A couple of weird things I have noticed.

My Cruising Cabin is happily cruising around South America but a couple of things have come to my attention...

At altitude there is a point where I lose power and it can blow a bit of smoke but later on when it"s even higher it hits a sweet spot, power returns and I start speeding up.

Does this mean my pump is wrong for normal driving and when it gets less air it's at the right mix ?

Also my speedo was changed years ago and has mph in big and kmh in small. But as I have been going along and calculating what the mileometer will read when I get somewhere, so I know how close I am, I am always wrong.

That is because it is counting km. I have tested it with the road markers that are at every km and it is spot on for km.

This means my lucky van gets it's oil chaned at 3500km, has done less miles than I thought but also that it consumes more fuel than I had imagined !

Is this a cable or cog thing and it should have a different ratio ?

Crossing the Andes, 3000m up, Atacama desert day and night... That was a weird night drive !

Hello NickZ.

Really great to hear and see you’ve made it!

No idea about the power fade with altitude. I don’t think the 3L compensates for lowered atmospheric pressure but someone else might know.

When my van was imported someone changed the km/h speedo back plate to a mph one and I still have the km/h version. There is no difference to the needle etc. A certain vehicle speed make the needle move off the zero by a certain amount and you can either read this in km/h or mph depending on the dial backing, but both have the other measurement values in smaller writing, too. My odometer reads in km.

The fuel consumption will be worse at high altitude as you say. How’s the diesel heater?

Cracking pictures!!

Hello again LH119V.. I'm glad I made it here too and my van came out the container in one piece.

So you're reading in km too, it's probably some cog or cable somewhere that dictates it. I've just presumed it was miles and it's only because the distances here are vast that I looked at the numbers.

Without a turbo or computer there is no adjustment for less air density so the 3L stays at the same setting. That's why it smokes if you go too wild because the fuel doesn't burn properly. But backing off on the throttle stops it smoking.

However I get some sort of boost higher up and my van is really happy and goes from me being careful, to whizzing along with no smoke, when it should be suffering from even less air. It's as if something clears and it just takes off.

That's why I wondered if my mixture is wrong because it should get worse not better.

It's quite amusing on the climbs because there is a black smudge all the way up on the road where engines are suffering and not burning fuel properly.

But so far so good. I've got some new rattles from being shook to pieces on really rough roads but my little van keeps plodding along and surprising people because the steering wheel is on the other side.

Toll booths are the best !

It's also illegal in Chile, or this policeman was trying to get some money. He wasn't too happy when I showed him the immigration papers and explained it was a tourist.

NickZ wrote:

My Cruising Cabin is happily cruising around South America but a couple of things have come to my attention...

Also my speedo was changed years ago and has mph in big and kmh in small. But as I have been going along and calculating what the mileometer will read when I get somewhere, so I know how close I am, I am always wrong.

That is because it is counting km. I have tested it with the road markers that are at every km and it is spot on for km.

Like mine - I just had the plastic-card speed dial replaced when it was imported - but the odo wasn't changed - I assume it's much more complicated. It does mean my MOT shows the distance as miles, but it I ever sell it, I'll just tell them it's km.

I daresay you could get a GPS app for your phone to calculate distance travelled - and compare it to the odo to make sure.

Good idea but I'm not very good with my phone and I'm on a Chilean sim so most stuff is in Spanish.. I'll have to trust the road markers they seem very consistent.

NickZ wrote:

Crossing the Andes, 3000m up, Atacama desert day and night... That was a weird night drive !

Sorry I have nothing to add to the original topic but I'm curious how you got your Hiace into Chile as I would love to take my Hiace to South America one day. I've been to Chile twice. Once to the north through the Atacama and then into Peru on buses and then once in a rental car southward and into Argentina and then back to Chile as far south as Torres del Paine to backpack. So how did you get the Hiace into Chile? From what I've read, Chile is one of a handful of countries that don't allow RHD vehicles.

