'low all,

I'm going to be spending 6 months in Senegal this winter and am toying with the idea of driving down. If I do decide to drive down I will purchase a vehicle for the trip and have a couple of questions about what kind of vehicle should be bought:[list=1][*]How tough of a 4x4 do I need? I'm planning on sticking to the track and am wondering how important clearance and power are. Basically, I don't want to go overboard...
[*]It sounds like the best brands for the area are Toyota and Land Rover.(?) Which models should I consider as (un)worthy?
[*]I imagine it's best to avoid electonics motor components -- what years am I looking at for the different brands/models? (ie Toyota Land Cruiser, Land Rover, etc...)
[*]Diesel?
[*]Any other advice for a total novice for a trip like this that might not be covered in <u>Sahara Overland - A Route & Planning Guide</u>?[/list:f8ae9a165f]
Also, we would be hitting Africa around September 20th. What are the route conditions like at that time of year?



Cheers,

- Andy

1) track is fairly straightforward, tarmac until mauritania. There were 25 year old mercedes cars, a 20 year old ford escort, ford transit vans heavily overladen doing it while we were there. Any 4x4 is going to be able to do this. Obviously 4x4 gives more capability, reassurance.

2/3)Toyota v Landrover - oh you didn't want to ask that question, its going get debated for months. Basically on the Landrover side, everything apart from the latest TD5 is fine as it doesn't have electronics (and even with electronics, the TD5 is good, just harder to get fixed if there is a problem). On the landcruiser side, most previlant locally are the 75 series pick ups and 60 series. 40 / 80 / 100 / 78 series are around. Landcruisers have more power, so in the sand they tend to go a bit easier, less need to work through the gears. But as mentioned in point 1, the track isn't that hard and any 4x4 is going to be fine. Landrovers / Landcruisers are great but tend to be more expensive than other 4x4s.

4)Diesel is available, refer sahara overland for pros, cons. We ran diesel.

5) Sahara overland is an excellent guide. The route your doing is pretty straight forward. If you take a guide in mauritania, remember while they know the route, they don't necassarily know how to offroad. They don't have their own vehicles - if they did, they wouldn't be guiding, they would be running a taxi service or something else. We saw two groups of travellers have problems due to following the guide's advice - taking the direct route over the top of sand dunes rather than following the tyre tracks round them, letting tyre pressure down to much on transit tyres that couldn't handle it.

Have fun.

Hi,

1 - You can go with a 2WD without much problems (Renault 4; Peugeot 504; Citroen 2CV). To keep a good ground clearance avoid overloading the car, which can be difficult in a small 2WD (that’s why 4WD are better !).

2 – Both are good, both will do it

3 – Avoid newer models (after mid-90’s) and extreme old models. As a rule of thumb, a 4WD between 1985 and 1995 should be a compromise between a powerful engine and little electronics.

4- Diesel is much preferred to petrol

5 – It’s all in Sahara Overland, but if you decide to go inland Mauritania, then take a look at “Mauritanie au GPS” (http://www.takla-makane.com)

Good luck,
José

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Desert Crocodiles of Mauritania: http://cibio.up.pt/crocodilos/en

What about 70 / 73 series?

Hi,

I’m no expert on Toyota - I drive a Nissan :-) - but I think that the models HZJ73 and KZJ73 are bigger than the KZJ70, so they should be more appropriate for long distance overlanding.

But anyway, check http://www.buschtaxi.de/ where you can find lots of information on Toyota models.

Good luck,
José Brito

__________________
Desert Crocodiles of Mauritania: http://cibio.up.pt/crocodilos/en

If you intend staying in Senegal (with the car)for six months then I would tend to buy the vehicle based more on this idea, instead of buying a vehicle which will make for aan easy desert passage. There isnt much need for a 4X4 when you actually arrive in Senegal unless you intend to do some serious off road driving when you get there.

I would then tend to buy the car based on ease of spare parts, ease of sale etc.

I would strongly recomend a Land Rover, long wheel based, series 3, say between 1980 - 1985, diesel with plenty of seats in the back! The route is easy (bar a few sections in the desert and Mauritania)However, you need to know a thing or two about Landies (I did the transatlantic route and then down to Burkina Faso, via Mali and onto Ghana in a Series 3 Land Rover, SWB, petrol). Re-sell value is good and diesel is a must for the local people. Loads of space in the back and room to sleep with a home made bed!

Otherwise a older Peugeot 504, Citroen estates, Renaults, any French vehicle will do but the bigger the better. Keep it simple.

If you take a 2wd then bring brackets and attachments for when you rip off the complete exhaust system, liquid steel when you puncture the fuel tank and lots of water for the radiator. Every vehicle in our convoy had either one section or the entire exhaust system smashed to pieces. Complete mayhem. Then again, they were French and still believed they were driving on the "autoroute du soleil" doing 100kmh and could not understand the impact and ensuing damage when a hidden rock hit the underside of the vehicle. Why had the Africans not cleared the rocks from this track???!!!*** I kid you not.

Anyway, my advice is travel light (weight is the number one enemy) and limit your speed.

Enjoy it. I miss it already