Our Current and Previous Vehicles in South Africa.
1. Toyota Prado
When we first decided to spend some time travelling in Southern Africa, back in 2007, Kevin did a lot of research and decided that a Toyota would best suit our needs. We bought a Prado which we kitted out with a snorkel, bull bars, winch, drawer system, roof-rack and fridge slide.
After a few years we had a couple of problems and discovered that it was a 'grey import' which meant that spares were not always easy to come by. Also it didn't have diff lock which would have made a huge difference when we got stuck in some mud in Malawi!
2. Toyota Hilux 4x4 double cab 2.3
We saw this bakkie in Malawi and kept in touch with the owners as they said they were going to sell it when they got back to South Africa.
We changed the plastic canopy to an aluminium one.
We found that, when we bought the trailer it was a bit underpowered so started looking for a replacement.
3. Toyota Hilux 4x4 extended cab 2.7
We saw this bakkie at the Toyota garage in Pietermaritzburg and took it for a test drive. Despite only having a slightly larger engine we were very impressed with the vastly improved performance.
Neil Wooldridge Motors in 'Maritzburg added the canopy, snorkel, bull bars, winch, raised air suspension a spare wheel holder on the back and a second fuel tank.
We were very happy with the vehicle apart from it being a bit of a tight squeeze for 4 people (we had a bench set with seat belts in the back). The only reason we sold it was when we expected to be in the UK for several years because of Michelle's cancer scare.
4. Toyota Hilux 4x4 double cab 2.7
When we knew that we would be able to return to South Africa in 2017 we started looking for another Hilux but decided that we would get a double cab.
Once again we got Neil Wooldrige Motors to add bull bars, a snorkel, aluminium canopy, second fuel tank and 2 spare wheel carriers on the back. We also had, as in the others, a second battery fitted.
In all the vehicles Kevin fitted a drawer system, fridge slide and tie down systems for the camping gear.