Thread: Off Road Caravans

Mate has a Canyon Caravan.
Looks to be the go.
https://www.facebook.com/pg/offroadcaravansNZ/posts/

Cheers for the input guys, have a couple of leads off here to chase up with people, which I'll do when I find time


The 3.5 ton issue could be a problem with these big vans, while going off the beaten track would mostly be just gravel roads, many vehicles in NZ would struggle with a fully loaded ( living in n out ) ute & trailer, I'm in no hurry so will do my research


PS - From one old campaigner I know & have shared a great whisky or two with that lives in a house bus near Wanaka all year round, when it comes to winter "You need a proper burner or ya freeze ya little prick" hahaha love you Steve, Go India lol

Originally Posted by XR500

Not really. Drove them for 25 years, also owned my own for 8 years. Yes, the oil companies' 'fact sheets' say use fully synthetic oil from one end to the other. 2 grand later...

But the 1984 owners manual shows its straight 30 weight monograde diesel engine oil or EP90. from one end to the other. These trucks (and all the cogs inside them) were designed and manufactured in the days well before synthetic oils were a 'thing'. So that's what I used, and it worked perfectly well for me...and the 350 mogs the Army owned, and still does.

Throughout the 80's,90's and into the 00's all Army vehicle bays sported 44's of 1330 diesel engine oil and EP90. That's all. (yeah, and brake fluid and a bit of atf for the power steering).

Brake pads were something you needed to know a bit about. Try buying them off Mercedes Benz, and yes you had to sell a kidney prior to rocking up at the parts dept. But I managed a truck load of pads for about $600. And they lasted 6 of the 8 years I owned it. It helped have an engine (exhaust) brake fitted, as that reduced the need for an awful lot of foot brake use.

On many occasions I had passengers bail, as (with tyre chains fitted) they would go absolutely insane places. And lightly laden it would return 20L/100km. Not bad for trucking along the road at 8 tonne.

The requirement for the special oil (Castrol Syntrans) is because of the bronze bushings and syncho's in the main gearbox. Also there is bugger all oil in the front portal hubs and it gets really hot on long trips.

I know the German Army uses Engine Oil in the Mog gear boxes and some people use this weird grease in the portal hubs that turns to liquid when its hot. Its a good way to get the most out of the hub seals because they wont leak when sitting still.

I use Syntrans in my Gearbox because of the cold over here,like you did I use regular 80/90 in the hubs because its cheap and I dont go very far. The problem with people bailing out of your Mog is that they never manage to shut the door due to how steep it is and you cant hold the truck on a steep hill using the parking brake.