All the photographs on this page were all taken on holidays in Iceland in 2001.
Due to the severe road conditions across much of Iceland there is a culture of using customised four wheel drive vehicles. Colloquially known as "Super Jeeps" most of these customised off roaders are based on Japanese 4x4s like Toyota Land Cruisers, Nissan Patrols and Isuzu Troopers. They are then specially adapted to tackle the worst that Iceland's extreme terrain can offer by specialist firms like
Arctic Trucks in Reykjavik.
The most obvious modification is the raising of the body and suspension to take huge wheels and tyres, but that also entails less visible and complex changes to the transmission and braking systems. Other additions also include satellite navigation systems, two way radios, extra fuel tanks, extra lighting, built in compressors to adjust tyre pressures and finally additions to the interior equipment to make sitting out
really extreme conditions a pleasant experience.
The final vehicles are supremely well suited to their environment, they allow good comfortable progress to be made over Iceland's rough gravel roads, make easy work of the deep river crossing frequently encountered in Iceland's interior and are awesomely capable of driving over snow and sand by deflating the tyres to seemingly impossible low pressures to spread the jeep's weight over large areas and allow them to drive on surfaces that are almost impossible to walk on!
Any visit to Iceland isn't complete without taking a "Super Jeep" tour up onto the glaciers with one of the specialist tour companies like
Mountain Taxi or
Highlanders. Their experienced, knowledgeable and friendly guides take you out across Iceland and onto the glacier giving a fantastic day out and a great insight into Icelandic culture as well.
