RussnSue

A good story Rod. We are also enjoying the blog and it is making us jealous that we are currently pinned down. Cheers Russ

John, this was an issue for me as well, although to be fair, HDMI wasn't as pervasive when our van was built as it is these days. To overcome the issue I have installed a 5.8 Ghz wireless HDMI transmitter/receiver combo, which I got from Jaycar Electronics. I have since seen them on the 'net (Cablechick) a bit cheaper. Basically you fit the TX unit at the source (DVD player, sat-box etc) and the RX wherever you need it (in the outside hatch, for example.) The Rx unit plugs into your telly or monitor. Note: this unit does not have separate audio-out jack, so if you use a monitor as a tv, then you need to have a separate arrangement for your audio. I love it. I can have the telly anywhere I want in or out of the van. I even use it to tune my satellite dish because I can set up my little 7" monitor, that I purchased for my video camera, right next to the dish and use the VAST tuning page to hone in the dish. It saved me the expense of buying one of those up-market tuners for the dish. The TX unit has a range of about 25 metres and seems to penetrate the skin of the van reasonably well. I have no problems locating the telly anywhere inside the annex and, up until now, have not had any "blind spot" when setting the satellite dish up away from the van. I purchased a second Rx unit so that I could leave one set up where we usually locate the telly plus have a "roving" unit for other occasions. Note: Only one Rx unit can be used at a time. Additionally, they have a remote Infra-red unit. This means that the Rx unit picks up the remote control signal from your God-stick and sends it through to the Tx unit. The Tx unit has a jack in it, into which you plug a supplied Infra-red repeater. You locate the repeater in front of the source device and the remote control commands are repeated into it. Magic! The first Tx/Rx combo come as a matched pair and simply work, straight out of the box. The second RX had to be "paired" to the Tx unit, a process that required me to press a button for a few seconds. I can't say enough about them, they are great. Cheers Russ

Hello John This is a vexed question indeed. I went through the same process as you, trying to maximise power harvesting and minimise use (LED lights etc). My research on MPPT controllers was exhaustive an in the end, this paragraph, copied from an article I read, convinced me not to bother changing out my PWM controller: "Just remember that most of the ratings are either optimistic, or are based on perfect conditions. Expect an average of 10-15% gain from an MPPT controller used with a 36 cell panel, as compared to a standard PWM controller. Under ideal conditions (cold ambient temperature, and a depleted battery) you may achieve as much as 30%" My reasoning was that I don't spend a great deal of time at places where there is a "cold ambient temperature" and I never deplete my batteries greatly. For me, 10% - 15% gain was not worth the expense of changing. If my PWM controller dies completely (it is half-dead now, due to kamikaze frog damage), then I will replace it with an MPPT controller, but not before. Another thing to consider is this: On average, at what time of day do your batteries go onto float charge? If this occurs somewhere within an hour or two either side of midday, then having an MPPT controller will be of no help to you at all - your batteries are already peaked and will not accept more current, whatever you try. The exception is on cloudy days, where you will gain some benefit (as per the paragraph above.) Hope this helps Russ

G'day John Thanks for those attachments. I will be using the calculator as a reference from now on. The idea of the poll was to see what happens in real-life use and is producing some interesting results. I know, for instance, that I get a little lazy at times and if the rough road is only short I will often try and get away with not airing down my rubber - sometimes I have come to regret that! I'm sure that we all have had similar experiences. I also know that the one and only time that we suffered damage (kitchen drawer latch in a centre-kitchen) was on the Plenty Highway when I had the tyres down, but hit a patch of very bad corrugations while going a tad too fast. Cheers Russ

Well what do you know?.....the thing works. I guess my answers won't be anonymous until someone else responds to the poll....lol..... Cheers Russ

G'day In recent times there have been posts related to driving on corrugated or rough roads, damage to van interior fitments and so on. As road conditions, speed and tyre pressures can be pivotal to both rough road driving as well as vibration damage to the van fitments, I thought it would be interesting to conduct a poll to see how Kedron users tackle these issues. Obviously this is not exhaustive, but it may give us all some food for thought. The poll itself is anonymous, but feel free to add a post with any comments that you may have. Cheers Russ

