Alan and Jayne

G'day Russ Thanks for the 2 year update. Very interesting. We're looking to get a new van this year with Lithium despite Kedron still being reluctant to fit them. Do you know if the LiFePO4 is still the ants pants in Lithium options, or is there a more optimised option available now? Cheers Alan

We're off to the festival as well. It will be our 2nd year. the week is certainly one to remember. See you there. Alan & Jayne

G'day Russ We're looking at getting a new Top Ender next year. The Kedron boys seem to be still reluctant to install Lithium batteries, but will do it if you take all the risks, i.e. they don't offer any warranty or support for them. What are your thoughts on Lithium now? Are you still as keen on them as before? I notice (your?) van for sale with new AGM's installed. Cheers Alan

G'day Reece We have used 2 types of Flat Out hoses. One from Flat Out Hoses & another from the 12V shop in Perth. the one from the 12V Shop kept bubbling due to the water pressure & 12V Shop advised to turn the water off at night! Unfortunately I thought to turn it off at night was too much to ask! The other from Flat Out Hoses is just great. It comes with a reel to roll it up with (the 12V Shop one didn't) We also use Flat Out Hose sullage hose, & this is a real treat. Hope this helps. Cheers Alan

G'day Christine & Noel Thanks for your replies. I'm not sure what caused ours to break, but the impact point leads me to a rock, but we didn't pass any vehicles either direction that could have caused this, so I suspect it was from our vehicle(s) courtesy of our BF Goodrich All Terrain T/A KO tyres which are known for throwing up rocks. BTW they work great of the car, terrible on the van. Cheers Alan

G'day Russ Thanks for your answer, as always very informative. The use of the inverter is for only 2 cuos before the sun hits the panels or before we put the generator on, so it should be OK providing they aren't too flat. Have a great Christmas. Cheers Alan

G'day We've got 3 x 130W panels on the roof of our TopEnder. I was up cleaning the panels last month & noticed the rear one was shattered. Looked like a broken toughened windscreen! You could see the impact point where I guess a rock had hit it. We had just finished doing the Oodnadatta & Strzelecki tracks & the panel was OK half way down the Oodnadatta as I have a photo of the roof from the railway bridge & it was fine then. Tom at Kedron fixed at a very good rate. My question is has anyone else cracked a solar panel before? I'm trying to work out where we did this & whether it was from our car, van or a passing truck? I find it hard to imagine it was from our car or van, as while we were on these tracks our max speed would have been 45km/hr when there were stones around. We didn't pass any trucks that I can recall. We run BF Goodrich All-Terrain T/A KO's on both car & van & I've heard these are bad for throwing up stones. If you've had a shattered panel let me know your thoughts on how you did this. Cheers Alan

G'day Russ In your previous posts you've stated not to go below 75% of SOC = around 12.35V. With the batteries around 12.5V our new inverter pulls the voltage down to around 12.1 to 12.2V when it's making a cappuccino (< 1 minute). But immediately it's stopped (no sun as I tested this with the van in our factory) it bounces back to the previous voltage reading. Only after about 4 cups does it start to drop the voltage & then only by 0.1V at a time. So I hope it's quite economical. However should I be concerned about the voltage dropping to 12.1V for the < 1 minute the cappuccino machine is running? Thanks. Cheers Alan

G'day Geoff We ended up fitting Air Bag Man HP airbags to the rear. Pump them to 35-40 psi. This definitely stopped the front to rear rocking we had, which was enough to make you seasick! I stopped looking at a GVM upgrade as all of the ones I looked at didn't increase the CVM (Combined vehicle Mass) which is still limited to 6850kg with or without a GVM. Is there was a way to increase the CVM I would definitely be in! The towing with the airbags is just great. Fixed all these issues, but we're still struggling with the 6850 CVM. cheers Alan

G'day guys We put our 22' TE over a weighbridge today. Results were: Total van & car = 6,800kg (passengers included) Van on weighbridge, car off but still connected = 3280kg Van on weighbridge, with jockey wheel on & not connected to car, i.e. van alone = 3620kg Therefore ball weight = 340kg The van had no water in it, all 3 tanks totally empty. Outboard motor not on A Frame Both 20L fuel tanks on A Frame were empty So if we put 300L water in the tanks, 40L fuel in the jerry cans plus our 10HP outboard motor on the A Frame our van weight is close to 4 tonne! The van wasn't that loaded with other gear as well. We're only on a 3 week holiday, not a 6 month round island trip. It's a bit of a worry for sure. Mind you, our VW Touareg pulled our van around for 8 months last year & it would have been over 3.8tonne most of the time. It did a fantastic job of it. Can't say the say of our new Toyota LC200. Cheers Alan

G'day Russ Great topic & excellent poll. We run pressures down to as low as 23psi on our Kedron when the road really rough. Last year on the Gibb River Road around Mt Barnett the road was just terrible & we were down to 10kms/hour with 23psi on the van & similar on the Touareg tow vehicle just trying to be comfortable, let alone for considerations of the Kedron. We ended up breaking the hinge bracket on the fridge door, we were warned in Broome that this very weak hinge would break on the GRR. When it did I was amazed just how weak it is, just some spot welds holding it in place. we took the broken hinge to Drysdale River Station & the guy there had a lot of experience with this hinge & he welded it up. I'm not sure it wont ever break again. We have a back up also welded just in case. also, as soon as our Kedron looks at any dirt road we have to put Ocky straps around the oven door & the cutlery drawer to stop the opening. The cutlery draw always used to break the Southco twist knob, but since we retain the drawer with an Ocky strap we haven't broken one! However lower tyre pressures alone are not the answer, you have to slow down. And even if you are on a short dirt leg without lowering the pressures, reduced speed is the answer. Cheers Alan

G'day All I agree that a TPMS should just work, but after having trouble with two different systems, the 1st being the from TPMS Australia (now closed) with their booster in place & the 2nd being the Jetta system, neither would work reliability on the Kedron with losing the wheels reading all the time. I've heard from within the industry that the best is reportedly the Doran system which is sold in Australia by LSM Equipment. I would be very interested in hearing from anyone who has a Doran system especially with a LC 200 & Kedron. Fred1's comments on the ABR-Sidewinder are interesting. Have others had experience with the ABR-Sidewinder system? Cheers Alan

G'day Fred A couple of years ago, we took our new 22' TopEnder all the way into Eliot Falls, past Fruit Bat Falls. We enjoyed it so much we returned there for a 2nd time on the way south. You couldn't camp at Fruit Bat Falls, so we just went there for the day leaving the van at Eliot. We passed one of those dreaded 4WD tourist buses on the very narrow section of the road, but we were able to pass each other without concern, albeit slowly. Mind you, navigating around the loop road at Eliot Falls camp ground was a bit tricky, but we managed without touching anything. At the time we were towing the TopEnder with our VW Touareg. As always if you take it easy it shouldn't be a problem. Cheers Alan

G'day I know this has been discussed previously, but I am wondering if anyone has come up with a workable solution to eliminate the ticking of the diesel heater. I am considering remounting the pump in some sort of enclosure or with a sound insulator around it. Has anyone got a workable solution to eliminate the ticking? Cheers Alan

Thanks all for your input and suggestions. We use our bikes all the time when we travel, as well as the boat. It's a great way to get the exercise in, and lovely peddling around little towns, or down to the pub for a beer or two. Perhaps inside the back of the Landy may be the way to go. Cheers Jayne and Alan

Hi everyone We have a Top Ender and are waiting for the arrival of our new LC 200. Our bikes would normally be on bike racks on top of the vehicle, but we're putting a new tinny there instead. We have the boat motor on the drawbar, plus jerry cans, gas bottles and stone deflector. Does anyone have suggestions where we can put our 2 bikes? Cheers Jayne and Al

G'day Russ Thanks again for your most helpful hints. I'll keep it on all the time as you suggest & make sure it's OK periodically. We get about a 0.2Amp drain showing on our meter in the van with everything off (including the TV booster which we always turn off). Even with the Brake Safe charger off & every other possible thing I know of in the van. I know this is high & I've been chasing this since day 1. But I just can't get it below this. Sometimes its drops to 0.1A but then it soon jumps up. I'll try the Solar Regulator, as I haven't tried that one before. I guess to turn it off I will have to pull the 50A fuse. I would like to know where this power is going, so I'll work continue to work on this. Cheers Alan

G'day Russ What's the best for the Kedron Batteries when the van is in long term storage (more than 4 months at a time)? Our van is warehoused when not in use, we have 240V power available for it but no sunlight. The power is basically "free" power, so should we leave the van connected to 240V all the time? If I leave it disconnected & everything turned off, the charge drops to around 90% within 2 weeks, appears there is some drainage going on even though everything is turned off in the boot. However as we have 240V power there the easiest thing to do is to leave the power connected but still with everything turned off. Would it be better for the batteries if a got a 7 day timer that kicked the power in for a few hours once a week? Cheers Alan

G'day Steve We actually went &o looked at a GMC 2500HD SLT today. Very impressive, but very big. Unfortunately I do a lot of driving in Sydney (I'm still working), & this is just beyond what I want to drive around Sydney on a full-time basis. It was a lovely vehicle & if I was 60% of my time out-there I wouldn't hesitate in getting the GMC. I loved all the towing features. It runs rings around a Landcruiser. If only it was a bit smaller. It certainly has all the bells & whistles. Maybe it'll be my next vehicle. Thanks for your input. Cheers Alan

Thanks guys for your input. Heaps of stuff on the lcool site. I think I need to lay down after reading it all. Towing in drive or S5 seems to be the answer for the Landcruiser 200. Which is ok I guess, but I just liked the ability to be "in control". Pity they don't make a manual Sahara. Cheers Alan

G'day Still thrashing around trying to sort out whether to buy a new Lancruiser 200 Sahara. My dealer is telling me they can not wire in the rear camera on the Kedron to show on the Saraha's radio so it has the ability to stay on all the time. When driving through Sydney it's important to use the rear camera as a rear vision mirror. The dealer says they can't do this as it shorts out the radio with no known fix. Is this correct? Cheers Alan

G'day Does anyone have experience towing a heavy Kedron with a 200 Series & just the GVM upgrade? I'm hearing that if you get just the springs done, the 200 becomes unstable, like what John has reported on his 100. If we just get airbag suspenion this doesn't help our carrying capacity. It's hard to reconcile that a 200 series only has an available payload of 630kg. Cheers Alan