Iceland 2016

[Skylark2.0]

As it happened, this was in VB suspension normal mode... This crossing we forgot to raise the car... just as we forgot to switch off the lights... Shows how easily you get lax, after enough crossings...

Indeed, we crossed 3 times, just to make this movie for you guys!


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When we went to Iceand our driver said ALWAYS walk a crossing before you drive it.
We watched a landrover full of Italians drift away because they hadn't.
Their lights were still on as a MItsubishi cranked them out with their wynch!

 

[Skylark2.0]

Well, this is us... We bumped, rattled, shook and dived a few thousand miles along not too good roads across Iceland without any major tech issues. And now, on the way back from the ferry, we have a flat on the beach of Rømø island in Denmark!


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So exciting.
Thanks for letting us share in your adventure!

 

[bvddobb]

Here is a short video impression of our Iceland trip this year:

And, for those with enough stamina, a photo album under this link.

A little story may come later.

 

[estresao]

Amazing!!! I have to pay a visit to Iceland

 

[kave]

Yet another Iceland video:

 

[zeratul]

Well, I've just booked our flight tickets to Iceland for the 4th time in august 2017 for 23 days..
We'll be flying, and shipping our California from Rotterdam with Samskip. Which gives us 6 extra days in Iceland compared to going with Smyril Line at the same price.



We'll be travelling with our three children, who then will be 4,6 and 8 years old. Our oldest will be in Iceland for the third time already. Whish I had that kind of parents when I was young ..

On the program this time some new areas for us:
- The highlands (Kjolur, Sprengisandur, Kaldidalur)
- Mount Maellifell
- Laki
- The westfjords
- Snaefellsness (first time in summer) and
- If possible and reachable (perhaps with another vehicle): Kferkfjoll ice caves

Really looking forward to it!

 

[zeratul]

Finally received Iceland trackbook today... this is exactly what I needed. Thank you so much for this tip.
It seems a lot can be done in a slightly modified Cali with good tyres.

 

[bvddobb]

Finally received Iceland trackbook today... [...]
It seems a lot can be done in a slightly modified Cali with good tyres.

Indeed!


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[zeratul]

bvddobb, I'm about to order skid plates from Rival for our upcoming iceland trip.
What brand do you have? Do you protect only engine+gearbox or also fuel tank, differential and exhaust pipe?
I think I'm going for the full set.

I drove my Peugeot company car in Iceland 10 years ago, and the bottom alu sheet came off at some point ..

 

[bvddobb]

bvddobb, I'm about to order skid plates from Rival for our upcoming iceland trip.
What brand do you have? Do you protect only engine+gearbox or also fuel tank, differential and exhaust pipe?

@zeratul, we have the Seikel 'Widder' bottom protection, just engine and gearbox and bumper.

You did Morocco without any bottom protection?

 

[kave]

What about protecting the rear wheel drive shaft? It runs under the car and I can imagine lots of problems if that is hit.

 

[zeratul]

You did Morocco without any bottom protection?

Yeah we did. It's mostly sand.. not volcanic sharp rocks.

I was about to order the complete set from Rival but perhaps it's a bit overkill. Also 41kgs of extra weight...

don't know about a drive shaft protection system.. I guess it's also about not taking to many risks and driving carefully, slowly, we're not a super jeep Defender..

 

[bvddobb]

What about protecting the rear wheel drive shaft? It runs under the car and I can imagine lots of problems if that is hit.

Well, it's always a compromise, these sort of things...

You can have a complete bottom protection, but it is quite expensive (easily another € 2500, all-in-all) AND quite heavy....

 

[bvddobb]

don't know about a drive shaft protection system.. I guess it's also about not taking to many risks and driving carefully, slowly, we're not a super jeep Defender..

And even they have their drive shafts unprotected, AND the rear differential bulging down (quite often easily with less bottom clearance than a raised Cali, with our flat bottom...)

 

[zeratul]

We did:
(...)
North to South: F756 ('Old Kjolur' from Reykir, F35 ('Kjolur'), F338, F337 to Thingvallavatn. Stayed overnight at Hveravellir.

