My Jayco Starcraft Outback 16.51 Caravan

[Dove]

Picked up the new van yesterday and said good by to our Discovery. The drive from East Keilor to Bayswater was not pleasant. Very strong winds and hail mixed with cross city traffic. Hand over was very thorough. They reset our electric brakes (they have never worked so well) and made sure we had easy access to cross the busy highway to head home. No hail but the strong winds made for an unpleasant drive. A full caravan certainly has more windage than the Discovery.

We spent this afternoon exploring the van, cutting rubber anti slip for the shelves, fixing a badly aligned striker on one of the draws, Otherwise she seems like a pretty tight unit. We also have 2 sullage outlet pipes. Jayco supplied a fitting to connect 2 pipes into 1. The fitting comes with 2 large clear plastic tubes that press onto the poly pipes. Very basic and fiddly. Have any of you found a better way??

 

[natbas]

New van looks great, sounds like a crazy trip home with it with that awful weather, I think I'm dreading setting the silage pipes up on ours, we take off in ours for the first time tomorrow, might get my hubby to sort that out hehe

 

[Xpandafan]

Congratulations, @Dove. You really picked a crappy day for towing anything, but a "new van" day is still pretty special.
@Pace was homeward bound from Barwon Heads in the same sort of weather. Not the easiest driving.
Never had an issue with the sullage fitting, but guaranteed you can do better by visiting one of those irrigation/plumbing places (there's one opposite Essendon Airport). I am going to use cam-lock (?) connections when I get off my backside. I store sullage hoses in chassis rails.
Do a search on this forum too...waste water, sullage, blocked drains, etc.

 

[cruza driver]

Looking good @Dove l think l saw your van there on wednesday

 

[17triton]

Nice van @Dove we were towing in that crap too. Now just get out and enjoy it. Did you sleep in it at home last night?

 

[Stone Stomper]

Very nice Dove, It's a good idea to get rid of the dual manifold for the sullage you just need to put a one way valve in the shower drain to stop sink water coming up in to the shower, the one way valve can be bought from Whitworths Marine $20.

We did ours below.

 

[Burnsy]

Very nice @Dove .The manifold is a crappy design, I had water coming up in shower also. Re plumbed in 40mm, non return valves and one outlet....all good now! Enjoy.

 

[Dove]

Thanks for the replies. I will investigate the valve. Unfortunately, there is a very short pipe exiting from the shower and it is just about buried in black sealant.
Another good thing about this forum is the advice I have picked on hose fittings. I have gone over most of the fittings and ensured that clamps are tight. Have also checked tank filler pipes all tight there also. Another job is to wrap pipes in rubber. Another tip from this forum. Thanks again
Peter.

 

[Wanda]

Congratulations Dove, love a new delivery :biggrin-26:

 

[greggels]

Hi Dove,
Nice Van,
I fitted these type of camlock fittings to the jayco manifold, made life a lot easier to connect, available on ebay or local irrigation shop,

Cheers Greg

 

[macca]

Those fittings look good. I purchased barrel union fittings from Bunnings, however I re did my drains anyway as I hated how it drained slowly.

Bit hard to see in the pic, they are available from the pressure pipe area at Bunnings, from memory only a few $$ each.

 

[Dove]

Thanks again for feed back. A trip to Bunnings and the irrigation shop tomorrow (too busy to bother today).
I was asked have we slept in it yet? No! It sits in front of the garage, close to the street and right on the boundary fence. A bit too public.

 

[DRW]

Thanks again for feed back. A trip to Bunnings and the irrigation shop tomorrow (too busy to bother today).
I was asked have we slept in it yet? No! It sits in front of the garage, close to the street and right on the boundary fence. A bit too public.

no different to most caravan parks, enjoy it looks great

 

[Dove]

Don't want to give the neighbours another excuse to grizzle and complain so will contain the sleeping until we get away. Probably week 2 Oct for a 1 week shake down. Couldn't help myself this afternoon. Off to Bunnings and purchased 2 barrel connectors. I don't really want to start cutting up the plumbing yet. Connectors glued on this afternoon to the outlet pipes and also fixed to the manifold.

Also purchased a couple of roller plastic storage boxes for the tunnel boot. The new boot looks big but I could cram more stuff into the Discovery's front opening boot and access it easier. And, there was a gas bottle inside already.

 

[BUSH PALACE]

Nice van dove , the secret to boot loading is open , throw , shut - easy only jokn

 

[cruza driver]

Nice van dove , the secret to boot loading is open , throw , shut - easy only jokn

That's what I do its surprising what I find in there sometimes

 

[crackacoldie]

Nice van dove , the secret to boot loading is open , throw , shut - easy only jokn

No Jokin at the Cracka house BP, that's exactly how the boot gets packed!

 

[Dove]

Here is a question for new van owners. I tried out my wheel brace yesterday. It has a 19mm hex. The wheel nuts on the Outback alloy wheels are stepped. I.E. a small hex at the front of the nut about 19mm and a larger longer hex at the rear of the nut about 21mm. The supplied wheel brace only fits on the front section and is a little loose and I think has the potential to round off the corners of the nut.

I can only engage the larger section at the rear of the nut by using my 4 socket X brace on the 21 mm socket. The fit here is also loose. again with potential to round off the corners of the nut.

I raised this with my dealer who checked with the factory to be told the brace is what Jayco supply and it should be used on the front section of the nut. I first found the issue on the Jayco Travel Diary forum. Did ask some questions with no replies to date. So new owners what have your experiences been?????????

 

[Soaring]

I found the same thing when checking the tightness on the way home from pickup. Not great. I haven't tried any other braces yet, but will.

 

[14.44-4 pajero]

Hi dove I was supplied with a brace and a socket that fits in the brace they said this is what they do for outback wheels not sure of size of socket I will check tommorrow for you I also welded it into brace so I didn't loose the socket