Rod and Mavis

Greetings all. Mavis and I have just attended a great get together with some fellow Kedroners. As us blokes do we all were pointing out the pro's and cons of our rigs. A very disturbing observation was made on two of the three vans in attendance that were fitted with Hyland hitches. One hitch was bent off centre and had all of the security welds on the bolts that were the horizontal pivots for the coupling broken ( see picture). The second van only had a couple of welds cracked. These cracks would not necessarily lead to a failure of the hitch,because they are only there to stop the pivot bolts from winding out. The amount of weld left at the crack point would prevent the bolts from winding out! To everyone that uses one of these hitches keep an eye on these welds and take action on any that you find faulty. I note that both of the vans concerned were 19.1/2 footers and above, the smaller van which was much older did not exhibit any symptoms of fatigue at all. Please guy's and gal's keep an eye on these hitches and anyone involved in other forums please pass this on.

Hi Pete & Tracey As Ric said it is our choice to not use the WDH system on our rig. Our tug is set up with 400kg uprate standard length rear springs and airbags plus heavy duty torsion bars on the front. We have dropped our ball weight (at the moment 200kgs) by re distribution of load. This has got us about as close as we can get to Joe McInnes's suggested ideal of 100-150kg's. These mods have resulted in my being very comfortable with the way that the car sits and handles. In not using the WDH we now have a completely silent tow with no clunking of the bars or scraping into driveways with the added bonus of not having to take them off for rough terrain. We have travelled 6000kms now with the McHitch, the first 400 (approx) with bars fitted and the rest without. The WDH system is purely to lift some weight off your tow bar and put it back on your front wheels returning your steering and front wheel braking to as close to normal as possible. Our rig feels right and we love it :thumbsup: .

Hi Reece. If your wiring is adequate you will get full voltage with very minimal drop. Bigger is better with 12 volt systems. The lower the voltage the larger the wire needed!

Greetings all We have had a “REDARC” DC to DC charger fitted for the last 5 months. This little beasty is a 25 amp smart charger. The reason I went for this extra expense was the fact that our AGM fridge battery in the car only lasted for under 3 years. That is pretty good you might say but I was not impressed as our 3 house batteries in the van have just ticked over 5 years in operation and still going strong (touch wood). This is due I firmly believe to the way that they are kept correctly charged by the solar and the smart (240v) charger and probably also due to the fact that we had the van was re wired correctly soon after we took delivery. The REDARC not only looks after the aux battery in the car and the van house batteries from the alternator but also uses the caravan charging systems (solar and 240v charger) when the car is plugged in via the Anderson plug and car engine not running. Lotta money but all indications are that it should do the job and it is nice to have visual confirmation that all is well. :thumbsup:

Well done guy's. Great pics on the video. What is the deal with the Hyland?? can you enlighten us as to what happened???

Greetings Tony. Mate if you have any contacts that need an entertainment reporter, that are willing to pay for concert tickets pleeeeese let me know grin. Have you seen the cost of the Eagles Platinum tickets for December $669.40 and that is each how bl..dy insane with nothing left in the pleb classes does not leave any chance for most fans. :shutup: This one sold out within 1 day, bugger for most,we managed a couple of Gold class and we are actually sitting together what a bargain. :biggrin: Happy travel mate and hope to meet up one day.

Technical question Rick Why two different sized cells in the starting area :question: ???

YUSUF formally Cat Stevens was born Stephen Demetre Georgiou in 1948 to a Greek Cypriot father and Swedish mother and grew up in England. This concert was one the most memorable experience that Mavis or I have ever had. We attended with Margaret, Mavis’s sister and her husband Robert both of whom also raved about it. YUSUF’S Son’s band opened the concert and played for a little less than 25 minutes then leaving us to an intermission of 30 minutes before YUSUF came on stage at 9pm This 62 year old grey headed legend has lost absolutely nothing with the slow aging process that we are all experiencing. The first couple of songs were performed with himself and only two other guitarists, this was awesome music played by superb guitarists. The whole band then began to filter onto the stage to join them. This dynamo performed non stop for one hour and ten minutes before leaving the stage while his superb back up group played and sang Waltzing Matilda to an audience that was thoroughly appreciative. When the group had finished Waltzing Matilda Yusuf returned after obviously having changed clothes and refreshed to continue performing without fault until the end of the concert at 11pm. His whole performance went non stop from 9pm to 11pm WOW. All of his well known songs as well as some great new stuff were played beautifully and with the passion that was always in his music. Having grown up with his great music I have to say that there were times during his performance that brought tears to my eyes, associating past memories both good and bad with the songs that he performed. What a legend and what a superb performance!

