Here’s my very detailed Mongol Rally Car Prep Tips! We did the Mongol Rally in 2012 – and I remember scouring the internet for any posts which gave advice to amateurs like me on how to best prepare your car. It’s not always easy to find the right info, and to be honest, there’s an argument to be made for ‘cheating’ if you actually follow the advice, I mean, the whole point is to do something redic and wing it.

But. I thought about it – and decided that there’s a lot of good advice I can give, which definitely is not going to ruin it for you, but will hopefully enhance the experience by making sure you think about a few things – things which you’ll be glad you thought about!

So here goes!

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 1. The Car!

Where do you start with this? Picking the vehicle that’s going to help you cross thousands of miles can be massively daunting process. On the rally you hear lots of different ways people got their car

• Went with their favourite make
• Saw other teams from previous years that made it and used their car make!
• Was donated to them
• They had a car, it broke before the rally, they got a cheap one to replace it
• The cheapest car they could find

Here’s some things to think about:

The make of the car basically depends on a lot of things. When we did it, it had to be under 1.2l and younger than 10 years old. So that really narrows things down! Japanese cars tend to be more reliable and sturdy and tend to break less than French / Italian cars.

Don’t get a Suzuki Jimmy! It’s a mini 4×4 and everybody will think you’re a loser because you brought a 4×4 to a rally which is meant to demonstrate that you can drive to UB in a car you use to drive to the supermarket!!

We drove a Nissan Micra 2003 model and the car was rock solid throughout the rally. We saw a lot of italian cars break down along the way, and this was mainly due to electrical issues – one Fiat we saw basically had it’s engine fall out! The guys in our convoy had a Vauxhall Corsa and a Suzuki Ignis and a Suzuki Swift. Whilst all of these cars had damage along the way, they all fundamentally worked and had no essential parts break down!

I would use one of those sites which tell you how reliable a car is. This will give you an overview of which are the weak parts and which are OK.

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Ride Height

Ride height wasn’t something we thought of when we bought the car. You get so focussed on how much space is inside and could you live in this for 6 weeks – that how high the car is above the ground really doesn’t come into your head. But it’s important. When you drive off-road you’ll be driving across ridges, rocks, undulations and all kinds of rough terrain. It will definitely happen! If the distance between the ground and the bottom of your car isn’t much, you’ll definitely have issues. You’ll be driving slower because you have to be more careful, constantly scanning the ground for anything which could mess up the car!

The team with the Suzuki Ignis had about 2cm more ground clearance than us, and they were able to fly across the Mongolian steepe, it really makes a big difference. The thing to bear in mind is that when you load up the car, the ride height will come down. We had three adults and loads of luggage and so our car was fairly low to the ground.

So how to get better clearance? Well you can spend hundreds on improving your suspension – but that’s a crappy idea as the fun of the trip is trying to get your stupidly low car to drive across bad ground.

I would make sure you have a great sump guard, get slightly thicker tyres and invest in spring dampeners (see below) – or get a car with higher clearance!

Also, when have a good check of all the bits at the bottom of the engine as these are the most vulnerable to damage. The Ignis had a protruding oil filter which one of the guys knocked clean off 2 days away from UB. If they didn’t have a spare, they would have had to checkpoint their car – which would have been a tragedy! So take a good look and bring a spare for anything which could be knocked off.

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To Air Condition – or not?

I won’t lie, it’s going to get very hot during your trip. Like stupidly hot! In Central Asia you can buy bottles of water which are pre-frozen (do it!). Usually in our car it would melt within about 5 minutes, that’s how hot it was!

So, do you need air-conditioning? If your car has it, then that’s great. But it’s not essential. I remember being very worried about it before the rally, but seriously … you get used to the heat pretty quickly. Most of the time you’ll have your windows open because it’s fucking hot! Also, driving with your windows up through wild and vast landscapes is just weird. The only times we wanted A/C was when we were driving through dust bowls and we needed to keep the windows up to stop the dust coming, then it’s a bit shit, but that’s what Shemaghs are for! (definitely get one! and learn how to put them on properly!! You’ll look like a terrorist, but they are so good!)

Also, when you get to Mongolia, it’s really cold, so you definitely won’t need it there (it was the first time we put on our heater!)

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3 door or 5 door?

Get a 5 door – a 3 door car is just annoying and usually, the back windows don’t have a controllable window.

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Roof Racks

Roof Racks are a must! Basically you’re in a tiny car and you’ve got to take all your tents, sleeping bags, food, tools, clothes, and spare parts with you. Not to mention the jerry cans and spare tyre! There are loads of options for roof racks (see above), and as long as they hold all the extra shit you can’t fit into the boot, then they’ve done their job.

