The Road Runner

Apparently all I need now is to learn how to spell & get my new vehicle covered in dirt to be a true Kredoner . Then ,again , Queenslanders can be a bit different sometimes. Thought this attitude only happened on the Bushtracker site.?

Not this time. After weeks in Perth to do the change over we had to get home to Cairns ,so the quickest way was to take the diagonal from Perth to Cairns via the Nullabour. Picked up the old “bull” in Perth and got the van upgraded as well. As far as W.A Transport were concerned the Kedron was now legal. Queensland Transport not happy until I spent more money in Cairns to get my third vin plate. A lovely blue one. Now we’re all happy.

Very pretty ,don’t you think! The hitch is a D 045 and the tow bar is 4.5 tonnes. The shackles are are so big they have trouble fitting into the 20mm hole of the tow bar. I reckon we could pull a Sherman out of a bog. (probably even if it had one track missing). One thing for sure the Ford & the Kedron will never part no matter what(unless I choose of course).

Just a better pic beside the Rock.

Our “ new” 2005 Ford F 250 coupled with our re calibrated 4 tonne TE at Eyres Rock. Ford now fully converted to Qld rego and Kedron has had it’s first “ Certificate of inspection” in Cairns. In the front battery hatch we have THREE vin plates.... BLACK. original rego Qld.....SILVER. after GTM upgrade in Perth......BLUE. when we come back home to Gordonvale from. Qld Transport so they can take ultimate control of the operation. Very ,very sorry to see our 100series Landcruiser go. Must admit the F Truck is probably more capable at towing the heavy Kedron on & off the road but back in suberbia it’s a different kettle of fish. Moving and parking around the city must be planned beforehand and there are numerous no go areas . A..n..y..w..a..y all for the best.

Hi Steve & Kez, Went into Cygnet Bay pearlfarm & enjoyed an informative tour of some of the farm. A bit of a shame they didn't show us some of hands on operations. Had lunch there ,which I can say was the best ever "salt & pepper squid" we've ever had. As to the boat tours the wind was quite heavy & I figured the waves a little too big to be enjoyable. The very knowledgable young lady running the tour carefully presented a rare showing of a $300,000.00 necklace of natural impregnated pearls( as to being cultured) collected over lots of years.Apparently These naturally occurring shiny pearls,although a little deformed (not perfectly round) are quite large by world standards. Sadly ,she suggested that these rare Australian wonders will probably end up being purchased by someone from a rich Arab country. We're Still sitting at Barn Hill as it's beautiful here. Still haven't caught a blue bone fish yet. Not many people swimming today as a 3 metre black " salty" decided to swim beside the beach yesterday. Seemed to be heading south along with the whales & the Vic. plates. Regards Ted & Hermy

Hi again to Steve & Kez along with Stu & Jean. We're back from Middle Lagoon & Cape Leveque & enjoyed both spots .A boat is definitely a must at Middle Lagoon for the fishing. Didn't see Tammy but met up with Herbie who's easy to get along with. Parked our van at Middle Lagoon after 30 kms of narrow sandy road. All road users were very courteous & Passing wasn't a problem. We did a day trip up to Cape Leveque & ended up staying in a cabin overnite 50 m from the white sands & blue waters. A quite beautiful place although a little expensive. Like when we did the Horizontal Waterfall two years ago some things must be experienced at least once in your life. Money is replaceable but not good memories. What about the "Barra" lunch on the pontoon at Horizontal Waterfall.?? The very high speed boats fighting with the big washing machine & missing the mountain walls by inches as they shoot thru the narrow openings.Fantastic!!! Back to the road up to Cape Leveque. The non bitumen section of 90kms was in places rough sandy but not bogable,some sections aren't much wider than the van but with sides at about45 degrees (gets curly when passing another vehicle & especially Kimberly Tours type vehicles who seem to like to get air born to soften their ride). Another curly problem was the porpoiseing dips in the road ,sometimes 6 together and one section coming back where the road profile appeared as one colour for quite a distance. Any dips ,hollows,bumps& even the angled sides all appeared as the one colour.(Like being in a small plane flying over the sea when the sky & the see joins. We only dropped our tyres to 30 lbs(ie about15-20 lb down). There's about 70 km of nice bitumen between Middle Lagoon & Cape Leveque so wasn't really worth going to low in pressure. Before you get to the top there is a 24hr card operated fuel bowser ($1.78/lit...?same as Barkley Homestead & not bypassed by regular fuel tankers) We're now on th WA coast at Barn Station South of Broome .Been here few times ,the scenery in wonderful,whales go past ,heading South every day. Beach fishing is great.(Had my braid broken by a big Blue Bone yesterday. What a fighter) The Station bakes fresh bread everyday, big loaves ,fantastically soft, smelly ,very chrunchy & wow with Vegemite.($7.00ea) Powered sites under the trees are $32.00/ nite & spacious camping with tap water ,toilets,showers& even a washing machine for $25.00/ nite. The big white sandy beaches,the red ochre cliffs & blue,blue water makes a picture. On Sundays they have a roast nite for $17.00 ea,byo?

