Kedron Compact XC3

[Antman]

Thanks for the insight on the batteries @yabbietol
Out of curiosity did anything in your research come up with what ever types of batteries they will be using in home solar systems? I know nothing about that i.e. types etc, but do know that they are very close to starting to sell these setups on the market. That being said, are these batteries different etc and will they drive down the price of other batteries say for caravans? Just thoughts.
Can't wait to see you finished van.
Ants

 

[yabbietol]

Thanks for the insight on the batteries @yabbietol
Out of curiosity did anything in your research come up with what ever types of batteries they will be using in home solar systems? I know nothing about that i.e. types etc, but do know that they are very close to starting to sell these setups on the market. That being said, are these batteries different etc and will they drive down the price of other batteries say for caravans? Just thoughts.
Can't wait to see you finished van.
Ants

Hello Ants
There are several kinds of Lithium batteries and Lithium Phosphate is one off the heaviest Lithiums. The advantage of Lithium Phosphate is that they are among the safest batteries for rugged conditions and handle vibration fairly well.
Some other kinds of Lithiums are not good at vibration, such as the kind in laptops, etc. Interestingly Tesla (along with Apple) is building the largest Lithium Battery factory in the world in the US, these batteries are the type used in laptops and Tesla electric cars. Tesla appeared to have solved the vibration issue and by packaging and "armour" platting their car battery packages. Tesla will also sell these type Lithium batteries in a configuration for home use, it will be very interesting to see how they go. Apple will use the same type Lithium batteries in their computers.
An issue with all batteries no matter what their technology is their energy density. If you pack more and more energy into smaller packages and something goes wrong and all the energy is released quickly you get a lot of heat and can have a fire. This will be an issue no matter what technology of battery you use, high energy density is the main reason some small computer lithium batteries have caused fires.
Lead acid batteries are still a competitive technology in many static situations, but are heavy for mobile applications. They still are cheaper than any other competing technology for caravans and house power storage, but this will certainly change in the next 2 to 3 years. The new energy storage technologies are already getting competitive in through life costs.There are many other energy storage technologies being developed and the house storage market will be a huge market within 2 years in Australia. The storage technology used will be cost driven and currently Lithium looks like it will be the winner. It will be interesting to see what happens with competing Lithium technologies with Tesla electric cars and if these battery types will translate into caravan energy storage.
Crystal ball gazing, In the next two years Lithium Phosphate will be the winner (except for cost) for caravans and most mobile applications. In 2 years it will either be cheaper or overtaken by another Tesla type Lithium storage technology. After that who knows?
Regards
Terry

 

[Antman]

Wow @yabbietol you certainly know your stuff about the battery technology. Very interesting and i will have to do some further reading.

 

[Bushman]

Pick up must be getting close now @yabbietol

 

[yabbietol]

Pick up must be getting close now @yabbietol

We picked up on the 21 Sep and have not used the laptop much for the last couple of weeks. We have travelled a bit around SE Qld to get up enough Kms for the first service on the van. We had the first service done by Kedron and DSC fitted by Vehicle Components. We are really happy with the van, but the outside paint job was a bit strange.
See the photo

Now here are the real photos.

 

[Bushman]

We picked up on the 21 Sep and have not used the laptop much for the last couple of weeks. We have travelled a bit around SE Qld to get up enough Kms for the first service on the van. We had the first service done by Kedron and DSC fitted by Vehicle Components. We are really happy with the van, but the outside paint job was a bit strange.
See the photo

View attachment 36240
Now here are the real photos.


View attachment 36241 View attachment 36239

Looks great behind the Pajero @yabbietol , good idea to travel the area to get the first service done while your there.
Yours didn't seem to make it onto Kedron's FB page for the delivery.

 

[yabbietol]

Looks great behind the Pajero @yabbietol , good idea to travel the area to get the first service done while your there.
Yours didn't seem to make it onto Kedron's FB page for the delivery.

Finally back home and no longer relying on Telstra 1GB on mobile phone for internet, so catching up on forums and emails.
Thanks Bushman, we are pleased on how it looks and more importantly how well it tows behind the Pajero, the van is very stable and we pulled it up Cunningham's Gap fairly easily, so far the Pajero Kedron XC3 combo is working well.

For some reason we missed the Kedron Facebook page, we think it was because Glen was away when we picked up the van. We have hinted a couple of times and we would like to see the photos that were taken on pick up. Still waiting for FB we will keep reminding them.

