Neville and Kay

We had the original small tank removed from Sahara in Feb.2007 & replaced it with a 150 Lt tank from TJM in Cairns & have had no problems at all.I might be wrong but I do not believe the chassie would twist enough to effect the tank I would guess faulty work? We have now done 140,000 km with Sahara.

Hi Brad & Jan.Look back to the post Increasing your Vehicle Towing Capicity January 25,you will see about Tare & GVM of Vans what it includes & does not.Put it over a registered weigh bridge then you know where you are for sure,most operators will let you drive on with just car on,Wt[1] wind jockey down on ground lift van gives draw bar wt[2] then pull van on to bridge total wt[3] drive car off bridge wind jockey wheel down on to bridge wt of van[4]. Regards Neville.

Hi, We are planning to visit the Dargo High Plains area in the next week or so. We have a Topender and wondered if anybody can tell us what the road is like to Dargo and any camping suggestions? Thanks, Neville and Kay

Hi all again,Dave at Kedron upgraded our Topender from 3.5 to 4 Ton.for I think $300 including new Comp.plate.This has made us okay for Insurance as when on hook we are 3400kg & off the hook 3650kg,& I believe Insurance Co. will weight off hook if in accident.It is the reg. of van that I do not yet know if it will be more expensive. Neville.

Hi all, if it costs a bit extra for Rego? it is still cheaper than if one has an accident & no Insurance not only Van cost but what costs when other Ins.comp.knows you were not legal.Regards Neville.

Hi JK,Kedron sent papers off to QT & our Rego is due in May,so I can not say how much extra it is going to cost if any will let you know when we get our renewal.Kay was on the phone for 3 parts of an hour getting put from one person to another untill we found out about when you were out of the State what to do & then the girl asked where we lived & when Kay told her she said we would not have to do that.Tom might be able to tell you if it costs extra.Regards Neville.

Hi all,in a prior forum I thought I saw where you were not to use Thermostat to turn the fridge off to Defrost,so what else can I do as there is no switch.Thanks Neville & Kay.

JK.where is your spare 43 kg your total adds to 596kg.Like you said at the beginning as long as your Tare was wright, our van was bought May 2007 17ft6inch internal Topender & we were no where near the Tare. The only way to be sure is to strip it down to Delivery & put it over a Bridge,I believe there is one just north of Kedron.It can be a costly exercise,like we did to our Tug or big Chevy.Regards Neville.

Hi Laurie & Helen,our van had a tare of 2730 kg & to get to this wt.they told me that all of the following are on the ground & are not included[ 2gas bottles,2spares,gen set,no water including cassett,matress's & seat cushions]I also asked if the 3 deep cycle batteries were included & they would not comment.So Iwould say your missing KGs are some where here.Regards Neville

Hi Alan & other concerned Kedron Owners my idea is to late for us,but I talked to Kedron after I had noticed this problem [ they say they customise your van]& said all they have to do is shift the axles forward & they looked at me blankely,this should not be too hard with the Engineering available today,as they do this when building boats.Our van is only 17.6 ft.internal with 2/80Lt,& 1/60 Lt.tank. We have looked at larger vans & had wondered how they got on with weights. Neville.

Colin, We spent 2 months in the Hearts Range aera 3yrs ago going to different Gem fields & travelling through to the Alice & back across the Plenty Highway & then on to Bouila & Winton there is some great scenery between these two places,in one place on right, we drove Sahara & Topender up on top of lookout & had smoko.We did Gibb River Road last year & thought that it was the same as the Plenty. We also carry Sat Phone & a personal GME GPS Equipped Emergency Beacon which is registered to us giving Vehicle description,contact ph.numbers beside ours,as we travel to lot of out of the way places & mostly by ourselves.Which ever way you go we are sure you will really enjoy it as it is a great Country. Regards Neville.

Hi all if you are intrested you can buy the bladders from Whitworth Marine or other Marine suppliers they are a [Turtle brand]& come in all sizes we have carried a 200Lt one for 4yrs. used it while in the West & Central Aust,as we could leave the van & travel to where we could get water & fill the bladder layed out in the back of then L/C Saharah,when back at van just use in line pump to fill tanks.They are designed to carry either Diesel or Water [on Boats] & have heavy eylets in sides so they can be lashed down.I think they are on Goldcoast Qld.

morribm, Sorry it took so long to reply to your questions but I flew home to Cooktown [& did not take laptop ] for a few weeks to build a car port & do some fishing got car port done but no fishing wind up to much.Ihad very little chipping on the ATR Coopers,if you can get hold of the booklet from a tyre store it will show the ply the 265/70R17 has a rating of 121R which is 10 ply [803mm dia] you can also get a 265/70R17 that has a rating of 115S WHICH IS 6ply [803mm dia]which was fitted to my vehicle in Frankston VIC that was not legal.Where did you get your prices from as if I am in the aera when I need tyres I would like to get a price as I will be up for at least 7 tyres next round. Neville.

