marks latest big adventure

[sydneymark]

Latest work done, fitted the rear tailgate lock, but not wired it up yet. Needed a fair bit of fettling to get it to fit, but should work fine.
My only concern is that the lock might slide across if I drive a long way on a rough surface.

this is it before any cutting and filing, the mounting point indicated by the red arrow is not there on my vehicle, perhaps the UK models have a different tail gate setup. As can be seen in the last photo, I drilled a hole and used a nut and bolt


this is what it looks like now


this is the inside of the tailgate, the locking system slides across the black bit of plastic as seen in the lower left hand side


All fitted


Exterior showing the new nut/bolt


Along with this, I have a few other bits of wiring to do, does anyone know of a good auto electrician somewhere on the Sydneys north shore I can talk to, I want to run most of the wiring but am not that confident in teh hooking up bit

[sydneymark]

today i went and bought a new head unit (alpine) and a amp, so had to pull out the orignal double din head unit.

a bit of stuffing around with the wiring loom but it's all good now, sounds awesome.

thanks to another member for offering this idea for pulling off the shroud that sits over the head unit, i think he said to use four bits of tape, but i was using the superior ultimate black gaffer tape so only used two, as per the photo, then gave them a sharp yank and off she came

[sydneymark]

just back from a shake down camping trip to see whats working and whats not



slowly getting there

[sydneymark]

been out in some big winds with the new tarp tent and it holds up pretty well, but eventually there did come a time when it gave way, naturally in the middle of the night when we were all tucked up in bed!
the first time the wind compressed the poles so we used a tent peg to tighten them up again, the second time i could see the tarp stretching and decided it was best to bring it down on our terms and not the winds

[sydneymark]

There are some long threads here about wheel size, offsets etc and I could never find the definitive answer to what I have on my vehicle, since it came with the factory alloys and not steel rims.
So I decided to take a wheel off and have a look. I also saw that I have a steel rim on the spare tyre, so am assuming that that is the same sizing as the alloys.

This is what it looks like, pretty much like all the other stock wheels...


The tyres it came with are Dunlop AT20's, 245/70 R16


The magic numbers are that it is 16x7 with a 38mm offset


Phew, mystery solved, now i can start looking for another three or four matching wheels to go in my trailer and to act as spares.

[Hondon]

just back from a shake down camping trip to see whats working and whats not



slowly getting there

hi mate are they whippets or greyhounds in the pic there??. great dogs..when I was a kid my old man bread whippets for a few years....

[sydneymark]

Whippets. Awesome pets, can't understand why they are not more popular. Well behaved, trainable, not smelly, not to big or small, could go on forever.
One of them even thinks he is a gun dog!


The other is scared of thunder and will run back the the house or car when he sees the guns come out. LOL

[Hondon]

great pics mate yes I totally agree they are great dogs my dad would blood all the pups at a very young age as they were predominantly used for hunting rabbits and other vermin..aside from the hunting..around the house they are great with kids and as you say are very clean dogs ...yours are great looking dogs love the colors . I would love to have a whippet again..." currently got a lab" she is a good bitch though when her times up will go back to whippet cross grey hound I think would make a great hunting dog/ family dog... passed away now but my dads last bitch was whippet cross red healer which was a nice cross and she was a great dog also...

[sydneymark]

so, finally got around to fitting the mounts to take the hi-lift jack and shovel holder.

I have thule bars but one can only get rhino fitting kits for the hi-lift jack and shovel holder.

i debated on whether to fit onto the cabin roof racks that are not always on the car or onto the racks that are on the canopy. in the end decided to go with the canopy option.

one of the first things i found out was that with the arb heavy duty roof rack kit they are fairly wide apart so it almost didn't' fit!

hmm, first decision is how best to have these, one each side, both on one side, in which case do i have the jack on the driver side or passenger side? pointing forward or sideways, decisions decisions.

actually, there is little choice if you want the heavy part of the jack up towards the front part of the car, in my case it just wouldn't fit any other way around but has to go on the driver side.

i then tried it with the shovel mount on the same side and decided that it works best with the jack mounted closest to the road and the shovel mount on the inside.

one could have it going sideways but that takes up the entire rack so you can't really use it for anything else. also i would have wanted it close to the cabin and not have a heavy weight up high and close to the back.

