Mongolia Charity Rally - Choosing the Ideal Vehicle

[drummerian]

We are six University of Southampton students, embarking on a 10,000 mile journey across many countries, finishing in Mongolia. In June 2012 we will be driving 2 vehicles from London, England, to Ulaanbaatar, where the vehicles will be donated to help support the Mongolian people. We are hoping to raise enough funding and supplies to make this journey possible.

The reason I am posting to the good PHers it to drum up some ideas for potential vehicles that we could take! Perhaps this will be a slightly more difficult ask than the usual ask but I am sure some great suggestions will come from it!

Soo...what are the rules. Basically the vehicles should be 2003+, the reason being that so many mongol rallies have made the Mongolian government realise that they don't just want rusted away scrap littering their country. (we may be able to get away with 2002..). It is also ideal if the vehicle is useful to the people of Mongolia, previous vehicles taken (and therefore vehicles that we would be able to get in to the country without getting charged outrageous tax) have been:
ford transit
Tata
LDV Convoy
Nissan Navara
nissan pathfinder
Mitsubishi l200
ford ranger
toyota hj61
ford ranger
ford transit
renault master
citreon c15
mitsubishi l300
ford ranger
subura legecy
astra van
nissan vanette
Volkswagen Golf CL Variant
ford escort van
renault kangoo
Mercedes vito
nissan terrano

Teams have also taken various ambulances in the past and we are looking into acquiring one or two of these!



Thanks for the help guys!



mod edit: no links to charity donations please

Edited by Matt172 on Monday 9th January 20:28

[Wigeon Incognito]

I did this in 2010. Is there still the small engine rule if the vehicle isn't considered useful? In 2010 everything on your list would have incurred the large engine fines as unless they were a service vehicle (ambulance as you say, fire truck, cherry picker etc) they wouldn't have been considered 'useful'.

I did it in a Suzuki Swift with no problems at all.

Looking at your list and knowing the cars you see driven throughout the route the Toyota will probably give you the least trouble with finding parts. Quite a few Kangoos cropped up in unexpected places though too.

Edited by Wigeon Incognito on Sunday 8th January 01:12

[hidetheelephants]

I've no experience of any of those other than the ubiquitous Transit so I can't add anything useful, I'd just like to bemoan the dulling down of what was an interesting rally where pretty much anything went. To get that far you couldn't start with a total snotter anyway as most of the miles east of Turkey are car killers.

Given the government sanctioned enviro-rape of the (admittedly quite dull)Mongolian landscape in the name of supplying China and Russia with raw materials, giving a handful of insane rallyists a hard time over their choice of automobile is a little rich.

[drummerian]

thanks for the swift reply! (excuse pun)

unfortunately the rules of the Mongolia Charity Rally (not to be confused with the Mongol Rally) has slightly stricter rules to ensure that the vehicles are useful once out there.

Forgot to mention that as students our budget is TIGHT! at the moment I am trying to get approval for a Tata Safari as these seem to be cheap...

We are all pretty handy with a spanner (i personally have completed a mini > nissan micra engine conversion) so are not afriad to get our hands dirty fixing some fairly complex problems if this brings prices down!

[drummerian]

hidetheelephants said:

I've no experience of any of those other than the ubiquitous Transit so I can't add anything useful, I'd just like to bemoan the dulling down of what was an interesting rally where pretty much anything went. To get that far you couldn't start with a total snotter anyway as most of the miles east of Turkey are car killers.

Given the government sanctioned enviro-rape of the (admittedly quite dull)Mongolian landscape in the name of supplying China and Russia with raw materials, giving a handful of insane rallyists a hard time over their choice of automobile is a little rich.

agreed the rules are a little strict but as we are trying to help a developing country it isn't ideal to just deliver them all our scrap! (however, if these rules were not in place I would be straight there in an SJ/micra/corsa or similar)

[Dimebolt22b]

Some guys from the Scilly Isles did this in a Saxo. can't remember what size engine but it's going to be a 1.6 at it's largest.

[Wigeon Incognito]

drummerian said:

unfortunately the rules of the Mongolia Charity Rally (not to be confused with the Mongol Rally) has slightly stricter rules to ensure that the vehicles are useful once out there.

Sorry I didn't pick up on that, it was the Mongol Rally that I did.

You're unlikely to see that many Tatas out there but trust me, with the kind of barn door engineering that holds a Tata together even if the repairs ate beyond you and your team there'll always be a local that can fix it with spit and yak's fur!

I was (stupidly) driving alone cross country (there were no roads) through the desert in Mongolia at night. I was travelling at about 60mph across sand, didn't see a sand bank, jumped it, and landed in rocks on the other side which badly punctured my fuel tank at about 4am.

There wasn't a light to be seen anywhere, not even a fire outside a distant ger. But after about 45 minutes of mild panic a man on a horse turned up, I showed him what had happened, and off he galloped.