But – I wish we had gone for the custom made roof rack. Let me explain. The roof rack is more than a roof rack. As the rally progresses, you realise that health and safety has made you into a wuss and actually, you can do stupid things and live another day.

The roof rack is a means of escape, and if you have the right one allows you to get away from the confines of your car. Some of my favourite memories is sitting on the other car’s roof rack during our jaunts across the dirt tracks. There’s something just so liberating and free about sitting on the top of a car taking everything in. And it’s not too dangerous actually, basically, on dirt tracks you’ll never go more than 30 mph.

So here’s my take on the different options:

Roof Rack	My Take
NO ROOF RACK	What?! You definitely need one. We saw people who had literally just chucked stuff on their roof and wratched it down. This is a moronic thing to do. It'll fly off on the motorway and kill someone, and will cause your roof to collapse if you manage to get to Mongolia because the roads are shit
A normal roof rack	What I mean by this, is that you have roof rack bars and put an open roof rack on it. We did this on ours, it was a £90 lightweight aluminium rack from eBay. we added lightweight MDF to the tray for better support, and it wa perfectly adequate. However, we found we needed a heavy duty tarp to cover the contents so they didn't get wet and this was a massive phaff as we would have to undo the tarp first to get at anything. By the end of the rally, we were an efficient machine at getting in and out of the tarp, but I would say that our morning getting the roof rack ready took roughly 10-15 minutes. This is a big deal if those in your convoy can get ready in half that time, nobody likes hanging about for the retard team. - Pros are price and low weight, cons are you can't sit on them, most have a max limit of 60kg
A Custom Made Roof Rack	This is when a company like Wilco make a roof rack for you. They generally cost around £200 to £400. Now this might sound like a lot, but I think it's worth it. They are sturdy and will almost definately be able to take a lot of weight, so you can sit in them. Also, they don't need a tarp over it so it makes them really easy to get things from them. You can therefore fit your Jerry Can and spare tyre on the roof leaving the roof free for essential things like a kettle and your coat. I would go for this option! Also, don't worry that the adventurists won't like it when they go to sell the car on, they won't care - honestly, some of the cars that turn up in UB are in a disgraceful state!
Quirky Shit	Because the mongol rally, you'll always get weird shit on the cars. On our rally, we had canoes, a paper mache animal and a bathtub. They get loads of attention and if you can live with the reduced space, then I think it's brilliant! Makes the whole thing seem even more daft. We met up with the guys with a bathtub on their roof, but it seemed like the weight of the bathtub caused issues with the springs / tyres. If you put something really heavy on your roof, assume you'll have issues with your springs and tyres. And for god's sake, make sure it's literally welded onto the roof!! I cannot stress enough how crappy Mongolian roads are, they will absolutely wreck your car!!

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Tyres

Your car is going to drive roughly 10k miles, over some of the worst roads in the world. Tyres are a big deal, and you need to think about them.

What tyres should I use?

Use Van tyres. Normal car tyres are 1 or 2 ply (effectively the thickness of the rubber part). These are great for street driving where you have a low weight car on normal roads. But, you’ll be driving across rocks, dirt and you’ll be in a heavy car. I would go for a minimum of 5 ply tyres but 6+ ply would be preferable if you can. Basically, this makes the tyres a bit louder and the car less responsive on the road – but you’re not driving a sports car, you’re driving a slow lumbering tank across a dirt track.

For this reason, we ended up with 6ply Evergreen ES88 Van tyres. We bought 5 (one of the spare wheel) and we negotiated with our local tyre dealer (Zaks Tyres in Brixton). He gave them to us for £300 and fitted them for free 🙂

So how did they perform?

They were excellent! We didn’t have a single puncture on our entire trip. Believe me, this is an incredible feat. The Corsa guys had 4 tyre blowouts (see below!), the Suzuki guys had two. And trust me, we think we did some of the worst roads on the rally (including the disgusting road from Kazakhstan to Turkmenistan) Our tyres looked worn by the end, but definitely could have gone on for longer. Good tyres are always worth the investment.

How many Spares should I take?

We took one, the others took two. We took one because we literally had no more space left for a second spare! You’d be unlucky to get two blowouts at the same time, so two might be a bit far. But if you have crappy tyres to begin with, then you it might be a good idea. Sometimes you’re just unlucky, like the bathtub guys who drove over a big ridge and blew out both front and back tyres at the same time. But that is RARE!

