Blokey Stuff - Talk to Rob (4WD, Tech, Towing etc)

[Rob & Marg]

G'day Greg,

Back home safe & sound. No there is nothing wrong with the van whatsover and it served us very well indeed over our journey.
The van & vehicle were part of the contract arrangement the C&M magazine had with us therefore at the end of the trip the van returned to them and they have elected to place it on the market.
I'm not aware of any Manhattan group out there and apart from appliance manuals\instructions there is no user manual. Your dealer should be able to provide you with basic service schedules.
You could perhaps contact Crusader vans in Melbourne to see if there is a users group & if so, they could be able to supply contact details.
If there are specific questions you have in relation to your van, i'd be happy to try & answer them for you. Feel free to send me a PM via the web site if you wish.
Where are you heading for your upcoming trip?
Cheers for now
Rob

[John and Chris King]

Rob & Marg, my wife and I have been retired for about 2 years and purchased a Windsor Caravan with the intention of travelling around Australia. We have done numerous trips around NSW and view your DVD's regulary. We have been planning oiur trip around Australia, but we both find it difficult to contemplate going on the trip and missing the family, including our dearly loved grandson, Declan. I know from previous DVD's you have family and grandchildren yourselves. Could you offer some advice in relation to coping with this predicament your information would be of some great benefit.

[Rob & Marg]

Rob & Marg, my wife and I have been retired for about 2 years and purchased a Windsor Caravan with the intention of travelling around Australia. We have done numerous trips around NSW and view your DVD's regulary. We have been planning oiur trip around Australia, but we both find it difficult to contemplate going on the trip and missing the family, including our dearly loved grandson, Declan. I know from previous DVD's you have family and grandchildren yourselves. Could you offer some advice in relation to coping with this predicament your information would be of some great benefit.

Hi John & Chris,

We know where you're coming from. A year away is a long time, and it's not just family you'll miss; it's your usual group of friends and acquaintances and the whole support network. However, it would be a shame to put off going around Australia because of this.

We were actually writing about this just last week, in a segment for the two special issues that are coming out looking back on the trip, so we'll pass on to you the gist of what we said for that.

1. Make sure you have a laptop computer, and plan to stay in contact regularly via phone, email and Skype. You don't say how old Declan is, but if he's old enough to write he can send and receive email, which he'll enjoy! Otherwise, keep up with his growth and milestones via Skype. We were 'guests' at the family celebration for our grandson Isaac's first birthday party via Skype: our son put the laptop on the table so we could watch Isaac blow out the candles (now there's a messy procedure with babies!). We got to see our other grandchildren at the party, too.

2. If the budget allows it, build in the cost of a couple of flights back home mid-trip, or surprise everyone by being there at a special family celebration/Christmas (depending on what time of year you're setting out). You can often find cheap flights. We flew back home (from Darwin, to the South Coast of NSW) for 4 days for a special function, and it was good catching up with everyone again. We just left the caravan on site at the caravan park. (We did have one lone male caravanner comment to us that his wife was away for a couple of weeks getting a 'granny fix'. Apparently she did this two or three times a year when they went on a long trip. He was content to stay put and wait for her to get back.)

3. Again, depending on Declan's age, you can fly him out to meet you. We did this with our oldest grandchild, Maddy, who was then 10. She flew from Sydney to Hamilton Island, where we picked her up and took her to the Big 4 park at Cannonvale to spend a week with us.

4. Friends can also opt to fly out to meet up with you for a holiday or break of their own - we had some friends join us at Margaret River.

In addition you can use a blog or Facebook to keep people up to date about where you are and what you're doing; in both cases people can comment on your posts. (I was really lazy about using Facebook at first, although I signed up years ago - under pressure from one of my sons - but when I bought a phone that had a Facebook app I started using it again, because it was so easy! I could simply take a photo, click 'Share' and then 'Facebook', type a caption or comment to go with the photo, and hit 'upload'. Immediately, friends/family would get an email notification that it was there. They could practically keep up with us in real time!

These are just a few suggestions. I'm sure other travellers will have more!

Cheers
Marg (and Rob).

[skipper]

G'Day Rob

Watched a CM DVD yesterday on WA Margret River. In DvD you had Anti Sway Bars fitted. Can you tell me 1/ What brand - 2/ Cost - 3/ Did they completely eliminate Sway - 4/ Did you refit again to your new tug and van. ?
I have just updated from a GQ Nissan Patrol with no sway to a 200 series Landcruiser that now sways, same van?

