Plodalong
Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2012 1:07 pm
Our vehicle is a 1994 Toyota Hiace Commuter that we have called Plodalong. (With only 60KW (on a good day) from a naturally aspirated 2.8Litre diesel there was no other name that would have been appropriate (or clean) 
)
Plodalong is operational and as he has just recently been fitted with a new diesel engine we decided to take him out on a few occasions now for short trips in and around Far North QLD to bed the engine in and to iron out any kinks.
There are still more things to be done to Plodalong like a decent sized water tank and more battery + solar capacity but all the items needed are in hand, it's a matter of time before they are all added to him.
With his current mass at 2620Kg with all fuel and water tanks full and my wife and I sitting in him, progress up hill's of any size will be slow, but we don't care, we will get there in the end.
)Plodalong is operational and as he has just recently been fitted with a new diesel engine we decided to take him out on a few occasions now for short trips in and around Far North QLD to bed the engine in and to iron out any kinks.
There are still more things to be done to Plodalong like a decent sized water tank and more battery + solar capacity but all the items needed are in hand, it's a matter of time before they are all added to him.
With his current mass at 2620Kg with all fuel and water tanks full and my wife and I sitting in him, progress up hill's of any size will be slow, but we don't care, we will get there in the end.
I do understand the poor performance issues, I had a diesel Tarago with the mighty 2.0ltr normally exaspirated engine, breath taking accelleration was not one of it's attributes. We have decided on a performance package for the 3500 Mazda, headlight covers so it can't see the hill coming and spacers under the rear springs so it always seems to be going down hill, it goes well down hill.