New Expanda owners

Expanda14 · Jan 20, 2013

Hi
We are new Expanda owners.
We have had jayco's and campers before but this is our first Expanda.
Our expanda is a 14-44.4 with fixed bunks at rear. It has an under slung axel and a larger drawbar
Fiamma bike rack ; large fridge, and a 120w solar panel with a 100ah battery and a plc as a solar controller. Done by myself i have done all our old van / campers with a similar set up
Used it a few times and love it.
The usual teething things with a new Jayco but i fixed them after our first trip.
And just had over two weeks at Pambula beach with it .And it gets easier each time we use it should of done it two campers ago......
The only stupid thing is the very low coupling height on the draw bar just had a alloy spacer machined up from a solid peice fixed the problem [ no thanks to Jayco they just kept sending me around in circles and said there was no problem ]
Anyway love the forum hope to keep reading good posts
cheers Expanda14

chartrock · Jan 20, 2013

Welcome Expanda14, good to have another 14'. Post some photos of your mods as we all like to see what and how things are done. Enjoy the forum.

Burnsy · Jan 20, 2013

Welcome to the forum expanda14, sounds like a nice setup. With that alloy spacer it might be an idea to keep an eye on the tension of the hitch mounting nuts!

Cheers.

cruza driver · Jan 21, 2013

Welcome to the forum mate, and your right they are very quick to set up :thumb:

Expanda14 · Jan 21, 2013

chartrock said:
Welcome Expanda14, good to have another 14'. Post some photos of your mods as we all like to see what and how things are done. Enjoy the forum.

OK will do we are going away auz weekend . Will try and get some good pics

Expanda14 · Jan 21, 2013

Are you talking about the tension on the bolts holding the coupling on .
We spoke to jayco about the spacer and they gave us a torque setting for the bolts. Are you concerned about the spacer squashing and the bolts coming loose ?

Burnsy · Jan 22, 2013

Expanda14 said:
Are you talking about the tension on the bolts holding the coupling on .
We spoke to jayco about the spacer and they gave us a torque setting for the bolts. Are you concerned about the spacer squashing and the bolts coming loose ?

Hi mate, yeah that's what I was getting at given that alloy is allot softer than steel. Probably ok but just something to be aware of.

Cheers.

Expanda14 · Jan 22, 2013

Burnsy said:
Hi mate, yeah that's what I was getting at given that alloy is allot softer than steel. Probably ok but just something to be aware of.

Cheers.

Ok will check after a few trips
thanks

Expanda14 · Mar 12, 2013

Burnsy said:
Hi mate, yeah that's what I was getting at given that alloy is allot softer than steel. Probably ok but just something to be aware of.

Cheers.

Hi Burnsy here is that spacer i had made long time since last post. Been busy working not camping not fun......

Burnsy · Mar 13, 2013

Thanks for the pic mate, looks good!

Moto Moto · Mar 13, 2013

Nice spacer there.

Hope you get to enjoy your new van a bit more soon.

Did you undersling the axle?

Expanda14 · Mar 13, 2013

Moto Moto said:
Nice spacer there.

Hope you get to enjoy your new van a bit more soon.

Did you undersling the axle?

Actually the van is not underslung [ only found out yesterday ] we were looking at it as to do a mates van that is the same model as ours.
its ordered from jayco as a intermediate its a mixture between a on and off road . More clearance than a road model but not as extreme as a full on off road model . They call it a underslung but the axle is still on top of the leaf springs but its got a larger chassis and draw bar than a road model . Suits us as we dont want a 4wd but still want more ground clearance for spots we camp as we have a awd car and can still get into places some people call hard core 4wd tracks with our awd [ not hard core 4wd tracks at all they just think this as they have 4wd,s ]
cheers Expanda14

expanda · Mar 20, 2013

Welcome, apologies for the delay in saying hi

!!!

Nice rig and that spacer is huge good stuff....

P.s We like pics!!!

Expanda14 · Mar 20, 2013

Yeh it's big
The way the van was delivered was stupid the coupling height was that low that the tow bar on both our cars were way too low and after making a new tow bar tongue for my work car. It would bottom out on a small bump or petrol station driveway
I think because of the van being a kind of hybrid not a off road and not a on road kind of a in between
but works great now no worries !!!!!!
And fabricated a few more mods for it just need the time to fit them
cheers
Also are the stickers available now?

expanda · Mar 21, 2013

Expanda14 said:
Yeh it's big
The way the van was delivered was stupid the coupling height was that low that the tow bar on both our cars were way too low and after making a new tow bar tongue for my work car. It would bottom out on a small bump or petrol station driveway
I think because of the van being a kind of hybrid not a off road and not a on road kind of a in between
but works great now no worries !!!!!!
And fabricated a few more mods for it just need the time to fit them
cheers
Also are the stickers available now?

Shoot me a PM with which stickers you need

!!!

Kartras · Mar 25, 2013

Expanda14 said:
Hi
We are new Expanda owners.
We have had jayco's and campers before but this is our first Expanda.
Our expanda is a 14-44.4 with fixed bunks at rear. It has an under slung axel and a larger drawbar
Fiamma bike rack ; large fridge, and a 120w solar panel with a 100ah battery and a plc as a solar controller. Done by myself i have done all our old van / campers with a similar set up
Used it a few times and love it.
The usual teething things with a new Jayco but i fixed them after our first trip.
And just had over two weeks at Pambula beach with it .And it gets easier each time we use it should of done it two campers ago......
The only stupid thing is the very low coupling height on the draw bar just had a alloy spacer machined up from a solid peice fixed the problem [ no thanks to Jayco they just kept sending me around in circles and said there was no problem ]
Anyway love the forum hope to keep reading good posts
cheers Expanda14

G'Day Expanda14,

interested in the PLC as a solar controller......mmmmmm...how does that work????
any more info??

Kartras

Expanda14 · Mar 25, 2013

Kartras said:
G'Day Expanda14,

interested in the PLC as a solar controller......mmmmmm...how does that work????
any more info??

Kartras

Hi Kartras
i had it in at first and did not have the plc program 100% so put a solar controller in
and have not had time to look at the program I will post some pics of it.
How it works is similar to solar controller and it also had a read out of fridge temp and some other things
bit of a wank but we do heaps of plc controls as a part of our business so I had some time and never finished it
will send some pics of the first version

Expanda14 · Mar 25, 2013

Just a quick post
got a mate to knock up this aliminium box for under the van to hold our table and chairs

chartrock · Mar 25, 2013

Where do you plan to mount the box, E14.

Expanda14 · Mar 25, 2013

chartrock said:
Where do you plan to mount the box, E14.

Made some room behind the axle.
so as not to reduce the clearance too much

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