Hi Steve & Kez We're heading up to Middle Lagoon , Cape Leveque & One Arm Point today for a week or so. Have taken your advice on board. Had a quick run out to Willie 's Creek the other day to throw a couple of lures and the road wasn't too bad. We'll be taking the Kedron this time so will lower the tyres accordingly. Thanks Ted & Hermy

Wow! What can I say. We're aiming to get there in about 4weeks time. I've take careful note of your advice and will give you some feed back after we do the "deed". Nothing better than getting real information from the actual person firsthand. Perhaps there might be other "Kedron" adventurous travellers out there who will also appreciate your advice. Thanks again.Take care. Regards Ted & Hermy

Thanks for advice Merv.Ted

In Mataranka Homestead for a couple days. The park is absolutely full of vans but on the way here passed many going South. Hard to believe how quiet it is here with so many vans. The hot springs are very relaxing & not crowded. The night enterainment here is very good. The young 'whip cracking' bloke ,Nathan Griggs(Whippy) is world class & absolutely amazing. He has a web site, if interested. We're on way to The Ningaloo Park via Darwin,Kununarra,Keep River,Broome & Cape Leveque. Hopefully we can find somewhere to leave our van in Broome while we tent up North to Middle Lagoon & Cape Leveque. Has anybody got any suggestions?

Hi Neville, I was going to mount the DC charger near the van batteries(it should be as close as possible to the batteries) but it needs a vehicle ignition wire to activate it .I think it draws a standby current all the time even if the car is switched off. Therefore a single wire has to be run back to the 'Crusier ignition to stop the charger operating if the car is hooked up but not working. This is a pain as I only have the usual 7 pin socket and all pins are accounted for. The installation diagram also says the anderson wire should be 8mm and I think the Kedron is only 4-6mm. I looked at increasing the Kedron wire but it disappears into the chassis & then behind the panel behind the solar regulator etc. It presumeably connects to an in line diode somewhere behind the panel as well. Thank you for your advice. Ted

I was wondering if anyone had installed a Projecta DC to DC 25 amp charger to a Kedron Top Ender and whether or not it was worthwile. I am a bit concerned about the smallish anderson wire they've run to the batteries and the amperage of the blocking diode in the wire. Another difficulty I've found is getting an ignition wire back to the Landcruiser. Any advice would be appreciated as it's almost got me licked . Most wiring is inside the chassis or behind the outside panelling and hence hard to replace. Thanks for any help.

I can't talk about the new McHitch coupling but on our 2011 20'6"" Topender we had to replace the original 6 tonn McHitch in 2013 (because of excess wearing in the body bushes after less than 3 years) with a DO 45. The difference in the case of smoothness of towing was amazing. The new hitch was more expensive and didn't, look as impressive ,but preferred by the Brisbane engineer over other available hitches at the time. While towing our loaded 3.5tonn van with out Toyota 100series we needed all the controllability we could muster. Only my opinion but our van was much better towing , especially when coming down a long ,curving decline . The van went from being a Rockwheeler to a Dashound.

While heading South from Cairns down to Birdsville ,thought we might find somewhere to wet the kayak. Have considered the Diamantina National Park & possibly a camp at Hunters Gorge. Has any one been there or got any other ideas. It's the first time we've been able to load the tandem kayak as normally we head to W.A. or N.T. Would appreciate any suggestions of any good water camps below the Tropic of Capricorn hopefully where the water lizards are genuinely scarce.

Sorry departure date 25/06/16 to head South. Thanks

We're heading off from Cairns (Gordonvale) 25/05/16 for the Flinders Ranges via Birdsville, as long as track is open for vehicles over 3 tonne. If not open will probably go via the Stuart. Cheers Ted & Hermy

At sleepy time my head is above the charger and I find that the smooth regular hum of the fan helps me nod off. This more so, when there are other noises about (whether internal or external), interrupting the sounds of silence...

The switch in question switches to a 12 v DC power supply to operate all the D.C units in the van when connected to 240v. That means that we can either use power from our batteries or from the converted 240v. The charger then will charge the batteries. One way or the other power is still being taken from the 240v supply. I suppose it's only advantage would be if while away the batteries had failed.

Hi Mike I have a Topender and some time back a similar leak coming out from near the front cabinet. Our van has a vinyl padding across the front and I found the leak was coming from poor sealing of the top rail holding the"bra" in place. Removed rail ,re sikaflex and no more leaks. Regards Ted Mackedie

Hi Michael & Gill, Very good to see that you're out and about off the "beaten track" and enjoying yourselves . The drawer catches on most vans are only made of plastic and will ocassionally, over a bit of off road bumping, fracture. This then allows the drawer to slide out onto the floor. We've got into the habit of removing our heavy drawers and placing them on the bed ,before a coming rough trip. Even though the large plastic nut can be held in place with sic aflex(to stop it turning) the back of the catch will crack. I have strengthened the catches by screwing(before they break) a piece of plastic strapping across the back of the catch & fastened by two wood screws. Kedron was good enough to give us a couple of spares if they do break. . If you happen to have any dust entering your hot water cabinet, check to see that it's not entering via the cabling condute coming along under your van from the batteries. This is a split condute and dust can enter it anywhere along it's length and be channelled into the cabinet. Sealing the cabinet end of the condute with sicaflex will stop the dust. We also always leave the waste plugs in the shower & handbasin.This will stop any dust while travelling as well as any crawling things from coming up when camped . Good luck for the new year and see you on the road one day. Ted & Hermy Mackedie

It's a bit of a shame this is happening to the Kedron forum. We're now going down the path of the Bushtracker forum were everything is sanitised & filtered in the public domain. I used to be a Kedron forum member but found that most of the real discussion happened in the public section anyway. As to what started this discussion in the first place. Kedron service. I can say that most of my dealings with Kedron service has been exceptional. Occasionally the service manager was not up to the many demands (sometimes totally unreasonable) that some people expected of him. I'm sure that many of us that come to know him over the years cut him a bit of slack when we knew he was having a medically induced difficult day. That's my two bobs worth. Be thankful for what you have , a good product and a good mob of blokes & ladies looking after you.

Hi Fellow Kedron owners, My wife and I have owned our Topender since 2011 and have travelled many dirty, dusty roads(Tanami,Gibb,Savanna,back of Chillagoe & others).Sometimes the dust is so bad that I couldn't see the van in the rear view mirrors. To get to my reason for writing this comment. I have faithfully followed this Kedron off road caravan site since I bought the van new in 2011 after falling in love with Colin's & Gayleen's Topender at O'Brien's Creek in 2010. Although in the background (like many other owners)and viewing with interest the various helpful comments and funnies, but making no comment, I was discusted at that new chum carrying on about a possible future dust problem. Mister, if can't be civil and add to this forum then stay off. Go out and do it and get experienced like many others are. You'll then be in position to fix your particular problem without imposing your arrogance on others. That's all I have to say. Thank you all. Ted Mackedie

Hi All, Have been told that the reason they would rather we use the small battery supplied with our system is that,when the safety brakes are activated the small battery will only last a hour or so.If connected to our big batteries the brake solenoids will work until they catch on fire or hopefully burn out.

Had a similar problem wth my Yamaha 2400. Took it in to the warrenty people .They said it was a bit of dirt in ths carbby. No warrenty.Cost $50.00. try again still faulty ,Still intermittent. A mechanic friend suggested wnen first starting the machine give it a good choke until almost failing.Good as gold now.Perhaps the carby needs to be totally full from the start.Runs pretty smooth now (bit noiser than the Honda).The airconditioner gives it a hurry up but at least the revs only change now with the amount of load. My observation Ted Mackedie