The Navigator's Bag

Never let the Navigator's Bag out of sight. This is what is in it:

Folder containing:

• Daily and Rest day Checklist
• Car Data (e.g. Spark plug gap, Tyre size)
• Spares and Consumables List
• List of Contents of Medical Kit
• Route Listing
• Hotel Listing
• Rally Preparation Course Notes
• Spot Trace Tracker Instructions
• Brantz Instructions
• Annual International Safety Inspection Certificate
• Camera and Gimbal Instructions
• Fault Finding Guide
• Multi language car data sheet (for bystanders to read)
• Copies of V5
• Copies of Passports
• Copies of International Driver’s Licence
• Copies of Insurance 
• Copies of Vaccination Certificates
• Copies of Credit Cards
• Copy of Entry List
• Copy of Rally Regulations

Plastic wallets containing:

• Post - it notes in various colours
• Post-it page markers
• Rubber bands in various sizes and colours
• Bulldog Clips
• Scotch tape
• Highlighters
• Chinagraph pencils
• Coloured pens
• Magnifying glass with light
• Writing pens
• permanent marker pen
• Self adhesive Vecro strips
• Spare plastic wallets

Travel Documents

Passports

International Driving Licences

V5

Clipboard and pad of paper

Notebook

Monit instructions

Questions & Answers on Automobile Electrical Systems by E Molloy 1952

The Civil Service Motoring Organisation Handbook 1955

How to Win a Marathon Road Rally by Alan Smith (nah - only joking, no room for this I’m afraid)

Garmin

Spot Trace

Digital Flare

Mechanical compass

Spare batteries for the above

Car Keys

Badges/Key rings from Gaydon

Tyres

There's a lot of discussion amongst rally folk about what tyres to run on.  There is the option of special rally tyres designed for Mongolia's off road conditions, but these won't work so well on the tarmac roads that cover most of the rest of the route (although there are several special stages on gravel and dirt roads).

We've decided on van tyres for Rhubarb and Custard.  These fit onto the existing wheels, don't weigh too much and should be easy to source if we need new ones. They won't give us a fast time around a racetrack - although as is often said on Top Gear the fastest form of transport in the UK is a white van, so who knows.  On balance we hope they are a good compromise between practicality and serviceability.

We know that punctures are a problem and so we have brought a puncture repair kit. However, neither of us have any idea how to use said kit. Nor do I see how it is possible to remove a tyre by the side of the road when special equipment is used if the garage does this.  We also have spare inner tubes which I recall my father always saying you must never fit to radial tyres. Again, we have the same problem of how to get the tyre off the wheel and back on again.  I've seen on one of the 2013 blogs that a competitor had 20 punctures along the route. We are only carrying two spare wheels so if we have that kind of bad luck the repair kit will be coming out.

There is the option of replacing the tyres at some point, whether or not they are damaged or punctured. At least a set of van tyres should be available and affordable in most places. Although a bit of me is reluctant to trust a tyre from a garage in the middle of nowhere.

There's quite a lot of altitude change along the route which may require adjustments to tyre pressure.  I think the advice in Mongolia is to run with soft tyres (that's certainly what mountain bikers do).  It sounds like we may be constantly pressurising and depressurising the tyres.  I've just come back from Iceland where the off-road Super Jeeps can inflate and deflate their tyres from the cockpit. We are going to fit bluetooth enabled tyre caps so that we can monitor tyre pressure form our smartphones. Mind you that's yet another thing to make life more complicated.

Packing List

I thought it might be interesting to see a copy of our packing list.  This excludes the camping equipment and personal items.  It includes fluids that cannot be packed during transit to China.

Use the link below to access the list as a pdf
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1G1D6rsLKdaZmh5T1hNbm8xclE/view?usp=sharing