[sydneymark]

so, when flush with cash a while ago i bought a air compressor kit from ARB, in a nice box with a gadget to let air out quickly.
after a couple of camping trips i realised that the box was taking up space and was often packed under other stuff so not very handy for regular use.

hmm, where better to put it? perhaps behind the rear wheel arch in the empty space under the tub as seen others do?

no, why not put it behind the rear seat in the cabin, away from dust and other elements.

first i drilled out the rivets holding it in the ARB case, then dismantled it into its various components, making notes of what goes where

this is the case it came in, with a glove to give an indication of size...


this is the space i have behind the back seat, i could have mounted it higher up on the vertical plane, but want to keep that space clear for guns! ...


close up of the self tapping screws, i don't think one can mount this without dismantling the unit, unless using nuts and bolts perhaps


all in and working, this was the fiddly bit, getting the mounting screws in, but it is possible. I had to take off the air filter to get to the most inaccessible screw, the front right one.


currently i only have it powered from the croc clips going to jumper leads to the front battery, i might get it hard wired when i get a auto sparky to help hook up the rear second battery

[Amaroo]

Nice work on the air compressor instal, once you have wired it up it'll make airing up so convenient you'll never look back

Just a question though, how much room is there between the ends of your tek screws and the fuel tank? Wouldn't be good if it was close and the movement of the body pushed a screw into the tank while offroad, but I'm sure you checked your clearances.

[Cowboy Dave]

Mate just on the hilift and shovel mounts there's a Rhino product that lets you stack them. I have one - the shovel goes above the hilift so you're not reaching over the top.

Pretty sure I used this one: http://www.rhinorack.com.au/products/load-securing/jack-holders/rhino-combination-bracket_rcb

[sydneymark]

Nice work on the air compressor instal, once you have wired it up it'll make airing up so convenient you'll never look back

Just a question though, how much room is there between the ends of your tek screws and the fuel tank? Wouldn't be good if it was close and the movement of the body pushed a screw into the tank while offroad, but I'm sure you checked your clearances.

aw, don't say that, didn't give that any thought at all

the screws weren't all that long, either 25 or 30 mm

[sydneymark]

Mate just on the hilift and shovel mounts there's a Rhino product that lets you stack them. I have one - the shovel goes above the hilift so you're not reaching over the top.

Pretty sure I used this one: http://www.rhinorack.com.au/products/load-securing/jack-holders/rhino-combination-bracket_rcb

i think i had seen them, but the current set up seems to work ok so until i need the extra width on the bars i don't see that i really need it

[Cowboy Dave]

You must be a bit taller than me then. I would need to stand on a milk crate or something to reach over the hilift to get to the shovel.

[fridgie]

You must be a bit taller than me then. I would need to stand on a milk crate or something to reach over the hilift to get to the shovel, past the 12v jack, between the Queen air bed and the taj mahal next to the Arabian cabana boys past the Kuwait societ affiliates

When's the next trip??

[sydneymark]

You must be a bit taller than me then. I would need to stand on a milk crate or something to reach over the hilift to get to the shovel.

i gave it a trail run in the driveway and i can undo the shovel bits by standing on the rear wheel or from the back of the car.

i still have to put on the roof racks a couple of 100mm poly pipes that will carry all my tent and tarp poles

[Gcmkt]

Hey mate, just wondering what you paid for your Crown Canopy. Im still in the process of procrastinating about which brand to go with

[sydneymark]

