VAN LIFE ANYWHERE - Upgrading a 2WD Van To Overland Around The World

We have a rough route defined for our journey around the world and the past five years of overlanding through South, Central and North America has taught us that rough roads will be unavoidable whilst we travel overland. Our Kombi is already rear-wheel drive with the weight of our CB Performance air-cooled engine directly over the wheels, it's already very capable. But what modifications have we made to improve Boomerang's overlanding capability? One of the best additions that you can add, especially for an overlanding adventure like this with a two-wheel drive vehicle, is a posi-traction unit. So that's, it's basically a limited slip differential that helps your van act more like a four-wheel drive in low traction situations. So for instance, you're likely to be crossing a lot of sand and sand can be really challenging for two-wheel drive as you know. Basically the limited slip differential allows, you know, when one wheel loses traction it automatically biases more power to the wheel that has traction, which allows you to get out of sticky situations much better than just a stock two-wheel drive. And we see lots of really outfitted two-wheel drive vehicles that can handle almost any terrain that a Syncro can handle, you know, with the exception of really, really deep sand, which really requires four-wheel drive. But posi-traction is fantastic and I think that's going to be a real boon for you and your adventurers. Chad's sentiments about upgrading the differential were echoed by Mike from Ryanshow Performance Transaxles. The other thing is I would like to suggest to you is putting like a limited slip in it. That torque biasing differential would definitely do a big improvement on your traction. Ryanshow made a custom transaxle to upgrade our combi transmission to improve on what originally came with the vehicle. When you have an open differential, when you apply power in a slippery service, it generally tries to drive one wheel and the other tire will stay. It slips and you can't go anywhere. If you're stuck in mud, you'll be stuck. If you go into a limited slip type of a differential, a torque biasing or a clutch style, you know, LSD, it distributes the power equally to both wheels and allows you to get over uneven terrain or slippery terrain a lot easier. Having Pelican posi-traction differentials installed has already proven useful and we've already been able to pull ourselves out of low traction situations that would have otherwise resulted in a more troublesome recovery. Speaking of recovery, one of the things I'm sure you've taken into consideration is just the idea of being self-sufficient when you're out there traveling solo, overlanding across these kind of desolate landscapes that you'll be crossing. And having a really good winch system is key to your survival and being able to get your van out of really poor situations. So having a winch allows you to basically pull the van off any stable structure and self-rescue out of really deep sand or really deep mud or maybe the van's gotten off kilter in some really deep ruts or potholes and the winch will allow you to pull yourself out of those situations. Another piece of really important self-recovery gear is a high lift jack. So a regular jack will get you out of certain situations like a flat tire and such but a high lift jack can be used for more than that. It's a safer way to jack up the vehicle to change a tire or something simple like that but it's also a self-recovery system for deep sand or mud. High lift jacks come in very very handy so that's certainly a piece of kit that I'd consider for you guys. So a high lift jack is a great overlanding tool. It really should be in everybody's recovery arsenal. It's in ours because basically this vehicle, like many overlanding vehicles, is slightly higher. A lot of people raise their vehicles for ground clearance so they can get to more remote places and as such stock jacks no longer will reach the vehicle enough for you to be able to change a tire or put it onto jack stands or something like that and that is the case with the Kombi. Even though it hasn't been raised significantly it's still difficult for us to be able to jack it up with a standard bottle jack or scissor jack so the high lift jack that's where that comes in. So in this situation here I've got it in the rear hitch mount on this Go Westy bumper. Go Westy actually supplied us with this high lift jack as well actually so thumbs up to those guys thank you very much. So right now we're not in a recovery mode but if we were and we didn't have any traction in our wheels we would be able to jack this up by the rear hitch and using these sand ladders that we've got from Campervan Culture. These are aluminium very lightweight very strong we'd be able to lift this up so the back wheels were off the ground slot under our sand ladders and basically be able to get traction and then pull ourselves out of a sticky situation. So it's very useful it's also possible to use it as a come along you can actually use this as a poor man's winch as well so it's a very useful tool however it's a big old unit. Shocks are another thing you're going to want to look at upgrading for your overlanding adventure we worked with Fox one of the leading shock manufacturers in the world to create a really modern custom shock system for the Vanagon and for the Synchro in particular these shocks are really badass. Let's talk about shocks so since you guys are going on this big trip you know a lot of you're going to be going through a lot of off-road on-road all that type of stuff the the factory shocks that were on the bus are no good you're probably going to go through a few sets of them so you know we go here at Go Westy we ran into that issue and that's why we came out with these adjustable Fox shocks which these are perfect for both on and off-road use they have an external reservoir which is really nice for washboards extended use on a washboard because you know we had issues with them boiling over and then you just blow out the shock and now you need a new shock. That's the concern I have the shocks that we have at the moment are great for the kind of first part of the trip but when we get into those kind of like 100 mile off-road sections we don't want them overheating having an external reservoir like you guys have on this this Fox shock but this was specifically made for you guys right at Go Westy? Because we used to do you know when we still do these extended trips through Baja where you're going hundreds of miles of washboards and we just got tired of having to constantly swap out shocks and these are tried and true they're perfect for that type of endurance you know. How come you didn't make them for the bus man because that's what we need. Yeah I'm not