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Shipping Westy Syncro
Posted: 13 Dec 2010, 19:10
by joe75
Hey Guys,
I am in the process of emigrating to New Zealand and we are taking our Syncro with us. We planned to put it in a container but we have been told it is to big (height?) and will have to go ro-ro. I have not heard many good things said about ro-ro with regards to damage to vehicles and theft of parts both inside and out. Any one on here used a ro-ro?
I looked up the dimensions of a standard container and they are 2.35m high with a door aperture height of 2.26m. At the moment my van is at the body shop so I can not go and measure it . Can anyone tell me what height a Westy Syncro with 15" BFG AT tyres is? Has anyone got their Westy into a standard shipping container? I know it will be tight and I want to make sure the van has enough spare room to able to move around.
Any ideas or knowledge would be great.
Thanks
Joe
Re: Shipping Westy Syncro
Posted: 13 Dec 2010, 19:27
by silverbullet
Fit some cheapo or part-worn lower profile tyres (70 or 60 section) and steel wheels on it and stow the AT's inside?
That should drop it a good bit. Maybe cheap (read JK as they are cr4p) lowering springs will help to lower it further, since 2wd springs are longer than syncro, at the front anyway. A few hours well spent should get it under the 2.25m door.
Old mattresses all round the ends and sides of the van to give it a fighting chance in transit would be a good move too.
Re: Shipping Westy Syncro
Posted: 13 Dec 2010, 19:32
by Essex Nige
joe75 wrote:Hey Guys,
I am in the process of emigrating to New Zealand and we are taking our Syncro with us. We planned to put it in a container but we have been told it is to big (height?) and will have to go ro-ro. I have not heard many good things said about ro-ro with regards to damage to vehicles and theft of parts both inside and out. Any one on here used a ro-ro?
I looked up the dimensions of a standard container and they are 2.35m high with a door aperture height of 2.26m. At the moment my van is at the body shop so I can not go and measure it . Can anyone tell me what height a Westy Syncro with 15" BFG AT tyres is? Has anyone got their Westy into a standard shipping container? I know it will be tight and I want to make sure the van has enough spare room to able to move around.
Any ideas or knowledge would be great.
Thanks
Joe
you can get what they call a high cube, they go 9ft 6"
Re: Shipping Westy Syncro
Posted: 13 Dec 2010, 19:33
by syncrosimon
If you look at this video (quite interesting in it's own right) you will see some trucks being loaded. I think you could stick some 14" on and let the tyres down a bit and you would be fine.
http://www.streetfire.net/video/arctic- ... 680900.htm
My syncro came from Finland in a container (as far as Belgium anyway) and it is 2.6m tall.
Re: Shipping Westy Syncro
Posted: 13 Dec 2010, 19:34
by Essex Nige
sorry thats 8ft 9" internal, that other measurement was external
Re: Shipping Westy Syncro
Posted: 13 Dec 2010, 19:35
by lloydy
Mine is 2140mm, but is a 16" westy on standard wheels suspension. So wiil be close.
Have you thought about getting a set of 14" wheels with cheap low profiles on. May lose you a few cm.
Lloyd
Re: Shipping Westy Syncro
Posted: 13 Dec 2010, 19:37
by lloydy
Blimey i'm a slow typer, thought i was the first to reply
Re: Shipping Westy Syncro
Posted: 13 Dec 2010, 19:38
by silverbullet
Is there an echo in here - here - here- here?
Cool vid - just how much of that brand new HiLux went in the bin?!
Re: Shipping Westy Syncro
Posted: 13 Dec 2010, 19:46
by syncrosimon
silverbullet wrote:Cool vid - just how much of that brand new HiLux went in the bin?!
Arctic trucks make some real nice stuff, but only the cab was used for that polar truck. Scary. Why not start with a second hand one if you are gonna modify so much. Never seen such wide wheels. The strain on the hubs must be huge.
Re: Shipping Westy Syncro
Posted: 13 Dec 2010, 20:03
by Russel
I have fitted a 2wd high top into a standard container before so see no reason why a westy Pop top syncro who'nt fit.
I think your more important concern is that a syncro westy is LHD and you cant register LHD's in Australia, South Africa and to my knowledge New Zealand.
Russel
Re: Shipping Westy Syncro
Posted: 13 Dec 2010, 20:11
by lloydy
Quite a lot of restrictions
http://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/facts ... hicle.html
Re: Shipping Westy Syncro
Posted: 13 Dec 2010, 20:25
by silverbullet
Falls into Cat B - light vehicles under 3.5t GVW over 20 years old?
Re: Shipping Westy Syncro
Posted: 13 Dec 2010, 20:33
by joe75
Hey Guys,
Thanks for the quick replies ... I have thought about changing wheels and tyres to make it fit, might be a route I have to go down? Knowone has commented on the the ro-ro option, is this a good or bad thing?!
Thanks for your concern about LHD in NZ. Their are a few classic LHD on the road in NZ, mainly US stuff. For those that are interested read the government import info
http://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/facts ... hicle.html. The Syncro pops into the
'light vehicles that were manufactured more than 20 years before their date of first registration'. I have checked this out with NZ AA and all is well.
NZ never imported the T25 so there are not many. Only about 30 Westy's running about from what I know.
Again, thanks for the help.
Joe
Re: Shipping Westy Syncro
Posted: 13 Dec 2010, 20:34
by joe75
silverbullet wrote:Falls into Cat B - light vehicles under 3.5t GVW over 20 years old?
You guys are fast tonight! Faster than I can type ...
Re: Shipping Westy Syncro
Posted: 13 Dec 2010, 21:16
by silverbullet
There's not much going on, jumping on every new morsel that gets posted up and we're all clearly frustrated with the lack of daylight hours to faff about on our vans