20' Series Macca_75's 20.64.1 OB

Macca_75

Well-Known Member
Aug 3, 2016
680
596
93
49
SE Suburbs, Vic.
Well we've done our 6 month 1/2 lap (sort of).

So after a false start (the van was home, the food was in the fridge and everything was packed) in 2020 only to have ScoMo shut the country down (thanks COVID).

We finally left just 12 months later. We left Victoria on 2/4/21 and headed straight over to the SA border (in case any COVID cases were found in Vic). I won't put all the details of the trip in here, but we ended up getting as high as Exmouth in WA before we had to urgently head home (the van and car are still in WA - but I can't get back to pick them up and drive them home due to border closures) - we only got through 4 out of the 6 planned months.

Here are some of the various pic's of where we parked for a night (or more) in this great country of ours.

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PXL_20210525_094538836.NIGHT.jpg


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You'll notice in 1 photo the tow car is different - there's a reason for that :-(

We had a great trip while we were there and the van itself was faultless.

Due to the van being overweight when we fully loaded it (2 Adults, 2 teenagers and a pre-teen) with the intent of living on the road for 6 months (with our fishing gear, bikes and all the goodies) I had to strip some weight out. The easiest weight was to remove 1 of the batteries (we left other stuff behind) - that left us with 1 x 110ah AGM battery. We had a few weeks of less that ideal (read overcast) camping and the battery struggled to get charged during the day. As we were doing school work on the road there were multiple devices to recharge/run, lights after dark, etc.

Our van had 1 x 160W on the roof and a portable 250W (kings brand) blanket. To fix this I had another 160W added to the roof when the van was getting a service and some repairs. I also ran a cable directly from the regulator to an Anderson fixed on the chassis (this will allow me to add the portable solar blanket directly to the regulator inside the van if needed)

The repair was the gas heater - ever since day 1 the heater has cut out and recorded an error. After a few phone calls the original installer came good and offered a full refund (3+ years later) as they couldn't assist in fixing the issue - I want to put it out there even though they never got it right I could not have asked for better after sales support - they were hassle free and fantastic. Despite this I would go back to them as after sales support is important to me. HOWEVER we took the van to an authorised installer for the Truma gas heaters - they modified the install and it seemed to work great the few times we ran it. If anyone wants further details on what was wrong causing a gas heater to error out and switch off PM me.
 

Boots in Action

Well-Known Member
Mar 13, 2017
2,089
1,839
113
Ferny Grove, Queensland
Well we've done our 6 month 1/2 lap (sort of).

So after a false start (the van was home, the food was in the fridge and everything was packed) in 2020 only to have ScoMo shut the country down (thanks COVID).

We finally left just 12 months later. We left Victoria on 2/4/21 and headed straight over to the SA border (in case any COVID cases were found in Vic). I won't put all the details of the trip in here, but we ended up getting as high as Exmouth in WA before we had to urgently head home (the van and car are still in WA - but I can't get back to pick them up and drive them home due to border closures) - we only got through 4 out of the 6 planned months.

Here are some of the various pic's of where we parked for a night (or more) in this great country of ours.

View attachment 67336

View attachment 67337

View attachment 67338

View attachment 67339

View attachment 67340

View attachment 67341

View attachment 67342

View attachment 67343

You'll notice in 1 photo the tow car is different - there's a reason for that :-(

We had a great trip while we were there and the van itself was faultless.

Due to the van being overweight when we fully loaded it (2 Adults, 2 teenagers and a pre-teen) with the intent of living on the road for 6 months (with our fishing gear, bikes and all the goodies) I had to strip some weight out. The easiest weight was to remove 1 of the batteries (we left other stuff behind) - that left us with 1 x 110ah AGM battery. We had a few weeks of less that ideal (read overcast) camping and the battery struggled to get charged during the day. As we were doing school work on the road there were multiple devices to recharge/run, lights after dark, etc.

