Rod and Mavis

Greetings all. A good reply from Joe Mcinnes, hopefully this will clear up and worries that anyone has with the McHitch. For those that have not been made aware of the "no off road" use for the Hayman Reece WDH system by some supplyers, have a look at http://www.haymanreese.com.au/safertowing/HR_Towingguide.htm highlighted section "Weight Distribution Systems are not recommended for off road use." It is imperative that the bars are disconnected for off roading and to a lesser extent reversing. Not only the hitch but also the tow bar, draw bar and tow tug are in danger of sustaining damage with bars left on. I personally do not believe that any forums should be used to bag any products what so ever, especially using second hand information or hearsay. Please be careful as we can leave not only ourselves open to legal action but the site can be held to account. Cheers and a merry Christmas to all from the Kyd's.

Greetings all. I have found with the McHitch if you lean on the alloy top as you let it down it will normally fall onto place and is a dream. We are on our second McHitch having fitted one to our last van. Unless you are going really heavy ask that Kedron fit a 4.5 tonner. The difference being that the pin thread is a standard size (fits normal tow tongues) as opposed to the 6 tonner that has a 1/14" thread. The heads are the same for the 6 and the 4.5 ton. The big advantage in this is that you can remove the pin and fit it to a standard tow bar to get out of trouble if your tow tug should break down. This happened to us with the old van and we had to use our ball on the tow truck so he could tow our van. Love the McHitch.

Guy's even a 21' ATV will be very hard to keep within legal tow weights for anything smaller than a Chev or Effy.lots of home work required on your part.

Hi Alan & Liz. Showing my ignorance on locations,I had to look it up />http://www.thargotourism.com.au/noccundra-hotel Thanks for the heads up,it's great to get gems like this. Cheers from the Kyd's.

Please see attached our stone guard set up. It works very well for us with standard 100 series mud flaps.As stated nothing hits the front of the van with the exception of a 2 " wide area on the tuck under below the front boots. Cheers from the Kyd's

Please give me a day or so for the pics, we are currently getting a broken Aircommand Ibis fixed. That is another good ending story well worth telling and will be told soon. Cheers from the Kyd's.

Hi Chanty. Our 100 series has standard mud flaps. Have to say that with a decent stone guard on the van with good quality rubber flaps on the bottom,there is absolutely no need for fancy expensive flaps on the car (in my opinion). We travelled 90kms of red dirt and black dirt mud out of Tilpa last year and the only thing that touched the front of our van was a small section not shielded by the edge of the rubber flaps. having said that we have since travelled around 30,000kms in our van since June 12 months ago and have absolutely no damage on the front of the vans propeller plate. This is in contrast to our last van that did not have an adequate stone guard.The result was major damage to the propeller plate on the front of the van that could not be removed. All we could do was polish but the damage was still evident.Oh and a broken rear window in the Patrol. Make sure that your stone guard is angled forward from the top,(our last one was vertical)and attach heavy rubber flaps to the bottom and you will not need to drag around massive car flaps. It is so difficult to get the guards on the car just right to protect both the van and the rear window of the tug. I believe that our set up has filled all requirements.

Well done Sue and thanks for the opportunity to let us have our input

Yep we have had the Genquip for about 6 months. Good machine although we have had a problem with the battery. The electric start is wonderful. There is no "eco mode" as with the Hondas so when you start it, it will run according to load.Ours handles the aircon,hot water system & 70amp battery charger no problems. $1700 well spent from TJM Cheers from the Kyd's

Hi Richard & Celeste We had the same dramas with our new water heater. Please see attached pics. This mod fixed the problem and it now lights first time every time. Cheers from the Kyd's. [attachment=1450:IMG_8091.JPG]

Merv & Di We have had SOG's for the last three to four years it two vans and never had a problem with either installation or components. I fitted the first one to our Kedron and we loved it so much that the next one was fitted during construction of our second van. They are completely effective in preventing odors in the van and ecologically very friendly when it comes time to dispose of the tank contents. Cheers from the Kyd's.

Hi Sue. With the foam in the four seasons you prevent the dust from being sucked in through the vents by blocking air flow. Without it any small vacuum in the van or small pressure at the vent will allow dust to enter. This was our experience in the old van with the metal four seasons. Cheers from the Kyd's.