Good point John. Our XC 16'6" shower van was ordered in early 2005 with a promised tare weight of 2150kg. When we went to the factory to pick it up in August 2005 the tare was 2345kg's. The stated reason for this massive increase was that they had decided to put the beastie on an ATV chassis. Also keep in mind that most van manufacturers state the tare weight without gas bottles,or water in the tanks and some without spare wheels , sadly it is up to them as to what they include in the tare statement. This unfortunately left us with only being able to load up a couple of cans of baked beans and a few clothes to bring us to our legal limit of 2500kg's for our Nissan auto 3 liter. Having said that, it was our first van and in ignorance we took it as was, in spite of the shortcomings weight wise. Bear in mind that the van was ordered to be tugged with a 3 liter Nissan auto that had a tow capacity of 2500kg and was sold as suitable for the Prado and the Pagero as well as the Nissan auto. The Nissan did a great job as our tug until I decided that we needed to put water in the tanks, more solar panels on the roof, an inverter, diesel heater and heaps more mods which made us lots heavier than the Nissan could legally pull. So after all this waffle on be aware of the weight of any XC that you look at, check the data plate and look at any mods that have been done to the van. We actually increased the certified weights on our van by having it re certified by an engineer to keep us legal due to the fact that Transport departments on the East coast are now occasionally road side weighing rigs, a scary thought for most of us. :thumbsup:

Well done Guy's. We are sure that you will love it and more to the point enjoy it. Cheers

So sorry for the delay Rosco. Please see the attached pics they might help to see the hook up procedure. I love it especially with the levelers gone, we no longer have to take them off to negotiate difficult terrain nor do we scrape into servo's grin. Give Chrissie a big hug from us will ya. Love to ya both and safe travels wherever you are

HI guy's I have found that the hitch is no problem un hooking at any angle and there is no grease in the post due to there being no movement. The only grease is in the nipples two on the longitudinal pivot and one on the universal To hook up at an angle you still need to be fairly straight on to the hitch not necessarily straight to the draw bar, having said that I have found that when the hitch is lowered onto the pin it does not take much to get it to seat. We have been away for a while give me a little time and I will post some pics to explain a little better. :thumbsup:

Wow top looking rig now guy's

Greetings Mr and Mrs Blackie. Bout time for a new pic is it not grin. How is the effy going and did ya cry for long when the Patrol went? Glad to hear that the hitch is working as well as ours. Had some work done on the car at Springers at Lawnton early this week and Joe Springer was saying that he had a new Bushwacker and a new Kedron in the shop the week before with McHitches on them,the biggies in off road are trying them I guess. Hope you guy's are travelling well and happy. Love to ya both.

How do ya keep a good woman down :confused: Anyone help please.

Well the new McHitch is fitted and all I can say is WOW. Our first run with it was to a private property at Kilcoy here in QLD. Only about 400kms return but it performed well with load levelers fitted. The only problem here was that the love of my life managed to break her ankle, :sad: but getting back to the really important stuff. Our second foray into travelling with the new hitch was a run to Bellengen Music Festival early May. After re distributing some weight off the draw bar we did this run without Weight Distribution Hitch or load levellers, 1000kms in all. Joe Mcginnes (the inventor/manufacturer) recommends 150kg’s or less for a heavy van due to the hitch being fixed onto the tow bar and not relying on weight to hold it there. It works beautifully. This is where the wow factor jumped in. No load levellers consequently no turning noise as a matter of fact no noise at all from the rear. The car performed better than it ever has while towing the van (tracked straight, great braking and sat on the road beautifully) I/we opted for the 6 ton hitch (our van has been re plated to 3500kg's due to mods incorporated) The reason for the 6 ton choice was the off road factor and the way the van is used. Had we had a road van of the same weight and used it only on road I would have opted for the 3.5 ton McHitch. Gotta say the new baby made me feel absolutely confident and comfortable with the tow. The hitches look beefy and they are, our new one is 5 kg's heavier than the old Hyland but beautifully engineered. Dam I sound like a salesman perhaps I should hit for commission :biggrin:

