Lieutenant Van a VWLT build

[outwesty]

That looks very clean for an LT. I just received one of the boxeer M57 Twin turbo diesel BMW kits. So far so good. We sourced a low mileage motor with 60k on it. It's almost ready to go in. This customer purchased this in France and toured around a bit before bringing it back over. I've never seen another one online or anywhere with this camper set up. Best of luck with the project.

[MayorMcCheese]

Can't wait to hear the customs drama.

Post some pics of the interior!

[rmcd]

There are a bunch of interior and under carriage pictures here. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_search.php?...ts=summary

I will get to motor swap options in a bit. Basically there are three options. I started thinking the Cummins 2.8 when I saw it released but it doesn’t appear to fit well and there are two much better nearly turnkey options. And there is already a small block V8 installed in one here in the US.

Import hijinks and hoopla.
Forgive me if I forget or generalize steps or documents. This took place from 09/29 to 01/28 or so. Most of the time I was confused.

First you will need to find a VWLT to buy. Busman has the most comprehensive list of world wide sites to search. https://busmaneurope.com/search_yourself/
And I also recommend joining the facebook groups listed above.

I can’t say enough about hiring Busman to do the deed. There are a ton of people who have discovered these 4x4 trucks and are throwing way more money at them than I. In fact, most listings since I bought have been 5-10K Euros higher than I paid. I paid 15k. Expensive? Yes, but I consider it cheap compared to a Sprinter.

I created a spreadsheet of available rigs and tracked the options built into each so I could compare prices apples to apples. Most don’t stay on the market long to attempt to mull over price options!

I had Mike at Busman reach out to the Sellers to arrange an inspection. Most were gone by the time we spoke with them. LT Van was sold to me, in contract, the Saturday the week it was mentioned in a post on FB as “a neighbor is selling and this may be available”. No advertisement was ever put up.

Mike arranged a visit. Mike speaks about 120 languages so that helps a lot. I am the product of low-bid-in-your-education system and I barely speak English so I was glad to have him on the team! Mike had “cash on hand” and did the inspection, took pictures, test drove the vehicle and asked questions. He arranged a 24 hour window for me to review the pictures and discuss condition. If the market were softer he would have tried to negotiate down the price. With three buyers behind him that was not possible and 15k seemed reasonable. I told him to execute the deal. The seller was very cooperative. We did a simple bill of sale and agreed upon payment method.

Wiring funds overseas.
I paid Busman and Busman paid the seller. Yea. Never that simple.
I wired funds to Busman. You cannot wire funds from a US Bank on a Saturday and you have to do it in person. FYI.
It takes a SOLID five business days for the funds to show in the EU. Then it takes another SOLID five business days for the funds to transfer from Busman to the seller. Be prepared and set the expectation with the seller. I also recommend self-medicating during this period.

EU Logistics.
Once you have your dream rust farm purchased on paper you will need to secure Busman’s service to pickup the rig, handle the title, arrange shipping on a RORO (roll on roll off ship), sign over the title, and deliver the rig (and title) to the Port with a Bill of Lading. Mike handles all of this as part of the standard contract. Well worth the fee of entry!!!

Mike will work with selecting a shipping company and then working with the shipping company’s broker and shipping line (aka boat owner). Yes two parties. Mucho paperwork that I still don’t understand. Shipping stats; my 4x4 VWLT weighs 6850 lbs and is 2.7m tall. The factory height is 2.5m. A normal vehicle will cost about $1500 to ship RORO, but the extra 0.2m cost another $2000.

Once the shipping is selected then you will need to hire a US broker to deal with Customs clearances and lots of other documents. Lots. I had two Brokers chose NOT to entertain my van because they were too busy or my case was too complicated. Most Brokers work with shipping companies so I got the impression they were pissed because we already had a boat. It’s the Tannhauser BTW. In the end my hero was Brenda Lang from AMERICAN LAMPRECHT TRANSPORT out of Baltimore. TEL:410-633-0550

Pay these professionals. It is well worth the cost. In addition to the professional’s fees, which are minimal, there are bonds, custom clearance fees, terminal handling fees and US Duties. Yea. Duties. F’ing trade war stupid ass moron who never took an economics class.

Forms with US and EU Broker.
US Broker: Power of Attorney giving them rights to manage the deal.
US Broker: USDOT H57 Declarations document. Vehicle confirmation that it conforms to all US DOT safety stuff. Or not. You will claim the vehicle is exempt as it is 25 years old.
US Broker: US EPA 3520 Declarations document. Vehicle confirmation that it conforms to all US EPA air quality stuff. Again, you will claim the vehicle is 25 years old and therefore exempt from stuff.
EU Broker: Bill of Lading. A legal document that you don’t want lost. Ask me how I know.
US Broker: Release Status. Once paid your US broker will release the vehicle to the Port.
US Broker: Release Order. A special permission note that declares your vehicle may be picked up by your Terminal Agent of your choice.
US Port: Record of Delivery. Permission from the Port of Tacoma (in my case) that your vehicle is ready and your designated Terminal Agent may pickup your vehicle from the long shoreman.
You: Translated Title.
US Broker: completed US Customs and Border Protection Entry Summary 7501 form.

