Hi

As I'll be moving from Copenhagen to PTH in a couple of months I'm currently looking into finding a suitable car. I'm currentlly driving a VW Transporter which is fine here in Denmark but it seems that for longer trips to e.g. Gnaraloo a Transporter may not be that useful.

I usually bring my wave and freestyle gear i.e two boards, two booms, three masts and 4 - 5 sails. I'd prefer to have a proper windsurf car/van where I can leave my gear in at all times. I'm considering getting a Mitsubishi Delica as it seem to meet my needs. I'd be interested in hearing which cars other windsurfers drive and possible pros and cons on the Delica.

Please share your relvant experiences

best regards

Hans Christian

I disagree: they are good enough offroad but not as good as many four wheel drives.
For putting in lots of windsurf gear with a shelf or racks, and having an area to sleep, and really good 4WD ability there really is no other: Landcruiser troopy.
For HCFJK: I am not talking abotu the normal Landcruiser, rather I mean the troop carrier version.

They run for ever, parts are available even in remote parts of australia, and they don't have carpet all thru the back like a Delica which is a plus for sand and salty water!
I have a wife n kid n dog so I am actually thinking about getting a Delica. But the guy asked about the best, and the troopy must be IT. I'm ignoring comforts like carpet, electric sunroof and a CD player obviously as fromthe question I think he wants to move wet gear, tackle a rough track to Gnaraloo and sleep in it as priorities.

HCFJK is your surname Anderson

Any van will do as long as it's on LPG cause the price of fuel is gunna hurt this christmas

Gnaraloo? Hell I'd buy a 30 foot tour bus and park it right at the spot. It's not like someone is going to tow it. Plus you could block access for everyone else and hence get the break to yourself... ;-)

Gonewindsurfing247 said...

Mitsubishi Challenger is the best hands down. I know of one (roof racks included) that is going cheap. I reckon I can get them down to $40,000 AUD. In Euros that would be like next to nothing. Let me know if you are interested? [}:)][}:)]

Dunno about that! I have one and they are awesome offroad: but not the BEST windsurfing vehicle as you can't have gear in it and sleep in like you could with a van or troopy. Mine takes 3 short boards and 5 sails just ... with me and no passengers.
A 2000 model is worth about $15 - $17K so I hope the one for $40 is new

Yeah, I have one too, and I reckon they are worth the $40K

stribo said...

Just picked up a sweet Mitsi L300 van with low k's ,long reg,no rust and on LPG for 4 grand!!!
She's at the window tinters now.

Oh no, dont tell me the old brown bomber finally gave up the fight for life

stribo said...


Anyone want a cheap fixer upper? 500 bucks with a second van for spares.Bargain!!

Sounds perfect for our Danish friend.

nebbian said...

Is the L300 Short wheel base or long?

Saw a short wheel base delica in a car yard recently for not too much money...

Can a short wheel base fit a 250 odd cm board in the back with the front seat still in the normal position?

It's a short wheel base and yeah it'll fit ...though the longer masts poke through to the front.Big enough to have a bed etc..
Hard to find a long wheel base thats done less than a million k's
Or any van for that matter.

nebbian said...

Is the L300 Short wheel base or long?

Saw a short wheel base delica in a car yard recently for not too much money...

Can a short wheel base fit a 250 odd cm board in the back with the front seat still in the normal position?

I have a SWB Delica and I cannot fit a 245 board in behind the front seats. I have to have the boards sitting on edge and inbetween the two front seats. However I still have the middle seats in and they are folded up behind the front seats.

I have not optimised my Delica for carrying gear as I still take passengers in the back. So right now I can do the following:

Fit in three boards, longest is 253 cms and shortest is 237.
Fit three masts, three booms, around 8 sails with longest boom length around 215cms, a bunch of other junk, table chairs and other things
Fit in two passengers and the driver. If there are four passengers then I can't put much in the van and have to use roof racks.

Whats awesome about the Delica is the window tinting and the sunroof. Its a sort of reflective tint which is very hard to see inside but easy to see out of. Its great so if you get one, make sure you get one with the tint. I have not seen other cars with this sort of tint. The sunroof and back roof windows are trick. A Delica without a sunroof is a glorified Starwagon.

Its probably best to get a LWB Delica for windsurfing but I live in Sydney and decided the LWB would be too big for city driving and parking.

The issue with imports are as follows:

No support from local manufacturers or importers
No support from local dealers
Lack of spare parts because of the above
Mechanics not willing to, or charging an arm and a leg for any repairs
Lack of local knowledge about the car
Getting insurance
Unknown history from the home country


In the case of the Delica the situation is as follows:
I don't think Mitsubishi Australia will help out with Delicas
There are some Mitsubishi dealers who are quite happy to assist Delica owners, for example North Shore Mitsubishi in Crows Nest NSW.
Spare parts are not a huge problem. There are businesses that supply Delica parts and most parts are interchangable with Pajeros or Starwagons.
On the Delica Club website there is a list of mechanics who are competant and willing to work on Delicas.
There is a wealth of knowledge of Delicas. However they are a complex and difficult to work on vehicle.
Its not difficult to get insurance but its more expensive than a mainstream car.

In my situation I bought it for less than $10K so if anything major happens that costs $5K or more to fix I will write the vehicle off and buy something else.

If you can afford it go the troopy they are the best, heaps of room and spares all over Aus. Just watch out for the troopy that has only done country driving on sundays to a church just outside of the local mine, troopies from mines are thrashed pieces of junk (most cases) and will need extensive repairs to fix, so cost it in! Otherwise awesome vehicles, not as luxurious as the delica or even a horse float for that matter.

The Delicas are great, mechanicals and chasis it's a pajero, on top of the chasis its a pimped starwagon. So in general most parts are not to hard to get hold of. I nearly bought one, only real 4wd van you can get, it has a transfer case and decent clearance. Just look out for all those fancy things on them they are the pricey bits to fix! A broken sunroof aint cheap to fix!

I ended up getting a challenger aswell, didn't like the top heavy look of the delica for off road use. Very happy with my challenger, it fits enough in the back and gets 550km to a tank. I will let mine go for a bit less though, its a 2002 model full leather and I'll take only 30k bargain!!!! PM me if interested

stribo said...

BTW Stay away from the imports if you can Nebbs

The Delica really is an exception to the rule though as everything is Pajero. Parts grow on trees for them

Still say go the Landcruiser Troopy though for the ultimate WS vehicle if you have no regard for comfort, more then 1 passenger or a sunroof.

Picked up my new lwb Delica today.
Needed a new van to fit wife, baby, windsurfing gear and potential space for another sprog. This should do the job nicely.

Hans, there are a lot of Delicas on the road in Perth. Check out the website of the Australian Delica Club: www.delicaclub.com/

Australia sees very few models that are released by the Japanese car companies. Over there you can get 4WD Yarises and all sorts of trick vans.

I guess most of them are not released here because they would be too expensive to support and would fragment the market too much. In the case of the Delica, Mitsubishi Australia probably thought it would canabalise Pajero sales and not add too many total sales. Plus they would have been very expensive. On the other hand the Delica is becoming a more and more popular model in Australia so there is clearly a need for this sort of vehicle, a 4WD van.