VanDomain.com

[Nomad]

Does anyone know what the best van for international traveling is ?
Not just looks , but the ease of repairments, acesibility of parts in far countrys like iraq, jordan, tunesie, moroco, and so on.
Ofcourse it needs to be a good car too, it cant break down to often and it needs to be able to cary a shitload of stuff.
AAAAND it needs to be able to blend in with everyday trafiq.

To clearifie, the plans to go from the netherlands to spain, then go overseas , hit the coast of moroco, keep traveling northcoast of africa, then hit midle east, and eventualy make a stop in israel. then on a later stadium, 2-3 years go on , and hit India and the borders of rusia, and eventualy, go back india, goa.

seems imposible perhaps ?
wel i know for one it can be done, il prove it to ya !

but i do need help on picking a good van for such an odyssey.
im thinking perhaps VW Transporter T3-(maybe 4 or even 5 but i dont know how the ease of geting parts is for such cars.)
Maybe a mercedes Vito, but thats a small chance as those cars are hard to come by once you leave west europe.

thats all i can think of for now,
oh and thanks for taking the time to read trough my wals of text

[Doc]

Being here in Canada, I for one would not be sure....but I would lean towards Mercedes or Vw....Watching news casts from various areas over there seems to see a lot of both... diesel fueled as well....I would choose run flat tires, especially since you mentioned Iraq.......bullet proofing may be desirable....

I would also out fit the van with basic spares, fan belts, 2 or three spare tires, extra sets of fuel , air and oil filters { especially in sandy conditions)...

Other than that, get on the Mercedes and VW web sites, and get a list of dealerships in all the areas you are heading to ....

[Nomad]

why thank you for your replie Doc,
having a spare set of tires is indeed a good plan,and if posible il try to get a few extra engine parts too, incase the van breaks down in the midle of nowhere.
But bullet proofing seems a bit extreme, and it will defnitely screw up the fuel usage becuase of the extra weight.

Im thinking of geting some solar cells to place on the van, but i need to do some more research to see if this is even posible, after all it cant be just any solar cell, they need to be removable as well.

perhaps anyone got some experience with solar cells , or anyone who has actualy been in the midle east could tell me some about their traveling methods, or oufcourse if anyone got any methods at all, it would be apreciated very much !

~Nomad

PS:
I forgot to tell, i wont be traveling alone, il be taking a barzoi with me,

[Superbeast]

Welcome aboard! What your proposing can and has been done. There are even sites dedicated to it. I built a van 2 years ago for a couple that did a similar trip, but only a very small portion. They ran the Pan American highway.

There is a lot of info out there and you could prolly use any of the vehicles you mentioned as long as you research and find out about parts availability, and size it for your needs.

A diesel is a must and I would imagine 4x4 also. Keep us posted on your endeavors and we'll help out in any way possible.

[Nomad]

hehe thanks for your replie superbeast,
your post has helped me alot, now i know for certain that it can be done , and i did some google research too, ive found a few links that could help .
can i ask you how much money it costed you to build your van ?
i did hear alot of difrent people say alot of difrent things, like LPG gas is the best fuel in arabia, while annother one says you cant tank LPG after the border of greece, or you should make your van look like a camper so people wont break in and steal your stuf , while someone else told me to make it look like its one of the normal vehicles so it wont be robbed..
or , someone told me to park in desolated areas so people wont find your car, while someones else told me to park in heavy crowded areas..
So i was thinking perhaps the people who already did it got some real advice.
and i gues 2 years is enough time to get ready , il keep that in mind.
my original plan was to leave in august 2010 or december 2011 but thats geting harder and harder to acomplish so fat chance il be delaying it a bit, but not to much.

also, does anyone know something about driver plates ? is it a wise idea to ride with dutch plates ? i have heard something of exhanging your plates with simple black and white plates , they should be legal too, whilst the dutch plate ( yelow , black,blue) may atract some unwanted atetion.

and about security, im planing to take my dog with me, perhaps a bat ( not a flying one ) and ofcourse a alarm system, one that cuts the fuel when someone trys to steal it .
and does anyone know if those radiosending boxes that truckers used to use are still in use ? if so, il defnitly get a set of those !

oh finaly, im thinking of taking around 8000 euro with me.
of which 5000 wont be touched.. i have a special purpose for that once il reach Goa,India haha
2 thousand is for fuel, ofcourse it wil be much more but i got a plan to make money along the way, its by selling foods and drinks at beaches.
( i once knew a english guy who did that and was living of that in france, for 5 years and he wasnt complaining )
thousand euro is for the food , and for maintaning the emergency kit ( first aid, food ,water, and a flare gun for a worst case scenario )
oh and ofcourse if by any chance the 5 thousand will be used i will refil it with the beach money.( the only way il touch that money is incase the van breaks down so bad it can only be repaired by a profesional.)

hehe thats one long post im about to submit now haha

[Superbeast]

Sorry, it's been a while. I've been laid up with back issues AGAIN.

First off this wasn't my van, but one I had built for someone. The cost was prolly around $25k US but a lot of that money was because they chose to use an older van tat needed a lot of work besides the conversion.

I too have heard all the LPG type stories and issues. From everything that I had heard, read and designed int the van that I built, my recommendation is to use a diesel vehicle and use as many diesel appliances and solar with 12 v equipment as possible.

We used a 86 4x4 maxi Ford for this trip and it worked out well for them with the exception of a few mechanical issues that they overlooked. They chose to use LPG for heating water, heat and cooking. They didn't have much choice because their van was gas powered. They also installed a small 12 volt fridge that only drew 2.9 amps under constant load so with a few batteries and a good solar panel on the roof it could run constantly without any issues.

As far as safety goes, there is a lot to consider. Taking any cash is a must I'm sure, but it may be safer for you to use a credit card or travel form of currency exchange. I'm not very familiar with the areas you will be traveling through so your best bet is to contact the authority in each area to see what is best.

One safety item that we talked about installing in their van (they were going to do) was installing a safe built into the floor or out of the way place (not easily seen) for important papers and valuables.

Keep me posted on your endeavors, and ask away if you have any more questions.

[Doc]

I was just wondering if there is an Auto Club over there with the info needed close at hand ? Here in Canada we have The Canadian Automobile Association ( CAA), and in the USA AAA, American Automobile Association.

Also there may be a RV Association that may have some tips...especially insurance in all areas , safety, emergency breakdown etc etc....

May be worth the surf