Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

Hello

Just got my delica two days ago at Japanoid. We are planning a long road trip this summer to interior and to alberta and figured we'd need something more sturdy and backcountry worthy.

Also, we have beautiful mountains in our backyard. This way we could get up into them.

Welcome to the exclusive Cdn Delica world. A Delica is certainly a wonderful vehicle for long road trips on unimproved roads -- except maybe into California, that state seems to eat Delicas.

You will find lots of information here on preparing a Delica for road trips, especially on the "member trips" section.

There are a number of Delicas in Calgary, Canmore & Banff. Let us know when you are in the neighbourhood, we can arrange a meet of some sort.

Hey and welcome. Hope you love your bus and that you post lots on your trips and adventures with it

mrnick wrote:Hello

Just got my delica two days ago at Japanoid. We are planning a long road trip this summer to interior and to alberta and figured we'd need something more sturdy and backcountry worthy.

Also, we have beautiful mountains in our backyard. This way we could get up into them.

If you take the #3 Crowsnest, just keep in mind that you have to scramble to the top of Kootenay Pass which, at 1774m, is the highest highway pass in Canada. And your engine will let you know if you're not treating it nicely on that road (the Moon Machine didn't blow up, but I did cook a temperature sensor on that road).

Welcome to the group. Enjoy your new toy! And no, the novelty doesn't wear off for at least a year...

mararmeisto wrote:If you take the #3 Crowsnest, just keep in mind that you have to scramble to the top of Kootenay Pass which, at 1774m, is the highest highway pass in Canada.

I've got to be disagreeable here (like I usually am) and point out it isn't the highest. Highway 40 in Kananaskis Country is higher, at 2206 metres. According to several on-line sources, Highwood Pass is the highest paved pass in North America. But then, given that it is higher than the highest point in most provinces and territories, that isn't hard.

Erebus wrote:

mararmeisto wrote:If you take the #3 Crowsnest, just keep in mind that you have to scramble to the top of Kootenay Pass which, at 1774m, is the highest highway pass in Canada.

I've got to be disagreeable here (like I usually am) and point out it isn't the highest. Highway 40 in Kananaskis Country is higher, at 2206 metres. According to several on-line sources, Highwood Pass is the highest paved pass in North America. But then, given that it is higher than the highest point in most provinces and territories, that isn't hard.

See what you've done now? Now I gotta drive that pass! And now it's my turn to demonstrate my Googling/Wikipedia-skills: Milner Pass (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milner_Pass) is another one I've got on my list of places to drive the Moon Machine.

At 3279 metres, Milner is indeed much higher. I had noticed that most of the websites that claimed Highwood was the highest were all in Alberta, which made me suspicious. Thanks for confiming it. Now I want to do Hwy 34 in one direction, then take the infamous Hwy 66 back.

Yup, just add another road to the dozens of "must drive" roads around the world.

Thanks. I will take a look at the member's trips section.

We plan to go through Banff, so will likely miss Crow's Nest, unless we take that route back.

I notice that a couple of people have the Delica roof-racks. We have a set on order. Anyone know if you can get a canoe on those, or if they are just for luggage?

Nick

mrnick wrote:I notice that a couple of people have the Delica roof-racks. We have a set on order. Anyone know if you can get a canoe on those, or if they are just for luggage?

My rack is certainly strong enough. Wouldn't be the most joyful experience trying to get a canoe up there, but that's a separate issue. I didn't design it for a canoe, but shouldn't be hard to rig up some pads to hold it.

Enjoy the new van mrnick.

I was wondering about the Crowsnest since I drove through it several weeks ago. The altimeter in my Deli didn't match up with the elevation claimed on the map, but all of the other passes did. It was out by a couple hundred metres only coming in at 1500 and change. Has anyone else found this discrepancy?

The highest pass I have driven through (although unfortunately not in my Deli) was near Chivay, Peru, at 5029m. It was bloody cold and little short on oxygen. Must take the Deli there when I'm old and retired...if it's still running.

nishby wrote:Enjoy the new van mrnick.

I was wondering about the Crowsnest since I drove through it several weeks ago. The altimeter in my Deli didn't match up with the elevation claimed on the map, but all of the other passes did. It was out by a couple hundred metres only coming in at 1500 and change. Has anyone else found this discrepancy?

The highest pass I have driven through (although unfortunately not in my Deli) was near Chivay, Peru, at 5029m. It was bloody cold and little short on oxygen. Must take the Deli there when I'm old and retired...if it's still running.

Our altimeters are barometric. That is to say they work like barometers, which is why there is a little knob beside them for correcting. They serve two purposes:

• A/ They tell you your altitude.
  B/ They do it by measuring the pressure in the air ~ the higher you climb the less the air pressure ~ so if you know the altitude of where you park then you can correct it every morn and every night. I live at 100 metres elevation; if I come home and notice it says 150 or 200 metres, I know that I'm in a low pressure zone ~ which means that there will be weather blowing in before too long.

You can use this to your advantage, especially if you have a GPS system in your van that you can constantly compare with your altimeter's elevation ~ say when you are in the mountains where the weather changes frequently. It's really quite cool and it helps you to understand the nature of the weather patterns of the environment you are in.

Falco.

Thanks Falco. As I recall there was a significant weather change the morning I headed for the Crowsnest, so that would explain it.