G'day Koggers Another edition of the blog has been posted..... "Gibson Views", Perth and the South Pacific heers Russ n Sue

Hi Andrew, I don't know if I can be of much help but one thing I did notice was that the replacement LED tubes that I purchased were just a poofteenth shorter than the fluoro tubes. This meant that if I didn't centre the new tube in the fitting, it would not make contact at one end, thus creating an open circuit. Maybe yours are the same? I'm afraid that I have no answers for the one that you didn't touch. Cheers Russ

Hello everyone. We have settled into Birdsville nicely and I have found the time to knock up another edition of the travel blog: Sandy Cape and Another Terrible Road Cheers Russ

Yes John, we're saving so much energy these days that we could probably pump some into the grid when we're parked up in civilisation.....ummmmm.....if you don't count what we're using for the air conditioner atm. Cheers Russ

G'day again and thanks for the replies. In the interim I contacted Tom at the factory, by email. His instruction was that they simply pull off. The first one I tried (and the only one I had tried up until receiving Tom's email) did come off when I pulled on it, along with one end of the body of the fitting and the two screws that it was mounted with! No biggie, I have some thicker gauge screws to replace them with. The others (that I hadn't tried yet) came off easily. Interestingly, and somewhat disappointingly, the factory fitted screws that came out were drill-point tech screws, even though the fitting is screwed into wood. All is good and we should be LED throughout the van (apart from the one in the front boot) by cob tomorrow. Cheers Russ

Hi Tony Thanks for the reply but no, these are elongated lights, with a 300 mm long straight tube. I had already changed all of the circular fluoros with LED replacements and had moved onto these rectangular ones. We have three: Under the kitchen cupboards over the sink; under the cupboard above the vanity basin and on the ceiling of the shower room. Cheers Russ Edit: Actually, we have four. There is one in the front boot, but I won't change that one because I never use it.

Hello all, I have aquired LED replacement lighting to fit the 300 mm Fluoro lights fitted in the van. The problem is that I can't get the old diffuser covers off. There appears to be a place near each end where you should "squeeze" the cover to release it but I've put about as much "squeeze" on it as I dare and it still won't budge. Has anyone had these covers off and how did you do it? Cheers Russ

Hi Ronnie I have been watching this thread with interest and feel that I can now add to it. I believe that the 21' Top Ender is an excellent choice of van if you use it for what it is intended for. If you aren't really going to take it through the rough and tumble, out-of-the-way places, then perhaps the Top Ender is overkill. As you would be aware, weight is everything and in my experience, weight is only good in steamrollers. There is no doubt that your 80 series would struggle with a fully laden Top Ender. Here's the rub, whilst the big (21') Top Enders roll out of the factory placarded at around 2850 Kg empty, they are weighed without water in the tanks, with only one gas bottle filled and the generator not in its cubby (and without a 20 litre gerry can of fuel in the equation). When these things are taken into consideration, your discretionary load becomes critical and, if you are like us, you'll find yourself overweight. This leaves you with two options: Lose that weight or have the van legally upgraded to, say, 4 tonne. If you lose the weight, your choice of tugs can include LC 200 series or Land Rover Discovery 3 or 4 vehicles, along with those mentioned in the paragraph below. We run a Disco 4 and get similar fuel consumption figures as Merv and Di do (see post above), averaging 15.7L/100 Km over all-time. Our vehicle tows the van with ease, but the van brakes need to be adjusted perfectly at all times in order to stop the bugger properly. Others can (and have, I noticed) given you info on the LC 200 vehicle. If you have the van's placarded weight upgraded, then you can look at things like the Chev Silverado, Ford Effies, Iveco trucks etc. You will never see fuel economy the likes of what you can expect from, say, the Disco. You will, however, be able to tow and stop a 21' TE with greater ease. This ease will come at the cost of sacrificing true 4WD capabilities and having a much larger vehicle to park when doing the shopping. (Don't laugh, I've watched people trying to park these vehicles in what would normally be an easy parking space - and they do have trouble.) We chose to lose the weight from the van so that we could continue using Land Rover Discovery vehicles. We didn't want to sacrifice the true 4WD'ing capabilities that we have now and have needed at some of the places we have visited. Losing weight involved: Ditching the generator; moving the batteries to a place behind the axles and replacing them with expensive, lighter, Lithium batteries; leaving the bikes at home and removing the bike rack; constantly managing the variable load such as clothing, foodstuffs etc. In summary, I would say to you that you should think very hard about whether or not the TE is the Kedron model for you. A lighter model may save you some of the anguish when dealing with the question of the tug to pull it with. If your heart is set on the TE, you will need to monitor your van's weight carefully (or upgrade) and the choice of tug is more critical - the 80 series will definitely have to go. Cheers Russ