Hi Brian. With Tyres fitted to your Landcruiser as long as they are of the same Specs or greater than what is written on drivers side door pillar you are right.We had Cooper ATR fitted in VIC & they were not legal on our L/C but we got 60,000km. using 6 tyres [50,000]each,have now fitted a new set of Cooper Tyres 265/70R17 10Ply. With original Coopers we did Gibb River Rd,Gold fields north Kalgoolie,Plenty Hwy,Katheren Burketown Karumba across to Chillagoe to Mareeba & home to Cooktown towing Top Ender 3.7 T.& L/C Sahara 3.8T [bOTH C/Van & L/C now modified] & was happy with Coopers.When working in Cooktown I was working on Cape York & used BFGoodrich & was happy with them but when I priced them up against Cooper they were $35 a tyre dearer & I was not convinced the $-- Km was worth the difference.

Phil The job on the vehicle was done by Creative Conversions in Brendale just around the corner from Kedron Caravans. It is Blue Plated to Australian Standards and is legal in all states. Photo of finished product attached (hopefully!). Russ I used to own a Landrover Discovery with this suspension and got sick and tired of the little things going wrong with it. Living in Cooktown and having to drive 330 km to Cairns to get it fixed just got too much so I traded it in on a Landcruiser Troop Carrier after 8 months and had no more problems.

We are on the road again after having our Sahara modified to a twin cab & lockable canopy with a GVM 4495 kg ,& the Topender also upgraded to 4 Ton by Kedron Caravans who installed a new 5 Ton Hitch-Ezy coupling which they had just received 2 of in the post. Glen was quite impressed as he & Tom had a good look at it. So now we are all up to scratch with weights & can really enjoy our tripping around. We are extremely happy with the Hitch-Ezy so far although it has only been on for 2 months for it is great when hooking up & disconnecting although with the new Air Bag suspension on the vehicle with the flick of a switch we can drop all air out of the rear suspension lowering the tow bar 150mm which helps on uneven sites, then flick the switch back & the compressor cuts in & pumps the suspension back to the preset height. We left Cooktown in August & are currently on the South Coast of NSW watching whales & seals most days & enjoying life.

For those of you who have never met Eddie perhaps a little background may help. We have known Eddie for more than thirty years. He is a proud and honest man who has worked very hard in his lifetime and even now at his age still keeps on going. For Eddie and the Hopevale Community "Respect" is the keyword. This is their home, their backyard if you like and our world is a million miles away and totally uncomprehended. So just remember if Eddie was someone you didn't know and you wanted to stay in his backyard how would you go about it? Be polite, give him time, his world runs at a different pace. Ring before you go and have a chat to him and you will be rewarded by a sincere man who, if you want you can learn much from. So if you want the real deal aboriginal experience give it a try - if not go to a caravan park and take a tour! Neville & Kay Cooktown

Hello Phil & Dralene, ours is a Dec.2006 100 series ,& we are having it turned into a twin cab & lazy axle & is being done by www.creativeconversions.com.au who are around the corner from Kedron Vans, We chose this lot because they remove existing rear suspension & set it all up on 4 air bags & has built in air compressor & tank so one can drop rear suspension approx 150mm then it self levels. It also self levels depending on load, this will then give us a GVW on finished Vehicle of 4500kg & Legistation in Qld (lagging behind other States) is about to change & we will be able to tow 4000kg to 4400 kg.We saw in a caravan book some time ago a 200 Series which had this done by same place.(Yoshy & Kerry) Kedron Top Ender who had a message in the forum back in I think about August last year. I looked with magnifing glass at Blue Plate which was under bonnett & he had a total capicity of 8900 kg GVM. Neville & Kay.

John & Ann, I understand that the Sahara has a limit of 3500 kg in its standard form but I am talking about the actual Tow Bar itself as it has 3500kg stamped on it. We have it now in being made into a Dual Cab with a Lazy Axle this will increase Payload & towing capicity and we sure hope this solves all our problems as it is not a cheap exercise. Thanks Neville & Kay.

Hello John & Ann, I now understand why one would change to 6 Ton hitch but do you still fit it to a 3500 kg Towbar or can one buy a Towbar greater than 3500 kg. Thanks Neville

Why would you fit a 6 ton McHitch to your van when the Hayman Reece towbar on the tow vehicle is stamped 3,500kg and our Landcruiser Sahara can only tow 3,500kg? Our Top Ender does weigh more than this and we would love to know as we are currently having our Sahara made into a twincab with lazy axle in order to transfer weight from the van to the vehicle and be legal. Was there an easier way.