Arctic Trucks

The modification

Arctic Trucks involvement began early 2006 with Toyota GB discussing this idea.  Even though the Arctic Trucks team has a long experience with great variety of cold area conditions, driving on “thin” see ice was very new to us.  Still we were fairly confident that this could be done, the question was how we need to prepare the vehicles to cope with these conditions.  Judging from the pictures we saw from this area we even started of the evaluate 37 inch tires might do it for a light vehicle like the Hilux, 44 inch would definitely not be needed.  Very early on we concluded that we should have at least 3 vehicles. 

Together with Toyota GB and the help from Polar Challenge we made trip to Resolute in March/April 2006 and looked at the conditions.  The snow was somewhat different from what we had seen before but not really of big concern.  Some of our biggest concerns were big ice blocks hidden by soft snow and sharp edged stones sticking out of the snow higher areas of the islands we would have to cross.  The ice blocks if hit hard could seriously damage the cars and the sharp edged stones would cut the side walls of the tires when using low air pressure. 

Arriving back from Resolute we suggested using 3 vehicles on 38 inch tires.  Two identical Hiluxes supplied by Toyota GB and one Land Cruiser 120 would be supplied by Arctic Trucks.  It was decided to wait for the Hilux with 3 litre AT that would begin in production at the Toyota factory in South Africa in October.  The colour red was selected for various reasons.  Later when we realized the amount of gear that the TV crew would need we decided to add a trailer on 38 inch tires as well and decided that one of the Hilux would have a canopy for more storage space.

The race would take place at the same time Polar Challenge held their race in 2007.  This would give the TV crew and us access too their logistics and safety network.  The Polar Challenge has huge experience in setting up all sorts of races and team members with huge experience in survival training and doctors specialized in cold areas problems.

Before the first Hilux came to Iceland in late December 2006 we had more or less decided the basic modification.  We would not do any body lift but instead move the front suspension down and forward.  We would not install coil spring suspension in the rear but use longer leaf springs from Toyota Tundra.   To keep the centre of gravity low we made as little suspension lift as possible but did instead a considerable modification to the body.  We were a bit in the dark of how much fuel we would need but we set of with the plan we would get one fuel dump approx 2/3 of the way to the Mag Pole, needing approx 200 litre capacity per vehicle beside some extra fuel on the trailer.  We could therefore tank up there two times, on the way up and on the way back.  We lowered the gear ratios to 1/4.88 and considered to install extra low gear box in at least one of the vehicles.   100% differential locks fr/rr was installed in all vehicles.  We installed extra heaters, including heated fuel filters, bigger batteries, inverters to supply power to all the camera equipment and laptops. 

For communication we used VHF radios between the vehicles, Iridium phone for the outside world and GPS for navigation.  As originally the race was to take place earlier in the year we installed extra lights.  We decided to keep these lights on as they might come in use in bad visibility.  The Land Cruiser we used was modified late 2004 had approx 40 thousand km on it mixed with highland/glacier driving and normal family driving.

After a test drive in Iceland crossing glaciers and travelling the Icelandic highlands we decided that the Tundra left spring was a bit too soft so we added leafs from the original leaf springs.  We also adjusted the shock absorbers to the firmest.

With the camera crew coming to install the equipment in late March a number of last minute adjustments had to be made.  For example, to block outside light we installed darker films in the windows.  This caused some concerns as breaking the side windows was part of the escape plan if the vehicles would go through the ice into the ocean.  As a compromise we had the film pre-cut and cut a bit too small.  We also had African Outback a special roof rack that would sit on the back of one the Hilux for added storage place.

Note: The above gives just a rough explanation of the modification.