Hello from Canada

[TroopyCalvin]

Hey everyone! Great to join the group.

I Calvin Johnson from Vancouver Canada.
Recently bought a 2006 Troopy while in Nicaragua doing charity work.

Had many 4x4 including a heap of Jeeps so this is the first Troopy to Toyota for that matter.

Not many mods yet since it's still in Nicaragua but Ill be driving it back to Canada in January.
My plan is to make the troopy a world overland weapon to live out of for extended travels.

So my shopping list and mods are extensive. Hope I can learn loads here.

I have lots of off road and overland experience - recently I did 14,000km to the arctic ocean, 8,000km in Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe and last month I took my Jeep to Moab Utah and some of the highest mountain passes in the USA on the Alpine Loop in Colorado.
Hope to complete the Troopy project and ship to New Zealand, Australia to explore.

QUESTION: Hummmm - wondering if it is better to ship Troopy and build in Australia or order parts and build in Canada???

Here are a few pics of Troopy and Jeep adventures

Cheers
Calvin

 

[Crispin]

Cough. Landcruiser site. Cough

I do love this terrain though. Wide open, barren spaces, to me somehow are awesome.
Roughly know where that is (not too many people with that sandstone) but where is it on a map?

 

[TroopyCalvin]

Howdy!
MOAB is an area in the state of UTAH - USA
Here is a GPS of where I camped one night 38.32139, -109.90704

 

[Crispin]

damn that looks nice. Breakfast coffee followed by (in quick succession?) afternoon beer staring at that - bliss.

How long did you camp there for?

 

[TroopyCalvin]

Cheers mate!
Camped all along this canyon for three days.

Hey since I have you, my goal is to order loads of parts out of Australia and ship to Vancouver Canada (roof conversion, bumpers and other goodies) - would you have any ideas on how to consolidate a bunch of orders and have everything bundled and shipped at the same time to save shipping costs? Do you think Headspace would do this? Also, if its being purchased for export have you heard anything about not paying sales tax?

If there is a thread I should post this, do you have a suggestion?
Thanks
Calvin

 

[Rodger]

When i was buying 40 parts in the States I used BorderLinx to consolidate. I don't know if they have a similar operation in Australia but worth a try. Was a good service and saved a load of money.

Regards,
Rodger

 

[Crispin]

Good info Roger. I've used a similar company in the past.

@TroopyCalvin - there is the Group-Buy section too.
It might be worth giving a shout to some of the Australian members to see if a group-buy could be done that way too.

 

[TroopyCalvin]

Woop Woop! Thanks! Ill look into the Group Buy and Freight Consolidating.

 

[uHu]

Congrats. Great choice for a base vehicle.
Driving north in January? I would avoid salted roads if you want to keep the car for more than 5 years.

 

[Gr8Yota]

I built my Troopy here in the UK and had many parts shipped from Australia. I’d say you need to look at what is availble locally in Canada, such as suspension and price what you need from Australia. If you need a lot of parts I’d suggest it would be cheaper to build it there but then that may impact on your travel time on a temporary import.

When I built my FJ I had a lot of items shipped over from the USA. I found one of the companies I was buying from was happy to collect all my other parts and palletise them for me so I could then arrange a single shipment from them to the UK. This might be an option in Australia and may be the best way to do it.