BJ's 14.44-4

[Bmhdg76]

Yesterday took the car and the Panda down to the local Bridgestone dealer to have the car tyres balanced and rotated and to have the van tyres balanced. Car was all good (as expected) but the gas had said that the van tyres were out of round (had a bit of a rise in one spot). They said was probably how they had them stacked before putting them on to the rims, but meant they had to put a bit of weight on to balance. They also said, though, they will settle pretty quickly when we start traveling a bit. Might explain some of the bearing issues people have when new though,

Then on to today - after being spoilt by my kids (and loving wife), visiting my father to say g'day... He was happy with his BCF voucher! I managed to spend a bit of time putting some of the items in that we are wanting to do.

I will post pics later in the week, but I have managed to fit the Inverter, Charger and low voltage disconnect into the seat base. Remote heads have been installed. Made a mistake on one of them as there was a piece of ply behind that we weren't expecting so for us to get the lead in we had to pull the top bench off the fridge cabinet. Did not like doing that to a new van!

Got my arm stuck trying to chase the wires down behind the fridge! Twice!! Doh!

Two things we found and one rather worryingly, that the electrical cables running down the back of the fridge cabinet hadn't been secured to the cabinet properly so a couple were resting against the exhaust flu! Glad we found that before anything had a chance to melt! The other was the obligatory wire joiner - or lack thereof. They had used a spade bit to join 4 cables together with nothing attached to the spade terminal. Needless to say, as soon as we touched it it dropped off. Replaced it with a proper joiner so all good now.

I then made a constant connection to the battery for the Fusion stereo so that it doesn't lose all of its settings when we turn off the battery switch.

Moved the Drifter unit away from the wall so can now get the usb lead into the port.

And finally, as I went to pull the roof down to put it to bed for the week, I managed to break the little silver clip to lock the roof lifts up! Second doh! Well will ring jayco tomorrow to arrange a new clip.

Still have to wire all the items to the battery when it arrives, but will need to go to the auto electrician to have some 32mm square cables made up for the inverter.

I think that's it for now. More next week - and will try to get some pics up as well.

BJ

 

[chartrock]

And finally, as I went to pull the roof down to put it to bed for the week, I managed to break the little silver clip to lock the roof lifts up! Second doh! Well will ring jayco tomorrow to arrange a new clip.

BJ

You are certainly not the first to do that. :frusty: I found that those clips are the same as the ones used on fly screens and are available from Bunnings and Masters a lot cheaper than Jayco. The only thing I found was that they are not silver, just plain white plastic so I bought a packet of 10 because I know I will do it again. :doh:

 

[AndrewC]

I then made a constant connection to the battery for the Fusion stereo so that it doesn't lose all of its settings when we turn off the battery switch.


BJ

Are you running the fusion marine stereo of a normal car radio one?

If its the marine, you do not need to install a memory wire even though there is one in the loom. This is because the marine fusion radios have non-volitile memories. This is because boats and caravans alike normally have battery isolators that get switched off often. I run one of these stereos in my caravan and the ski boat and have never lost a setting yet.

Andrew

 

[macca]

We broke the clips so now just use a mini Velcro strap.

 

[Bmhdg76]

Hi @AndrewC ,

No it's not the marine one, and every time the unit was turned off, it lost the lot!


Now said I would get some pics up...

Getting the boots balanced on both the car and Panda...

The remote heads that I have installed for the inverter, charger and solar...

Everything just fits in the seat base... Pardon the blurriness of the pic. I still have to tidy up the wiring and mount the shunt.
On the back wall is the charger and low voltage disconnect for the fridge. On the right hand side is the the inverter. Once the battery is actually in, I will disconnect the Setek and have everything run off the battery and projecta charger/solar.

BJ

 

[Bmhdg76]

Okay so note much progress to "show", but this weekend have been busy prepping for our shakedown trip.

Have tidied up the working under the seat as best I could.
Still have to wire in the inverter which I am not happy about.

