Like many people during 2019 to 2022, covid 19 lockdown years, we had time to think and reassess our lifestyles. Not to say that we had an unpleasant lifestyle at the coast. I would put it like this: when your mindset has shifted toward becoming complacent about most things around you, you should take the responsibility of finding your happiness again. So we started by giving up our rustic wooden cheap rental home, what a relief it was to give that place up, we’d been there way to long and never had the courage to give it up because of our perennial problem of not having enough money to afford something better. Our new home would have to be mobile and it made sense to kit out our 1988 Land Cruiser to achieve this. Read the’ “journey begins” post to learn more about why we started the trip.
With the key left behind in the door, the entrance to the place we called home, we said our polite goodbyes to the landlord and just made the deadline being the 1st of July 2023. Fully loaded, with an inch or two of space to see out the back window, and fully irritated with each other, we took to the N2 and drove to Lances folks place in Port Elizabeth where we would stay for 6 tough weeks to prep the car for our big adventure.
It’s a long process to find what materials and equipment you really need for a trip like this. Take note that shops will have everything you need and more, so try go into a shop with specific questions and name the equipment you are looking for, especially if you have a tight budget.
With our salaries combined and the sales from the household possessions we would only just cover the basics of what we really needed to kit the car out properly. This made it clear to us that we would need to get most of the equipment discounted, or second hand, which meant that we would have to search online and ask friends for any recommendations of places selling the specific equipment we needed.
Preparation timeline:
- Plettenberg Bay; move and pack-up households – April & May
- Port Elizabeth( Gabegha); purchased most of the overland gear – June & July
- Cape Town & Cape Agulhas; trial run – late July & Aug up until the 11th Sep
- Citrusdal, Springbok, Kleinzee, Namakwa; on our way – 11th September to 19th September
- Namibia border post- 19th September
Overland equipment
Click to scroll to the category you would like to read about.
Backup Battery
The backup battery is quite a crucial part to over-landing, especially if you will be needing to charge laptops, phones, fridges and camera gear.
There are two ways to go about installing a battery system and these are the questions one should ask oneself to determine which method will work best for you: How much power do I need every day?, What does the fridge need in voltage and amps to run properly? ( this will run all the time so it will be your main power user), Do I need the battery system to be portable or built in? Will I be using a battery a lot without charging it up again to 100%? What is my budget?
After asking ourselves these questions, we decided to go with a built in dual Lithium 12 Volt backup battery system. We googled some places in PE and asked friends for advice and “Battery Power Zone” was the place we settled with. They were outstanding and the service, affordability and quality of their work was more than we could have asked for. Rodel and his team installed the battery and battery charger inside the battery box, put in a safety switch and connected this battery to the car battery. Before installation could commence “battery power zone” advised us on what they needed to continue (free of charge): welding cables, lugs, battery box, invertor and a DC to DC circuit breaker. This method definitely takes a bit longer to install than the portable system but it will last a lot longer and provides you with a longer supply of power. The gel batteries were a lot cheaper but they wont give you the same long lasting power that one needs on a year or more road trip.
The Draw System
When you want to just quickly grab a towel, or put on a jersey and drink a cold beer, the last thing you want to do is start shifting boxes and moving random items that don’t have a place just to do a basic task. A drawer system is what you will need, home made or factory made it really doesn’t matter, everything will need a dedicated space to call home. We looked online at various websites but couldn’t find a draw system that we could afford. To make one from scratch would take too long and we wanted something sturdy and strong, so we looked on facebook market place and found a 90L steel & wood draw system manufactured by BigCountry, that was up for sale. It just fitted in the back with the back seats pushed forward by a few cm. The next step was to see what to store in the draws and to fit our 56litre fridge freezer in the slider. After repacking the draws a few times, we eventually settled with the bottom draw storing our food and the kitchen appliances and then the top draw being used as our closet and toiletry storage space.
The Solar Panel & Fridge
We had the battery system setup but needed a power supply that would charge the battery when we weren’t driving the car, otherwise the backup battery would drain too quickly and we could risk the battery getting damaged. A solar panel would do the job, so we needed to source the right solar panel that would work for us. Based on the 12 V backup battery we had installed, we knew we needed a compatible battery charger & inverter. We looked online and found that Snomaster had a really nice foldable portable 200W solar panel, which would be enough watts to charge the battery well enough and the solar panel came with some cables to connect it DC to DC ( direct current from the battery) or AC to AC (plug the fridge into a plug socket).
