Driving a Tacoma around the world

Ha! Who said you can't fix stupid?

 

Yes, my only slip up was after pulling out of my wife's cousin's driveway in Cambridge. The other oncoming driver let me know I f*+!ed up!

I finally figured out how to do the multi-lane roundabouts without people honking at me

 

Yeah, my brother said we had to go back so he could change his shorts. We don't have the big round abouts here, yet...

 

The most complicated roundabouts that I have found are about a mile from the car rental agencies at Heathrow airport. They are two lane roundabouts with four roads that cross through the middle of the roundabout. Still haven't figured those ones out yet...

Luckily driving on the continent is comparatively quite simple as most drivers are pretty mellow. Even driving on the Autobahn

 

What I really enjoyed about driving in Germany - other than the occasional ‘no limits’ signs - was the deliberate driving of the locals. You knew what they were going to do based on the traffic signs, their vehicle indicators, and their line of sight.

They *might* cut you off, but you knew it was coming and never had to guess.

Italy? Pssshhh, your guess was as good as theirs. LOL.

 

Yes. I'd say the European drivers are more skilled, maybe because government road crews don't coddle them/treat them like idiots. Here, road crews have only one warning sign out and drivers are expected to actually see it and slow down. CALTRANS, which is the California Department of Transportation is the worst offender, IMHO.

 

On a more fun subject, here is a viking graveyard in Northern Denmark used for 600 years

 

They are bad, the DC region has drivers and roads to make it a fair fight.

 

Well after two fills, I think I figured out how to fill US made propane tanks in Europe but it’s not simple. In Europe, they have a few cars that run on propane, known locally as “Autogas”. Some countries have quite a few of these especially equipped gas stations like the UK and Germany, others have none, Finland for example so it behooves you to monitor your supplies.

Below I’m filling our tanks at a Hamburg, Germany gas station that has an Autogas fuel pump.



Here’s the adapters (the 6 aluminum-colored pieces) that I ordered from a British company. https://www.lpgadapter.com/pol-uk-gas-bottle-filling-travel-autogas-propane-lpg-adapter
. Europe has four different fittings. The UK uses the “bayonet” fitting on the right. The German fitting is shown with a G and the Spanish “dish” fitting is shown with an S. The unlabeled fitting is a one-way safety valve.

Our modern North American propane tanks use the QCC-1 or ACME fitting. Inside of every ACME fitting is the original POL fitting. It’s a backwards-threaded fitting that used to be the North American fitting standard but now is used primarily in Australia.

The hose has ACME-to-POL fittings. The idea with his hose is that if I cannot find I station then I can rent a local filled bottle and drain it using gravity into our North American tanks. After all propane which is LPG, is a liquid. The challenge with this method is that it is slow and liquid propane is damn cold which is why you see me using gloves. Also, you must fill bottles only to 80% capacity to allow for gas expansion so I also carry a fish scale (not shown) for weighing bottles.

next on my list is to buy another acme fitted hose and leave the other end blank for a local fitting.

The LPG system in Europe is almost exclusively propane bottle exchange or having a delivery service fill up stationary tanks at homes. In fact, it is not legal to fill up your own gas bottle in England and Italy. But it is legal to fill it up in the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and France.

 

Love showing our baby in great places!

We were waiting for the key for our night in the castle. Joking

Another shot of the Egeskov Castle in Funen, Denmark

 

Nice work, be safe.
Zim

 

Did you go to the Lego HQ? I heard it is really cool.

 

Not yet. Yes, we’ve heard that it’s quite something. It’s on our list

 

Epic journey and you’ve only just started. The stories you’ll be able to tell…..

 

Thank you! We’re having a great time and taking it one country at a time. The Tacoma is holding up fabulously as well. I’m glad I brought oil filters as there’s none here that I can find. Amazon doesn’t have same day delivery in Europe. Also couldn’t find 0w-20 weight oil either. Closest I found was 0w-30 and a 5 quart container is $60! Going to poke around more when the next oil change gets closer.

The reactions of the locals is quite humorous, when we roll into the campground people literally just stare at the truck, with their forkful of food frozen in place. Yesterday the campground host/owner in Copenhagen took a actually photo of the truck. He said that Americans haven’t been there in three years, yet there were plenty of europeans; French, Italian, Swiss, German, Austrian, Netherlands, etc.

 

I have a Tacoma with a soft topper so nothing crazy. Anytime im more than 1 hour away from an American base the looks are crazy and people will come to talk to you. I couldn't imagine the attention you get with the camper.

 

Ah, someone who understands! I understand now what zoo animals go through, it’s all good though. I have a niece and her husband stationed at Ansbach.

 

so its gonna be 3 years in 4 months …..

 

No way!!! small world Im here. if you're in the area LMK I would love to check out the rig.

 

Wow! You’re correct, I bought the truck new in December, it’s been a long time coming. I ordered the camper in March of 2020