I think one is OK, generally if you have a blowout you can switch the tyre over, and get it repaired at the next garage. In Mongolia, most garages can fix or supply you with a new tyre. If you go for 6 ply tyres, then I don’t think you’ll need two tyres, we didn’t even need one!

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Sump Guard

If there’s one thing you need to make sure your car has, it needs to be a sump guard! Sump guards are a thick piece of metal underneath the front of the car which protect the underside from damage. I honestly can’t imagine how any team could have done the rally without one.

So why are they important? Once you get out of Europe, you’ll realise that tarmac is a bit of a luxury item. In Ukraine, we started to notice that some roads had ridges in them. Basically, really heavy trucks drive on them, and when it’s summer the tarmac get soft, so what you end up with are these ridges where the truck tyres have driven. These ridges rise above the road surface and are terrifying the first time you come across them. Ridges, outcrops, big rocks will become your life on the rally and the bottom of your car will take a fair amount of brunt from them.

This is where a sump guard is so invaluable. It protects the bottom of the engine from damage. Let me give you an example, my friend Ravi was driving the car through a dirt track. This was the first dirt track of the rally and he got a little cocky. He drove up a hill at speed and then over the crest he failed to notice a large outcrop of rock on the road. We drove smack bang into it and completely ripped the sump guard off the car. The sump guard was damaged (but we were able to hammer it back into place and re-bolt it on at the next garage). The guard saved us from ripping off the exhaust and maybe worse.

Here’s my FAQ for sump guards:

Question	Answer
Where can I get a sump guard made?	My Dad made ours at the workshop at his work. Said it was the hardsest thing he's ever had to make. He made it from thick aluminium and had to drill lots of holes into it (required for air circulation). The issue with small cars is the frame metal is quite thin so we had lots of issues just trying to find a suitable place to drill the sump guard in. By making it ourselves, we saved around £200, but we did have a mechanic in the family. Most garages should be able to help out with this, of if they can't, they'll be able to suggest a place. One of the teams on the convoy had the roof rack and sump gaurd made at the same place for around £450 - and there's was really good and fit properly!
How does it affect the car?	Our experience was that it made the car warmer. The sump guard retains heat more so the cabin got hotter especially when it was hot outside. When we first destroyed the sump guard, we effectively flattened it, but this seemed to make it better - and the heat seemed to get better. Make sure they drill lots of ventilation holes and they use thick metal, at least 5mm thick!
Anything else	Bring spare bolts for it! Also, every couple of days, check that the bolts are on tight! As a last resort, make sure you have very heavy duty cable ties.One of the bolts sheared off on ours, and we re-attached the sump guard using a very big cable tie, and this lasted 7 days!

 

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Other Things to Note

If you’re going to be travelling so far you can be properly adventurous and buy a car and just turn up without any of the prep. That’s living on the wild side and assuming you have a sump, you might make it across Mongolia – but probably not. The best feeling on the rally was the moment we switched our engines off at UB. It was the most incredible feeling to have have reached our goal, and I can only feel for those who dropped out at one of the checkpoints.

There are some things you can do to limit the chances of dropping out and getting to the finish line (and some things to make it more fun!)

1. Take the right things with you (see below)
2. Give your car a fighting chance with a sump guard
3. Get it serviced, new oil and new spark plugs
4. Replace the clutch – on small cars it’ll be cheap and if you have a friendly garage on board they’ll usually do it for free! You’ll almost certainly beach your car and you definitely burn your clutch out trying to un-beach yourself!
5.  Buy Spring assister’s for your springs
6. Get a really loud Fog Horn!
7. Rally lights are useless if fitted incorrectly!

Spring Assister’s

What the hell is this? Basically, almost without exception (apart from us), your springs will break. They are going to go through hell and back and with all the extra weight, they will crack under the pressure, usually somewhere between Kazakhstan and Mongolia. My Dad, recommended we get spring assister’s and, unbelievably they protected our delicate springs magnificently! Basically, they are a rubber insert which slots into the spring. They stop the spring compressing to it’s maximum extent, and absorbs a lot of the downwards force the springs would usually have to take. They cost like £15 but are incredibly useful little things!

Looking back on the rally, I would also take a spare set of springs too. The other team’s springs broke around Uzbekistan – which meant they had to take a detour to the next largest city to find the right springs for the car. Whilst there is nothing wrong with this, half way is usually around the point where you want to put miles under your belt and not be too distracted by having to make a 200 mile detour.

