Ian and Jill Brown

Hi Chris, we installed a 400amp lithium battery 12 months ago, have 610 watts of solar and it works a treat (and saved approx. 90kgs in weight). Cheers, Ian

Not all vans are over 3500kgs, our 18' internal 2007 TE weighs in at just under that weight fully loaded (weigh bridge docket) and since changing over to lithium is a further 100kg's lighter. The reason we have not upgraded to a 20' internal TE (though we paid the deposit) is that we could not possibly tow the new van with the cruiser, because of the van weight. We are staying with our current van and very happy with the tug. Cheers, Ian

Hi, We tow our 2007, 19'6 TE (tare 2785kg's) with a 2009 200 series LC with suspension upgrade etc. Our caravan fully loaded comes in just short of 3500 kg's. You should be fine. Cheers, Ian

Thanks Peter & Steve, I should have my battery installation completed on Monday and will 'program' the PL60 then. I will talk to Plasmatronics, as I understood I would be using a modified program #4. Once completed and tested over Xmas/New Year, I will report back on our stay in a c'van park from Xmas to New Year. I intend to not connect to power during this time. A short test to start with. Cheers, Ian

Hi Everyone, I am currently installing 1 x 400 a/hr EV Works lithium battery to replace my 4 x 120 a/hr agms. I have a PL60 controller and was wondering if anyone has done this upgrade and could confirm the program 4 settings? Any help would be most apprecaited. Cheers, Ian

Hi All, We have a Four Seasons hatch mounted on the front sloping section of our caravan roof (I understand Kedron don't mount them there any more) of our 2007 TE. Just to the rear of the hatch there is a radio speaker. On 2 recent occassions, we have had rain water enter thru the speaker. One was whilst we were driving and the other last night in very heavy rain at Port Broughton SA. There is nothing obvious on the roof, but I seem to recall some issues with sealing the hatch and wonder if the water counter enter there and travel 'uphill' to come through the speaker? Any suggestions/comments would be appreciated. Cheers, Ian

Hi All, Has anyone had an issue removing their m/wave unit. I attempted to take ours out in our TE, but the overall height of the unit including feet, is greater than the cabinet opening. Any sugestions would be appreciated. Cheers, Ian

Hi Tony, Thanks for your reply. Yes I followed the number plate post, but on this trip to Cairns, we will 'wing it', as we are looking at ordering a new TE on the way home. Cheers, Ian

Hi, I am thinking about mounting a bike rack on the rear of our TE and between the spare tyres, so the bikes will be located behind the tyres. The number plate would still be clearly visible. Will this break any laws in the e/s? Cheers, Ian

Hi Russ, From memory, you have 4 x 90a/hr Winston batteries in your van. I am currently looking at them and was wondering your thoughts on 2 x 200 a/hr battery cells (8 cells in total) compared to the 4 batteries. I'm not sure if it applies to lithium but I was once told that bigger was better in agm batteries. I would appreciate your thoughts. Cheers, Ian

Hi All, Is anyone using a low wattage kettle with their inverter? In deciding whether or not to go to lithium batteries, the system will have an 1800 watt inverter and as we currently only have a 300 watt inverter (for light duty charging compuyers, phones etc.), we are trying to decide how we would use the available 240 v power. A coffee pod machine will be a must, but not sure about the kettle. Any comments would be appreciated. Cheers, Ian

Thanks John, It looks like this is the way to go. Ian

Thanks everyone for your posts. Confirms my thoughts that this is the way to go. By the way, our 18' TE (internal) weighs in at 3475 kg's fully loaded. Cheers, Ian

Hi Everyone. We have a 2007 18' internal TE that I am thinking about replacing the Hyland hitch with a McHitch. As our van has a healthy tow ball weight - slightly above the 350kg's I was wondering if those that have the McHitch are still using their weight distribution bars and which is the better hitch (for general towing) the 4.5 tonne or 6 tonne? We are towing with a LC200. Any comments would be appreciated. Cheers, Ian

Hi Mal, We found that by using ice block trays with lids, we reduced icing up the freezer by a huge amount. It appears the fridge creates ice by drawing moisture from water/food etc. We had our fridge serviced by the Frdge Whisperer at Kedron last year and it is running as good as the day we bought the van in '07. Cheers, Ian

Hi Peter, Thanks for that, we have been speaking to the WA agent with not a lot of assistance. We will be back in Perth mid next week so will see where we get then. Cheers, Ian

Hi Everyone, We have an Oyster Sat. dish on our van and it is not working at the moment - won't find the satellite (we are on the Eyre Peninsular) Smartsat WA have advised that it is probably a crook lnb or requires a software update. Has anyone with an Oyster done either of these, themselves? I would appeciate any feedback. Cheers, Ian

Hi Everyone, Our front loader washing machine has just started playing up. After starting the washing cycle, it fills with water and then promptly discharges it. No washing cycle. It is approx. 8 years old and has never played up. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Cheers, Ian

Thanks John & Rob for your replies. I'll have a look for that fuse tomorrow. Hopefully that will fix it. Cheers, Ian

HI, Does anyone know where the earth on the Anderson plug (from the tow vehicle) attaches to the van? Our TE was built in 2007. My sparkie advised that he could not find contact at the batteries which was causing my dc-dc charger to only work when the negative was connected to the trailer plug. Cheers, Ian

Hi All, We are having some issues with our vans charging system. The batteries have just been replaced by Kedron during a service a few weeks ago and we were advised everything was working fine. We are camped on the Roper River where the weather is rather hot, but do not appear to be fully charging our batteries during the day. Our PL60 controller was showing 45 and 60 amps charging over the last two days (middle of the day), which is patently wrong. We have 4 x 130 solar panels and 4 x 120 batteries. This morning our batteries were showing 11.8 volts with very minimal use yesterday. Any suggestions/comments would be most appreciated. Cheers, Ian

Hi Everyone, We are looking at another TE and was wondering if anyone has more recent comments on the Waeco 215l compressor fridge that Kedron are installing these days? Cheers, Ian

Hi Everyone, I am getting condensation around the fridge/freezer doors and hence having a problem with the cycling of the fridge - off about a minute and on for about 20 minutes. Just installed a new thermostat with little success (there are no more in WA at the moment, so not sure if I have a dud one!). A question for those that have removed their fridge for servicing etc., when re-installating, did you seal between the metal flat bar face frame (that the doors fix to) and the fridge carcass? Initially there was a foam seal there. I am trying to eliminate the possibility of poor sealing causing our problem. Any comments/advice would be most appreciated. Cheers, Ian

Hi All, I am looking at relocating my Oyster dish from between the solar panels at the front of the van to the rear. The main issue I see is that the dish will be mounted east /west. The manual says to install it north / south. Has anyone installed their sat dishes this way and if so did you need to install a wind deflector? Any comments would be appreciated. Ian

Hi All, When upgrading the lights to led's,did anyone replace the external ones? If so, was it with new 'globes' in lieu of the fluros or complete new light fittings? Any advice with led details would be most appreciated. Thanks, Ian