I'm in the final route preparation phase for our trip in august.
So you did F338 and F337 and they were 'rather challanging'.
But Iceland Trackbook, lists route 25 and 29, but here 29 is only very shortly on F337, After that it takes a small track through a 'Rock Garden' near the 'Shield Volcano' Skjaldbreidur. And they list it as one of the most beautiful tracks in Iceland.
Did you take that track (it's a track, not a road, the road book has it but dotted lines(!)), or did you do the F337 all the way?

 

[MattBW]

Just stumbled across this Youtube video which clearly reminds how badly things can go wrong

One of those is a unimog, a pretty capable off road vehicle, says how bad it is if one of those is stuck (although may be driver error).

 

[bvddobb]

So you did F338 and F337 and they were 'rather challanging'.
But Iceland Trackbook, lists route 25 and 29, but here 29 is only very shortly on F337, After that it takes a small track through a 'Rock Garden' near the 'Shield Volcano' Skjaldbreidur. And they list it as one of the most beautiful tracks in Iceland.
Did you take that track (it's a track, not a road, the road book has it but dotted lines(!)), or did you do the F337 all the way?

The F338 is not very challenging, the F337 (track 30) is. It is indicated as 'red' and 'no vans' in the track book.

We also wanted to do track no 29 north to south from the F338, as described in the track book. We found the start all right, but we missed the track going to the west just south of Hlöðufell mountain, to Hlöðuvellir and west of Skriða mountain. We were lost, actually, and it turned out we ended up doing track 30, the whole of F337, before we knew it, all the way south to Miðdalur on the 37...

The challenges on the F337 are the sandy patches at Rótassandur (west of Högnhöfði, Marga wanted me to stop for photo´s there, but as long as we were rolling I wasn't going to stop in the sand, no idea if we would get rolling again... ), the sometimes not so clear tracks and the very steep, rocky descent at the end.
But we did allright!

 

[zeratul]

I see now. Thanks for the writeup. I guess getting stuck in loose sand means waiting for someone else to tear you out.. still not as bad as getting stuck in a crossing though.
My plan was to do track 29 south to north. I think the start will be easy to find that way. Still I wish I'd find more detailed GPS coordinates.

But I've experienced getting lost myself on track (dotted line in the road guide) when we did a trip from Askja on the east side back to Myvatn (a track marked Super Jeeps only) in a standard Toyota Landcruiser. It was hard to find the track and we were lost many times. Also our clearance was not enough. But we got out in the end.
We had asked the ranger at Askja if it was doable with that car and he said yes...

 

[smilingit]

The short version is: everything is performing excellently!

The tyres are great. We have been on sand, on gravel, on rock, on stones, on pebbles, on mud, through lots of water, everything also very steep now and then: never any issue. It was good to bring a seperate compressor, so we could change the pressure when needed. No flats yet!

The air suspension is great. You don't need the extra off road bottom clearance all the time, so you can leave it in its normal setting and have the max comfort and stability on bad roads (washboards!) with still good speeds, and when you need it (fords, or really uneven stretches of road or rock, or big rocks) you activate it. Perfect! As is the auto-level (lazy campers that we are).

Raised air intakes and vents and bottom protection all perform well, haven't had a look at the bottom yet to look for 'war scars'. Don't think it can be much, we have been careful.

On the advice of Peter Seikel we didn't modify anything on the heater air intake and exhaust, and it has been keeping up well. Has been running each night!

We brought a big 'salvage kit' (two reinforced towing eyes in the front, extra jack, towing ropes, etc, etc) but luckily we haven't needed any of it yet. We will start one more mountain road run north tomorrow with a seemingly challenging ford, so let's hope we can keep it like that!



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hi bvddobb, can you provide some literature/reference to read on suspensions, bottom protection and salvage kit? I was also curious to understand how you mounted your spare tyre
Many thanks

 

[bvddobb]

hi bvddobb, can you provide some literature/reference to read on suspensions, bottom protection and salvage kit? I was also curious to understand how you mounted your spare tyre
Many thanks

Hi smilingit,

You can read a summary of how we beefed up our Cali under this link.

To carry a spare tyre on the back now and again, we modded our bike rack in a DIY fashion, based on the ideas of this (expensive) kit:

 

[flying banana]

Awesome