Drovers new Rig - "Big Mal"

[Drover]

Pay insurance, don't claim, and suffer a loss of value that was never recovered.

Thats exactly what Mrs D said which is true but its not the handing out $400 excess its how they go about the repairs, more rivets drilled and replaced again and being 11 years old now and thinking another 10 years might just about see both of us out then a 22 year old van isn't going to get much besides still plenty of storm season left so it might still end up in the shop.................

Pain in the proverbial Drover.

Especially as its the second time around ........... build a car port off shed is needed.

We never worried about repairing the damage

Big Mal is a bit like that so far most is out of sight and not seen...........

Have had two JOB poptops ,both fibreglass ,

The old Tardis, the 14.44 went through a good Sky Rock job at Red Rock many years back, couple of plastic vents destroyed and a new awning all that was needed, did it all myself, never claimed as I managed it for about the same as the excess and continued on our tour, replaced awning at a friends place later... Tin Vans in park were clobbered one was on its first trip away after being repaired from hail 12 mths earlier, new vans new cars......

 

[DRW]

I’m at Narrabeen caravan park now, cold and windy the last time we were here we got hit with hail the Jeep copped a few dents on the bonnet but the van being composite didn’t get a mark thankfully. Better get onto that shed @Drover

 

[Boots in Action]

Have had two JOB poptops ,both fibreglass , both were in hailstorms ! Both came away without any damage at all though in one case the alluminium sided vans next to ours were severely dented .I decided few years ago fibreglass would fair much better in hailstorms. NRMA insurance used to give a discount if the van was fibreglass.Just on another note,new van owners now finding out if they live in a flood zone post code area insurance may not be available!

Yeah. It is now the old "above the high water line " before the insurance companies become interested in the risk position offers. And "post code" covers everyone, even if you live on a hill in that area.

 

[Drover]

even if you live on a hill in that area.

After the 2010 Lockyer Valley floods my Insurance mob was talking to me about floods, I said I don't need it, I built on a sandstone hill and if I got flooded her building in Brissie would be a hundred foot under ............... she agreed flood wasn't an issue for us, bushfire was our issue... Tsunami at this place now or bushfire is the threat, only 15mt if lucky above the high tide with a million acres of pine forest on the back door.

Managed 2 wheels yesterday on van, I think at near 70 this crawling under vans is about over, arthritic fingers, mangled shoulder, dicky knee are conspiring for me to just sit back and leave it to someone else to do, most concerning predicament, just have to think smarter on proceedures, might be time for that air jack I always wanted............ it has turned out I didn't really need new shoes as they were only worn down a few mm but badly scored so probably better, shouldn't have to revisit again ...

Price tag for steel to DiY my van roof is beyond me, will have to try that saving proceedure I have heard about, where does the money come from for that anyway ???

 

[Drover]

Took Big Mal for a 2 stage 20km test run with new shoes and magnets, bearings were good first time , while the braking ability is as good as it was when I first bought it, pretty ordinary , see how we go after it beds/burns in a bit more, drums size is okay, power is good so I don't know, I like to be able to lock 'em up at 40kph but this just gives a bit of drag at the back, the old Tardis would smoke at 40kph when I hit the button....it had 12" and 2 wheels this has 10" and 4, might be the difference, anyway thats all its getting for now, might get better once they get cooked in........... PS: handbrake works a treat....

 

[Drover]

The Sky rock damage to Big Mals roof has mostly been covered by a few coats of ThermoGuard paint, was going to pull most of the dents out but managed a couple but would have taken me a few months I think, bustard of a job so gave it the flick, if anyone wants to stand on a ladder and inspect the dents they are welcome, I don't care to, those bits of roof not covered by solar got a couple of coats of the stuff , bugga of a job to do without staging...

I am most impressed by the Thermo Guard paint, it actualy does work, at the front of the van most of the round down is covered up to where it joins the front wall, just feeling the ceiling inside and you can instantly tell which part has been painted and which hasn't ............ quite surprising, while I got it for free I would actually cough up the money to buy it.........

 

[Drover]

Finished upgrading the Sat Dish set up, the front mount had undergone a few mods over time and was looking a bit daggy and since I had fitted a jockey wheel bracket it would wobble, so out with the cutting disc and cut it all off, made up a new mount and stuck it to the gas bottles cross bar at the front ... originally I had the cables plugging in on the side of the van near the wheels so it would give me a large area to put the dish, since then I have left the stand at home, fitted a mount to front and rear, nowadays I mostly just use the front mount as it has a 360 view unless the odd tree is in the way ........... so the van side connection was extended to a nice bracket at draw bar, save having a long cable for critters to use as a highway, did have plans to just fit a T piece to the cables so I could still connect up if I used the rear mount but I should have known that it wouldn't work unless I used a proper splitter ...
I wonder when I will be able to test out the latest round of mods, new seating, heat reflective paint, new Sat Dish cabling, at least the cabling I know works as one of my Tip special dishes is on the shed for keeping the Vast system current................ Weather grounding the Boat and Van for the time being............

Still have to go for a drive around the block or to Rainbow with van and give the brakes a good drag to cook them in, too many tourists here ATM to get in the way... really need a big hill so I can use van brakes on the way down to cook them in properly, used to use the Toowoomba Range, by the time I got to bottom they would be smoking and cooled down and working well by the time I got home....... .....................

 

[chartrock]

Finished upgrading the Sat Dish set up, the front mount had undergone a few mods over time and was looking a bit daggy and since I had fitted a jockey wheel bracket it would wobble, so out with the cutting disc and cut it all off, made up a new mount and stuck it to the gas bottles cross bar at the front ... originally I had the cables plugging in on the side of the van near the wheels so it would give me a large area to put the dish, since then I have left the stand at home, fitted a mount to front and rear, nowadays I mostly just use the front mount as it has a 360 view unless the odd tree is in the way ........... so the van side connection was extended to a nice bracket at draw bar, save having a long cable for critters to use as a highway, did have plans to just fit a T piece to the cables so I could still connect up if I used the rear mount but I should have known that it wouldn't work unless I used a proper splitter ...
I wonder when I will be able to test out the latest round of mods, new seating, heat reflective paint, new Sat Dish cabling, at least the cabling I know works as one of my Tip special dishes is on the shed for keeping the Vast system current................ Weather grounding the Boat and Van for the time being............

Still have to go for a drive around the block or to Rainbow with van and give the brakes a good drag to cook them in, too many tourists here ATM to get in the way... really need a big hill so I can use van brakes on the way down to cook them in properly, used to use the Toowoomba Range, by the time I got to bottom they would be smoking and cooled down and working well by the time I got home....... .....................

 

[Drover]

Thanks to @ianm67 thread on his TV I got stuck into the fixing of mine, up at it early this morning so I could beat the heat (failed) I popped the pins on the mast cut the cable and ducked inside my sauna, some call it a shed, of course the solid core cable that I had left wasn't as long as I wanted but it will do, threaded it into the mast, plugs fitted and heat shrinked, silastic grommets to stop chaffing on mast then back up on van with the worm gear getting a good dose of lanolin lube, the cable at roof level wasn't rotten so it got sleeved and a plug fitted and everything joined up and sealed, working nicely now......... after 11 years the mast posts will need replacing in a year or so I think as the pin holes are getting flogged out but thats another mod for another time, when its not so damn hot and muggy................................... it works, alls good.

F type connectors, crimp jobs with a F type joiner used....



..starting.............................most of the cable from zip tie up like this...


.. roof entry mod .......

........ job done, would have liked to put a cable loop but end of the roll...........

 

[ianm67]

Thanks to @ianm67 thread on his TV I got stuck into the fixing of mine, up at it early this morning so I could beat the heat (failed) I popped the pins on the mast cut the cable and ducked inside my sauna, some call it a shed, of course the solid core cable that I had left wasn't as long as I wanted but it will do, threaded it into the mast, plugs fitted and heat shrinked, silastic grommets to stop chaffing on mast then back up on van with the worm gear getting a good dose of lanolin lube, the cable at roof level wasn't rotten so it got sleeved and a plug fitted and everything joined up and sealed, working nicely now......... after 11 years the mast posts will need replacing in a year or so I think as the pin holes are getting flogged out but thats another mod for another time, when its not so damn hot and muggy................................... it works, alls good.

F type connectors, crimp jobs with a F type joiner used....



View attachment 68893..starting.........................View attachment 68894....most of the cable from zip tie up like this...


View attachment 68895.. roof entry mod .......

.....View attachment 68896... job done, would have liked to put a cable loop but end of the roll...........

how did you get the new cable from bedside winegard booster to the top of the van?

 

[Drover]

how did you get the new cable from bedside winegard booster to the top of the van?

I didn't, the rotten outer casing and corrosion didn't go beyond the coiled bit of cable in the pic, so I just cut it off before it went thru the roof, put some heat shrink ove rthe cable and crimped on a new connection to join the old and new together, encased in a silicon cocoon............................. Running a new cable wouldn't be possible, if I could find the pic of what its like inside the wall you would see its impossible, I did have a back up idea of a new thru wall plug in roof going into a cupboard on ceiling then feeding somehow to the booster, possibly even having to relocate the booster but thankfully the cable is still okay, just the section up to aerial was rotten..........

