2023...

[Moneybox]

The trip home was not without a few hassles but with two mechanics on hand there was little chance of us being stuck on the road somewhere.

Last week I noticed a patch of diesel soaked dust on the bottom of the fuel tank. I knew it was a sign of trouble because the Isuzu doesn't ooze anything. The underneath is always dry. It wasn't until we had left camp and I was approaching a river crossing, as I went to drop down a gear the engine stalled but restarted as soon as I released the clutch. As I climbed the incline on the other side it lacked power so I pulled over to the side.

I started by checking fuses but all the time knowing it would be a fuel issue. I called Merv and asked him to go to the post office and see if my new pre-loved coil had arrived while I changed the fuel filter. The water trap was clean so I doubted the filter would be blocked but it's the most obvious place to start.

When I removed the fuel filter it was bone dry, no fuel was getting there. I pumped the manual pump and got fuel so I went looking for that little leak I'd found. The problem was a tiny pinhole in a rubber fuel hose, a very strange problem and not big enough to be much of a problem at all. I had to loosen the fuel cap to allow air to be drawn into the fuel tank without sucking air into the tiny hole in the hose. The problem was solved well enough to get me the remaining 800km home without any more trouble.

Meanwhile Merv picked up my coil, a bit late for detecting but at least we got it.

View attachment Changing the Merc wheel.mp4

Merv wasn't so lucky. He blew one tyre on the way up and another on the way home. Tyres on these heavy vehicles are quickly destroyed when they run flat and when you're travelling at 70kph there's no chance of stopping in time.

The jack supplied with the vehicle is a nice little hydraulic device and comes with a solid synthetic block to support the weight over a larger area. The silly part is that it's only a single stage jack with a limited stroke and when the jack stroke is less than the height of the tyre sidewall it tends to leave you stranded. Not bad for a $130,000 vehicle. It worked out ok because Merv had his prospecting pick easy at hand but I'm sure most people wouldn't carry one.

 

[Moneybox]

Mrs M has had this month off work so we've been away down south on a treasure hunt looking for anything old and rusty for the heritage centre.



A few interesting bits turned up while I was swinging Daisy, our little White's GMT. She got the name Daisy Duck because she quacks at every bit of metal and unlike the Equinox she gives a very good indication of the type of target due to the varying pitch of the quack.



We're always on the lookout for a dogtag to that was a welcome find.



We stumbled across a few old gold mines as well so we couldn't avoid a little swing



Right on dusk we just happened to land on a pending lease on the second last day. I did my usual trick. I stepped out of the bus and walked a straight line and within 250m I had a nugget. That was right near the lease boundary so I took a 90° turn and pinged a second 30m on.



Instead of motoring on in the morning we gave it the attention it deserved.



Mrs M swung the SDC2300 and I swung the GPX6000 with the 14" DD coil. We got 22 nuggets all up but for the second time recently she beat me on weight although I got a few more.



I've been trying to get her to update from the SDC2300 to the 6000 or the Garrett but I don't have much power to convince her while she's finding more gold and she's still got a big speci to crack open as well.

 

[Moneybox]

I'm just toying with the idea of putting one of our leases up for sale.



I've just had the POW (program of works) approved with excess tonnage. I'm looking at selling it with the WCM30 Deutz powered loader.

I'm coming to the realisation that I've got too much ground and too little time. This is one of our six leases and we never get a chance to look at it so with the mining approvals already in place it should be of interest to somebody looking for a little easy to maintain lease just 3km from town. At 9.86HA the annual rates $00.00, annual rent $35.00.

 

[Moneybox]

Everybody strikes hotrocks at some point when looking for gold. Usually these solid ironstone rocks can be identified by checking their attraction to a strong magnet. Sometimes we find these heavily mineralised rocks that have no magnetic attraction. I've been told "If they don't stick to a magnet then they'll have gold".

I've doubted that statement but I had to check it out for myself because we recently found a patch covered with these very lightweight hotrocks. They drive the GPX6000 mad, but then that doesn't take much.



On this same trip we found dozens of small quartz specis. We had an old stamper foot sitting on the tailgate and spent each evening smashing rocks to get the little nugget from inside. Most only had one small nugget and no other visible gold. The others that showed a smattering of fine gold were kept for further processing at home. In this video I'm crushing 10kgs of waste rock that we threw away (and later collected) after removing the little nugget.

 

[grubstake]

39 grams per tonne for the waste rock after removing the detectable nuggets in the specimen pieces, suggests a pretty rich reef source!

 

[Moneybox]

39 grams per tonne for the waste rock after removing the detectable nuggets in the specimen pieces, suggests a pretty rich reef source!

Yes, previously mined but lots of loose rock that contain little nuggets. I think a lot more of that loose rock will still have the hidden gold without the detectable nugget. I could easily pickup a couple of tonnes from around the mines but of course it still has to be processed to extract the gold.

