Tuesday, August 23, 2016

The Dutch House on Wheels

In recent years, our little country has been attracting lots of people from all over the world. More and more tourists are including Armenia in their itineraries. I recently wrote about a couple from the Netherlands, who made an unbelievably long way on their Toyota Hilux driving through the entire territory of Armenia and making detailed reports on their impressions in their personal blog.




This time I had a chance to meet another wonderful Dutch crew. Very modest in appearance, but strong and resolute, the guys arrived at the Toyota Center in Yerevan on a military Toyota Land Cruiser 80. Armenia was lying on their way between Turkey, Georgia and Iran. In spite of the release data (1996), the car was in an ideal condition and only needed timely maintenance, which was going to be provided by our specialists.





Now let’s figure out what car it is, and why our guests chose exactly this vehicle to travel around the world.
As it turned out, the car underwent a complete restoration last year. It was transformed from a usual SUV into a “motorhome”. The original 1HZ 4.2 L diesel engine was replaced with a new one, which had a turbocharger and a massive intercooler. The car is fitted with enhanced professional Tough Dog off-road suspension with thick absorbers and deeply modified units- with their huge potential, they are specially designed for long trips on rough terrain.


At the rear, the car has a rigid axle with a self-locking differential. At the front, there is the solid Aisin axle, which has a manual locking option. The car was modified in the “Tom's Fahrzeugtechnik” workshop, known for its serious modifications of Toyota Land Cruisers since 2001.
The body was fundamentally remade. Now it has a 4-door layout with an extra camper on the chassis. This Land Cruiser is equipped with two water tanks and autonomous power supply system, which is charged from the solar panels installed on the roof.



The interior of the car offers all the possible facilities for comfortable accommodation for at least two people. The quality and work performed on this car deserves emulation for its class. It is perfectly adapted to conquer impassable areas delivering maximum impressions to its passengers.