in it would be perfect for a bus but we don't expect people to be doing trips like this because the Vanagon is a better vehicle for that yeah it really is. Unfortunately high quality shocks wasn't available for our rig until just recently actually Go Westy have since developed a high performance Fox shock that can fit on a bus they've always been available for Syncros and Vanagons but only recently on the bus and so we are currently saving up for these Fox shocks because where we're going we're going to need them. As we've mentioned before in our security video we try to avoid driving at night as much as possible but sometimes it's not always possible so that's why we've been testing out these things. The LED headlights that we offer are a vast improvement over the stock system they provide way better lighting and they draw considerably less power so it's kind of a no-brainer as far as headlights are concerned. This is a really simple upgrade it's really really easy to change they just exchange and bolt right in and it's going to make a huge difference because our old lights were really low and bad. LED headlights are are considerably safer as well they just they provide better illumination for nighttime driving with less artifacts that you'll find with kind of a stock headlight system. These LED headlights that we got from Go Westy are an absolute game changer not only is it so much safer because we can actually see everything on the road and any animals running out the vision is significantly further I can't even begin to tell you what an improvement these have made. Also though they're not hot and that's because obviously they're LED so they're using less power we only run a 55 amp alternator on this thing so we don't want to be stressing it out by having all the lights running we already have to charge a large battery bank so these things are absolutely essential for us. I recommend anybody that has a bus to change up to get these they're not quite the classic look you know they are LEDs they are a little bit different but it's honestly worth it and I definitely wouldn't go back. We have since added these stainless steel headlight grills from Just Campers and they do protect the headlights from stones but they do have the side effect of looking awesome. Okay let's talk about tires this Kombi has a huge limitation when it comes to tires so it was absolutely essential for us that we ditch the stock rims for this expedition. So let's talk about wheels and tires all right you know upgrading to a 16 inch tire is really popular and I would highly recommend it most people go that route they like having better ground clearance they like the ability the availability of more options on a 16 inch rim. Yeah I don't think a 16 is going to fit and the main reason that we want to upgrade to a larger tire is because we just can't find decent 14 inch tires anymore that are rated for the weight of the bus. This is true we ran stock 14 inch rims all the way from Chile to Arctic Alaska and replaced and repaired tires a number of times. Availability of properly rated 14 inch tires was and still is terrible and occasionally the lack of availability caused us to run tires beyond optimum conditions which was actually downright dangerous. Oh my god full-on shaking like it wasn't driving that fast and like the car just completely lost it we've been worried about this slippy mud all day like dry we've been driving like I don't know a couple hundred miles or something on this dirt road and the car literally went all the way sideways and then I was like on the wheel like and then went all the way the other way and then like managed to pull it out like this but that was the most out of control that I've been on this entire trip. So it's a real problem for us we do need to upgrade but you guys only have them in steel at 16 inches yeah and for a bus I just don't think that we can I don't think the clearance is going to work. Yeah I don't think so either so I mean that it's tricky I mean even upgrading to a 15 inch steel wheel and finding a tire because you're going to have better options more options finding tires for a 15 inch especially when it comes to like these off-road bfgs which you're going to be airing down you want the sidewall that type of thing. Yeah I think we can actually fit the 16 inch steels that you guys stock on the bus but with a different tire. Oh like a road tire? Yeah that's the issue like it has a Michelin road tire which to be honest is a really good tire and would be great for us crossing the states and all around Europe but eventually we want to go into the mucky stuff you know when we're heading off across central Asia we need to have this kind of tire capable of doing off-road stuff and the 16 inch with a high wall tire like that doesn't work it isn't going to work. Just drive around air down half the time. Very slowly. I think you guys are going the right way from upgrading the stock wheels to these 16 inch wheels on a van again totally makes sense we want to borrow the same kind of thinking for our bus but I think the search goes on for that perfect wheel tire combination for us. Yeah it's a bummer. Unlike aluminium rims steel rims can be repaired with one of these or by welding if we were to hit a rock or a curb so the search for steelies on this expedition took us all the way to the UK and to Adventure Campervan Outfitters campervan culture. These guys have been everywhere from the arctic circle to Morocco and beyond their video series documenting their overlanding adventures has been inspirational in our own planning and has helped fuel our wanderlust whilst we've been building our rig. The campervan culture overland rigs showcase their tried and tested gear that they sell and their rigs are phenomenal they also just so happen to be the supplier of 15 inch steel wheels which fit perfectly on a VW camper. That's them these are the wheels that are going around the world look at them they're actually really nice boomerang spanking new wheels I can't believe that there's still some of these wheels left these are 15 inch steel super strong wheels made to fit on either the T25 like the vanagon or a bus this is an investment in our future we are now going to be able to hopefully find the right tires to take us around the world it's from these guys campervan culture Jed Dan I really wish you guys were here for me to meet you but unfortunately those guys are off on an adventure in Germany with their rig so they've very kindly left these wheels out for us to come and collect that is objective one complete wheels collected now we need to go find ourselves some expedition rubber this is our new wheel from campervan culture it's a 15 inch wheel this is our previous standard stock 14 inch wheel this tire is a michelin latitude cross I think it's going to be much better