 

[grubstake]

Yes, previously mined but lots of loose rock that contain little nuggets. I think a lot more of that loose rock will still have the hidden gold without the detectable nugget. I could easily pickup a couple of tonnes from around the mines but of course it still has to be processed to extract the gold.

It's possible that the old-time miners high-graded the deposit, concentrating on the immediately-profitable areas of the reef with visible gold. If there's anything like 39g/t of invisible gold in the remaining quartz, there's the chance of a profitable modern development from successfully mining the remainder.

 

[Moneybox]

Last year I bought the little Mercedes MB100D van for my quick trip around the block. I bought a cheap van because I only needed it for about 20,000km and a few months. It worked out so well that I've decided to repeat the project with an updated van.



I'll post a few updates as we go. I've stripped some of the gear out of the old Merc and I have some more bits and pieces in Capel that I removed from our old Mazda bus about 10 years back. Mrs M was repeatedly exceeding the speed limit on the way home (before she entered the saltlake) so apart from the new air compressor I have a cruise control kit on the way.

 

[Davent]

Nice! Set of good off road tyres might help.

 

[RichardWest]

Along with the set of off road tyres Dave mentioned probably a new clutch and gearbox to replace the noisey ones.

 

[Moneybox]

It's sitting on a brand new set of Khumo 8pl van tyres so that's not about to change. The little gear crunch was due to driver confusion with the six speed manual box. How did we ever manage with three?

 

[Moneybox]

Today I selected a solar panel from a stack by the shed.



It has a high output voltage so then I had to find a suitable solar controller. I had a Projecta DC to DC charger in the Merc but it will only handle a 12v panel. I'll still install it for the auxiliary battery charger but not the solar.



Hopefully this one will do the trick.

 

[Moneybox]

Today the cruise control kit turned up. It should have been here Friday but the post didn't come, then the app said I'd get it Monday but once again Cue's post ended up somewhere else.



Looks simple enough



These little jobs were enjoyable 20 years ago, now with failing eyesight and reduced confidance it becomes a bit of a challenge. Anyhow it's all in and will hopefully work. When I get a few more jobs done I'll take it for spin.

 

[Moneybox]

Today I took the fridge mounting frame from the Merc and tried to fit it into the Hyundai.



This van is about 400mm shorter in floor length and 150mm lower in the roof. There's a lot less space to work with. I'd marked out the floor but it never worked out that way because of the wheel arches and other humps and bumps.



It ended up behind the driver's seat like in the Merc but here it blocks the doorway. The Merc never had a RH rear door and now I can't use the Hyundi one. Anyway it's all mounted. The new solar controller was meant to be here today but it's on Australia Post so I didn't expect it. If it turns up in the morning I might get the chance to install it. I've got some insulation to install so I might just get some of that in and then I'm heading South to fit a door and do some other work. At least I'll have a fridge and stove and a mattress on the floor.

 

[Moneybox]

The solar controller turned up this morning so I spent the day on wiring.

View attachment Solar controller.mp4

The controller shows the output voltage and battery voltage but it's showing only 1.2A output. I'm need to keep an eye on that because it quickly raised the battery voltage as if it was charging at a much higher rate. Perhaps it dropped to 1.2A when the battery reached full charge? I have the bluetooth app on my phone so it should be easy enough to monitor.

Anyhow I went ahead and installed the battery, DC to DC charger and USB and 12v power sockets so I'm all good to go for the moment. I'm heading for Capel first up in the morning. The 2000km round trip will give me an oportunity to check everything out before completing the rest of the camper installation.

 

[Moneybox]

Mmmm, I've been thinking. It could be reading 1.2A @ 41.2v and considering the time of day and position of the sun that's not such a bad charge rate.

 

[Hippyty79]

Maybe the battery’s fully charged or close to, check the amps when the battery’s under load eg fridge compressor. The amps seem a little low. I run a renogy 170w and a victron 75/10 with a renogy 100ah lithium on the 4b fridge set at 1c it been running solid for the last 6 months.

 

[Moneybox]

One of those memories that pop up, this one from 14th July 2016. It might not seem that long ago but we were a lot younger then and new to this game

 

[Hippyty79]

Big tassie

 

[Moneybox]

It was good to have that couple of thousand kilometres trip before I got right into the fitout. I had placed the seat in the usual driving position before mounting the fridge but the Hyundai is not such a comfortable drivie and I found myself wanting a bit more seat movement. That meant moving the fridge back but at least it was the only thing fitted.

Road noise is always a problem with a van. The Merc was good because it has an independant chassis but it suffers from engine noise when driven at highway speeds for hours on end.



While I was fitting the towbar I noticed that the Hyundai has plastic wheel arch lining. I've already purchased some self adhesive acustic insulation so this seemed like the best place to start.



There was enough room to just squeeze in the 10mm closed cell foam insulation. That should prevent the sound from getting to the metal inner mud guards.



Today I got started on the bed frame. It's a bit short, 50mm shorter than the 1900mm mattress but that's all the space I have.