rustyhooks
Russell
We finally bit the bullet after last year doing three trips to our favourite Camping/prospecting place up in the Pilbara and trying to put up our camper (canvass roof) in drizzling rain at night after driving all day the time has come to get a Caravan of some sort.Man we like Hybrids but cost is rediculous and resale not much better, friends lost 35% after a year touring so not for me!
I might add that over 15 years or so we have had 5 different campers all of which had been up grades on the previous ones, but still were a pain to erect especially after driving all day, a Friend down south had been in a similar position and price wise we were shocked at van prices over the covid era
So after selling the custom camper toy hauler late last yearwe settled on a 80s 16' Viscount pop top, which cost the princely sum of $4500.00.
It was in reasonable condition and was the same as the friends,the first job was the removal of the light weight axle and 13" wheels and suspension which was rated at one ton, the new axle and springs are rated at 2 tons, and was very easy also to fit. Included was electric brakes as the Dmax had the brake controller fitted from before as well, i settled for a new tow hitch on the draw bar as well and welded a new 10mm V plate onto the draw bar front and fitted a new Alko heavy duty hitch also rated at 3 tons , all the wiring for the 12 volt side was ripped out and also had my grandsons mate ( final year apprentice sparky) check all of the 240v side as being 38 years old i felt it was needed.
For our first trip in May i have opted to go with the 14" wheels which i got with the axle kit but have bought a full set of Dmax wheels with near new tyres and will fit 6 stud hubs to suit later this year after our first trip, i have completley rewired all the 12 volt wiring and found that the three way fridge was cactus and a repair was quoted at $550.00 so as finance permits am fitting a 90L fridge/freezer 12/24/240v model (Kogan) same as friends and he has had his for 2 years now working atreat, i am just fitting a 3000/6000 invertor and two 140a/hr AGM batteries, we are now going to have a small portable air cond, microwave, toaster and jug to run off it , all run very satisfactory, this eliminates the need for the 2.5 kva Yamaha invertor gen set as a lot of campsites now ban them compliments of the superannuation brigade, we found out the hard way some years back up at Shark bay CAPE PERON big NONO!
Now the gen set is only a back up, i settled for a 200 watt German design folding solar panel for on the ground and also a 200 watt soft folding panel on the roof giving us 400 wats total through a solar controller all seems to work well and testing with our Brass Monkey 100l fridge freezer it can run all day and night with little or no volt drop on the batteries, both still at 12.8 after 24hrs running, i also fitted a 6 gang 12 volt pannel with two outlets to charge phones and any ancillory small items, i have fitted a 75 litre water tank at the rear of the axle and may fit another at the front to even out weight anyways pics to follow very soon as will futher mods, we have a very tight window at the moment as settlement for our property down sth and here is three weeks away and we hope to be away 1st week in may so time is running out.
I might add that over 15 years or so we have had 5 different campers all of which had been up grades on the previous ones, but still were a pain to erect especially after driving all day, a Friend down south had been in a similar position and price wise we were shocked at van prices over the covid era
So after selling the custom camper toy hauler late last yearwe settled on a 80s 16' Viscount pop top, which cost the princely sum of $4500.00.
It was in reasonable condition and was the same as the friends,the first job was the removal of the light weight axle and 13" wheels and suspension which was rated at one ton, the new axle and springs are rated at 2 tons, and was very easy also to fit. Included was electric brakes as the Dmax had the brake controller fitted from before as well, i settled for a new tow hitch on the draw bar as well and welded a new 10mm V plate onto the draw bar front and fitted a new Alko heavy duty hitch also rated at 3 tons , all the wiring for the 12 volt side was ripped out and also had my grandsons mate ( final year apprentice sparky) check all of the 240v side as being 38 years old i felt it was needed.
For our first trip in May i have opted to go with the 14" wheels which i got with the axle kit but have bought a full set of Dmax wheels with near new tyres and will fit 6 stud hubs to suit later this year after our first trip, i have completley rewired all the 12 volt wiring and found that the three way fridge was cactus and a repair was quoted at $550.00 so as finance permits am fitting a 90L fridge/freezer 12/24/240v model (Kogan) same as friends and he has had his for 2 years now working atreat, i am just fitting a 3000/6000 invertor and two 140a/hr AGM batteries, we are now going to have a small portable air cond, microwave, toaster and jug to run off it , all run very satisfactory, this eliminates the need for the 2.5 kva Yamaha invertor gen set as a lot of campsites now ban them compliments of the superannuation brigade, we found out the hard way some years back up at Shark bay CAPE PERON big NONO!
Now the gen set is only a back up, i settled for a 200 watt German design folding solar panel for on the ground and also a 200 watt soft folding panel on the roof giving us 400 wats total through a solar controller all seems to work well and testing with our Brass Monkey 100l fridge freezer it can run all day and night with little or no volt drop on the batteries, both still at 12.8 after 24hrs running, i also fitted a 6 gang 12 volt pannel with two outlets to charge phones and any ancillory small items, i have fitted a 75 litre water tank at the rear of the axle and may fit another at the front to even out weight anyways pics to follow very soon as will futher mods, we have a very tight window at the moment as settlement for our property down sth and here is three weeks away and we hope to be away 1st week in may so time is running out.