Try a speedo app that is plain vanilla, numbers shouldn't be in Spanish . I use one instead of fixing my busted speedo (died turning over at 299,999). Works great, can do Mileage calculations much easier, shows average and top speeds and has an alarm for when I reach take-off speed. Happy cruising, what a wild trip to scale the Andes in an old 3L driven bus!

Kosayno... I drove my van through from Mendoza in Argentina and it wasn't an issue the people that were supposed to be searching it had fun sitting in it and only one got a bit stroppy because I said I couldn't open the bonnet. But he soon laughed when I showed him the engine.

I was stopped a few times by the police who normally just wanted a look but once I was told it was illegal. So I explained my van was a tourist and had a passport and showed him the paper. He didn't seem very happy as he told me to carry on.

Maybe you just can't import right hand drives I don't know but I certainly had no issues other than that one time.

Gonewild... Thanks, I will investigate. Twice over the Andes now, I'm back in Argentina but I have to admit my van has more rattles now than it had before, Chile was a bit brutal.

NickZ wrote:

Kosayno... I drove my van through from Mendoza in Argentina and it wasn't an issue the people that were supposed to be searching it had fun sitting in it and only one got a bit stroppy because I said I couldn't open the bonnet. But he soon laughed when I showed him the engine.

I was stopped a few times by the police who normally just wanted a look but once I was told it was illegal. So I explained my van was a tourist and had a passport and showed him the paper. He didn't seem very happy as he told me to carry on.

Maybe you just can't import right hand drives I don't know but I certainly had no issues other than that one time.

That's encouraging to hear. I've played the tourist card in other countries before to get out of some situations:) I can't recall where I read this but someone said they got turned away at the border and were not allowed into Chile.

There are lots of crossings and so long as you have time you could go further north or south to the next one.
Bariloche in Argentina is lower and you go through immigration on foot with your van in a car park so by the time they inspect/see your van it is already cleared.

But Mendoza was fine for me too, more dramatic and higher but I preferred Bariloche... The scenic route.

Awesome. When we drove we did a few crossings between Chile and Argentina. That was seven years ago and I've been dreaming about going back and doing all of South America and now that I have my Hiace.....

Maybe we will meet on the road somewhere, I'm not planning on leaving any time soon.

Be warned Bolivia is really difficult for fuel you are at the mercy of the pump attendants because fuel for Bolivians is subsidised... Foreigners pay whatever is asked for. I gave up on that idea.

Only if you'll be there in five years or so when retire:)

Thanks for the tip about Bolivia. I may have to carry a bunch of Jerry cans and fill up before heading into there. Any trouble finding diesel is S.A.?

No problem getting diesel, it is cheaper than petrol ( like it should be because it is cheaper to make ) and I have been using the normal diesel rather than the "special" stuff as my van has no turbo or computer so that is even cheaper.

I wouldn't advise lifting your van or having a permanent roof rack because it probably won't fit in a container.

Yeah it ridiculous that diesel is so much more here . "Special" diesel? I have the 1kz-te and have hust been using whatever diesel is available at the pump.

Hmmm. Just got my van last October and was looking to do the Vanlife NW 2" lift and put on 235/75 15s for total of 3" lift from stock to take it light offroading/camping in Colorado. I planned on popping the too but to keep it all under 7' since that's the max height for a container and that seems doable. They also have RORO options too, no?

The only problem with roro is security, if the ship stops in lots of ports then there is no trace of where your things went and you have to give your keys to the crew on arrival.

I have a pop top so it might be higher anyway but it was close with no lift. You can deflate the tyres too.

If you drive south from the US you will hit a couple of countries that banned rhd vehicles and need a ferry for the Darian gap.

I waa going to drive from the US but the insurance was ridiculous so I went straight to Montevideo from the UK.

The challenge is the Darien Gap for sure. Apparently there used to be a ferry from Panama to Bolivia but no longer. To complicate things even more, we will be doing this a dog also.

Bolivia has no sea look for Columbia that's really close and I think for the dog will will just need more papers for injections etc.

Going south should be easier than north for customs because nobody in their right minds would smuggle anything in that direction.