I think on a 120 Prado / Land Cruiser, the one on the back door, and one on the roof would be good insurance.
If I was traveling UK and East coast of Af. down to C.T. I would be upset if I had to resort to using the second spare.

How much weight could I carry in the roof of a 120 series?

I would plan to fit 4 / 5 cross roof bars between the standard fitment roof rails./

G.

Its All About Terrain
 

Until four years ago I used to do extensive driving on sand and rock tracks in the Middle East over a period of many years.I found this extremely unforgiving on tyres and never wore a set(or even one)out.They all used to be destroyed by side wall damage from rocks and vegetation.My worse case was North of a place called Shisr in Southern Oman where I destroyed 3 tyres in one day in VERY REMOTE circumstances.Fortunately I always used steel rims and 150km and one roughed up but,not buggered rim later limped into Thumrait exhausted from the stress of it all.

For me,if you are doing any offroading rather than just overlanding,it would be 2 steel rims and spares every time.Chuck away the Gizmos,spare saucepans and evening suit instead!

14 punctures in 40,000 miles, (where did i go wrong?? - especially as most of those miles were on north/central american tarmac) - my vote definitly goes for two spares!

Huey

Prado Roof Load
 

The roof load for a Prado should not exceed 100kgs - including the weight of the roof bars/rack themselves! But personally I really dislike big loads up top so on my roof there is only the roof tent, folding table and chairs. No wheels, jerry cans or other big heavy items.

Gil

Remember you can always sell a tyre/wheel if you take it and then really feel like you don't need it. If it's a good brand you should get good money for it.

,
,
Thanks Gil,

I thought it would be around that sort of weight.
As a matter of interest, what sort of weight do you think some travelers may have loaded the roof up with?

graham

Hard to say off course.

Tubes on tubeless rims?
Old/worn tyres?
Too low tyre pressure?
Too heavy vehicle?
Stickers in the tyre chafing the tube?

where did you go wrong?
 

Cheap tyres ? no go
Split rims ? noooo go
Worn Tyres ? hard to avoid :(

Which was it.

We got our 5 punctures only after our tyres were down to 40%! (1 nail, 4 acacia thorns)

Cheers,
Noel
exploreafrica.web-log.nl

tyre pressure
 

Tony,

When you go from sand to stones did you put air back into the tyres? Thats what i do. I do NOT drive stoney deserts on low pressures, even if it means deflating and inflating several times a day!


Cheers,
Noel
exploreafrica.web-log.nl

Noel

Earlier this year we were crossing Mongolia with two Transit vans with different wheels (bad planning I know!). One van carried two spares and had three punctures within an hour. We couldn't break the bead to change/repair the tyre. We even tried running over the bead with the second van, but this didn't work. Ended up with a five hour trip to a town with repair facilities.

It can and does happen. The second van had four spares and needed three of them to get to repair facilities. Maybe off road tyres are easier to change.

When on the rocky section, as said earlier, get some real good pressure into the tyres.

Even if it means going above the recommended by up to 5 psi.

Well, on my Defender I was carrying a full length roofrack ("home made" and bloody heavy) which in itself must be about 50kgs, rooftent arond the same, second tyre&rim - damn heavy! and of course other odds and sods. Add on a highlift or whatever and it starts to get pretty easy to hit 200kgs on the roof! Of course a lot of folk also have jerry cans up there as well.

frankly the difference between my Defender in touring mode and jungle mode was too much - a bit of a side slope or unnexpected swerve could really ruin your day! On my vehicle now I only put rooftent (on two light weight Thule bars) and a part sheet of plywood (also on two thule bars) to lash down some folding camp chairs and table. Much, much better. I have not mastered the art of travelling lightly, but not on the roof!

I am not really sure how the roof of a Defender is fixed (blue tack maybe :-) but on bumps the whole roof assembly sort of vibrated independent of the rest of the vehicle!!
Gil

Hi Gil,


My initial idea was 2 sets of roof bars, like Thurl's and 2 full width roof boxes, obviously, set one behind the other.
These would be stashed with all the light bulky stuff that one needs to take.

Then I was also thinking along the line of 4 ~ 5 Thurl roof bars, fastened to the built on roof rails.

Then like you suggest, some 6 ~ 7 mm ply wood as a base.
During the day, the goodies could be stashed up there for the trip, then come night, throw them off, and set up a simple 2 man tent on the plywood,?

I just can't decide if I would get fed-up throwing the stuff off the roof platform every night, make the tent, then have the task of lifting the damn stuff back up the following morning!

Bear in mind that you might need to store those 'goodies' in side the vehicle overnight:thumbup1:

I made some roof bars from 100x10 mm alluminium bar bent to the profile of the roof, with 10mm clearance. Bend it with a gas torch so no stresses, clamp to the roof gutter - low profile, long contact, cooling air underneath, minimal weight and less noise/turbulance from wind on the motorway. rooftent bolted to this - simple and easy to live with - 2 bars have been there for 70,000 miles. If you had 2 more in front with a spare wheel mount it would be less than 80kg even with a roof tent. I think lifting boxes up and down will be a right royal pain in the arse.

If you do want to go down the plywood sheet and roofrack then have a look at brownchurch tents, they make one that stores at the front of the rack leaving room for more stuff, but I wouldn't have more than 60/70kg up there especially in dunes:nono:
This photo is with the spare tyre inside too

Hi,
to be honest if it was me I reckon I would very quickly tire of climbing up, removing boxes and rigging a tent on a confined roof area - I am sure you would feel the same after a while and just be pitching on the ground. I know rooftent manufacturers expouse the advantages of being off the ground blah blah, but IMHO the biggest advantage of a roof tent is ease of setting up. With mine (hanibal) it is a quick jump onto roof (tyre, wing, bonnet, roof - easier and faster than any ladder) unzip it and unfold. Takes all of about 30 secs! If you are not going down the rooftop tent route then I would just pitch on the ground.
I think 4 or 5 roof bars is too much and probably two or three would be better (cheaper) but increase the ply thickness to 12mm or more as 6 or 7 is very bendy. Remember the ply should be ideally marine but WBP will also be okay. Interior ply (MR) will dissolve fairly fast in aggressive African conditions.

To be honest the rooftent is fantastic and worth the investment if you think about how much time you spend sleeping and how if you are tired/sick you don't want to spend time fighting pegs and ropes etc. I only wish I had bought a hard shelled one as that makes life even easier in terms of time and hassle!

I know we are getting a bit away from the two tyre discussion - apologies Noel!

Gil