Hi Ian & Sue We are on our second SOG unit. The first I fitted myself to our first van and the second we had fitted during new van manufacture. The answer to the #2 in the tube is to always fit the plug while travelling. This we only needed to do on the new van as the old 20 litre cassette on the old van had the hose on the top of the tank and was no problem.The new 17 litre tank has the hose attached on to the drain cap.The plug has a key ring fitted that allows it to be slipped on to the vent hose when not in use.Thus it is a quick job to fit and remove and always where you need it. We can thoroughly recommend the SOG.No smell on the bathroom and no qualms in emptying in roadside composting or septic toilets. Ian it is money well spent if you intend to keep the current van for a while. We do use nappy san when doing a thorough clean when sewage dump facilities are available,this tends to thoroughly de gunk the tank. Hope you three had a great trip to the East and thanks,good luck and enjoy with the Prez position on the committee. Cheers and love too ya from the Kyd's.

Hi all We opted for the short bar for all of the negatives mentioned above. Our overall length was the big factor. Ball weight is critical and yes you can load the draw bar excessively if not careful. Cheers from the Kyd's

Rod & Sue Have a look at the "Hints & Tips" section of the forum. I posted "Dust problem with rear range hood exhaust" many moons ago. It was a great fix and worked well. The idea was not mine but a fellow Kogger's. If you can't access it let me know. Cheers to all from the Kyd's

Hi mate. Try the LAUKE bread mix from Woolies it is superb in a bread maker but I make it by hand and it is great. Cheers.

Gotta say WOW John Williamson) did us proud. The first appearance lasted for around 1.5 hours then 15 minute break the another hour of magic classical John Williamson. Ya gotta see him if the opportunity comes your way,he is so aussie and some of his stuff produces goose bumps and tears with its content. We are off today 25th on our Northern sojourn, better late than never The Cape is out due to the late departure date but we will fish our way to Cairns over the next few months maybe further and hopefully manage to enjoy ourselves We had some medical and dental dramas that held us up and then Mavis's Daughter managed to completely smash her ankle requiring extensive re constructive surgery. Would you not think that a Registered Nurse would know better than to step off a rock wall and miss the next rock and smash her ankle. We gotta do better training kid's ( mind you she is 44 years young so is completely untrainable ) Hope you are all happy and well and better still enjoying life to the full and travelling safe. Cheers from the Kyd's Rod and Mavis Brisbane/>http://travellin.kyd.com.au/ HF Radio Club Selcall 4014 IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE YOUR GOING ANY ROAD WILL DO. travellinkyds Site Admin Posts: 331 Joined: Thu Jun 11, 2009 4:12 pm Location: Brisbane Has thanked: 0 time Have thanks: 32 time spin_number: 34

Hi all Gotta say we have a Genquip 3300 electric start that works just fine no matter what load is thrown at it.(Battery charger (70 amp),hot water system, aircon and normal power usage all at once). $1700 from TJM good warranty and really how often do you need to use the gen if the 12 volt wiring from the solar is done properly. We had 4 days of overcast at a camp at Canungra and the batteries were still happy even after heavy use every night.We could see 10-15 amps even with very cloudy conditions and voltage was smiling at the end of every day (12.9v). Life has gotta be easy or ya don't want to do it soooo use the right gear and life is good .

Hi all Have a look at http://oceanviewestates.com.au/ John Williamson is performing there on Sunday. We will be there to enjoy a few wines and the entertainment. Come along and it you see a big ugly bloke with a beard say Hi it might just be me! Cheers from the Kyd's.

Hi Reece Double check that the hot water system is turned off (electric) if you have electric/gas. Our little Honda nearly kacked itself when we plugged it into our new van with the HWS turned on and the battery charger on. Needless to say the Honda's gone now

Hi Jeff. We have had two inlets that had the silicon gasket installed incorrectly. If you remove the three screws on the back of the unit, make sure that the gasket is good and straight and lubricate it with silicon or olive oil before refixing the screws. This fixed our leaks.

Greetings all. Incase worst comes to worse,I sussed out an electrical contractor mate in NSW who tested & tagged a lead for $5. I did ask him the obvious question of has he heard of van parks requiring the T&T leads and he said yes but could not name them.He stated that they required it for insurance purposes and has T&T'd leads at customers requests. Can of worms for sure. The regulation requiring the T&T is AS/NZS 3760:2003 Because the lead is flexed and moved it would require re test every 12 months. What next??????

Greetings all. We observed the same peski little critters entering our fridge vents many years ago. We cut and glued fly screen to the inside of the vents.

Do not move you two We will catch up in the next couple of days. Cheers too ya

Hi all Tolly If you use "rainex" on the glass there is no dramas with rain.It simply beads up and falls off the glass same as the rest of the glass on the tug. Available from most auto outlets Cheers from the Kyd's.