Side story.... (Warning, bit lengthy)

I went to up to a well known solar place near caboolture yesterday and had one bloke being served in front of me... No probs waited patiently... Got served by a lovely ladie, but just wasn't quite sure what I needed, so waited for the gentleman. Once he was free told him what I was after (4 leads to take into account the fuse, shunt and battery connections and he said he would make them up. Okay went out the back came back about 5 mins later and had cut the cable, but hadn't put the ends on them... "I'll just do them out here". Okay I thought... Then another customer rocks up and he said, oh there here to pick up the van. Got the lady to open the shed so they can collect them, said to me "I just have to run through something with them will be a minute or so". Okay I thought.

10 minutes later he comes back.... (Meanwhile ladie behind the counter very apologetic) "Oh sorry, why don't you go make yourself a cuppa..". I said "no I have to get going (which I did as had to pick up my car from being serviced and my daughter from elsewhere) - "he said I will be a little bit". I asked "how long?" knowing just had to put total of 8 connectors on so 8 crimps - all of about 3 minutes! He said oh at least half an hour.... NOPE!

I just grabbed what I had, he left to go back to the other people and other sales lady was EXTREMELY apologetic. I asked if she could post them, which she said she will. If I didn't need these, I would have just walked straight out! Something that should have taken all of half an hour tops took nearly an hour and I still didn't get what I wanted!

Any way, back to the prep... We are going to go down Sydney way for a week or two soon, so have been going over everything. Got a temp battery in to test and everything is working well. Have found that there is a leak when the pipes are under pressure from the water pump, so there is another warranty thing to sort out when we get back. Don't think it will bother us to much though.

Also found that the lead I used to extend the inverter remote head was not the right type, so I am going to have to re-run that, but will do that when we get back.

Most things are packed, and have started to do some cooking for the meals. So will just see where to from here.

BJ

 

[macca]

BJ, looks impressive. When you get a chance could you do a bit a write up of what you have installed there. It looks like all the good gear. I have read that you can only use certain types of batteries with those Steca regulators? But not sure. I am in the process of putting together a list of parts to do my solar so I would be interested.

Cheers Geoff

 

[Bmhdg76]

Hi @maccayak,

The Stecas can charge, AGM's, Gel's and normal lead acids (pb) type batteries.
I also used it on my old Delcor calcium's, but they never got to full charge. Mind you I was running two engel 40l of them and only had an 80w portable panel.

As for the other gear, I will write that up when I have a bit more time during the week.

BJ

 

[Moto Moto]

Some nice mods there BJ. Pity you have had to deal with a few issues but at least you found them now and dealt with them.

The wiring behind the fridge on mine was woeful as well, all i can say is welcome to expanda ownership, great vans but you will be kept on your toes with little running repairs here and there.

PS love the black trims on the new expanda model with your black hilux.

 

[cruza driver]

Good idea getting the Expanda tyres checked for balancing BJ, I did the same thing and its good knowing its all running smooth too :rockon:

 

[Bmhdg76]

Some nice mods there BJ. Pity you have had to deal with a few issues but at least you found them now and dealt with them.

The wiring behind the fridge on mine was woeful as well, all i can say is welcome to expanda ownership, great vans but you will be kept on your toes with little running repairs here and there.

PS love the black trims on the new expanda model with your black hilux.

Yep the black really suits with our tug!
That was one of the major benefits of being able to read through this forum. I was able to go in with ideas for what to get done, but also what I needed to check. We are going away for a few weeks soon for the shakedown trip so had to look over everything before we went away. Didn't want to be caught in the middle of nowhere with issues.

Yesterday we had Hans from Valley Canvas (local rep for Holiday Annexes) to install our bed end. WOULD RECOMMEND HIM TO ANYONE!

From when I initially rang him until he came and did the job yesterday, he did what he said he would and no issues... We had arranged for him to come out yesterday a while ago so on Monday he gave a courtesy call just to double check we were still okay to go and then yesterday he rang around 730am again just to check and confirm the time.