 

[yabbietol]

https://www.facebook.com/KedronCaravan

We are now on the Kedron Facebook page with some nice photos. Some people were away and we did not get on page when we picked up van a month ago. The only thing we have changed since those photos is we have added another spare tyre at the first service.
The van is towing well behind the NW Pajero once warmed up getting around 18L/100km at 100Km speedo = GPS 95km.

 

[Bushman]

Nice to know mine isn't the only PJ where the speedo doesn't match the GPS, mine can be out as much as 7 km at higher speeds but pretty close at low speed. e.g. 100 on speedo 93 on GPS

 

[yabbietol]

I believe most speedos are out a bit, usually low, mine is also close at low speeds. I think they are only required to be within 5% and to prevent speeding fine disputes most manufactures set them a to read bit low. Also tyres tread size and profile have an effect. I generally drive by the GPS speed as I trust it a lot more than the car manufactures "calibrated" speedos.

 

[yabbietol]

Just got back from a short trip to Dubbo, West Wyalong, Tumbarumba, Cabramurra, Three mile Dam (Kozi Nat Park), Dalgety (nice little caravan park $20 unpowered site, $35 powered site) and back home to Queanbeyan. Took the van to Cabramurra via the Eliot Way, very steep up and down, but manageable and very pretty drive. Got to highest town in Australia, Cabramurra 1488m, passed a spot on the road at 1500m, but no where to safely stop with van and get photo of sign. We are planning more trips soon and really enjoying the travel.

The Kedron is going well, leaky kitchen sink tap, replaced by Kedron / Dometic under warranty. Nothing much else so far, just a couple of latches needed adjusting. We are pleased with the van and really love the diesel heater, especially in the snowies.

 

[Griffo]

Hey Terry Great to see that you finally are on the road and doing some travel. When are you heading off to Lawn Hill. We were up there last year.

 

[yabbietol]

Hell Brad, we have done a few shorter trips, the one above and another up to New England, and a third to the snowies and south coast, getting to understand the Kedron.We are soon to head off to Sydney for a few days then to central Qld; we intend to do the dinosaur sites in Qld and if time and weather permits we may take in Lawn Hill, we are now far more relaxed about destinations. We are learning to slow up and take our time and enjoying the journey, as we are now both retired (also less bush fire fighting stuff) we have more time to travel.

We are doing more and more trips. The Kedron is working out well and we are very pleased with the Lithium battery and solar set up and when free camping and Nat Parks camping we are pretty comfortable.

Regards
Terry

 

[Griffo]

Lawn Hills a great place to kick back and relax. Spent a week there last year doing very little. This year Birdsville for the Big Red Bash and then some more of the dinosaur trail and then slowly work our way down the coast from Mission Beach. Talk soonish

 

[yabbietol]

Just completed a road trip and the Van worked well. We still have not had the need to get a generator. The 300W solar, 1800W inverter and 200Ah Lithium battery seem to be working well. Even used the diesel heater a couple of times, a bit weird at this time of year, but nice to warm us up on cold mornings.

We now are now using much less gas, by using our $50 eBay induction hotplate for boiling the kettle (Aldi induction suitable whistling kettle) and often cooking omelettes, etc even when bush camping or just stopping on the roadside for lunch or a cuppa. If we are on mains power the only gas we use is for heating hot water for the shower or the BBQ. If bush camping sunshine and battery storage permitting we are using the microwave and induction hotplate (not simultaneous use, or inverter will shut down). The induction hotplate instead of gas it is much quicker than gas, does not need exhaust hood running and very easy to clean up. All our cookware is suitable for induction, we bought a 13 piece non stick set from COSTCO for $270 for home and van.

A nice overnight stopover was Burra showground in SA. The SA coast along the Coorong is very nice and worth a visit, our first time there and we liked it.

Pelican Point in the Coorong SA

 

[yabbietol]

Just got back from Kedron's 20,000km service in Brisbane (it rained 10 days out of 14 days) and while there got two more 80W solar panels added to the roof and some sail track along the edge of the roof on the drivers side of van. The new panels give us 460W on the roof maxing out our 450W PWM internal solar regulator and this with our folding 160W panel running through our Enerdrive DC to DC converter (which also has its own seperate MPPT 500W regulator as well as ability to charge the van battery from the tow's Anderson plug). This now gives us heaps of solar to run our 200 Ahr LiFePo Battery and our 1800W inverter

We now have decided not to get a generator as we have not had any need for a generator since buying the van. We did fit a locker at van purchase suitable for a generator, which of course we have filled up with all sorts of neat stuff. This decision not to get a generator is fortunate, as while at Kedron we discussed increasing the ATM above 2500Kg as we now tow with a LC200 and do not have the 2500Kg towing weight limitation or 250Kg tow ball weight limit of our Pajero. Kedron advised against increasing the ATM above 2500Kg for their single axel, so we have taken their advice. Just to be safe when we got home we left the van fully loaded (including full water tank, 10l extra diesel, diesel heater tank ½ full, etc) and added a few extra Kg of gear to make sure and took it over a weigh bridge. We now have a weight bridge certificate for 2500Kg for our van fully loaded as we travel, including the two spare tyres and extra solar panels.