I thought I was alone once more and maybe another hour passed but as I heated up some beans on my stove I heard the rumble of a truck engine thundering across the desert. He'd returned, with friends who with barely a word attached the stricken Swift to the back of the truck and towed me to the nearest settlement.

They fed me, watered me, and welded my fuel tank! In return I helped them milk their horses, gave them all the dollars I had left, and a bottle of port I'd been been given earlier in the journey.

Good memories!

[Wigeon Incognito]

Dimebolt22b said:

Some guys from the Scilly Isles did this in a Saxo. can't remember what size engine but it's going to be a 1.6 at it's largest.

Scilly Mission! I travelled with them some of the way. I think it was a 1.0.

[drummerian]

just told one of my team mates about that epic part of your adventure, incredible!

[Wigeon Incognito]

We also found ourselves held at gunpoint in Kazakhstan but that's another story.

You'll have an amazing time, my one piece of advice would be to make the most of every experience outside of the car along the way as well as in it. If you see something interesting stop and investigate.

[Brite spark]

drummerian said:

Soo...what are the rules. Basically the vehicles should be 2003+, the reason being that so many mongol rallies have made the Mongolian government realise that they don't just want rusted away scrap littering their country. (we may be able to get away with 2002).

Not a simple as it sounds then, as for newer vehicles means increasing the budget above the value of the scrappers that have been dumped before making it rather more costly for you, unfortunately for them many of these newer vehicles have electronics which aren't cheap to fix when they go wrong and are unlikely to be within their means to fix It themselves.

[uk_vette]

It's not that difficult now to drive/ride UK to Mongolia, Ulaan Bator.

London, Warsaw (Poland), Daugavpils (Latvia), Moscow, Tolyatti, Ufa, Chelyabinsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Ulan Ude, Ulaan Baatar.

Its all asphalt and you only cross 3 borders ... UK-Schengen, Shengen-Russia, Russia-Mongolia.

Thats an easy route. 4621 miles to the Western Mongolia / Russia border on HWY 51 then HWY 52

You only need 2 visas, Russia and Mongolia.

vette

[drummerian]

Brite spark said:

Not a simple as it sounds then, as for newer vehicles means increasing the budget above the value of the scrappers that have been dumped before making it rather more costly for you, unfortunately for them many of these newer vehicles have electronics which aren't cheap to fix when they go wrong and are unlikely to be within their means to fix It themselves.

exactly the problem i foresee!

[drummerian]

uk_vette said:

It's not that difficult now to drive/ride UK to Mongolia, Ulaan Bator.

London, Warsaw (Poland), Daugavpils (Latvia), Moscow, Tolyatti, Ufa, Chelyabinsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Ulan Ude, Ulaan Baatar.

Its all asphalt and you only cross 3 borders ... UK-Schengen, Shengen-Russia, Russia-Mongolia.

Thats an easy route. 4621 miles to the Western Mongolia / Russia border on HWY 51 then HWY 52

You only need 2 visas, Russia and Mongolia.

vette

who says we have to go the easiest way

[Wigeon Incognito]

drummerian said:

uk_vette said:

It's not that difficult now to drive/ride UK to Mongolia, Ulaan Bator.

London, Warsaw (Poland), Daugavpils (Latvia), Moscow, Tolyatti, Ufa, Chelyabinsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Ulan Ude, Ulaan Baatar.

Its all asphalt and you only cross 3 borders ... UK-Schengen, Shengen-Russia, Russia-Mongolia.

Thats an easy route. 4621 miles to the Western Mongolia / Russia border on HWY 51 then HWY 52

You only need 2 visas, Russia and Mongolia.

vette

who says we have to go the easiest way

Exactly! Mongolia would still be a challenge but that'd just be dull.

[NightRunner]

Read this

[drummerian]

NightRunner said:

Read this

incredible!

[drummerian]

so i've just got new info about the new vehicle rules, certainly limits the choice alot! (especially for affordable vehicles)

it seems:
1. Minibus is good choice, as it's import tax exempted.
2. Pre-03 ambulances can be acceptable, depends on its usefulness and condition. it's also import tax exempted.
3. 2002 Tata Safari is liable to high import tax as it's passenger vehicles and older than 10 years old. You will have to pay 7000$ for import tax.

Basically we are going to have to pan huge import tax on anything that isn't 'useful', and even then the vehicle will ideally be not much older than 9 years. AFAIK useful vehicles are vans,pickups,minibuses,ambulances,etc

So does anyone have any amazing suggestions that other teams may not have thought of!

thanks

[drummerian]

Wigeon Incognito said:

Exactly! Mongolia would still be a challenge but that'd just be dull.

with the new vehicle rules it will be challenging enough!

[tyranical]

Someone at work did this in a 1.0 Suzuki Alto, he got held at gunpoint in the Ukraine and then refused entry into Russia and gave up.