Home on the Highway - San Francisco to Ushuaia, Argentina in an 87 4Runner

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defrag4

New member
Howdy folks! Figured it was about time to get this thread going. After saving and planning this trip for the past 3 years, Lauren and I are set to leave TODAY for the first leg of our Pan-American journey.
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We are leaving from San Francisco to travel back to our home-state of Florida to say adios to our family and friends, from there we will trek back to Texas and cross the border into Mexico. DESTINATION: USHUAIA, ARGENTINA :bowdown:

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We have no set plans, No real set destination other than getting to the bottom. Our timeline for the trip is at least 1 year. We are planning to extend the trip by hooking up with volunteer organizations, couchsurfing, and house-sitting when possible. We have modified my 87 4Runner into a quasi-camper with most of the luxuries of home. ie: Bed, Stove, Shower, 110v etc.

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The truck is fitted to tackle some serious off-roading, we look forward to exploring tons of backroads and trails all up and down Central/South America. Any suggestions on places to go, people to see, beers to drink will be appreciated!

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I am still waiting to pick up our truck from the 4x4 shop today where they are mounting a rear-swingout for 2 jerry cans, Our lease is up and my last day of work was yesterday so we are OUTTA HERE as soon as we get the truck.

We are going to take about 2 weeks or so to drive from Northern California to Florida. Lauren has never seen much of Utah, Nevada, Colorado so I believe we will be journeying that way. We plan to just look at the atlas and pick out national/state parks/monuments/forests to camp at along the way. Again we are open to ANYTHING so throw up your suggestions.

SO EXCITED!!!


Here is our blog with more information, feel free to subscribe and follow us on the facebook

Home on the Highway | Our adventures driving the Pan-Am.

Thanks,
James
 
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Good Luck mate. Will be interested to monitor your journey.

I spent 6 months in Argentina so you will love it there.

I also spent 3 months traveling around NZ with the girlie and we loved it. Can't beat lighting a fire in the open countryside and having your vehicle to sleep to.

Make sure to insulate the inside of the truck. We had a well insulated Van but others that had no insulation felt the cold easier.

Enjoy

Hmm. If i had thought about it I could have gotten the 4Runner instead of the Van and cut into the canopy and make a pop-top. That would be a good thing to try for yours. U will have plenty of time to tinker around with your truck :)

Some photos of the van we had.

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Nice van! We sorta insulated it using some "reflectix" material from home depot, similar material to those car windshield reflectors. Not really sure how well it is going to work though. What did you guys use to do your insulation?
 
defrag4 said:
Nice van! We sorta insulated it using some "reflectix" material from home depot, similar material to those car windshield reflectors. Not really sure how well it is going to work though. What did you guys use to do your insulation?
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(trying to translate into american english :) )

We had a 'people mover' van whereas others just had a straight van. ( or panel van they are called ). The latter are used to move goods whereas the former is used to move...well people :)

The people mover is insulated against noise, cold etc so that what all we needed. It kept the heat in and i guess the windows did there job aswell.

Your truck will lose heat through your canopy ( not 'watertight' like a mpv) .

Easily way to insulate would be to get some cheap bedding ( the one with feathers) and stick that to the walls. Not sure how you will tackle the canopy though....

But you will figure it as you go . That is often the fun part :)

You want it to be snug like this...

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and not like this

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:)
 
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hell yea

What a killer idea! Ive been travelling to central America for 13 years... soon to hopefully become a temporary (6+ months) resident. It's definitely amazing country, and you will undoubtedly see some amazing, beautiful, frightening, unbelievable and truly once in a lifetime stuff. The farther youput yourself out there the more likely you are to have a life influencing experience. You're girl must be cooler than hell too ... I hope you all have a GREAT TIME!
When I was in panama a couple summers ago, we were told that the pan am actually "disintigrates" between southern most panama and northern S.A. (Colombia). Our Panamanian friend, whom we met in portobello, hooked us up with a great surf spot on the carribean.... he also told us of the road. Apparently its attempted by maxed out lc's and h1's and the likes. Just a heads up....

HAVE FUN
Ray
 
Awesome idea for a road trip...good luck. The only time I've ever been close to there was in the military, not exactly a social trip, but would love to do it like you. Have fun, we'll be watching from the snow.
 
yep shipping around the darien gap to columbia in a storage container :bravo:

thanks for the encouragement guys!
 
defrag4 said:
yep shipping around the darien gap to columbia in a storage container :bravo:

thanks for the encouragement guys!
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What's that going to run you, do you know yet?

And are you pre-arranging transit between countries with anybody? Missions, humanitarian agencies, that sort of thing? I've heard travel can be a little "expensive" without...
 
KidVermicious said:
What's that going to run you, do you know yet?

And are you pre-arranging transit between countries with anybody? Missions, humanitarian agencies, that sort of thing? I've heard travel can be a little "expensive" without...
Click to expand...

If I can find someone to split the container with it should run around $5-700

nah no need for all that, lots of people are doing this same trip, you get stopped and hassled for bribes from time to time but if you just stand your ground and give them a hard time they will most often let you go, they are just looking for dumb tourists who will roll over and give them what they want
 
GEOFF said:
The truck looks great-how much coin did you drop into that? The electrical up grades are great
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its got a fresh 22RE from Davez Offroad here in Northern California, ran me $1200 for the rebuild. Electronics were about $500, winch/sliders/bumpers/supension/installation was another 2K or so.

Looking back I probably should have just saved up a bunch of money at once and bought a newer 4runner but I pieced it together when I had the cash, shes pretty solid!
 
Good luck on your journey! I am definitely going to subscribe to this thread and your blog. You are going to see some amazing and life changing things on your travels.
Oh, and I second the notion that your girl is cool as hell! My wife's adventuresome, but no where near this lol.
Nice truck btw.
 
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