Tolley

What handles?

Hear! Hear! Wonderful support. As the saying goes, the sales team sells you your first (insert car, caravan or whatever)and the service department sells you your second and third (insert whatever). Gayleen and I would not look anywhere else if we ever thought of replacing our much loved TE. Colin

Webby, Being in a rush I did not note the date of your original post. I was only nine months too late!! Colin

Hi Webby, KOG members, Alan & Liz Jones, Posted 13 January 2012, photos and a description of the pull out slide hemade for the Yamaha 2400i. I thought it looked the goods and kept a copy of his post. You might do a search on this site. Regards Colin

Hello Bob, My understanding is that the Blomfield Track, as it is known, is signed "No Caravans". While I would love to do it, I have not taken my caravan through there for that reason. It is one of my "local roads" and is a great drive. Also, note that the Gall Boys have not taken a van through there either despite their numerous trips up here. I am sitting in Tullamarine Airport as I write this but I note that it has been raining back home over the past couple of days. The Bloomfield may well be a handful if it is wet and you have a van on the back. The better option is to go inland to the Lion's Den, unhitch and take a day to drive to Cape Trib and back. Regards Colin

Hello, I need some advice. My van is fitted with the Break Safe 5000. Being a good little caravanner I have been working through all the recommended testing and maintenance tasks including those for the Break Safe. Following the manufacturers instructions I tested the battery - OK - then I disconnected the trailer plugs from the tow vehicle and pulled the breakaway pin from the breakaway switch. I could not hear the brakes activating and the brake lights did not come on. Seems the system is faulty. I went looking for the fuses as it says to ckeck the "internal fuses" in such cases. I did not want to start pulling things apart with the total lack of knowledge that I possess before first finding out what I should pull apart to find these fuses. I assume the fuses are inside the black Brake Safe box that is screwed to the wall in the van boot. Is that correct? Is there any issues or things I should know about before I get stuck into it? Has anyone else had to change or inspect these fuses? Any advice will be appreciated. Regards Colin

Hi all, thanks for the tips back...found the vegie bags in the supermarket(we do have a cryvac machine...but sometimes its not practical). Shower cap is great idea and on my shopping list. Gayleen

Hi Everyone, My beautiful co-pilot, Gayleen, has asked me to post these tips for Koggers. Tip 1 Vegies in fridge seemed to go off quickly so I took the plastic top shelf off and its great…you lose that shelf but it was always a dodgy one anyway and advantage is you can put large things like lettuce, salad stuff on the top and stick the pumpkin, onion on the bit of shelf behind…works great and vegies don’t go off. Tip 2 The bloody smoke alarm when making toast inside...I used to turn 3 fans on and open every window, but it would still go off and make the poor 12 year old dog, Moet, shake for about an hour and not want to come near the van….did you know how easy it is to take the alarm off stick it under your doona, so no chance you forget to put it back up…(Mr T would not let me take the battery out). I might be a bit slow because you think how easy was that for a solution , and quicker than opening the windows. That’s all I have for you…oh! one more, a long term off roader told me she puts pepper on pumpkin and it does not go off, she does not keep it in the fridge and is in a hot climate. You just wash it off when you use it, good tip if you are way for a while and want to take a big pumpkin…love my pumpkin (& vegies) but it would always go off and takes up so much fridge space. So, that's all from Gayleen folks Colin

Laurie and Helen, You wont look back once you have your Clearviews :lol: Couldn't help myself.....sorry Colin

An Update. My broken Clearview mirrors have been returned, totally refurbished, from Clearview at no cost to me. The original plastic bits have been replaced by the Mark 2 alloy bits. TJM Cairns installed them yesterday - what luxury to have them back! While it has taken some time it has been a demonstration of good customer care by both TJM and Clearview. Colin

I had the hunting problem as well on my Yammy 2400. Kakadu hads the solution, I reckon. Once I started doing as he suggests there has not been any hunting under light load. Regards Colin

Hello Rob, You must be excited. It is a great day taking delivery of a new Kedron! Good luck and happy travelling in it. I have a set of those long yellow levelling chocks. I have never used them! They are in my garage in Cairns, just up the road from you, and you are welcome to them! I use my yellow wheel choks all the time to arrest any forward or backward movement when unhitching etc. Yesterday was the very first occasion in almost three years that I actuallty lowered the corner stabilisers and I did that "cause they are there" and I must say I am quite impressed at having a rock steady parked van! Might use them again sometime! I have not found any need for those long levellers but others might have a different experience. Good luck and I wish you many great days in your Kedron. Regards Colin

Hello Koggers, iam sitting in Weipa Camping Groungright on th e grass strand ten meters from the beach. Unpowered site 4 is good for Kedrons, easy access and good exposure to the sun for the solar panels. Powered sites are available but not on the beach front. There is plenty of shade trees. The road condition is as good as you are ever going to get it. There is not any rough stuff between Laura and Weipa. Just fantastic. We are not going to Bamaga but those who have just come back from the Tip report that the road conditions continue all the way. There is no doubt that June is the pick of the time to come this way. At the end of June the NSW and VIC school holidays start and with that it becomes a bit like Pitt or Collins streets complete with flying ding-bats!! WARNING. Weipa must be the puncture capitol of the world! In two days I have had two punctures on the bitumen town roads. Yesterday's was caused by a half inch bolt, complete with washer punching a hole in a relatively new Mickey Thompson! In the industrial area of Weipa there is an excellent car and boat wash into which you can easily take your van. Best one I have come across, anywhere. Lastly, while the road condition is excellent the DIPS remain. When you see a DIP sign slow right down. Regards to all Colin

