Laurie and Helen

An oldy but quite good (I think) :laugh:

The two photo's were taken over the last weekend in northern NSW. Copeton Dam access tracks. Gwyder River near Bingara

Very unusual, not my cup of tea though. :shades:

Mal and Kerry, We are on our second Kedron, the first unit we purchased was a used van from the Kedron yard and our new baby has just arrived from the factory. Our experience with the crew at the factory and yard has been excellent. As long as you are honest with what you have done, or what has happened and are patient the after sales service is like nothing you would find at any other van supplier. :thumbsup: cheers

Hi Adam, We went to Tassie at Christmas and quite a few vans have been down that way since so you should get plenty of tips on what to see. Hopefully our blog is at the bottom of this with our trip on it. Plenty of free camps around and nice places to rest and get your breath. Have a great time and might see you round.

Guess I better include the site, signatures aren't working at the moment. http://lauriehelen.blogspot.com

Lionel and Margaret, You will enjoy every part we did. Our blog has our Tassie trip with lots of interesting places that we stayed. Have a great time, should have our new van by the time you get home so will catch up over a campfire and have a drink. If you get into Corinna, the Piemann cruise was a lovely peaceful day out to the heads. We leave Monday for the UK have fun. Cheers

Bruce and Sue, One of my friends saw this information on the Bushtracker forum and passed it on. The information on the heaters is fairly common by the sounds of it. You need to get about 2/3rds of the way through the posts to find the information on the dust problem and how other vanners have dealt with the problem. http://www.bushtrackerforum.com/viewtopic....29486806b57f548 Hope this helps. :thumbsup:

Peter, It is good to see that things are coming together, Helen and I would like to thank you and the committee for all the work and everything that needs to go on behind the scenes to make these arrangements appear at the click of a mouse. Only 2 weeks before we go away, so if not before we look forward to becoming FMKOGGERS on our return to Aus mid October :thumbsup: . regards

Bruce, We have had the home fire burning for the past few weeks, just enough to take the chill of the air. Suppose you get use to it living on a hill. Hope everything works out with the heater. Laurie

David, What are you using for bait ? I have trouble getting good fish and chips pre wrapped. :laugh:

Peter and Tracey, The Toowoomba range is shorter than Cunninghams Gap but steeper, especially the last half. QT have recently changed the speed zones so going slow isn't that much of a problem anymore. Just past the saddle it goes back to a 70k zone. We had no trouble pulling the XC up using the V8 cruiser. Even though we live just out of town I actually prefer Cunninghams Gap if it fits in with the travel plans. Guess I will find out when we pick up the new van in October how well the cruiser handles the range. Have a safe trip. cheers

Thanks for the comments sounds like a pretty easy decision, may just have to move it as we were originally planning to put it over the kitchen area. I will attach a copy of the plan as we have it at the moment. The specifications need to be changed as these are still showing some ATV equipment which will be sorted next time we sit down with Stan.

Greg and Judy, I have just been looking through the responses and it would appear that no one commented on the preference of a Heike hatch. Russ commented on the four season one. This is the only area that we haven't finalised with our van (a) two fantastic hatch's or ( 1 fantastic and 1 Heike or ©1 fantastic and 1 four season. How do you find your Heike regarding heat and light so far. I am pretty sure that David and Jane have one installed as well so it will be interesting to see what response come back. regards :thumbsup:

Chris, Not a problem and yes we are putting a heater in our new van as well. We had a portable gas heater in the old van but it didn't cut the mustard when we were down in Tassie. cheers

Chris, I'm not buying one yet either, not really sure we need it but than again didn't have as many gadgets in the old van. When and if I do, it will most likely be the 2.8 though. Off the topic, good write up in the latest C&M of the van. Laurie :thumbsup:

Chris, Looks are deceiving, the 2.8 is actually smaller than the 2.4 :shades: 2.4 = 527 x 419 x 459 2.8 = 487 x 395 x 425 Cheers Laurie :smile:

Hi Gilly, Interesting reading, we are in the process of going through our set up with Stan at present. Plenty of time we have put our delivery back till October or November when we get back from visiting our son in the UK. We had 3 x 120 panels on our XC and had no problems using a 550 w inverter but would appear that most people are suggesting 4 x 4 solar battery combo. We are staying with the 3 x 130 panels and 3 batteries. At the show in Brisbane I had a good look at the Yamaha 2.8 which is actually lighter, cheaper and smaller than the 2.4 and db is marginal to the human ear. 2.8kw - 29kg, 11 litre fuel tank, 60/67 db, 12.2 a, 2.5 kva no DC outlet 2.4kw - 32kg, 6 litre fuel tank, 54/59 db, 10.4 a, 2.0 kva Decisions are never easy, but the advice here has been well worth the reading in the past. Laurie :thumbsup:

Ken and Marea, I am sure you will enjoy the lifestyle, must be good feeling picking up the new van even if the rain gods were showing some teeth. Plenty of good advice from members on the site, we have learnt heaps and met some good friends. Hope to catch you round the traps sometime, we are scheduled to pick up our new van around late November early December haven't set a delivery date yet, just ordered it the other week. :thumbsup: Laurie and Helen

Tony, As Kingy suggested it's not where we live it's piece of mind. The chains on the spares on our van are primarily in place as a back up in case the nuts holding them on were to come loose (if I didn't or forget to check them regularly). :thumbsup: safe miles and plenty of smiles Laurie

Hi, We use the lockable pin through the towbar hitch, H/duty padlock on the hyland and we had a set of individual chains for the two spares. These chains were covered with old bicycle tube to stop vibration and rattle (suppose you don't hear the rattle up front but stopped any undue wear and tear). :thumbsup:

Greg and Judy, The idea of asking everyone for input into your van design has helped us as well, and possibly made everyones life easier. We look forward to using some of these suggestions in our new van when we go down and sit with Stan. Just had a great weekend with Deb and Glenn, we just happened to be passing and we met up the back of Midgimbil, what a suprise !!!! :biggrin: Always very helpful with suggestions and advice. Laurie and Helen :thumbsup:

Funny how we are all working on leaving it behind. The best thing about birthdays is that is one year closer to the dream. :thumbsup:

David, Guess we might just keep using the tablets. Helen just panicked after reading this as she thought I may have been out in the van setting the toilet up with the Napisan for the weekend. But luckily I forget easy and just set it up as normal. Laurie :laugh:

David, Thought we would put some south island photo's. Temma turn off before the Western Explorer, on the Western Explorer and than the fire trail between Tea Gardens and Policemans Point NE Tassie (glad we didn't have the same trouble Ian and Jill had glad to hear no damage). I have used the lock pin since someone took my normal pin on a work ute once. :smile: If anyone wants a good XC Pop Top this ones for sale.