Our van had 1 x 160W on the roof and a portable 250W (kings brand) blanket. To fix this I had another 160W added to the roof when the van was getting a service and some repairs. I also ran a cable directly from the regulator to an Anderson fixed on the chassis (this will allow me to add the portable solar blanket directly to the regulator inside the van if needed)

The repair was the gas heater - ever since day 1 the heater has cut out and recorded an error. After a few phone calls the original installer came good and offered a full refund (3+ years later) as they couldn't assist in fixing the issue - I want to put it out there even though they never got it right I could not have asked for better after sales support - they were hassle free and fantastic. Despite this I would go back to them as after sales support is important to me. HOWEVER we took the van to an authorised installer for the Truma gas heaters - they modified the install and it seemed to work great the few times we ran it. If anyone wants further details on what was wrong causing a gas heater to error out and switch off PM me.
@Macca_75 , quite a story and some great feedback on both the heater hassles and also how you overcame the problems with the solar charging. IMHO, having a Anderson plug on chassis at side of van direct to the input of the regulator overcomes a lot of the problems in making the connections and keeping battery charged with extra solar power. I also believe that the Kings solar blanket has its own regulator in series, but that it is easy to bypass by disconnecting it and allowing unregulated solar input to be connected directly to existing internal regulator (provided it has the capacity to handle the extra current). Only having one battery and lots of various loads does put the pressure on to get a decent charge every day. What a great adventure and you still have to retrieve tug and van.
 

Macca_75

Well-Known Member
Aug 3, 2016
680
596
93
49
SE Suburbs, Vic.
@Macca_75 , quite a story and some great feedback on both the heater hassles and also how you overcame the problems with the solar charging. IMHO, having a Anderson plug on chassis at side of van direct to the input of the regulator overcomes a lot of the problems in making the connections and keeping battery charged with extra solar power. I also believe that the Kings solar blanket has its own regulator in series, but that it is easy to bypass by disconnecting it and allowing unregulated solar input to be connected directly to existing internal regulator (provided it has the capacity to handle the extra current). Only having one battery and lots of various loads does put the pressure on to get a decent charge every day. What a great adventure and you still have to retrieve tug and van.
I had already replaced the standard Jayco regulator with a Victron MPPT (more than capable of handling the 2 x 160W on the roof and 250W blanket - they all have approx the same VOCC).

The kings regulator is connected by Anderson to the blanket anyway so I just wired some pig tails to another smaller MPPT I had. Give's me flexibility of putting the mat on via the anderson at the front (directly to the battery) by putting the smaller MPPT there or removing it and running it all via the one directly connected to the bigger unit in the van. Advantage here is if it's raining I don't have the regulator sitting out in the weather (we often left the blanket out if needed while we headed off for a day trip). The reality is the MPPT controller is worth more $$$ than the panels/blankets so also less valuables left lying around.

Would love to move up to Lithium but can't justify it - not sure how long until we move the van on and get another more suited to the 2 of us (rather than a family van).
 

jazzeddie1234

Well-Known Member
May 19, 2016
625
766
93
Mandurah
I use a 50(ish) litre plastic storage tub for my hoses and cables because it fits nicely in my ute's tray and quick to access. The centre of the coiled up hose is used to hold the bag of connectors and stuff. I also cut my sullage hose into 2.2m lengths and store them in a cross chassis rail and a bit of 100mm water pipe. Some cut vacuum cleaner pipe makes the perfect joiner . One 2m section has the push on pipe bit for the van and that lives in the dirty bag - usually all the length needed.
That 50l container also has a tank outlet on one side so it can be used instead of the push on pipe - so the water drains into the container and then down the sullage pipe. Handy for the washing machine that belts out the water and I don't want any back pressure creating a flood inside

finally the kettle. I randomly bought a cheap whistling kettle years ago and it stayed unused until I bought the van (always used a billy) . Now it gets used every day, just brilliant, and the whistle is really useful to someone who has a goldfish memory
 