 

[Drover]

Here you go @ianm67 , the cable comes from the top and goes into that birds nest in the middle getting caught in the feed thru the frame could be an issue, something i don't want to visit unless I have to..... I think I would do a complete reposition of the thing......... but thats in a tin wall van if yours is a composite job then the wiring is run inside and hidden in cupboards out of sight... just the bit in the roof that can give problems .....

....... This ability to see underneath was a bonus from the hail damage, at least i know where not to cut or stick a drill..

 

[Drover]

What started as just a simple clean and dust turned into doing maintenance on the fridge fans, for a very long time the themo switch was jammed ON and since it happened on tour a temporary fix was put in place so my internal switch operated the fans, now 3 years or so later I found a spare switch, its 70deg too hot though as the pipes get to about 65deg, anyway postman will bring me a couple of 55's and the wiring is set up so the thermo or manual switch will turn on the fans, set it up with the old spring clip trick then I can move it around till I get the sweet spot so they don't run all the time.....................

Looking at the long range forecast mid April looks like it will be a tad cooler for travelling................... shake down in a week or so and stop a few days at a mates as he needs to redo his circuit board/battery set up in his van, move the battery and other stuff so it can be got at in boot, at present its stashed to one side and damn near impossible to get at any of it, idiots must have fitted it up then put the outer cladding on................... or used trained monkeys to fit it all.....

 

[Hitting the road]

I took a punt that the weather would be cooling off a bit by now...lol...we'll be in Lightening Ridge on Monday...forecast 42 degrees!! Powered site coming up...air conditioning will be essential me thinks.
Bonus...it is forecast to only get to 37c on Tuesday,,,then 32c on Wednesday...leaving Thursday for Stanthorpe.

I'll be chasing the fridge temps for sure. If it isn't too stinking hot I'll try to get the external fan that I put in operating as well...currently in the wrong spot and doesn't get hot enough to activate. I think it was a 60 degree thermostat that I put in...Boots too believes that might be too high and should be only maybe 50 degrees.

 

[Boots in Action]

et it up with the old spring clip trick then I can move it around till I get the sweet spot so they don't run all the time.....................

@Drover , best thing you ever did was to put me onto the spring clip idea. I recon that the 55C thermo switches should do the job for you and not having the fans running all the time. Mine are 50C on van fridge and 45C on modified portable 3-way fridge. Both work great too. Strange to have the student congratulating the teacher for doing what he had originally taught. But many thanks are due for teaching me Ian.

 

[Boots in Action]

I took a punt that the weather would be cooling off a bit by now...lol...we'll be in Lightening Ridge on Monday...forecast 42 degrees!! Powered site coming up...air conditioning will be essential me thinks.
Bonus...it is forecast to only get to 37c on Tuesday,,,then 32c on Wednesday...leaving Thursday for Stanthorpe.

I'll be chasing the fridge temps for sure. If it isn't too stinking hot I'll try to get the external fan that I put in operating as well...currently in the wrong spot and doesn't get hot enough to activate. I think it was a 60 degree thermostat that I put in...Boots too believes that might be too high and should be only maybe 50 degrees.

@Hitting the road , I was recently out camping off grid when the ambient temperature was 41C in the shade under the awning on my Penguin and 39C in van. My absorption fridges coped very well. I can confirm that a "T" rated fridge WILL hold temperature at below 5C when left closed in 41C temperatures. Actually will cool contents down to 2C overnight with ambient temperature in van not dropping below 27C . However, even with very fast opening/closing to remove food and/or drinks during the day, the hot 41C air causes fridge temps to rise to approx 8C and slow to recover to below 5C again. Still, I did not have to start tug and idle engine for an hour or more several times to keep battery charged to run a compressor fridge like a lot of others!! Campers with compressor fridges don't always have adequate storage with AGMs or lithium batteries, if they don't have any/sufficient solar charging. The secret to operating absorption refrigerators is to make sure they are level and that there is maximum unrestricted airflow over back of fridge and through condenser fins at top. Hence the use of fans properly positioned and correct installation of fridge. My drinks and food kept nice and cold and no spoilage for the whole 5 days we were out in those conditions.!
Incidentally, on those hot days, in one 24 hour period, my MPPT controller recorded an amazing 49.5ah generated to keep my single AGM battery charged and 35.0 ahs to run the fans in fridges and oscillating fan in van for long periods. A record production for my 3 portable panels. Freezer temp in van fridge always remained around minus 17C and kept ice cream rock hard. So it can be done!!!