Hello, I have been racing o replace all the brakes including drums, shoes, magnets, and wheel bearings on the Top Ender because we are intending to leave Cairns for Weipa early on Friday morning. We have business meetings in Weipa with Rio and at one of the nearby A&TSI communities. So, instead of flying we thought it would be a good run with the van. Anyway, I will soon be in a position to give up-to-date road reports to those Koggers headed that way. If we have time we may continue to Seisia. Bit of rain around at the moment and it is cold dropping to 18 and 19 overnight. I have the ugh boots on the tootsies and a jumper on the top bit of my body. Luckily the winter does not last too long. The new brakes are good. Managed to stop the van right in front of my house! Regards to all Colin

Chris, Ok. I think Kedron must be now fitting the Redarc for Solar charging and still using the Xantrex for 240V. It is my Xantrex solar chargwe that I am replacing, hopefully tomorrow, Regards to you andf safe travels. Colin

Hello Chris, Is it the Solar Charge Controller ot the battery (240/generator) charger that has gone? My van is off the road at present. The Xantrex Solar Charge Controller is kaput and is to be replaced. Tom at Kedron was a great help, again, and provided me a replacement Xantrex at a competitive price. The Xantrex box comes from the USA (they are however made in China) and there is only one importer. When I needed one there was not any in country and a shipment was due from the USA. Kedron do not use Xantrex anymore having changed to Redarc but they still had one or two which Tom promptly supplied. Thank you Tom! Regards Colin

Hello John, Thank you for your response and my apologies for the slowness of my reply. I, too, have been busy on other things. Regards Colin

Jaygee, I have been talking to the Lovell's Suspension agent here in Cairns. I was wondering if your arrangement was the Heavy Duty High Lift option or something else. On reflection, you probably had the GVM Upgrade version fitted. I have a 2005 100 Series Landcruiser and they do not do a GVM upgrade for those. They do do it for the 200 Series. I am looking at having my existing OME Medium upgraded to Heavy Duty so I decided to look at Lovells as well. Any info you have will be appreciated. Regards Colin

Tommy, yes he does and it was him that gave me great service. Colin

Hello Tony H and Everyone, Clearview have requested the mirrors be sent back to them where they will refurbish with new metal bases rather than the existing plastic version. TJM in Cairns have done a great job in pursuning Clearview and in keeping me informed of the progress. One benefit has been that I have been forced to go back to using my strap on mirrors. That has reminded me just how good the Clearviews are, especially on the Left side of the tug. Tony, thank you for your offer of assistance. Much appreciated. Regards Colin

Tom and Jackie, O'Brien's Creek is a top spot. No, we don't chase stones, just enjoy the river, the camp fire, the wine and food, and the company who we meet there. At Easter it was busy but still great. Normally it is not so crowded. It is about 350 km from Cairns, depending on which route you take up to the Tablelands, so it is just great for a four day weekend when we can manage it. Regards Colin

Hello Everyone, In February of last year I purchased and fitted Clearview Mirrors to my 100 Series LC. Unfortunately, I purcased them before Tony H did a mass buy at a good price. As you will se if you read back through this thread, I was very happy with the mirrors. Since then I have driven probably 25,000 km with them and was very happy until they both started to develop "brewers droop" some months ago. I accepted this on the LH side as it had hit a tree when I was forced to take to the scrub to avoid a head on with a road train as we traversed the Gibb River Road. But, the RH one started doing the same. I tried to tighten them, adjust them etc etc but to no avail. Finally, I went to TJM here in Cairns (they are a reseller of the mirrors). We found that the internal nmounting plate on both mirrors had shattered. The mirrors are now useless so I have reinstalled the original Toyota mirrors. TJM is in discussion with Cleaerview. I will post the result on this site when I know what it is. My mirrors have plastic stems housing (whatever is it called). It is the bit the exists between the mirror arms and the door od the LC. I notice on the display mirrors at TJM that these "stems" are now metal. I like the mirrors but I am not that impressed with the qual;ity of desgn and manufacture. It will be interesting to see what Clearview decides to do. I'll keep you posted. Regards Colin

A beautiful Cairns dawn at the Dawn Service.

Hello Koggers, I was in the Cook Shire website for other reasons and had a peek at their road report on the Cape. I have found these guys to be spot on with their information. The address is: />http://www.cooktownandcapeyork.com/roads If you are headed up the Cape this dry season it would be a good idea to save this address. Regards Colin

Hello to all the old and not so old diggers out there! By "diggers" I mean anyone who served Australia in any service. Enjoy the day and be thankful we are still here to enjoy it! Dawn service on the Cairns Esplanade for me.....beautiful setting.....than a quiet day at home. Lest we forget. Colin