Advocate I
Spare Parts Priorities
- Thread starter Kelly
- Start date
- The cost is the cost - if you need it, you'll pay what it costs. Now, clearly some items are more expensive in some countries, so plan around this (e.g., replace worn AT tyres BEFORE entering Brazil).
- Size and weight - it's evidently impractical to carry big/heavy stuff with you on a trip, so only something which you are confident you'll need, and cannot find wherever you are, would make sense to carry. This comment is actually prioritising based on reliability, so...
- Reliability (probability of failure) - This, in my view, is the principal decider. What is likely to need to be replaced during your trip? The second aspect of this decision is the availability of the replacement part; if Suburbans are not sold in the Congo, then youi will not be able to find parts in the Congo and will need to ship them in, if you need them (this example is based on personal experience of seeing a couple of Suburbans waiting months for spares, having been taken into the Congo without appropriate consideration of parts availability). Now this aspect obviously drives vehicle selection, however if you have chosen the vehicle it makes sense to estimate what components are likely to be needed, and how to source them. If some component is reaching its limit in terms of wear and tear, replace it before leaving.
In terms of failure probability there are, in my view, two additional aspects to consider:
1) the more a vehicle has been modified the more likely it is to experience a premature failure (particularly if the engine/drivetrain/suspension are stressed more than in the unmodified vehicle.
2) the newer the vehicle (or more accurately the fewer km/miles it has covered) the lower the probability of failure. This may seem obvious, however it may make sense to travel in a newer vehicle which will not need parts, than an older vehicle which will. We now carry very little (duck tape, tiewraps, tyre repair jerky, light bulbs, fuses, and a serpentine belt) and have needed no spare parts at all in the last 15 years except for the oldest vehicle in which we've travelled (1997 LC80, which needed a lot of spares). We've needed no spares in the others except light bulbs, fuses, and one 4x4 sensor (which was replaced at the next major town).
