Planning, Preparation and MORE Planning!
We believe the idea to take the trip came about sometime in ’22 between September and the November Annual Baja Run. Something about camping on a deserted beach way down on the Baja Peninsula with great friends let these awesome ideas come to life (and maybe a wee bit ‘O Tequila). We didn’t have a start date, only our commitment, but we knew it would be in ’24, so over a year to get ready…PLENTY of time….right?? Well, no start date turned into Jan 4th, 2024 and the preparation train left the station. Here is a little insight into what each of us went through getting ready for our epic adventure…
This is Gary, a guy we both met at Overland Expo in May of 2023. He did the southern PanAmerican route on a 650 Kawasaki motorcycle by himself about 5 years ago. He had great stories and provided good tips for us as we began prep for our trek.
Edel’s
Queenie is Edel’s 1984 Range Rover Dormie and she is such the eye candy. Great overlanding rig and people can’t help but give Edel’s a “thumbs up” or stop and to talk when he is camping. Brought over from France about 15 years ago, Queenie has been all over the US and parts of Canada and Baja and completed the northern route of the PanAmerican highway 2 times already. She is a seasoned overlanding machine, but needed some critical maintenance work before attempting the trip down south. Finding good mechanics for such a rig is tough, and Edel’s “knows a guy” in Payton, Az who was up to the challenge. He dropped it off in August with severe steering, suspension and assorted electrical issues. Over the course of the next 5 months Bob the mechanic took several runs at resolving the list. Edel’s picked up Queenie a handful of times thinking all issues were resolved, but she wasn’t finally trip ready until 1/3, two days before departure!
Matt & Tracy
There were lots of discussions, emails and texts about all the myriad of things we needed to address and those are time consuming: documentation requirements, shipping vehicles, the route to take, safety issues, sights to see, things to do, insurance, etc., etc. However, one thing that was at the top of Tracy and my list was something to drive and hopefully sleep in or on top of. We have a tricked out ’16 Landcruiser we used to make the northern half of the PanAmerican run in ’22 up to the northern tip of Alaska. But in all honesty, it was a little too new and very dependent on software/electronics – would be a mess to diagnose a failure. We also want to blend in a lil. So something older, with less potential electronics/computer issues (painful to solve) yet also a higher risk of mechanical failures due to age (also painful, but more solvable). We picked a 2001 Toyota Sequoia. She has minimal rust, only 143k miles and according to the “less than truthful” guy who sold it to us she was a worthy candidate for the trip. What a looker…!!
The Mechanical
Dealer records and Carfax don’t always give the complete picture of a car’s condition and this was no exception. We had to put more elbow grease into the rig as reliability is always the 1st order of business. Had to toss the “budget” out of the window and time will tell if we missed anything! New radiator, valve cover gaskets, power steering stuff, ball joints, upsize brake calipers, serpentine belt & tensioners, etc., etc., etc. You get the idea. Oh, yeah…and did I mention the rear liftgate door water leak the previous owner battled for 20 years yet failed to mention?? Essentially had to rebuild entire rear door. But the work transformed our lil beauty into a trip ready rig and since she’ll be pulling a trailer (for parts, fuel and Tequila) and carrying a large rooftop carrier (for more gear & …Tequila?), we wanted to give reliability work its due. The team at Hi Tech Automotive in Lakewood, CO are awesome. They are a premier Toyota/Lexus shop and their knowledge and expertise was greatly appreciated. Ben is the only tech who touched the rig for all the mechanical work and now I know who to call from Honduras if something goes wrong!! He did wonderful work and I can’t wait to put the rig on the road.
The Inside
After removing seats there is a lot of room available for a comfortable overlanding rig. The guys at Air Down Gear Up in Frederick, CO have a solid drawer and seat delete product line for newer Toyota platforms and they were excited to see what the art of the possible was on this 23 yr old Sequoia. With a healthy dose of creativity they modified existing products and created a few new ones so Tracy and I had enough room to sleep, stretch out and keep all the gear we have to bring organized
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The extendable sleep ledge, water tank ledge and hidden power management area were just a few of the out of the box mods ginned up to make the package complete.
The Outside
We really wanted to keep the rig low key to the degree possible so we only added essential mods to manage all the crappy roads, enjoy the beach driving, make sure we can get unstuck from places and to carry the extra gear required.
I reached out to good friend and owner of Nomad Outfitters, Tyler Shaw, who specializes in outfitting vehicles for overlanding. Lift, new shocks & springs, front bumper & winch, roof rack and exterior lighting and power management wiring were handled so we can really explore the vast open areas of Central and South America. We love how this came out & thank Tyler and Kyle for their great work. Here is Tracy down at White Sands National Park on an early trial run showing off Nomad’s work.
Here is a quick walk around with the shower awning, sleeping tent and “spare room” set up.
Pack and Go
We have a lot of gear to pack and even though Edel’s has a small utility trailer, it will be a tight fit for all the “stuff” we are bringing.
This is all the extra stuff that can’t fit inside Matt’s rig and has to fit into the cargo carrier on top
And here we are the day before leaving at Edel’s storage unit fitting all the rest of our essential gear. While trade offs were made, the ice maker, pasta maker, beach wine bottle holders, and paddle boards did make it in along with spare parts, fishing gear and lots of bio break stuff!
AND WE ARE OFF!
Josh gave us a sticker to put on the cargo carrier -one of hopefully a ton we’ll add during the trip. We put it on and we’re off
Ok – so we made 500 bracelets like you see in the video. They are for giving away to people we meet along the way. We met a guy who had previously done the Pan American trip and he did something similar and it was a hit.
Hope you enjoy following us as we wander down to Ushuaia, Argentina.
Cheers!
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