My wife and I just returned from a 21 month trip, 12 months of which were spent touring South America in a TC.Yesterday I had posted a link to our route, you can find that posting here in the RV'ing in Mexico and South America forum.For those who have TC's, I thought it might be interesting to check out how we chose our truck and camper. To put our experiences in perspective, here is a video of what the roads can be ike in Bolivia. This road is a semi-major highway in Bolivia. The video is not ours, but we drove the exact same stretch, and the video is very representative.Video, the road from Villamontes to Tarija in Bolivia. We can also vouch for the scene at 1:00 into the video, we had a similar experience. The stretch of road starting at the 2:00 mark is rather scary. And yes, it is a two way road.This blog post also talks a little about how it is to drive in Bolivia.We start to talk about our choices of truck and camper here.Some follow up comments on our design choices, after we returned to the US, are posted here.The video and blog post above show some of the worst roads we drove, most of the roads are much, much better. Overall, we had a fantastic time in South America and would highly encourage anyone who is thinking about it to go.Cheers,Karen and Henrik

My God!That is not a road...that is a death challenge!That must have been some trip...good for you.Bill

Hi,Looks like a fascinating journey - wow - thanks for posting the links.Those twisting single-lane roads can really sap your time. I recall doing a similar one in the rain (slippery clay) down a gorge in New Zealand once in a DRW class C - I thought it was just going to be a bit of a scenic detour, but it added hours to the journey crawling around the blind corners watching out for the locals who tended to drive at speed WHILST drinking.Your observations about vehicle size match our experiences - not in South America as we haven't had a chance to go there yet, but certainly in other parts of the world, including squeezing our camper through medieval cities, roads where we are brushing the trees on each side and arches on the entrance to properties.You mentioned dust. I was expecting to have problems with it in the Sahara. We had certainly had plenty of that fine dust penetrating the camper we used in Namibia. However, the interesting thing was our truck camper never suffered from dust ingress, despite being old with poor seals everywhere, and I couldn't be bothered to get the duct tape out to seal it up. In fact I think the poor sealing helped. We left the over-cab windows slightly open all day. Being over the cab they were too high to be affected by the dust thrown up by the front tyres, and I think they caused the whole camper to be positively pressurised slightly. That pressure then blew out around the rear door keeping the dust out.Interestingly the washboard corrugations we tackled in Morocco were similar to those experienced in the Namib / Naukluft, but our truck camper handled them better than the converted pickup truck we used in the latter; possibly due to the camper's extra all-up weight, careful tire pressure choice and softer suspension.All the best,Steve.

sabconsulting wrote:You mentioned dust. I was expecting to have problems with it in the Sahara. We had certainly had plenty of that fine dust penetrating the camper we used in Namibia. However, the interesting thing was our truck camper never suffered from dust ingress, despite being old with poor seals everywhere,Dust, water, corrugations are par for the course in Australia. Another factor would be overall height that maybe would be a problem in Rainforest areas. Crossing creeks partly submerged is one unique aspect of Australian TC's. I would agree using a Toyota/Nissan as a base in countries outside NA, easily accessible parts would be one of the many benefits.Ron and Viv Moon used a Nissan Patrol ute(unconventional TC) and a Off Road Tvan "Track Trailer" throughout South America This is Chile.MacHof wrote:In South America, ruggedness is a must, and I shudder to think of what would happen to some of the humongous, and complicated, US vehicles if they attempted the dirt roads of the Carretera Austral.One Reason US 5vers in Australia are not very popular, they literally fell apart in Outback Australia. People have since tried to beef up the suspensions, but the overall "5ver experience" has had a very negative impact on 5th Wheelers in Australia. As a result you are seeing Off Road Caravans gaining more prominence.

Sabconsulting - I like the idea of creating a little bit of "ram air", but challenging to do so in a pop-up camper.Further to the dust issue: one way of figuring out where the dust is coming from is to do the following: 1 - close all windows and doors2 - turn on a fan to blow air out of the camper (assuming here that you have a fan...)3 - the slight under-pressure in the camper now allows you to feel where air is leaking in. And it's easy to feel it...We found that in addition to the rear door, we also have air leaks from:a - the access hatches that lead to the wheel wells in the pickupb - the vents behind the fridge. The area / volume behind the fridge has two access ports to the outside to allow air circulation for the compressor. So far so good. However, this area / volume was not, at least on our camper, well sealed from the rest of the inside of the camper.To RobertRyan's first picture: no, we did not go on these kind of roads... We did have a few watercrossings - part of the regular roads - but nothing deeper than 30 - 40 cm.Henrik

MacHof wrote:Further to the dust issue: one way of figuring out where the dust is coming from is to do the following: 1 - close all windows and doors2 - turn on a fan to blow air out of the camper (assuming here that you have a fan...)3 - the slight under-pressure in the camper now allows you to feel where air is leaking in. And it's easy to feel it...We found that in addition to the rear door, we also have air leaks from:a - the access hatches that lead to the wheel wells in the pickupb - the vents behind the fridge. The area / volume behind the fridge has two access ports to the outside to allow air circulation for the compressor. So far so good. However, this area / volume was not, at least on our camper, well sealed from the rest of the inside of the camper.HenrikGood idea Henrick. I suspect in my camper it would have to be a very powerful fan to provide any pressurisation at all :B. the windows are those old style glass louvred ones that don't seal properly - you can see light through the gaps, so I get air leaks here:Through all 4 opening windowsThrough all the gaps around the rear doorAround the two access hatches to the load bedAround the fridgeThrough the closet where cable has been ducted into the fridge vent areaand many more places I'm sure.Steve.

TC in South America / Design choices | Good Sam Community

sabconsulting
Explorer
Apr 25, 2013
Hi,

Looks like a fascinating journey - wow - thanks for posting the links.

Those twisting single-lane roads can really sap your time. I recall doing a similar one in the rain (slippery clay) down a gorge in New Zealand once in a DRW class C - I thought it was just going to be a bit of a scenic detour, but it added hours to the journey crawling around the blind corners watching out for the locals who tended to drive at speed WHILST drinking.

Your observations about vehicle size match our experiences - not in South America as we haven't had a chance to go there yet, but certainly in other parts of the world, including squeezing our camper through medieval cities, roads where we are brushing the trees on each side and arches on the entrance to properties.

You mentioned dust. I was expecting to have problems with it in the Sahara. We had certainly had plenty of that fine dust penetrating the camper we used in Namibia. However, the interesting thing was our truck camper never suffered from dust ingress, despite being old with poor seals everywhere, and I couldn't be bothered to get the duct tape out to seal it up. In fact I think the poor sealing helped. We left the over-cab windows slightly open all day. Being over the cab they were too high to be affected by the dust thrown up by the front tyres, and I think they caused the whole camper to be positively pressurised slightly. That pressure then blew out around the rear door keeping the dust out.

Interestingly the washboard corrugations we tackled in Morocco were similar to those experienced in the Namib / Naukluft, but our truck camper handled them better than the converted pickup truck we used in the latter; possibly due to the camper's extra all-up weight, careful tire pressure choice and softer suspension.

All the best,

Steve.
billtex
Explorer II
Apr 25, 2013
My God!
That is not a road...that is a death challenge!

That must have been some trip...good for you.

Bill

Forum Discussion

TC in South America / Design choices

About Travel Trailer Group

Related Content

Grand Design

Grand Design

Engine Choice

Central America trip

Tire choice