INDIA OVERLAND
PART TWO - THE REFIT

India over land, with Ibrahim Leadley, Rafza Hussainali and 'Nosey'

Friday the 25th of May. 10.00 am. An ear splitting blast of air horns, and the sound of a large engine outside our appartment in The Hague. In the street below a large yellow truck rumbles to a halt, and two men get out and ring our doorbell. 'Nosey', our recntly purchased 1969 MAN 8 ton 4x4 has arrived. The neighbours shake their heads in disbelief! Recently returned from a four month trip to China, 'Nosey' brings a work schedule that will take me through to August!

The view above is of the original living area, four individual 'captain's chairs' and a wooden table. At the back of the truck, four bunks and a two burner gas stove/sink unit. A fridge and two cupboards make up the rest of the furnishings. The water supply is a 70 litre balloon, connected to the sink by a Sureflow Trailmaster pump.
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Simplicity itself. Unfortunately just a little too simple for my wife and I. We are intending to spend about 12 months living in this truck, so our requirements are a little more demanding! We draw up a list of absolute basics. Shower, toilet, cooker and a double bed. These are the minimum specifications for a long haul.

The work starts. Out come the seats, the table and the bunks. The cooker/sink is dismantled and put aside for re-fitting later on. The left hand side cupboard is stripped of one of its sides and its shelves, leaving just one side (attached to the fridge unit) and the door on its hinges

In place of the table and four chairs, caravan style seating that converts into a double bed. We decided against having the conventional layout with a table in the centre which drops down to form the base of the bed. We like the spaciousness! The bed base is in two pieces, and is stored under the left hand seating. The front seat conceals a 150 litre plastic water tank.

A Sureflo 10 automatic 'demand' pump will supply water to the shower and toilet, at 2.8 bar. The system is not connected to the 70 litre potable water supply. The original 70 litre 'balloon' and five plastic 'jerry cans' give us a total supply of 185 litres of drinking water. Enough for two people for ten days, in even the dryest conditions. Take into consideration the 150 litres in the shower/toilet system and you have enough water to last us for 17 days in an emergency. For the 'belts and braces' effect, the water from the shower and kitchen sink drain into an 80 litre holding tank. Not only does it keep us nice and tidy in our 'waste disposal' but it also gives a little more water for those desperate survival nighmares that can, and sometimes do, happen! We are fitting a General Ecology Ltd Seagull IV X-1FP water purifer which, we are assured, will make even Indian river water fit to drink without risk of 'Delhi Belly! We will be able to utilise this not only to clean any water for the drinking water system, but also to clean the water from the 150 litre tank, or even the waste holding tank if need be!!

We're crossing three deserts, Dasht-e-Kavir and Dasht-e-Lut in Iran, and the Thar Desert in India. We intend to hear the clinking of ice cubes in tall glasses across all of them!

If you think our water supply is excessive, remember, without food, you can live 60 or more days. Without water, you'd be lucky to live 60 hours.

Oh yes, food. The kitchen is another 'exterior ply' construction, with the original sink/cooker. Under the work top Ikea storage boxes nestle in their racks. Loads of storage space taking up not much room! An Electrolux fridge (12v/24/gas/230v) next to the left hand seat provides the essential ice cubes and chills drinks etc. A 24v coffee percolator gives the necessary caffine to start the day. Cooking of other items can be done on the two burner gas stove which is fuelled by two 10 kilo gas bottles under the cooker. Two individual gas stoves provide back up and also allow cooking outside the vehicle.

Roughing it for a couple of weeks is one thing, but traveling for long periods of time demands one or two extra considerations. A shower and toilet are definately on the list of essentials! Thomas Crapper's Finest has (in our case) given way to a Thetford CS electric flush toilet with a 'cassette' holding tank. A 60cm x 60cm shower tray set in the raised floor
and a CMC shower mixer tap complete the hardware for the ablutions. A couple of generous coats of white varnish waterproof the whole shower/toilet structure, with white silicone sealer making it leak proof. Being ruffy tuffy off road trucker types, there's no water heater, (budget doesn't allow) so its cold showers. Any one fancy donating a solar energy/water heating system? Plenty of advertising space on the truck if you do!!

The space between the toilet partion wall and the fridge, (aprox 1 metre) provides a hanging space for clothes, and a narrow cupboard (27cms) using the original cupboard door. The back of the cupboard is pegboard, providing air circulation, essential to avoid mildew and mustiness.

As far as other home comforts are concerned, we are fitting a Thomson 14" multi system colour TV coupled to an Amstrad SRD 2000 satelite system. That and a couple of fishing rods.......what more does a man want from life??

Answer: An electronic pre-select semi automatic gearbox instead of the constant mesh double clutching monster I've got..!!

Next Month: Visas and Hypodermic Needles! The necessary evils!

Last Month: Choosing the vehicle