Hey mate, just wondering what you paid for your Crown Canopy. Im still in the process of procrastinating about which brand to go with

it is a arb canopy, plain white pebble dash finish so not smooth or color coded, i think i paid about $2,400 fitted, then another 600 for the heavy duty roof rack mounting kit including bars fitted

[sydneymark]

now for the next thing to do to the canopy, install a air vent to create positive air pressure on the inside to help keep out the dust.

bought this from the local boat supply shop for $12, just got to summon up the nerve to cut that first hole!
it lets air in but not rain, with a couple of vents for the water to run out, given i will be placing it in a nose down position i will probably cut out a drainage hole in the front of it

[sydneymark]

soooo, i decided the original racks that ARB puit on were not wide enough once i had installed the hi-lift jack on one side and the tent pole tubes on the other side. roof rack world on Artarmon were good enough to do a straight swop for my other bars, so i got to work with an angle grinder to make them fit and here are the results...







A couple of points...
1. the ARB way of fitting roof racks to their heavy duty internal roof rack system sucks big time. sure, you can take the racks/bars off without too much trouble by simply undoing the bolts that screw up into lugs on the rack, but i challenge anyone to get them to screw back in again. Instead you have to take off one of the pillars that are bolted onto the internal frame, buggering up the waterproofing in the process, in my very humble opinion there is a easy workaround by cutting a slot in the pillar foot, however it might need a bit more welding elsewhere to give it more strength.

2. now that the jack and poly pipes are up, i have heaps of room in the middle, enough for my roof pod etc, though there seems to be a little bit of flex at the ends. the roof rack people say it will be fine, but i worry how they will survive a long trip with days of corrugations. i intend to make up a brace to go from the bottom of the footing to the end of the bar.

[Duck]

Looking very nice there mate.

A little tip we used to get taught when doing remote work was that anything that could come loose should always be on the passenger side, such as shovels, jacks even when you are using ratchet straps you should have the ratchet piece on the passenger side & the hook only on the drivers side. So that it the unfortunate event that something was to to come loose or fall off, there is a smaller chance of it going into an oncoming vehicle better to be hit buy a vehicle following you if it has to hit anything.

[sydneymark]

good advice, though in my case i guess things can fall off both sides,

as i mentioned in a previous post, the hi-lift mounting kit has a minor design flaw in that you can only mount it on the drivers side if you want the heavy part of the jack up near the middle of the car. perhaps if there were higher mounting points for the bars i could have the jack upside down and on the passenger side but at the moment it's not an option

Looking very nice there mate.

A little tip we used to get taught when doing remote work was that anything that could come loose should always be on the passenger side, such as shovels, jacks even when you are using ratchet straps you should have the ratchet piece on the passenger side & the hook only on the drivers side. So that it the unfortunate event that something was to to come loose or fall off, there is a smaller chance of it going into an oncoming vehicle better to be hit buy a vehicle following you if it has to hit anything.

[sydneymark]

a question for members out there, is there any such thing as too many spares?

I have now set up my box trailer so it takes the same wheels as the car. I already have a spare wheel with the car and can have one or two spares on the trailer, the question is just that, one or two?

The first of several big upcoming trips is not far away. Sydney to Camerons Corner, then up into Qld via Innaminka Birdsville, then up north then west and down to Uluru, then down through the Flinders.

I don't intend to take on anything too serious since my wife is somewhat disabled and we don't want to risk major damage to the car/us etc but at the same time intend to see what we can. Might even do the Simpson (again, LOL)

The trailer is needed since I want to take about 60lt of water and 40 of fuel, also the wheelchair and or walker gets packed in last and practice has shown that it just doesn't fit that well in the back of the tub on top of all the other camping stuff that three people need to a comfy trip

To my thinking I already am carrying two spares, and can raid the trailer wheels for another two as a last resort and come back for the trailer later, so I am wondering whether I really need or just want that extra spare.

[har05l]

I think you are over thinking it mark

I'd go with just the 1 spare because as you say with the extra under the tri you already have 2

No need to carry more than you need don't you think