Aid, early on. The original one-liter white HDPE bottles with the wide cap were light, tough, and fit perfectly in the side pockets of my Camp Trails frame pack. They were easy to fill from a stream or bucket, and didn’t leak. You could chill the contents with ice cubes, or freeze the whole bottle with impunity. The Austrian Olicamp bottles I’d been using were leakproof and tough, too, but had a tiny opening and a fiddly two-piece top, so—despite years of yeoman service, including a backpacking trip spanning southern Arizona and three mountain ranges—I shelved them and shamelessly embraced their replacements.

Review: Desert Travels by Chris Scott, Kindle edition

2011-12-04T18:59:15Z

Times have changed when Chris Scott offers a book as a Kindle edition.

It’s not as though the desert travel veteran is un-tech-savy—his authoritative Sahara Overland Forum has been on the Web for what seems like eons. But Chris’s participation in threads there always had sort of a message-from-the-wilderness mystery to it—one imagined him typing on a gritty Panasonic ToughBook from the top of a sand dune, sending the signal via satellite using a generator powered by a camel harnessed to plod in circles, or maybe hooked up to the rear wheel of a knackered Yamaha XT500.

However, the advent of a Kindle edition of his Desert Travels means he must have snuck back to his flat in London for at least long enough to arrange the appropriate technology transfer. In any case, for the price of a cup of coffee ($2.99) you can now have the book downloaded to your Kindle, or a device that can read Kindle books (such as an iPad).

Desert Travels covers some of Chris’s earliest explorations in the Sahara, beginning with his disastrous initial foray and precipitous retreat on an XT500, ending with a fractious ride alongside a pseudonymed companion from Algeria to Mauritania, and centered around a foray into vehicle-supported (via a dodgy 101 Land Rover) guided motorcycle trips, on which “five set off . . . only one came back riding.” This period in the 1980s, just before the nomad rebellions began to make travel in the central Sahara, and Algeria in particular, hazardous in places for foreigners, is what Chris refers to as the Golden Age of Saharan Exploration, when anyone with the experience and/or commitment could undertake truly epic trans-national journeys across an area the size of the United States.