on sand and for the varied type of terrain that we're going to be driving on the previous ones were old bf goodridge all-terrain tires mud and snow these were ko's they don't make these anymore and if you see on one side there is a really bad wear pattern these were notorious for not having a very long life and that is what's happened when our alignment has not been quite right we have completely ripped through this tire and it is basically not serviceable anymore I obviously can't get any more replacements for it it looks badass I do like them they had great traction in mud and grass but alas we will now be running these ones instead now let's have a look at the difference so the wider tire is going to be great for getting ourselves out of sand we're going to have much better traction we're on the slippy stuff the downside is it's going to be an increased wear on both the steering box and also probably the wheel bearings and the vehicle was not designed for it I'm just hoping that it's going up just this little bit it's not going to be too much of a strain luckily because both the wheels are roughly the same size after the tires are put on there isn't any effect on our speedometer which is nice the only last remaining issue might be the clearance between the wheel and the tire and the fender here luckily because of this the dynamics of this wheel that we've got here it there is clearance so we're quite happy with that and also on the front there's also clearance here we've got no problems with turning and there's enough clearance for the whole wheel they are definitely bigger than they were before a notable improvement we also picked up some heavy duty sand loaders from campervan culture these will be used for self-recovery when we do find ourselves stuck we opted for aluminium as they are still lightweight but are harder wearing than the commonly used orange plastic alternatives of course anyone who's been stuck in sand should know that the first thing you do when you lose traction is air down your tires we used to do this all the time whilst traveling places like Baja California astonishingly we didn't have an on-board compressor for that expedition but we weren't going to make that mistake this time and an on-board air compressor is another piece of gear that's real essential for overlanding it allows you to quickly air up your tires after you've aired down to cross sandy muddy terrain which you're likely to do often on on vanagans we like to remove the city water hookup box and install the air compressor there well you can put it just that's awesome so it's real nice it looks clean super practical you know it comes with a long enough air hose so you've got a compressor that's already wired in in like one location let's have a look how you even solve it how big is this thing like can we fit this in a bus it's pretty small it's super compact it's smaller than some of the ones i've seen that go in a cigarette lighter oh jesus look at that so we put it you know if you have an auxiliary battery too that's really the way to go but you can see there's some more orange hose here yep and that goes to the that goes to that guy that's so much easier that's way better some people too they like to add an external tank which is nice because then you can kind of like if you let it fill up the tank and then you can kind of work and you don't have to wait as long for the compressor to kick up there's a pressure switch kicks off pump up your tires good to go there is one major problem with adding all this equipment it was starting to push our combi close to the limit of what it was designed to handle and trust me i know firsthand what happens when you overload a v-dub bus we had structurally reinforced the combi shell and upgraded the rear suspension for heavy duty 0.5 0.4 0.1 a little bit more we've basically got to the maximum amount of pre-loading on these red torsion bars this one will allow us to take approximately 50 kilogram more weight which is basically an extra water tank we've replaced broken front torsion leaves with a brand new set looks to me like that's already cracked there that one's missing and there must be still inside there somewhere okay so that that is it the um torsion leaves from just campers now our whole front end is back together thankfully took a bit longer than i was hoping but um it's quite a big job this is our stabilizer bar this one's much stronger it was a pig to do but this will be better handling and also it'll be less likely to bend the previous one we had in capito our last combi it bent because we smashed it into some rocks over landing so i upgraded this i decided not to upgrade to the track rods and tie rods because as much as i think that they are going to also bend i didn't want to make them too strong because then if i hit something it might bend something else in the steering that isn't supposed to bend this can handle it track rods can't the combi was sitting good and was within the weight allowance okay we're not allowed to film on the weight scales but um we have weighed in empty without without much stuff in here no water or anything like that 1 900 kilograms if we run our rig this heavy on the journey we have planned we run the risk of overstressing our combi and protecting the heart of our rig our cv performance engine must be our number one priority so at this point we have a difficult question to ask is this item essential for this expedition weight is a definite concern at this point and this may be the first thing that we have to purge we couldn't just put a winch mount on the front bumper we'd need to basically fix it into this section here of the frame so that when we pulled ourselves we'd actually be pulling from the frame of the vehicle and not distorting the frame and pulling on something that wasn't structural it's quite a serious job of fabrication and one that we were definitely intending to do however in the end we realized it came down to a between the risk of not being able to self-recover at some point on our way overland to australia or overworking our vintage combi and not arriving in australia at all this winch is a quality piece of kit but at 77 pounds or 35 kilos we opted not to mount it on boomerang whether we come to regret that only time will tell hopefully with these upgrades we will be more self-sufficient in the challenge to come definitely with these modifications we feel more confident about tackling the world's roads and a big thank you to everybody who helped us build this rig we did not do this alone if you want to watch our build series click the link up here if you'd like to see a blog post about how we have built this rig and all of the equipment that's in it that's over there otherwise subscribers we are very much looking forward to taking you on an adventure so we'll be seeing you next time