Well, it has been a long time, but I have finally knocked out another episode of the Blog....... Geraldton and fixing those pesky caravan windows

G'day Lionel and Margaret There may just be enough of my brain left for you to pick when you get to Birdsville, but get in quick, I will be working in a pub! We look forward to catching up with you. Cheers Russ

Hi Chris The biggest problem with the screw is that it has disappeared into the bowels of the stove. I sure won't be pulling the whole thing apart to find the little bugger, so I'm going to have to scrounge one from around here - or get one posted in. Peter, Will hold you to that hangover when you get here. Cheers Russ

Hi Peter and Margaret The Birdsville track is a doddle, despite the best efforts of some morons who tried to wreck it while it was wet. There were a few water crossings but they will be dry by the time you get here and the only rough sections were being graded as we came through. We had no trouble doing Marree to Birdsville in one and a half easy days. Watch out for Phil at the Mungeranie Pub, he will try his best to install a hangover in you. Cheers Russ and Sue

G'day all, Sue and I have chucked in our jobs at Cossack and are now at Birdsville for the coming tourist season. We are sorry to report that the Kedron let us down badly on the journey from Chris and Val's place i n the Barossa, to here - a screw fell out of the handle of the grill. Anyway, if you're coming through Birdsville this year, we are based at the caravan park and working at the Pub. Feel free to look us up,, we would enjoy meeting you. Cheers Russnsue

We were fortunate enough to be able to adjust our travel plans to enable us to catch up with Chris and Val at the Clare Caravan Park last Sunday. Many pleasant hours were spent yarning and exchanging ideas at our first get-together for many years. Here's hoping it won't be as long until the next time we meet. Cheers Russ

G'day Ian We replaced our external lights with LED's a few weeks ago. I used the same circular LED replacements as were used for the inside fluoros. They just press into place. Naturally, the ballast has to be bypassed, but I left the ballast module inside the light fitting anyway. The LED replacement lights are not polarity conscious, so it doesn't matter which way around you connect the wiring. I got new covers for the lights while I was at it. Any reputable van parts supplier should be able to provide them. Little tip: coat them regularly with Armor-all and they take a lot longer to "tan" and go brittle. Cheers Russ PS: How is the fitting of the Lithium batteries going?

Bumpety bump! Another issue of the blog has been posted. Nothing like a drizzly, grey, day for sitting in the van and catching up on the homework! There are two Gladstones? Cheers Russ

Bump! Yes folks, after a very long delay, the next issue of the travel Blog has been posted. Enjoy what some have said is a good read and yet my Daughter (God bless her) describes as "Utterly effing boring, Dad". The Loo with a View Cheers Russ

Hi John, your questions and my replies: Cheers Russ

Hey Rod That is a good buy (all things considered), but next time you need an anode, just by a 60mm model for any kind of HWS and cut it to length. My last one cost just $19.00 from a Reece Plumbing branch. The nut on the end is exactly the same thread size as the Suburban anode (I have a feeling that it is an industry standard and all anodes are the same.) I think that anything with the word "caravan" on it automatically costs more! Cheers Russ