We are very pleased, we also weighed the LC200 cruiser fully loaded with Bull bar (plastic SmartBar), Drifta draws, ½ Cargo Barrier, tinned food, long life milk, full car fridge, 30l of water in Jerry's and came in at around 3000Kg. This is also good as we have a spare 350Kg of payload when we travel. So extra gear and food now will go in the tow not the van.

We are very pleased it all works and is legal, it is good when a plan comes together.

 

[yabbietol]

Just back from a May trip to SA where we went to Birds Australia Gluepot Bird Reserve and the Yorke Peninsular. Both places are really great to visit and recommend both highly. Some photos from the trip.

The van worked well no problems with dust and some very ordinary corrugations, nothing broke and our new Stone Stomper worked well. The Stone Stomper kept the dust down on the caravan and the back doors of the Landcrusier. It was a good purchase.

 

[Bluey]

Thats a Port Lincon parrot is it ??????
Very nice

 

[yabbietol]

It is an Australian Ringneck parrot, which have 4 varieties one of which is the Port Lincoln Parrot whose range is across southern WA and SA including the Eyre Peninsular, except in the moister SW of WA where another variety of the Australian Ringneck the "Twenty Eight Parrot" is dominant. East of the Eyre Peninsular the variety is the "Mallee Ring Neck" which is the one in the photo from Gluepot, they have a lighter coloured head and the red spot. In the arid north Queensland there is the fourth variety (Cloncurry Parrot). Parrots are very neat, but they can be tricky so you did well @Bluey getting the its very close relative. Luckily my photo got the key identifying features and its location matched its know range (description paraphrased from Pizzey and Knight app).

We use a couple of bird books but have found the apps on the iPad and phone are often more up to date and though expensive you can put multiple copies on your phones and iPads and they are really handy so per copy they are often cheaper than books.

We use two apps, but think the best is the Pizzey and Knight which is $50.
Partly because it also has good photos as well as drawings and maps.
https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/pizzey-and-knight-birds-of-australia/id714625973?mt=8

The Morcombe and Stewart is also good at $30.This app is cheaper and has good drawings and maps.
https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/the-morcombe-stewart-guide-to-birds-of-australia/id397979505?mt=8

Gluepot is privately run by Birdlife Australia and is just north of the Riverland in SA and is well set up for birding with several good bird hides. It takes about 60km of good basic dirt roads to get there (except if wet), note no dogs permitted. Good cheap ($10 per night plus any donation you wish to make) nice bush camping in the mallee (as per photo above), no fires allowed and ok drop toilets. You need to be self sufficient with your own water and be prepared to stay for a couple of extra days if it rains till the roads reopen.
https://gluepot.org

 

[Bluey]

Looks good i have done with others
A Dingo documentary wuth Bruce Jaycobs he owned the dingos we took yes we used our own dogs everyone did docos with him and anyone who wanted one got it from him eg the bear foot bushman from qld ....... troy dan ..... steve irwin what a nice bloke he was .....evan David Attenburra has been to his place and filmed Bruce is dead now such a shame ..
We evan droped a pup off at ularu to be kept by them at the campground in a cage for people to look at hope it was a big cage .....anyway
We did a doco with german filmcrew at Newhaven Station this huge property was given to Birds Austraila they have mmmmmmm night parrots or are the ground parrots very indangered
Not a lot of white fellas been out that way so i was told by one of bush mechanics from the show on tv his rellows where in our doco we made a sean of them hunting with the dogs then giving it the heart from the roo funny thing was they brought there own road kill roo
What a great trip that was looking after dogs ... camp cook ... and keeping fires going at night to keep wild dogs and camels out of our camp i feel asleep one night and a bloke saw a camel sniffing my chest he said it was huge he got up for a toilet break from sleeping and the tracks confirmed it was big and standing right over me passed out in a camp chair with fire burnt out
Anyway thats enough of that back to your stories great work