Terminal Agent.
You will need to hire a Terminal Agent. A Terminal Agent is an entity that is certified by the Port to enter Port secure property area and drive away with your ride. I hired Chris DeLong FineTuning to rescue the box from the secured area of the Port of Tacoma. https://www.finetuningperformance.com/ Chris is TWIS certified and he is a VWLT repair shop and expert. I believe he has three.

Title.
Each country will have a different “title” and it is probably in another language. Enter the language interpretation company. Charles of UltraTranslate.com. You will need to send Charles a copy of your title so he may make a notarized copy that will be required for importing and I suppose state registering. I recommend you get two.

Enter stage left – Stupid.

It is frowned upon to use your new van as a personal shipping container.

In the EU the parts are kind of Ford truck cheap and readily available. However, shipping them separately to North America is expensive to impossible. BTW. The VWLT shares some parts with the Vanagon. In the EU rubber, VWLT specific parts and accessories are readily available. As are cool accessories like tire spare holders and snorkels.
There is also a great supplier of replacement sheetmetal parts in the UK. VW LT Mk1 Body Panels and Spare Parts. https://www.facebook.com/vwltspares

Where I’m going with this …. one US broker quit because they felt the parts in the vehicle would require importing separately with a declaration forms for each. She was especially concerned that sheetmetal replacement panels could be subject to significant steel tarrifs put into place by some moron.

The truck also came with an old motor with the head removed. Typically, US Customs regulates importing of a motor exactly the same as a whole vehicle. My motor will never run again and is for spares only.

I’ve also recently learned that the US version of the Heritage Parts Centre will ship to NA. www.heritagepartscentre.com

Chicken tax.
A quote from Animal House comes to mind. Right after the gang destroyed Flounder’s brother’s primo Lincoln he was told. “You f’d up. You trusted us”.

The so-called Chicken Tax is actually a tariff on light truck imports of 25%, originally imposed in 1963 in retaliation for European tariffs on American chicken. The tariff is in effect to this day.

A VWLT is a light truck and therefore could be subject to a 25% import duty. However, RV’s are exempt and only subject to the regular 2.5% import duty. It’s about a $5000 difference. Thank god my van was converted to an RV. And thank god the US Customs import agent agreed that there was an RV below the pile of parts.

I’ve been told that the starting cost for a container is around $5000.

Stupid is as stupid does.
Once you’ve paid your shipping provider and EU broker you will be FedEx’d your title and original BOL. We lost ours for a period of two weeks. Suffice to say. You cannot get the Netherlands to issue a replacement. You cannot ship your VWLT back to Belgium in the hopes to get a replacement title. And you cannot get the RV through US Customs registration without proof of ownership. You will not be able to get your golden ticket for registering a foreign car in the US. The US Customs and Border Protection Entry Summary 7501 form will not be completed.

Further, there will be all sorts of legal documents you will need to negotiate with your shipping company and brokers to replace the BOL. Fun stuff.

Or … you and the DHL delivery person can lift up the front door mat to find your original documents hidden there.

Big brother.
I’ve worked in digital mapping since the 90’s. I’m a map geek and was around when AIS tracking systems went open. You can track any ship or plane in near real time. I believe AIS is 50 miles off the coast?
[url] https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships...TANNHAUSER
[/url]
Google the name of your ship and AIS. You will be directed to sites like this.

I was able to track the Tannhauser as it traversed the world from Belgium to Tacoma Washington. Of particular interest was when the ship entered the Panama Canal. I figured there had to be security cameras as I often watch youtube.com ship disaster videos. And anchor drop fails.

Here are a couple screen shots of LT Van on a cruise nearing the Puget Sound.

Panama Canal.

Waive.

01/28 import update.
Chris drove to Port of Tacoma and successfully rescued the VWLT. I owe his wife a coffee card and thank you note! It is now sitting in his shop getting some repairs. Seems like some things decided not to work once off the Tannhauser. Chris is going to do some repairs and I expect to start the next phase at the end of February – body work with Shane Jordan’s team in LaPax Mexico.