Thanks Skipper....

[Rob & Marg]

G'Day Rob

Watched a CM DVD yesterday on WA Margret River. In DvD you had Anti Sway Bars fitted. Can you tell me 1/ What brand - 2/ Cost - 3/ Did they completely eliminate Sway - 4/ Did you refit again to your new tug and van. ?
I have just updated from a GQ Nissan Patrol with no sway to a 200 series Landcruiser that now sways, same van?

Thanks Skipper....

G'Day Skipper,
trusting all is well down in sunny Kiama. Now you are testing my memory bank a bit, but from what I can recall;
Brand = Hayman Reese - ( I understand they have a heavier duty model available now )
Cost = ? approx $250 fitted.
Eliminate sway = yes it did, but not completely. Our rig was heavy, coming in at just under 3000kg. There were a couple of times after the fitting that we noticed some movement, mainly due I think to prevailing winds etc., but overall we were happy with the installation.
Fitted to new set up.= not at this stage. We've towed for only a short couple of trips up & down the NSW south coast and all seemed to be OK with the current setup. However, it'd something I'll monitor for future travels.

If you now have some sway I'd first look at the overall vehicle\van set up. If you haven't done so already take it out to a nice level area & go through the whole process again of takeing measurements, levels, before & after van hitched checking the height of the tow ball assembly etc. Also check you loading of the van, though I suspect that wouldn't have changed greatly - but do it any rate.

I'm sure others would have some further suggestions as well so put it out there for some general comment - maybe in the Technical section.

Let us know how you go.
Cheers
Rob

[wombat56]

G'Day Rob
I followed your trip around Oz and was very impressed
You drove a Dmax and was very impressed with it
I am returning from Thailand after 2 years and would like to know have you heard anything about the current model Dmax and what model would be best to tow with I have a Regent Cruiser Series3 18'6 x 7'9
They are so popular here but of course we don't have caravans.
Thanks again
Rob & Marg

[Rob & Marg]

G,day Wombat,
I don't think I can be much help for you with the new DMax. Other than to say that we were very happy with the vehicle we drove around for the 12 months, and would only expect future models continue to be a good tow vehicle. To get a more detailed and informed response, I'd suggest you put this same question in the section for tow vehicles & rigs. There would be current owners there who are well informed.
When we did our trip we towed close to 3000kg, which was just on the limits of the Dmax at that time. I would suggest that when you consider the new vehicle, you look to having a bit more "up your sleeve' with towing weights. I'd suggest around 80% of the vehicles towing capacity would be around the mark. You look as though you would be within that range.
Thanks for your comments about our trip, we certainly had a good time and met heaps of wonderful and interesting characters along the way.
Cheers
Rob

[grae and deb]

hi rob , actually only just found this topic , didnt know you were active on this one and helping others , well done , well mate were into nsw ,been in sydney nth beach,s are for about 4 mths now , working our way around oz is our only way of doing it , but we are enjoying it except for the traffic each day , rob my question seeking advice is this , we purchased a h/r wdh before we put our van on the weigh bridge and only just realised that our v5 h/r set up is wrong size ie we are too heavy on the ball for the bars we have , apparently there were 2 differnt bar sets for the v5 set up the bigger ones being capable to match out ball weight , i have priced a new h/r wdh and a camec and reece usa wdh , the reece and h/reese look identical , but there is over $200 differnce , so in your opinion is there any noticeable differnce in quality or effectiveness of the different brands , say hi to marg for us
cheers grae and deb

[Rob & Marg]

G'day there Graeme & Debbie,
its good to hear from you once again. We have been following your posts during your travels. From what we read you had a great time down in Tassie. That's on our to-do list as well, but probably a year or two from now.
Once again I don't certainly profess to be any sort of expert in what you are asking & I'm sure if you posted this same question in the Tech section you will get some solid replies. But for mine, I'd say that provided the WDH from either HR or the U.S meets Aussie design standards, and of course meet you weight needs, either would be fine. Then it comes down to a matter of cost.
Hope this helps you a bit more.
Marg & I are heading off for a 6 week trip to SA at the end of Oct and planning to visit a couple of new spots along the way. a mix of free camps & parks.
FYI, we live down here in the Illawarra so if you have some spare time, maybe we can catch up for a coffee?
Cheers
Rob

[glanyard]

Rob,
I realise that there is a difference between the D-Max you had to go around Australia and mine which I purchased late last month, but could you tell me what towing mirrors you used?
glanyard