Air Horns

 

Car horns are actually crappy. They’re not very loud and really are not appropriate for a rally like the Mongol Rally. We bought a cheap air-horn from a parts shop and honestly, it was so good having it. You’ll use your horn all the time, whether it;s on the starting line, or telling massive trucks that you’re behind them, or just saying hello to people as you drive by.

Also having a switch on the dash just for the horn is bloody brilliant! Make sure you take spare fuses as we had to replaces our a few times!

Rally Lights

So to my last comment. Rally Lights? They look well cool – but to be honest, they are a bit useless! If you put them on in the right place and low to the ground then I’m sure they’ll help if you have to drive in the dark. BUT – in reality, you never drive in the dark outside of Europe, the pot holes are redic, and you’ll definitely crash if you try and drive day pace during the night. We were already cooking dinner with our tents out before the sun was down on 99% of the nights! So really, rally lights are a bit gimmeky. But god, they look cool!

Ours were a last minute addition, so we never had a chance to test them before the rally started. They were too far back and every time they were on, we actually couldn’t see in front of us because the windscreen just lit up with light! Bit embarrassing! But we did use them as secondary lights when setting up the tents. Also, because we could turn them through 90 degrees, we could see the side of the road! Useful when looking for hidden dirt tracks / camping spots.

So should you get them? Hell yes! They are well cool, but utterly useless!

What to Pack

Deciding what to pack can cause you sleepless nights and many an argument. Basically you have a tiny car and it’s got to fit all your bags, tents and sleeping stuff as well as all the necessities of life for a 6 week trip.

My advice is to pack light. Honestly. Look at our car. This was a fucking nightmare every time we needed to find something. Eventually we re-organised and put a plastic set of drawers in the back which helped considerably. Being organised in such a way that all the stuff you’ll need on a regular basis is at hand, and all the stuff you’ll never need is tucked away in a corner helps. But this, you will figure out by week 2 once you start camping properly.

See below for a list of things we took

Travel Kettle

Other Advice

Here’s some other advice:

