Eight Years Ago I Fell In Love With the Mitsubishi Delica

September 24, 2024 / Andy Lilienthal / 3 Comments

Eight years ago, I drove a Mitsubishi Delica for the first time. (I even wrote a post about what it’s like to drive a Mitsubishi Delica.) My wife, Mercedes, and I were visiting New Zealand in 2016, and this Delica Star Wagon (L300) belonged to my wife’s cousin, Helga, who lives in NZ. The first…

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Michigan The Latest State to Revoke Mitsubishi Delica Registration

August 11, 2024 / Andy Lilienthal / 1 Comment

Michigan has sent letters to Mitsubishi Delica owners informing them their vans are no longer road-legal. This Mitsubishi Delica deregistration discovery was made in the MDOC: Mitsubishi Delica Owners Club USA Facebook group (of which I am an admin). Multiple owners alerted the group to the letters they received.

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Will Maine Reverse Course on Delica Deregistration in 2023?

January 17, 2023 / Andy Lilienthal / Leave a comment

It’s been over a year and a half since we first heard about Maine pulling Delica owners’ registrations on legally registered and imported vans. This was a story Crankshaft Culture broke and I’ve been working on for months. We’ve talked with the SEMA Action Network, been interviewed for numerous news articles, and even written about…

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Our Mitsubishi Delica On TFLoffroad

November 14, 2022 / Andy Lilienthal / 2 Comments

We drove the Travel Tractor, aka our 1994 Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear, to the Denver area to pick up an Egoé Nest Supertramp camper setup. While we were there the crew from TFL invited us over to have a walkaround done on our Mitsubishi Delica on TFLoffroad, their 4×4/overland-centric channel.

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Upgrading the Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear’s Rear Hatch Supports

May 31, 2022 / Andy Lilienthal / 2 Comments

Here’s a shocker: The original rear hatch supports/struts on our 1994 Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear were shot, and the hatch wouldn’t go all the way up when we’d open it. Fortunately upgrading the Delica Space Gear hatch supports / struts is easy. I’d previously looked for replacement units, but there weren’t any available, or at…

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Maine is Actively Canceling Mitsubishi Delica Registration

July 1, 2021 / Andy Lilienthal / 31 Comments

Do you live in Maine? Do you own or want to own a Mitsubishi Delica van? Prepare for bad news. Maine is actively canceling Mitsubishi Delica registration and not allowing future registration of these JDM vans.

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Crankshaft Culture Gear Garage: On-the-Go Camp Essentials

May 5, 2021 / Mercedes Lilienthal / Leave a comment

We’re all at that breaking point. We’ve been cooped up for over a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, political unrest is clawing its way throughout the globe, and job insecurities have us nervous. However, the new norm for taking your mind off of daily challenges may have transitioned from what was into enjoying the…

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Our Delica Gets a Long-Range Fuel Tank

November 30, 2020 / Andy Lilienthal / 4 Comments

Our 1994 Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear, aka the TBD Tractor, just got a new long-range fuel tank. This Long Range Automotive tank brought in by Long Range America ups our fuel capacity and extends our Delica’s range significantly. In fact, here’s a video all about it.

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Coastal Offroad Delica Space Gear Bumpers: Installed and In Action

November 23, 2020 / Mercedes Lilienthal / 1 Comment

We have the Coastal Offroad high-clearance front and rear bumpers (with skid plate and swing-away tire/jerry can carrier) finalized! We thought we’d do a walk-around video showing the Coastal Offroad Delica bumpers’ advantages for off-road driving, camping, and carrying extra gear.

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Coastal Offroad Delica Space Gear Bumpers: The Build Process

November 21, 2020 / Mercedes Lilienthal / 7 Comments

*Updated 12/10/20 Canadian-based Coastal Offroad makes a variety of front and rear weld-together bumper kits for Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear vans. Coastal Offroad, or CO, produces kits for both series 1 and 2 Delica L400s. Our 1994 Space Gear, known as the TBD Tractor, is a series 1 model. The facelifted series 2 Delica Space…

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