Hi Brian. In April last year we were travelling from Comeroo Camel Station to Burke (all dirt). We had changed a wheel on the Landcruser at the camel Station before leaving due to a slow leak. Unfortunately we staked the second Cruser wheel on the track to Burke.Even more unfortunate was the fact that when we bought the van new in 2005 we had a Patrol so the van was fitted with Patrol wheels. We had to repair the staked tyre to get us out of trouble. When we had to go to the cruser it was not economical to change the van wheels as we needed to change the whole axle assembly's due to the wheel offset. I can thoroughly recommend matching wheels on van and car for remote travels. :thumbsup:

Greetings all. We are just home from the Bellengen Music Festival. http://www.bellingenmusicfestival.com.au/ What a great event in a wonderful part of this great Country. Have a look at my rantings on our blog. to get the gist of this event. http://travellin.kyd.com.au/2010/05/11/bel...music-festival/ Well worth the trip :thumbsup:

We are still looking into them at $650 they are very pricy but for the convenience think they would be great. Waiting to see them at the Brissie show before making a decision. http://www.clearviewmirrors.com.au/ I am assured that they don't fold in with passing trucks. For those that are not familiar with them, they replace your original door mounted mirrors and retain the original electrical adjustment. When towing you simple pull them out to the tow position and off ya go too easy. Will update after the Brisbane show. :thumbsup:

diesel heater is a must if you are married :biggrin: They make the whole vanning lifestyle thing more than bearable,unless of course you can find an alternative that does not cost as much :thumbsup:

Hi Bob & Annie Give us a selcall 4014 Send us an Email when you are ready. We are flat strap at the moment but can stand by for ya if you let us know :thumbsup:

Hi to all from us. I/Rod can not wait for our first HF gathering,(will be Kilcoy QLD 11th-14th June). I have so many questions that need answering and need some time face to face with someone that knows the ropes. :biggrin: The TIC is a great addition Lea & Rick I am sure it will come in handy.

Greetings again Colin Gayleen Moet & Cherie. Wow the AN/GRC-106 sounds like the go hahaha. Good to hear that you all are enjoying your travels and using the Kedron to best advantage. Keep safe guy's and enjoy the trip north and yes we are green with envy,but I guess our time will come :thumbsup:

Greetings Bob & Annie I joined the HF Radio Club Inc. Have a look at the web site it is very helpful. http://www.hfradioclub.com.au/ Their are a few Kedroners in this club,how many,I could not tell you but I did pick a few from the supplied selcall list and rogues gallery pictures also supplied when you join. We actually purchased our radio from the club,so it was preloaded with their frequencies. Denise Ryan was my contact (Secretary/Webmaster) ph 0417267660. A very helpful Lady. Kimbo is a member and might be able to better answer you if I have missed anything,being that I am a complete newby to the HF scene. Hope this helps :thumbsup:

Greetings Colin & Gayleen. Thanks for your info on the Sat phone. Since generating this discussion we/I have decided on the HF radio as our choice for traveling coms. Of course we did pay a considerable amount more than your purchase with no hope of a rebate (bugg.r) :confused: Our reason for choosing the HF over the Sat were many. The fact that we have made new friends and new potential for gatherings with the HF Radio Club was a plus. Also that we could make phone calls and send SMS's using the radio for very little cost (after the initial purchase of course). Being able to communicate our position and intended travels with the HF base was also a security bonus. The ability to have family contact us in emergencies through the bases is also comforting. Anyone in the network can relay messages to us if required. The radio also has a feature that we can transmit our position to base using the GPS program installed. Secondly the GPS function can be used by family and friends to project our travels onto Google Earth if we desire. All in all we are happy with our choice as we are sure you are happy with your choice, it really is an individual thing that is dependant on requirements. P.S say hi to the pups :biggrin: