The main drawing with all important measurements to make sure everything would fit.

     Most of the larger 4-WD vehicles are suitable for travelling i remote areas. To use it as our home, needs some conversion. Here you see some of the things we have done with very good result.
      The 1977 long-wheelbased Toyota Landcruiser FJ45, with the reliable 4.2 litre, 6-cylinder, 2F, petrol engine, needed 3 years of spare-time work to be in a condition, good enough for desert travel.
     After the 14.000 km journey to central Sahara, we went to Iceland a couple of years later. Later we use it for week-end touring and the anual summer holiday. The 4-wheel drive brings us to places we otherwise never would go.

Complete Rebuild
      It needed a complete rebuild and a lot of changes to make it a good place to live in for several months for two people.
     The frame was stripped and galvanised. Engine and gearboxes overhauled. Drivetrains and suspension checked, and all worn parts

Cut-through drawing showing the table and the shelves holding boxes  with all our things, not falling out, even driving off-road.

renewed. There were a lot of decisions to make, also on how to arrange the interior for the best posible function.

Sleeping Place
     We have chosen to sleep on top of the car. To build kind of a roof-top tent - in aluminium - Folded down it is 20 cm heigh, but contains the soft madrasses and all sleeping gear, allways ready to use.

Everything in its place
     To organize our things, we use a lot of cheap plastic boxes. 40 * 30 * 20 cm is an ideal size, the shelves can hold 12 of theese.
     The frame for the 3 shelves are made of square tubing and the plates are screwed under the tubes. They act as rail and the boxes do not fall out even driving off-road.
     The removable table measures 65 x 65 cm and is mounted on the opposite wall. It can allso be used outside, on the right side of the car. A couple of former office-chairs are build for use both inside and out.

Kitchen
     The cooking equipment is placed in two boxes. A fold-up shelf on the rear door is for cooking and dishwashing and can be used both outside and with the door closed.

Heating
     It can be very cold in the desert and when travelling in the winter time. When the car is equipped with two large batteries, it is possible to extend the season by installing a heating unit, driven by gasoline or diesel oil.

Clean Water
     Going to hot and deserted areas makes it necessary to install a water cleaning unit. We have done this in a cheap way, by mounting two 20 liters containers on top of each other and let the water run through a micro-filter.

Keep it simple
     It is a good idea to keep everything simple and easy to repair, especially when travelling in remote areas. Instead of relays and solonoid valves, we use manual contact breakers between the batteries og ordinary valves to connect the 3 different fueltanks.

Recovery Equipment
     A 4-wheel driven vehicle should allways be equipped to manage any kind of terrain without help from others, nobody knows what a Sunday trip might bring up.
     Therefore, everything is allways ready to use, Hi-Lift jack, sandladders, shovel, snatch strap, shackles and not forgetting good tools.

3 years work
     We used 3 years to get the car ready for the first desert trip. Later on there have been things to change, or make in a better way.
     Today it is filled with our best solutions, we will not go into further details here, but if you have got any questions or anything you would like to know more about, do not hesitate to drop a mail, we would very much like to tell you more.

Shelves filled up for a 2 month trip to the Sahara Desert.

Water-cleaning unit with 2 containers, the filter is inside the top and water is tapped from the bottom one.

Backdoor with the kitchen shelf, the door is held by the  spare-wheel frame.

Sleeping cabin raised, sunroofs in place, table and chairs outside. The sandladders are ready, when we get stuck in sand.

The spring cusioned seats from a heavy truck is very good on bad roads. The Hi-lift jack is ready for bad terrain.

We had to haul the frame a few hundred meters, Ulla is at the "Wheel", a pin on the steering house-

Sleeping cabin on top is made of aluminium plating.

Using the batteries for welding needs some exercise.

The new cabin beeing made of square tubing

A new exhaustdamper had to be made out of Stainles Steel.

The Hi-Lift Jack can allso be of good use as part of a self-made motor crane.

Eugene Cole's very special FJ45
www.FJ45.com

German 45'er seen in Norway summer 1995.

FJ45 build by the Filskov-man.

Two Landcruiser seen in New Zealand 2000.

The Toyota Mega Cruiser.

Icelandic version of the Troopie.

Dutch Unimog we meet in Sweden, summer 2000.