• Bring lots of wet wipes. There will be plenty of days when you don’t shower. These will help! Don’t overload your car with them, buy them as you go along, and keep a stash for Mongolia as they won’t have them there.
• European Beam converters – once you’re out of the UK your lights will shine directly onto the oncoming traffic – beam converters will help to avoid this.
• Funnel – it’s no fun pouring petrol from your jerry without one. If your jerry can has a built in hose, then even better (saves even more space)
• You only need one jerry can – don’t bother taking two. There are petrol stations everywhere
• Ratchets – bring lots of them, they’re useful
• Lights – once you get out of Europe, you’ll be camping by the side of the road. Bring head torches (essential) and small lamps you can put around your camp-site. Trust me they make a huge difference.
• Cable-ties, bring all sorts of sizes, medium and heavy duty are a must
• You will need a tow-rope – definitely
• Bring two pots
• You don’t need a solar shower or any kind of plastic gimmick to store water. Food and water is everywhere. Basically, until you hit Mongolia, you’ll be going through populated areas. We brought one, and never used it.
• With respect to food, as above, bring some treats but don’t bring those stupid pre-packed survival food. They are expensive and waste of money. Every so often we would pop into a shop and stock up on a few days worth of food. Pasta and sauce is everywhere. We sometimes bought meat and made soup or broth. Basically, if you can chuck something into a pan then you can eat it and it will taste fine. As the rally progresses, you will get less and less hungry. Honestly, you’ll be surprised how little you eat through the day. Once we survived on bread, salt and olive oil for a day.
• Make yourselves a little card with all the exchange rates for the countries you’ll be visiting
• Gas stoves? One of our teams bought one and they lasted until Mongolia (with a couple of refills they bought along). We bought one of those fancy mountain ones where they run off your petrol. A gas stove means you have to carry around a couple of bottles which can take up a lot of space. If you can fit them in your car, then they are a winner as they cook quick and are zero phaff. If you’re running low on space, get a petrol cooker (less space, more phaff)
• Money – make sure you bring dollars! Dollars will pretty much pay for anything after Europe. If you are going to Turkmenistan, you’ll need around $100 per person just to get in. Don’t get caught out! Stuff the inside of your car with dollars and make sure it’s hidden – trust me on this. We ran out of cash at a petrol station in Mongolia. We only had US dollars and the lady took it of us in an instant.
• Currency exchange – after europe you can exchange at the borders, usually you get very good rates. Pay bribes in local currency, it’s always cheaper.
• Bribes – Bring alcohol (mini ones) and lots of good quality american cigarettes. Bring weird things such as CD’s, pens and ‘ornaments’. Often you can reduce a bribe with a pack of fags or just keep someone off your back with a CD. We got out of a bribe by giving a guard a pen and a lighter! Be Creative
• Paying Bribes … you’ll figure this part out. Never show fear, just smile and act like you expected it. It pays to pretend you have no idea what they are talking about, or understand what they mean. Often they’ll just give up. If the guard looks evil, he probably is, just give him the money
• Stand your ground – border guards will attempt to make you buy insurance from their mates, you only need to buy car insurance after you cross the border, never before. If they are making you buy it before, just wait it out.
• Don’t cheat and use any kind of satnav, buy maps at petrol stations. It’s more fun and it’s easier to ask directions using a map.
• Learn Cyrillic, it takes a few hours in the back of the car, and it’ll really help on your travels
• Look under the car, anything that can be knocked off, take a spare of it (like oil filters etc)
• Take spare wheel bearings and back wheel springs (see my other prep-post for rubber spring assister’s, make sure you use them!)
• Don’t buy a big tent for everybody to sleep in. It takes forever to put up and you’ll almost certainly be annoyed at the lack of privacy. Privacy is something you miss on the rally. Being able to go into your tent at night without anybody else around is bliss, you can lie in your own thoughts and de-stress. This is one of my biggies, I was so glad we took those 10 second pop up tents, they never failed, low maintenance, and easy to put away. But they take space, so if you can afford it, I would get them, otherwise, small one man tents don’t take too much space.
• Bring a Swiss army knife and a chopping board and wooden spoon. You won’t need much else
• Bring a small shovel for when you need to take a shit
• Bring loads of music and an FM transmitter if your radio is shit and can’t plug into your phone
• Bring some basic tools
• Make time in your schedule to stop at places for more than a day, you’ll get agitated about going places and having to keep moving. Make sure every 5 days you put contingency into your plan to stay an extra day here or day, your body will thank you
• Convey! Don’t do the rally without staying in a convey once in a while. Everybody needs a change of scenery and somebody to exchange stories with. If you find a great bunch of people, stay with them as long as you can, you’ll form a strange bond that stays with you forever
• Always keep beer / alcohol in your car – there will be days when even a warm beer makes everything better. If no beer, buy beer. If no vodka, buy vodka.
• Don’t eat any meat in Turkmenistan. Don’t get caught out by exchange rates in Turkmenistan
• Don’t attempt to drive to Hell’s crater in Turkmenistan once you find the turning off the road. There are guys with 4×4’s who will take you there, your car will never get there
• Camp out on a beach at least once
• Change your routes and plans every so often
• When you get to Altai in Mongolia – get the mechanic to …. ha – I deleted this last sentence for your own fun and benefit. Trust me
• When you get to Mongolia, try the Booz (the fatty dumplings) – they are incredible
• Mongolia is cold, make sure you have something to keep you warm when you get there.
• There are good roads, OK roads, and shitty roads. Try and do the shitty roads early on so you know what to expect. Avoid the shitty roads the closer you get to Mongolia. Mongolia is (or was) all shitty roads
• Crime mostly happens in UB – and not on the way to UB
• 83 petrol works in your car
• Take lots of sharpies and get locals to ‘tag’ your cars
• Take a tarp
• Most people in eastern Russia are incredibly friendly and so nice
• Kazakhs don’t like Borat

Items we took on the Rally

Travel Pillow

Travel Towel

Solar Shower

Wratchet Tie Down

Lithium Battery

Beam Converters

Compass

Silk Liner

Emergency Whistle

Voltage Meter

Chlorine Tablets

Head Torch

Swiss Army Knife

Water Bottle

Backpack

Jerry Can 20l

Nevada Chairs

Tents

Triangle

First Aid Kit Small

Magnet Plates GB

High Viz Vest

Water Bottle Blue

Power Inverter + Jump leads

Water Carrier

Air Compressor

Flat Tyre Thing

First Aid Kit Large

Sleeping Bag

Sleeping Mat

Rubber Band Ball

Business card Holder

Writing Pads

Dot 4 Brake Fluid

Exhaust Repair (gun Gum)\

Fire Estinguisher

Water Repellent Spray (Matric)

Plastic Seal Putty

Petrol Funnel

Screwdrivers Large x 8

Screwdrivers Small

Electrical Wire

Tow Ropes

Car seat Organiser

Electric Mug

Universal Bulb Kit

Car Diagnositcs

Plates

Big Torch

Gaffa Tape

Plastic Tube

Rubber Mallet

Pliers

Mole Grips

Cutters

Adjustable Spanner

Thin Rope

Biros

Selotape

Hose Clips

Twine