It was only my wife home (and my son) and she couldn't speak highly enough of him and how polite he was to her and also to our young son. He also had a look and gave a rough price on a annexe for us - very reasonable and do not doubt the quality of the product or their installs!

BJ

 

[Bmhdg76]

Okay so today was relatively quiet on is as we had some friends drop in for a while.

Finished wiring up the inverter and associated circuit breaker. Had programmed the drifter unit, but then managed to disconnect the battery when stuffing around with the inverter. Have done the full charge so will see how it goes.

As for the Projecta charger - love it. Very quick charge and quiet fan.

When we get back from the shakedown trip, already have in mind a mod for able the under seat drawers. Going to make a shelf that sits on top over the drawer and put a back onto it to make a separate storage area accessible through the seat base. Here we will put some foam in to put the tv and the other will be spare. Will then also pull out the inverter etc and redo. I am not happy with how untidy the cabling is, but has to do due to our timeframe.

Also got a gas fuse, but not sure the pigtail is seating into it properly and is tripping so no gas getting through.

Really happy with the fridge. Have tested it on 240v and within 5 or so hours, the temp had dropped to 1.0. Might just work for us yet!

BJ

 

[Bmhdg76]

Well this weekend, I have pulled out some of the 12v things I put in with a view to put in some extra storage above the drawers under the seats in the wasted space. I also want to tidy up the mess of wiring I did before as I was just trying to get it in and done before our trip.

Before...

I will put some foam in here to put the tv into for travelling...

I have done the same on the other side for extra space as well.

We also put an extra shelf in under the sink as there was just to much unused space.
Before:

After:


These were really simple to do.
Next up is to tidy up the wiring. One thing I am going to do is put a switch in on the line from the car to be able to choose either to have the power going to the fridge or to the battery to charge or both. Don't know whether I should get dedicated 12v switches or if the 240v switches will do the job. Thoughts?

BJ

 

[Stan Lee]

Good stuff mate. Look forward to reading about your shakedown trip!!

 

[Bmhdg76]

Good stuff mate. Look forward to reading about your shakedown trip!!

I know. Have been very slack! One week left of holidays so haven't really been on the Mac to upload the photos. Will try to do in the net day or two.

BJ

 

[Bmhdg76]

Went to Clark rubber today and got some foam cutout to safely house the tele in one of the new boxes under the seat...


Safe and sound...

Also fitted the cover on it. Got the 14-16ft coast to coast cover, pretty happy with it.

Can still access through zipper panel so will continue to work on my mods.

BJ

 

[Bmhdg76]

Has been a while but seeing as am on holidays and not out in the panda (kids gone back to school) figured I needed to get back in and finish off what I had started.

So today I finished off wiring in the inverter remote, the solar reg is now wired up and external socket for our folding panel. Fuse box has been installed and the nightmare of wiring that Jayco left in the battery compartment under the seat has all been tidied up. Am now happy and am looking forward to our first real free camp.

Only thing that I want to finish off is put a power point from the inverter to the back of the dinnette seat. Once I have done that, I will have to start going back through the threads to work out my next mod.

Will try to get some pics up tomorrow.

BJ

 

[cruza driver]

Its good getting these jobs done but you always find more

 

[Bmhdg76]

Well called into Coast to Coast today for one thing and came out with about three other things. One of them being another dinette table rail. Am going to put onto the outside of the van so that we can take the table outside when we want to. Was a butt load cheaper than one of the fixed outside tables (around $40). New job for tomorrow now.

BJ

 

[Gavin and Brooke]

Well called into Coast to Coast today for one thing and came out with about three other things. One of them being another dinette table rail. Am going to put onto the outside of the van so that we can take the table outside when we want to. Was a butt load cheaper than one of the fixed outside tables (around $40). New job for tomorrow now.

BJ

Hay BJ,

Just wondering if you can take a photo of the rear bumper going into it's housing as the outback has a rectangular tube bar as my touring has a round bar.


Gavin