 

[Drover]

I think originally I had used some of those clips for a mod in 14.44 for a broom or something so when I was looking for something to use for the thermo switch they came to mind, does work well as its easy to move around to get the spot with the right temp, the 14.44 was happy with a 50c one but on Big Mal it just came on and stayed on, the only other one I had was a 70 and that was too late as fridge seems to hang around the 65 mark so I just added a micro toggle switch to the 50c, probably should have gone a 60 instead of 55 but will see how things go ...... its a Goldilocks problem.

@Hitting the road try moving the thermo around as the temp varies in different positions. I sat a temp probe on the pipes to see how hot they got as I couldn't remember from years back, mine on a 30 deg day was hottest at 68 deg so with a 60 possibly need the button right on the pipe, need a dial up job ............................ which reminds me I have one in the shed for a electric radiator fan, now there's an idea, an adjustable job, strap probe to a tube and can dial the temp I want, its on the list .....................

 

[Hitting the road]

@Hitting the road , I was recently out camping off grid when the ambient temperature was 41C in the shade under the awning on my Penguin and 39C in van. My absorption fridges coped very well. I can confirm that a "T" rated fridge WILL hold temperature at below 5C when left closed in 41C temperatures. Actually will cool contents down to 2C overnight with ambient temperature in van not dropping below 27C . However, even with very fast opening/closing to remove food and/or drinks during the day, the hot 41C air causes fridge temps to rise to approx 8C and slow to recover to below 5C again. Still, I did not have to start tug and idle engine for an hour or more several times to keep battery charged to run a compressor fridge like a lot of others!! Campers with compressor fridges don't always have adequate storage with AGMs or lithium batteries, if they don't have any/sufficient solar charging. The secret to operating absorption refrigerators is to make sure they are level and that there is maximum unrestricted airflow over back of fridge and through condenser fins at top. Hence the use of fans properly positioned and correct installation of fridge. My drinks and food kept nice and cold and no spoilage for the whole 5 days we were out in those conditions.!
Incidentally, on those hot days, in one 24 hour period, my MPPT controller recorded an amazing 49.5ah generated to keep my single AGM battery charged and 35.0 ahs to run the fans in fridges and oscillating fan in van for long periods. A record production for my 3 portable panels. Freezer temp in van fridge always remained around minus 17C and kept ice cream rock hard. So it can be done!!!

I accidentally overlooked plugging my fridge battery in to the DCDC Charger last trip to Bathurst...turned the fridge on on Thursday afternoon when shopping to keep meats etc cool, set to 5c.
On Monday morning when packing up I saw the fridge was at 15c...seriously I thought... Anyway I noted then as I fossicked around that the battery hadn't been charging at all when driving over the weekend as the battery was not plugged in to the charger...so the 65 litre fridge had run for around 85 hours before losing it's cooling ability. Good test I thought...was quite happy with that.
I have since run my 45 litre fridge on test for over 100 hours without charging on the 140 amp AGM I use for the car fridge. (was not opened during that time though)

I'll have to find the awning that hangs on the fridge side of the van and put it up I reckon to shade that side too while at the Ridge!

I'll also be keeping drinks in the car fridge this trip so as to keep the van fridge opening to a bare minimum conserving temperature...oh, I found the problem I had last trip to Billo with the car fridge being on but not cooling...there was a voltage drop between the fridge and the battery, so the fridge was running, though quite weakly, and would not cool. All good now...

 

[Drover]

If you stop at The Opal then you will need to borrow their hammer drill to put the pegs in.....................

 

[Drover]

%$#@!%^&*# (insert descriptive adjectives) ................... replaced the thermo switch with a new one for fridge fans, fired up fridge, walked by later to see how things were going, fans running BUT was a strong Cat Pee smell, , a few hours later while fridge is chilling down nicely, outside still smells like a kitty litter box, .........

So the tour for this year may be delayed if not cancelled, Fridge is in its 12th year with probably 80,000km under its belt, there was a lot of rust in the back when last looked at, so no sense trying for a repair, just be chasing tails forever a new fridge is the order of the day ................
3 way or Compressor ???????? Well its going to be another 3 way, at least then its just a cabinet mod where if I add a compressor fridge I will certainly have to up my storage capacity and the $$ won't stretch that far, the fridge itself is a lot of strain..... A Dometic RMD10.5XS is looking good so far............................................. suppose better to croak it at home than while away............. 2 steps forward 3 back as usual......................