Crusty181

Well-Known Member
Feb 7, 2010
6,854
13,971
113
Mentone, VIC
I use a 50(ish) litre plastic storage tub for my hoses and cables because it fits nicely in my ute's tray and quick to access. The centre of the coiled up hose is used to hold the bag of connectors and stuff. I also cut my sullage hose into 2.2m lengths and store them in a cross chassis rail and a bit of 100mm water pipe. Some cut vacuum cleaner pipe makes the perfect joiner . One 2m section has the push on pipe bit for the van and that lives in the dirty bag - usually all the length needed.
That 50l container also has a tank outlet on one side so it can be used instead of the push on pipe - so the water drains into the container and then down the sullage pipe. Handy for the washing machine that belts out the water and I don't want any back pressure creating a flood inside

finally the kettle. I randomly bought a cheap whistling kettle years ago and it stayed unused until I bought the van (always used a billy) . Now it gets used every day, just brilliant, and the whistle is really useful to someone who has a goldfish memory
Ive got much the same. Main 3mtr sullage hose that we use is stored in the drawbar box with 3 x 2mtr lengths of sullage hose inside the rear bumper. 10tr sullage sump, with both a gravity drain outlet, and a auto self priming 12v pump outlet; I just can use whichever one suits. The washing machine cant keep up to the pump, which Ive tested to a head of 3.6mtrs.

(I replumbed all my waste into a single 40mm outlet, including the mashing machine)

20180419_165840-resized-1920.jpg

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Crusty181

Well-Known Member
Feb 7, 2010
6,854
13,971
113
Mentone, VIC
Well we've done our 6 month 1/2 lap (sort of).

So after a false start (the van was home, the food was in the fridge and everything was packed) in 2020 only to have ScoMo shut the country down (thanks COVID).

We finally left just 12 months later. We left Victoria on 2/4/21 and headed straight over to the SA border (in case any COVID cases were found in Vic). I won't put all the details of the trip in here, but we ended up getting as high as Exmouth in WA before we had to urgently head home (the van and car are still in WA - but I can't get back to pick them up and drive them home due to border closures) - we only got through 4 out of the 6 planned months.

Here are some of the various pic's of where we parked for a night (or more) in this great country of ours.

View attachment 67336

View attachment 67337

View attachment 67338

View attachment 67339

View attachment 67340

View attachment 67341

View attachment 67342

View attachment 67343

You'll notice in 1 photo the tow car is different - there's a reason for that :-(

We had a great trip while we were there and the van itself was faultless.

Due to the van being overweight when we fully loaded it (2 Adults, 2 teenagers and a pre-teen) with the intent of living on the road for 6 months (with our fishing gear, bikes and all the goodies) I had to strip some weight out. The easiest weight was to remove 1 of the batteries (we left other stuff behind) - that left us with 1 x 110ah AGM battery. We had a few weeks of less that ideal (read overcast) camping and the battery struggled to get charged during the day. As we were doing school work on the road there were multiple devices to recharge/run, lights after dark, etc.

Our van had 1 x 160W on the roof and a portable 250W (kings brand) blanket. To fix this I had another 160W added to the roof when the van was getting a service and some repairs. I also ran a cable directly from the regulator to an Anderson fixed on the chassis (this will allow me to add the portable solar blanket directly to the regulator inside the van if needed)

The repair was the gas heater - ever since day 1 the heater has cut out and recorded an error. After a few phone calls the original installer came good and offered a full refund (3+ years later) as they couldn't assist in fixing the issue - I want to put it out there even though they never got it right I could not have asked for better after sales support - they were hassle free and fantastic. Despite this I would go back to them as after sales support is important to me. HOWEVER we took the van to an authorised installer for the Truma gas heaters - they modified the install and it seemed to work great the few times we ran it. If anyone wants further details on what was wrong causing a gas heater to error out and switch off PM me.
New car, or loaner ??
 

