ford diesel lap around South America??

[tomrsewell]

Oi, pessoas! I just finished a two stage,10 month, 25000. mile lap from Canada to Ushuaia, and up Brasil to Caracas, on my KLR 650 bike. Now I'm addicted and want to return, but this time with my german shepard and my ford F350 diesel crew cab 4x4 truck, and its slide in/cabover camper on the back. I meet a few travelers in other vehicles and this looked fun, especially for a year long tour. But i dont know much about this mode of travel outside USA/Can.
1) I want to ship it all from Miami to Caracas. Costs? (the camper is very high when sitting on truck, container? or outside?)Agents? US hassel customs? 2) i want to install some type of solar panel deal on the roof and an aire conditionado unit. 3) what spare parts should i take. seems like theres easy parts for my rig down there. 4) insurance? 5) dog import hassels? 6) its got a propane/electric fridge in it already. solar battry charger?
I met 2 rich hippy columbian kids who had driven from bogota around to ushuaia and to Belem in a 2wd subaru w/o any probs. Seems like driving across columbia could be done if one takes precautions. any info/links apreciated. tom, back in culturaly boring and expensive usa/dallas texas

[Toby2]

haven't done Americas so can't answer some of your questions, only done Africa / Australia / Europe. However in regards to shipping / containers. If you camping unit is easily dismountable then it may be worth doing for the security of a container. You can be present when its loaded and locked and present when its unlocked and unloaded which substantially reduced the risk of theft and also means you can supervise the tie down points so that there someone doesn't tie round your brake pipes etc and damage the vehicle. If you decide not to go for a container then there are essentially two other types. 1) roll on roll off which may or may not be available. The problem with this is dockers have to drive your vehicle on and off which means they have to have the keys and your not around. Whilst you can try to secure all your goods in the camper part for example, the dockers have the means and the time. In a container no one knows whats in the container where as if the vehicle is sat there its rather more obvious. However lots of vehicles are moved this way. Secondly is a flat pack. this has a base like a containers so that the cranes can lift it up on to the ship and the vehicle is tied to it. However it is exposed. You don't have to hand over your keys and you can supervise the tie down but its still exposed and obvious. Depends what your luck is like - you might be fine, you might not. Suggest taking insurance with your shipping costs, occasionally containers do fall off ships, expensive if you don't have insurance.

[This message has been edited by Toby2 (edited 21 March 2004).]