I am also happy to report that I managed to get an open spot to the Oregon DMV for a vin check in two weeks.
_________________
VW LT40 build. Like a Vanagon but 30% larger in every direction and 40% slower even in metric.
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=749359&highlight=

[rmcd]

[danbar]

Reading your story brought back all the "fun" of importing my syncro hightop about 6 years ago, including paying that over height fee on the RORO. I'll agree 100% that hiring busman was the best idea, he even talked the seller down for me. Working with him was a pleasure. Fortunately everything went smoothly with the import, hiring a customs broker to make sure you have all the correct paperwork in place was worth every penny, and not terribly expensive. But the process for everything from getting it at the dock up to registration was certainly complicated for a novice.

I'm stoked on your VWLT, I can't wait to see where you go with it. I would do one of these over a sprinter any day, it's got so much more style.
_________________
'88 SCA High/Pop-top Syncro camper
'61 Meyers Manx

[MayorMcCheese]

Thank you! I've been looking to import something from europe for a while and recently got in touch with busman. Your story helps fill in some of the gaps for me. You've also got me looking at LT's for sale but I think I'll stick with something vanagon based. maybe

[rmcd]

[rmcd]

A couple for sale.

The 4x4 isn't going to last. The price is awesome. It has a crappy camper conversion but you will want to keep it to save on the Chicken tax importing it as an RV. make sure to tell your import agent it is an RV.

https://www.willhaben.at/iad/gebrauchtwagen/d/wohn...U1U_cDRZz4


https://germancarsforsaleblog.com/1988-volkswagen-...IA2db7I70Q
_________________
VW LT40 build. Like a Vanagon but 30% larger in every direction and 40% slower even in metric.
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=749359&highlight=

[Zeitgeist 13]

It's a bummer that 4x4 isn't a diesel
_________________
Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[kitb]

Here is mine. 1984 LT50D
Vario mobil coach, I think it is 1 of 1

[tjet]

Nice camping spot oh bold one

That is a nice rig. I see its 4wd too.

[kitb]

I’ve been working through a whole lot of issues with this thing.
This was one of many breakdowns on the way to somewhere fun. This was a fueling issue, air being grabbed in the line due to a crack prior to the fuel transfer pump. That issue has been fixed.
Yes, this is a four-wheel-drive, it uses the new process 208 transfer case in a five speed stick transmission, the engine is the 2.4 L turbo charge diesel.
The axles were originally Clark Hurth, undersized and the rear axle grenaded so I replaced it with a GM 14 bolt and ARB locker

[kitb]

Sorry, I didn’t mean to hijack your thread Lieutenant Dan, I’ll go start my own. The stories to tell after owning one of these things…

[rmcd]

[Buss Marius]

Welcome to the world of LT ownership.
I have an LT 28 based Karmann Coachbuildt. parts are a bit hard to find but possible. It is more dificult for the leaf spring LT's and even more dificult for the 4x4 LT's
The worldwide best place for spare pars is https://www.brickwerks.co.uk/lt-parts.html
Another prowider is Werk34.de They just introdused a few new items for the LT, Light guards: https://www.werk34.de/en/water-cooled/lt-95/bumpers-radiator-grill-attachments/
Then German ebay is a good place to search fore NLA, used parts.

You probably have the 94hp 205NM ACL engine with intercooler. The best engine for the LT. Thr Turbo is a bit smal to give more power at low RPM's. Reading on the German LT-freunde.de forum, it seems it is easy to adjust the engine to around 120hp and 135hp with a bigger Intercooler. there is a guy on that forum that has 163hp in his LT

The total production number for the LT was 471.221 all buildt in Hannover from august 1st -94 to june 30 -95 14039 where buildt. Give me the last 5 numbers in the WIN nuber and i will be able to give the production date +-5 days.
_________________
87 75hp VW LT 28 Karmann LT L, 90 T3 Syncro 75hp AAZ Reimo Camper. 00 T4 102hp TDI Caravelle bus.

[rmcd]

[Schnippzle]

What a great story! Would very much love a 4x4 LT in the not too distant future.

Looking forward to the next updates.

[rmcd]

PSA. This van is coming up for sale. I THINK it is in Oregon. This is not my van. Get hyped!

This was posted on the FB 4x4 LT page.

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10221832803642159&set=gm.2342594265884838

_________________
VW LT40 build. Like a Vanagon but 30% larger in every direction and 40% slower even in metric.
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=749359&highlight=

[otiswesty]

I had a LT28 Westfalia Sven Hedin. It was a nice camper, drove a lot like my 78 bus with a tight turning radius. I loved driving it, most other people including my wife didn't think that much of it, so it was gone after a couple years. It was 2wd and gas but a pretty unusual ride.

Good luck with the build.
_________________
1978 Sage Green P22 Westfalia
1989 T3 Syncro Single cab

Just a regular guy

[rmcd]