Photos taken about 24 February 2025
I’ve been asked by several people about my vehicle and how I’m traveling Australia so I thought I’d put together a bunch of photos and some description. It will just tell about the Troopy, not about driving and camping in Australia. These are interesting topics themselves because there are notable similarities and significant differences to the US. To start, the vehicle is a Toyota Land Cruiser, 78 Series. This vehicle is made in two versions. One is the two door version that I have and it’s commonly called a Troop Carrier or Troopy, in Aussie. There is a 4 door version that I think is almost the same and it’s referred to as a station wagon. There is also a pickup version, ute (for utility vehicle) in Aussie, that is almost the same but it’s the 79 series. I think I see a lot more of the 79 series vehicles than the 78s. None of these were imported to the United States so they cannot be brought in and registered unless they are 25 years old and qualify as “antiques”. So don’t ask me if I’m going to bring it back…not possible. Mine is a 2018 that I bought used with about 97,000 km on the clock. It’s a V8 diesel engine with a 5 speed manual gearbox. Obviously; right hand drive and that means shifting with your left hand. When I bought it, it had the Alucab roof conversion that makes into a bed. It had the winch, a few other modifications including some drawers made by Drifta and an old version refrigerator. I drove it around New South Wales about a year ago for about 2 weeks and decided that it was definitely insufficient. So, I left it with a company called Project Overlander for more fitout. In fact we basically threw away the drawers, the crude solar setup, and the refrigerator. Now it’s very well set up for the kind of touring that I’ve been doing. It’s not as comfortable or spacious as an adventure van like a Sprinter. But it is capable of serious four wheel driving, although I haven’t done much of that.
Here’s what it looks like just sitting in the forest.
And when things are opened up to get ready to camp, it looks like this.
A few things to note. The table that comes down on the side is also where my Maxtrax are stored. It takes only a few minutes to pop the roof up and put the spreaders in the little vestibule. That vestibule mainly serves to provide shade and protection from rain, it’s not like the entry vestibule on a lot of roof top tents. The black box on the rear bumper is designed for a Weber grill but I don’t have one so it’s where I keep my kitchen gear like camp stove and pots and pans. The little opening next to the table is water and compressed air and I’ll say more about that below.
I’ve got lots of different lights I can use and here are some of them. You can also see the camp stove on the table and the gull wind window opened to the interior of the Troopy.
That’s the basic exterior. On the interior, here are a couple of pictures with the bed down and with it up. When it’s up I can fully stand up and move around. That’s useful when the weather is kind of bad.
Looking at the back you can see the two drawers, accessible from outside, the fridge and bench seat. Inside, there are two sizeable drawers and a couple of large storage shelves. I use these for clothes and extraneous gear. I brought way too many clothes but don’t want to just throw them all away. This storage could probably be better used.
There’s also a pull out table that is great for working on my laptop, like right now, and for any other writing. I have, a few times, eaten in here and even done minor cooking. I have a single induction hob but haven’t felt the need to use it yet. Most of my cooking is outside.
These next couple show the fridge and the two rear drawers that I use mostly for storing food and a few other items that I have to get at relatively often. These are really long drawers with a lot of space in them.
Not shown are a couple of storage areas under the bench right behind the seats. The area behind the driver’s seat is where the lithium house battery is stored and there are another couple of storage places. I have a chemical toilet in one of them. I’ve never used it because I’ve always found some kind of toilet or been able to dig a cat hole. Both of those are preferable to using the toilet even though they are easy to manage and don’t smell when used properly.
There are two things that were done in the upgrade that are hard to show. First, they added sound insulation to the interior. When everything was removed from the car they put a thin layer of foam through a lot of the inside. It’s still not a quiet car but it’s a lot quieter than I recall from before. And the road noise in the high frequencies is reduced. I think this makes a difference. The other is that they wrapped the exterior. The product used is called BushWrapz and it’s a sort of self healing film that is installed on most of the exterior. It made a big difference in the appearance, just making it shinier and smoother. The big advantage is that I’ve been through places where trees have scratched the paint and there’s almost no bush striping. These weren’t exactly cheap and I wondered if they were worth it when making the early decisions. Well, they were!
As for the mechanicals… This is kind of arcane but in its original configuration the series 78 and 79 have different tracks, front and back. The front track is slightly wider than the rear. There’s a long history but it can make for problems driving in sand and mud because you are setting 4 tracks instead of 2. I had them upgrade the entire suspension, including a track correction, which means modifying the rear differential. OK. Here are a couple of shots of the upgrades. In the second picture you can see the 90 liter water tank that sits right behind the rear axle. That required modifications of the exhaust as well.
The vehicle came with a winch when I bought it and all I’ve done is to check out the winch rope and add an aluminum shackle instead of the heavy steel hook.
We also put in a complete electrical house system that includes a 180 watt solar panel and 200 amp hour lithium battery. (no photos) There are extensive Redarc controls and fusing and an inverter so I can get 240 volts for things like charging my laptop and Starlink.
There is a shower setup (photos below) and it even includes a heater to get hot water for the shower. I have used the shower but never needed the heater but here it is, behind the passenger seat.
And here’s the shower. The shower head and hose are removed most of the time but it’s an easy hook up. The shower head is on a suction cup mount so it can be positioned as desired. If you look above the shower you’ll see the shower tent that can be opened to give privacy if you want to shower in a populated area.
Lastly the head unit was replaced with a Chinese brand Android tablet. Unfortunately the version of Android and the underlying software is pretty hard to understand. But it does the things I really want. It plays music, I can run a few different mapping software apps, and it has a backup camera.
That’s the majority of the descriptions of the system. I’m pretty happy with it. Project Overlander is one of the more expensive companies for doing this kind of outfitting. But there are several reasons I really like their work. It’s all really well done and seamlessly integrated. I like the fact that the majority of the components are powder coated aluminum. That’s lighter than plywood and probably more durable. And, it just feels good to me. If I could start all over again there are a few things I’d do a little differently, mostly a different rooftop conversion, but overall it’s working well. I carry a box of spare things and a very complete set of “ropes” and pulleys that go on the floor when I’m traveling. I avoid anything on the roof rack except the solar panel and a shovel. For reasons of aerodynamics (fuel consumption because the Troopy itself is an aerodynamic brick) and the fact that much more weight on the rack and I wouldn’t be able to open it when setting up.
Nice. Where's the button to call for room service? ;)
ReplyDeleteI think what you need is a little round table (preferably with a glass top), a tall and narrow flower vase with yellow petunias, and tall champagne glasses.
Seriously, looks like a great mobile fun club.
> The front track is slightly wider than the rear.
ReplyDeleteProbably part of that "long history": most live-axle 4X4s are like this, maybe because the front axle has to swing the tires with an engine in the way, or it already drags the rear axle across the inside of tight corners. Since these axles don't share many parts, there's little incentive to make them exactly the same width.
No, it's because they went from a straight six to a V8 and needed the extra room. Why the bastards didn't change the rear track is beyond me.
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