Hi Gil,

How did your Mali trip go, what about the air suspension. Any good?
Its interesting to read about other peoples preferences. Myself you will never see in roof tent. It hink they are expesive, heavy, bulky, smelly things that stick out like a sore thumb when you are bush camping. Thats why I have a HZJ75, We sleep inside the car and built a campervan like setup. I can't tell on how many occasion in our africa trip I blessed the choise we made for sleeping inside the car. Those occasions when the neighbours were hanging to the edges of their roof tent while a storm flew over us, the down poores in the tropical areas, the sand storms in the desert and then the times where you want to keep a low profile, litteraly, they are to numerous to count! I cant's see the charm of the roof tent! At all. An additional problem with rooftents in europe is rain! Put it away wet once and your bedroom turns into a smelly fungus factory.

Anyway thats off my own topic

I think that I will stick to the 2 spares, one complete wheel, one tyre only. I guess its a matter of comfort. I am afraid that if i take only one spare, I might refraim from doing stuff that i might have done with 2 spares. Justs narrowing the error margin i guess!

Thanks so far

Cheers,
Noel
exploreafrica.web-log.nl

Hi Noel,
I put a report up for you here: http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...n-report-32044
They worked superbly! I actually just went for a drive on a recently graded forest road closed (so no oncoming traffic) just to relax on a lazy Sunday and at 14psi with the 78 unloaded the car was behaving sooo nicely - not quite a WRX Sti but it just felt so planted and stable.

The Mali trip was fantastic - I had been to the Dogon area before but was so focussed on breakdowns that I couldn't really relax (we were on a tight time deadline). This time was totally different, I said at the beginning of the trip a few days delay is not going to matter. We (myself, GF and parents who flew down to Ghana to join us) bush camped almost every night and had an amazing time. We ended up 3 nights in a hotel in Bandiagara as a few of us had pretty dodgy stomach bugs. Saw every terrain imaginable from pure sand dunes to brutal rocky pistes. We followed the escarpment up to Douentza and Hombori where the scenery really is something else! Vehicle was superb in every way. We met quite a cool german couple in a well prepared HZJ75 who gave us the news about what had happened in Mauritania - they were really concerned as they were heading that way. Also saw some french grey nomads in a totally normal 4x2 camper van which just goes to show.... 31st December we "rescued" a basque couple who had flown in to backpack around - they were pretty damn miserable and had been ripped off the whole time and were at the roadside having hired two seats to get to Timbuctu for New Years Eve... 4 hours and 60 kilometers and 7 airlocks later they were going nowhere - the filter in the 60 series they were in looked as old as the car!!! We changed our route and dropped them off at Sevare and they were so pleased it was really nice. We then headed bush and ended up with hot coals under the camp chairs to warm up while drinking whisky under a beautiful starry sky at midnight!

added bonus was seing some monkeys and elephants in Burkina on the way home!

All to soon it was over, but it has left me with an itch... I keep dreaming of asking for a 'sabatical' to drive up to Europe and then maybe off east or sticking the troopy on a boat to Oz... if the sabatical is turned down then maybe just say sod it and leave anyway!!! We see.

But back to tents! I know where you are coming from and for the 'big trip' I would definately rig the troopy so we could also sleep inside to have the best of both worlds (I would make some drawer system and just have the tent mattress on top). But in the meantime I will stick with keeping some back seats! I did see a troopy in Mopti with a second row of seats and two baby seats - very cool, so I immediately pointed out that with a bit of work kids and a troopy could work (not got the kids yet, but do intend to keep the troopy for a while :-)

In the meantime I have contacted AAI about their toyota turbo kit so I will let everyone know how that goes!!! (would have been the business in the dunes)
Cheers,
Gil

Hi Gil,

got the report now. Put a reply on

Noel