Drovers new Rig - "Big Mal"

[Drover]

The original Dometic B3000 that was in Big Mal would shake the windows out when it did a cycle change, worse when on heat, was like living next to a railway freight line .... thought we were in heaven when the hail took it out and the Ibis was fitted, now it seems like a rattler ..................

Next project is the new panel when it gets here .... was thinking when the old 200w one eventually croaks I may leave it up there as extra shade, like a bit of a tropical roof effect ................................

 

[Hitting the road]

Posting at 2.08am?
Kings are opening a store in Hervey Bay soon, the construction phase is just about finished...could even be open by Christmas....

The Truma air conditioner fitted to my van is loud...very loud. But it works ok when really needed...

 

[Drover]

A Hervey bay store, now thats good news as the postage unless you strike it lucky is pretty heavy ...................... I scored a good 24hr deal earlier in year, rwally good price but couldn't figure out how to collect it, freight was enormous then I remembered they had opened a Superstore in Toowoomba and it was on the way home .................. lucky I didn't have any room left in Ranger or I would have spent heaps.....

Next to a coffee stand I hope, we still haven't had our coffee meet, well we did but picked the one of the few Bunnings without a coffee shop ...................
PS: Check this out.......................

Home Page - Adventure Kings

www.4wdsupacentre.com.au

Opening 13th November .


Old people wake up at stupid times it seems, drives me nuts ..........................

 

[Drover]

New panel arrived today Friday, ordered Tuesday and left Sydney on Wednesday, unheard of delivery for around here, this time it came by Allied Express ......... Never expected it till next week so was going to make the brackets over the weekend ......... On a roll this week .... fingers crossed for next week.........

 

[Drover]

Well so much for the run of good luck this week, the panel was DoA, bummer, before stuffing around with everything I put it on the meter, didn't look right so connected it all up via the portable anderson connection on van, so with a VoC of 21.85 its showing 24v and when connected to the controller its also showing 24v, it shouldn't be so me thinks its stuffed, no charging current either as I think the controller has locked it out ...
Tested on the Utes set up and the same so its stuffed ....

Now we go on the send me another one trial, main reason I hate mail order and much prefer to buy direct from shop but in this case the shop is a couple of hundred kms away ............ (insert appropriate adjectives, lots of them )

 

[Drover]

A couple of emails yesterday ,Kings gave me 3 options return by Post they'll send a return voucher, have a Courier pick up from me or do a swap from a Superstore, the first 2 would take a week or so to be resolved with a new one and then taking your chance someone doesn't drop the thing again, so a 260km return run to nearest store on sunny coast is the best option ... Barcode all printed out ready for pick up later today .............. Fuel in Gympville at $2.69 and I don't care, Ranger needs a nice run to clear the soot....
So much for the savings on freight but proved my thoughts on getting panels in the mail. Kings was very quick and easy to deal with, no stress....here's the pic I sent them of the damaged corner.....

 

[Drover]

New brackets made up and the new panel is on the roof, used TRex adhesive this time around, test piece I did I nearly lifted my bench off the ground and it still stuck, I gave up first ................... So brackets glued to panel and put a big head rivet in once the goop had set, panel is glued to van roof and will either add a screw or rivet tomorrow when all set, my earlier panels haven't moved so process works .......... I'm just not fully trusting of an adhesive nor rivets or screws in a tin roof either on their pat malone, so chemical and mechanical shoudl cover the bases .......... even have a couple of holes in the roof part so adhesive will come thru bit like a stud ... and Big Mals roof after the hail repair years back is in dimpled alloy sheet possibly better adhesion than smooth stuff...

Unlike the shop brackets mine are 2 piece jobs, so one bit on the panel and the other for the roof and they are rivetted together, that way if you have to remove the panel you can without damaging the roof or putting extra holes in it .... The professional fit out panel they screwed the bracket to bottom of panel frame then it fastened to the roof glue/screw, so unable to remove panel unless you remove bracket from roof, dumb idea so my other panels the brackets can be split in half, just drill out some rivetts on the bracket leaving the roof mounted section okay.. ...
When the old panel dies fully I will just cut off the bracket leaving enough to attach another bracket leaving an anchor point on the roof not a patched hole, new panel doesn't fit I have points to fix a frame mount to if I go that way.