4WD Mitsubishi Delica L400 2.8L turbo diesel
Who is Jumbo?
Jumbo is our 4WD Mitsubishi Delica L400 van (Chamonix, 2.8 TD Diesel, series no. 2, 1997) and had 142 000km when we got him back in July 2019. Jumbo was imported from Japan to Vancouver, Canada where we bought him and where the story has started! Here is Jumbo’s story including some major modification we did on him.
Why a Mitsubishi Delica?
Wondering why we chose Mitsubishi Delica while there’s hundred of other kind of 4WD out there?
Mitsubishi Delica is a great combination of a well-capable 4WD vehicle and reasonably spacious van. We absolutely love it for its great capability to get us anywhere while we can still maintain relatively good comfort standard inside. We don’t need to make any compromise on where we want to go and where we can possibly get. Both comes in one! Jumbo as we bought him was a good fit for us to build our off-grid overland vehicle and our new home.
Jumbo, the Mitsubishi Delica as we bought him.
The van modifications
When you think your van is ready to travel the world but you realise it has turned into a never ending story...
When we bought Jumbo, we thought we would be ready to hit the road and start our overland journey after 3 weeks of preparations in August 2019. How wrong and naive we were when we look back now…
Yes, we got the lesson straight away. Within the following weeks we broke down a few times (including one towing!). The interior set up wasn’t working for us that well. The original suspensions couldn’t handle the new weight any more (Jumbo weights now 3025kg!). Our fuel tank was quite small to manage long-distance travels. A lot of the body parts screamed at us when we hit the bumps and the last but not the least, the car was too warm to sleep in during the night in the summer.
Conclusion? We took another couple of months to get Jumbo ready! Check it out below!
Mechanical
Electrical
Exterior
Interior
Have a question about our conversion?
Are you planning to convert your own Delica too? Do you want to know more about how we did it? Get in touch with us and we’ll be more than happy to share some tips!