The 56 Liter dual fridge and freezer by Snomaster seemed like the perfect fit for us and it fitted perfectly in the 90Liter draw slider that we had already obtained. The size of the fridge and freezer is big enough for storing cold food enough for about 2 weeks for two people. The freezer is very handy as you can freeze your meat and veg and freeze your water bottles giving you ice cold water for the day’s journey.
The Awnings
The thought behind the awnings was obvious, most overlanders needs shade in the hot African sun and need shelter from the seasonal rains. Luckily we had some good insight from our friend in the caravan business, caravan doctor, and he advised us to go to “Nanini awnings”. They worked hard to satisfy our tight deadline. The team were great and customized the panels to fit our needs. They were the most affordable canvas and awnings company we could find and they did a great job.
The Recovery Tracks
We reached out to Pioneer Plastics and they sponsored us a set of recovery tracks. These are crucial for getting anyone out of the mud/sand, especially when you won’t have access to a winch, logs, stones or someone to tow you out. These tracks stacked one on top of the other serves another very unique function as well. Our Cruiser is a bit too high for the tents ladder to reach safely on the ground so it served nicely as the ladder’s length adapter. “Boer maak a plan” kind of scenario.
The Storage Containers
You will need to store your equipment somewhere safe and for those long stretches you will need extra water and petrol. The best way to store water is in a water tank with or without a tap, depends on your preference. We found some good quality water tanks made by Pioneer Plastics and decided to go with an affordable and practical option being 2 x 20 Liter stackable containers and another 40 Liter to put on the roof – so that we have some gravity to make the water come out through a water hose and tap.
We looked at metal and plastic petrol canisters, but opted for the metal ones. This ensured that we could mount the jerry cans easily on the roof using the ‘front runner’ mount frame and it also ensured that we could lock these securely with a pad lock. We have a 90 Liter petrol tank in the Cruiser, so we worked out we would need at least 4 jerry cans , each 20 liters of petrol, which is almost a full tank in the cruiser.
Storage containers were quite important for us as we have a range of electronic equipment like; the invertor, computer equipment & camera gear, music equipment and all sorts of “in case” items that we didn’t want to leave behind. So we bought two stackable, and should I mention “expensive”, wolf pro ammo boxes with lids for some of the items and then realized we needed two more so we purchased some cheaper stackable containers from “mega plastics” for the rest of the gear.
The Roof Racks
This is of course a very important piece of equipment when overlanding, a good and stable roof rack that fits your car’s roof is essential. We looked at new ones but they were way too expensive so luckily once again we looked on facebook marketplace and found this amazing deal!!! It was almost too good to be true, a Toyota Land Cruiser 60 Slimline II Roof Rack, we adjusted the feet slightly and bobs your uncle it fitted like a glove. To provide extra roof support we later decided to purchase 4 extra feet so that the rusted roof gutter could have a better and even weight distribution.
We specifically did this because of the roof’s rust that had weakened the metal and caused a crack on the Cape Agulhas mission. We were in great disappointment at the time that this had happened, because we had paid over 10k to a panel beater in Port Elizabeth (Heinrich at Speedy) to fix the rust. He obviously is a “schnister” and I would not recommend going there if you want an honest job. So in light of our “crack” we were compelled to source a new panel beater, which we did with the help of our whereabouts and our Capetonian family members. We found Gavin from “Gavin Panelbeaters” in Ottery, Cape Town and stayed with some family members while the car went in for repair – I would definitely recommend “Gavin Panelbeaters” (0721070566)
The Roof Top Tent
Our Capetonian friend’s Johan and Jenny, who have probably done a lot more overlanding than many other people, kindly gave their spare roof top tent, that had been in their garage for a while, to us to use on our journey. This Feather-lite Front Runner roof top tent was the right one for us , it was light and fitted the front runner roof racks we had purchased in Port Elizabeth. It was however a timely process, fitting on the cruiser, but none the less we managed and were very grateful that it fitted.
Car Parts & Essential Equipment
This is a very important part of overlanding. If the car breaks down, you are stuck with it so if you have the space and the budget to source essential spare parts it is a good idea to have them. When you do get stuck and your car breaks down it may save you some time if you already know of and have the part handy. Check out our equipment list on our equipment page to learn what we listed as essential and learn the cost of each item and where to purchase each item.