Goodbye Hawk - Hello 17.56-2

[mbr37746]

G'day,
A little bit exited....
Tomorrow's the day to drop the old one off, then the agonising wait until Thursday morning 10:15 to pick the new one up.

..............

The Hawk, it's done a great service to us, it was our first van and it evolved to have everything we need. We've been and seen many, many places, but it's time to go. Ready for a bigger, better van more suited to our needs ready to see more.

I haven't got photo's yet, but it's an on road version as with the Trito only having a towing capacity of 2300, I couldn't get the OB. This doesn't worry us too much as everywhere we have wanted to go so far with the Hawk we've been able to go and we usually base ourselves somewhere and just take the ute. Although, one of the first mods will be under slinging the axles to give a bit more clearance.

I'll have heaps of questions for everyone on here as time passes, picking brains as much as possible.

Starting with a double bunger. Diesel v's Gas heater? We had a Diesel in the Hawk and it was BRILLIANT, I recall one night of -6C outside and 23C inside, when I got up the next morning to give a bit of life to the fire, there was a ring of no frost around our van, which was a weird sight. But I'm reading a lot on here with people having Gas heaters. Where have you put yours in a 17.56?

The countdown is on. 6 sleeps to go.

 

[Capt. Gadget]

Let the count down begin It's only 5 sleeps now

 

[cruza driver]

:welcome: @mbr37746 enjoy the forum and your new Expanda

 

[mbr37746]

2 sleeps or 1 day 17 hours 46 mins! the handover time has been changed to 2pm, suits me at work a little better too.

 

[chartrock]

2 sleeps or 1 day 17 hours 46 mins! the handover time has been changed to 2pm, suits me at work a little better too.

But who's counting. Enjoy the new van.

 

[BUSH PALACE]

Good luck guys with your handover youll love the van ..

 

[mbr37746]

The time has finally, nearly arrived...15 1/2 hrs until 2pm tomorrow! Any last minute tips/advice on things that can be missed on handover?
BTW I'll post photos in the next day or 2!!

 

[twscoot]

Enough fuel in the car....!?
Have fun. Take your time.
When driving home, (we went from an Eagle - Expanda - Starcraft) remember it is bigger. More room to stop. Swing. Watch the trees overhead and along the kerbside lane.
And then enjoy a quiet drink in it tomorrow night!
Cheers
Andrew

 

[Gavin and Brooke]

Enough fuel in the car....!?
Have fun. Take your time.
When driving home, (we went from an Eagle - Expanda - Starcraft) remember it is bigger. More room to stop. Swing. Watch the trees overhead and along the kerbside lane.
And then enjoy a quiet drink in it tomorrow night!
Cheers
Andrew

Must admit, I've done this a few times since picking up the Panda.

Gavin

 

[mbr37746]

Finally Thursday arrived, nearly a week ago!
I took my Dad with me to pick the new van up as my wife's diary was booked out all afternoon. Luckily for us, my parents had arrived home from a caravan trip around Oz on the Wednesday, having been gone since before Easter.
The handover was thorough and took just over 2 1/2 hrs including setting up the WDH in the nice flat yard, I'd never had one using the Hawk.
so we went from this:

to this, just a little bit bigger:

Anyways being Thursday the day before the start of the Oz day long W/E, we couldn't wait to get it packed and ready to go on Friday. I think we finally had it done by about midnight, including food to wait for me to get home from work on Friday, tic, tic, tic.
So I get home Friday ready to hook up and it'd been pouring rain for a while and the kids were a little bit feral from being stuck inside, we umm and ahh about leaving then or the next morning and after a quick discussion we threw a couple of movies on in the car for the kids and hit the road to Glendora campground at Hill End. This was a good test for our ute/van combo as the road out there is nowhere near straight or flat.
We arrive just after 7 in belting rain and it was about now that the wife and I had hugest grins on our face as we realized how easy all you people have had it for so long. I jump out of the car into the van, pop the roof, pull the awning out a bit and get the kids out of the car into the van. If this had been the Hawk it wouldn't have been such a pleasant experience. Here's a shot of the campground the next morning.

While we were waiting for friends to arrive we went for a bit of a wander around the campground, our kids love this sort of weekend as we have always had caravan/camping weekends holidays.

Its a really nice campground, there's power, water, amenities (pay $1 for hot shower), electric BBQ's , heaps of tent sites, a couple of shelters...it cost us $25/ night, $10 ea. for adults and $5 for kids over 5. This was for a powered site as we wanted to test everything we could on the van.
When the friends arrived, we've got the kids busy on a craft table

Had lunch then went into the township of Hill End for a bit of an explore. We went to the visitor information centre which was housed in the old hospital, I freaked the big girls (wives) out by playing silly bugger talking about how haunted the old hospital is and pretending this was where the ghost tours were held. The lady in the info centre got wind of my jokes and said it really was where the ghost tours were held and told the girls its gets pretty weird in there. My wife was holding on pretty tight after that because she's not a fan of the supernatural, needless to say it didn't stop me stirring the proverbial!!
Wen went outside and met some locals, tame fellas.

Then took the kids including the big ones to the playground for an iceblock and a bit of a muck around on the well maintained equipment.

After this we went up to the lookout at the top of bald hill, it was a beautiful view, you can see the township in the middle of the photo.

Spent 2 great nights out there in great company and came home Sunday through Sofala. Did this deliberately so we could travel over the 4 km of windy loose gravel road, again to give the set up a bit of a test. I was happy as using just over 16l/100km which was only about 2.5l/100km worse than with the Hawk.

All up we are so very very happy with our new van!
And, already have the next few trips planned. Abercrombie caves, Dunns Swamp near Rylestone again for a weekend, Mudgee for the next Day on the Green (looking forward to Hunters & Collectors) and Newnes. We should fit all of this in and get the first service before Easter.

Cheers, now I better change my profile pic.

 

[cruza driver]

Great read and yes it looks like you have stumbled upon the secret of how good Expandas are

Thanks for sharing the campground too I'll have to put that one into the memory bank :thumb:

 

[twscoot]

Great to see a successful first outing. Congratulations! What a great country we live in to be able to do this. Happy travels.
Cheers
Andrew

 

[chartrock]

Good read Matt and I agree with Andrew, it's a great country to explore. And if we can't get to all the places it is great to read about them and look and other peoples photos. hoto:

 

[BigSkiddy]

Great to see another young family enjoying caravaning. It is so good being able to pull up and setup rain, hail or shine. I recently upgraded from a tent, so know the feeling.
Will put that spot on the destination list.

 

[expanda]

Excellent stuff!!!

The family looks very pleased!

Here is to many more weekends away....