Macca_75

Well-Known Member
Aug 3, 2016
680
596
93
49
SE Suburbs, Vic.
New car, or loaner ??
Rental. We blew our engine 20 mins north of Geraldton. It took 25 days to get a new one shipped from Melb and fitted, so we hired a car from Perth (6hr coach ride from Geraldton to Perth, pick up the rental and 4hr drive back north to Geraldton). We headed up to Exmouth and back for 10 days then rinse and repeat to return the rental.
 

Drover

Well-Known Member
Nov 7, 2013
12,879
19,651
113
QLD
New car, or loaner ??
Rental. We blew our engine 20 mins north of Geraldton. It took 25 days to get a new one shipped from Melb and fitted, so we hired a car from Perth (6hr coach ride from Geraldton to Perth, pick up the rental and 4hr drive back north to Geraldton). We headed up to Exmouth and back for 10 days then rinse and repeat to return the rental.
I wondered about @Crusty181 's comment and now looking I see why, I was too busy looking at the pics and totally missed the important bits like no canopy and WA plates, probably because its a Ford and they all look the same, that would certainly be an adventure in itself @Macca_75 , hope return is much better, whenever it happens.
 
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Crusty181

Well-Known Member
Feb 7, 2010
6,854
13,971
113
Mentone, VIC
Rental. We blew our engine 20 mins north of Geraldton. It took 25 days to get a new one shipped from Melb and fitted, so we hired a car from Perth (6hr coach ride from Geraldton to Perth, pick up the rental and 4hr drive back north to Geraldton). We headed up to Exmouth and back for 10 days then rinse and repeat to return the rental.
What was the malfunction??? Warranty ???
 

Drover

Well-Known Member
Nov 7, 2013
12,879
19,651
113
QLD
who knows. Wasn't going to pay more to find out why. Apparently that model engine (3.2L) either goes between 120K and 160K or lasts forever. Guess I had to former - let go at 160K
I know exactly what you mean, I would be of the "insert adjective" just fix the "another adjective" thing.
 
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Expanda_Panda

New Member
Feb 10, 2021
1
0
1
Vic
I've also moved the spare from the A-Frame and relocated underneath the rear of the van. I bought the holder and winch from Jayco Bayswater. The holder bolted straight into the subframe (the holes are provisioned for water tanks) - I used HIgh Tensile bolts (I still need to put lock nuts on). I also had a friend come and weld it on the be sure. We ended up just welding a plate to the chassis and bolting the winch to it. Overall I didn't loose to much clearance underneath. Using a set of towball scales (as as best I could tell) it made about 25-30Kgs difference in reducing the ball weight (I am going to put a strap of some sort around it to make sure it doesn't drop off the side)

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@Macca_75 Looks like the best solution I've seen on moving the spare tyre away from the front! Good job. If you don't mind we asking, what did the wheel carrier and winch set you back? I know they are mounted this way on the newer models, was it from a particular model?
 

Macca_75

Well-Known Member
Aug 3, 2016
680
596
93
49
SE Suburbs, Vic.
@Macca_75 Looks like the best solution I've seen on moving the spare tyre away from the front! Good job. If you don't mind we asking, what did the wheel carrier and winch set you back? I know they are mounted this way on the newer models, was it from a particular model?
Sorry can't remember each cost - it was around $200-$250 for the carrier and winch. I think there are just 2 carriers - a touring and Outback one (possibly to do with tyre size). If you give the Jayco dealer your year/model and tyre size they should be able to sort you out.
 
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Bluey

Well-Known Member
Mar 31, 2014
2,651
3,817
113
Australia
Get someone to knock up a carrier like this this was on my 17 but its now on the 20 and the rear bed folds down over it i done have to swing it down on the 17 had to lower the wheel as you see easy to make can send better pics and sizes but the van mob has my van for a bit at the moment
20210407_122929.jpg
 
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