This trip also gave some problems…. Not long after we began driving the car started to act up on the highway. We lost power while driving a normal speed(130km/h). With some effort I could get the car to an exit.

The way the car acted suggested fuel problems. We quickly discovered that the diesel tank was having vacuum issues. We already experienced this, the breather tube doesn’t function correctly. Once again, the tube was full with diesel.

Before we arrived yesterday at the hotel we filled up the tank. Drove some extra kilometers, and then parked at the hotel, underground. Most likely the fuel heated up because of the “warm” parking, expanded, and filled the breather tube, the only escape…

This caused the tank to become vacuum, so the engine didn’t get any fuel anymore.

Today we had the softstart in Paris. A small amount of the contestants showed up. People from Spain or Portugal, obviously didn’t drive up for this symbolic thing. Everybody gathered at 9am, we had a short ceremonial thing, and off we went.

After some driving the oil lamp started to burn, and then started to fluctuate between on and off. We stopped at the first available gas station to check the oil level, but all was good. We have software to read out the ODB/car systems, but this software was giving issues.

We decided to go to the nearest Toyota dealer along the route in Orleans.

Fortunately, we arrived just before lunch, since this is sacred in France...

For the soft-start in Paris we need to enter the city. In order to do this a crit-air vignet is necessary. We applied for one. And even our 4.5L V8 diesel is clean enough to go into the city 🙂

5.40am the alarm clock, on our way to Venlo to meet the support truck to get our 4 crates and 2 spare tyres on board.

Crates went into the car on the back. The tyres on the roof. On their way to Morocco now.

The support truck will be passing Venlo tomorrow morning early. So it’s packing time. Tony and I both have two aluminium crates. One for spares, and one for clothing etc.

The crate seems big, but fills up suprisingly fast

Couple of days ago Tony and I went of to the UK to do a maintenance course specifically for Toyota Landcruisers. Julian Voelcker from Overland Cruisers organises this specialized course. In two days time he takes you through your own vehicle. So no flying, we had to drive there.

We drove to calais to take the ferry to dover. From dover it was still a four hour drive to Herefordshire. We stayed in a great B&B closeby; Moor Court Farmyard

In a pretty cold shed we worked on the car, learned a lot about it, and repaired minor issues. Some spares needed to be ordered, they were put in the next day.

After two very interesting days we went back home again, hopefully without to many tra...

Today i visited family with the car. One of my nephew’s(Mario Vermeer) is very invested in cars. This car endured some damage in the past, and at a certain part of the chassis some small cracks appeared. My nephew suddenly said, lets weld that. I didn’t know he could do that. So welding it was. Removing the airfilter box made the area reachable for welding. Though i don’t think these cracks were crucial, it can’t hurt to have them fixed.

In the mean time i cleaned out the airfilter, which was full of dune dust from a former trip.

You don’t want to come towards us at night… What an amount of light from this Triple-R led bar from Lazer.

Today it was sticker cleanup day. There were quite some stickers on the car from the former owner, probably from sponsors. Since we don’t know these people, these stickers had to go. Some of the stickers could stay ofcourse.

The chair on the driving side was also not positioned correctly. It didn’t have a sliding system like normal cars, the seat was bolted on a frame. So getting the chair adjusted was quite a challenge.

But the result is good, and the position at the wheel is a lot better. With the upcoming 13.000km trip this was quite essential.

Today we got the notification that the Lazer Triple R 28 light has been installed, and that the car passed it’s “APK” test.

With 28700 lumen this Lazer triple R light will help us through the evening stages.

So it’s ready for pick-up. Upcoming monday Tony and i will pick it up from the dealer in Beek en Donk