12 Month review - Ute and Camper (and modifications)

Hello all
My how time flies, it was the beginning of November last year that I headed North to Hervey Bay in Queensland to collect my Camper.
It has been a relatively quiet 6 months or so but I have continued to try to fine tune things to suit my needs.

The Ute.........
2012 Great Wall V200 Diesel, 6 speed manual 4 X 4 

With the speedometer sitting on 41,469km after 15 months it certainly hasn't been standing still for long.
Since the first couple of Warranty problems, addressed in the 6 month review there have been no further problems, and the Great Wall is proving to be a capable, reliable and economical work horse.

Mt Useful fire Tower

   Running around locally and empty I am getting 8-8.5 l/100 km, on my last trip away, from Home up over the great Dividing Range on windy and hilly gravel roads to Mansfield, and on to Moama just across the border the economy was 10.7 l/100 km with the camper fully loaded for an extended trip away.
I like to travel slowly and enjoy the trip, so unless I am holding up traffic I usually sit on about 90kph. 
From Moama to Ivanhoe economy was 10.5 l/100km this was after filling the extra water tank, so I was now carrying 95 litres of water.
Broken Hill to Mildura was 12.3 l/100km driving into a reasonably brisk offset headwind with the camper on and full tanks.
I still find the Great Wall to be a comfortable vehicle to drive, with a bit of weight in the back to settle it down. I can do reasonable distances in a day without ending up with "numb bum syndrome"  
The local Dealer seems to be OK and reasonably helpful, but I do find the servicing cost to be more in the Prestige car price range. I have just been quoted $700 for the 45000km service! And at these prices they expect me to continue getting services at the Dealership after Warranty runs out..........................................get real! They are dreaming................

Eaglevale, Wonnangatta River Victoria

A snorkel has just been released by TJM to fit the Great Wall Diesel so I will be getting one of these fitted shortly. I don't want to ford the deepest rivers, but the benefit is the motor is getting cleaner, cooler air via a snorkel, with the added benefit of not having to worry to much about the creek and river crossings up North. At just under $700 fitted, and as I like the dirt roads it will be a worthwhile purchase.

The Camper.............
2012 Palomino Bronco B600T

Well, this Camper just continues to surprise me. I keep hitting it with wind, rain, corrugations, dirt roads, tracks dust and heat..................It just continues to perform without hesitation.
 

Kingwell Bridge Wonnangatta River

 Any questions, dumb or not, Kevin and Tania at Palomino RV Australia in Hervey Bay do not hesitate to offer assistance, even after 12 months..........I wish I could get that sort of service at some other business's I could mention, that are sadly lacking any sort of customer service.

Palomino RV Australia 

Everything is a compromise, so I look at my Ute and Camper combination as an evolutionary thing. There will always be a tweak here or there to make things better and a little easier to live with.  
In the New Year the Camper will become my home, so I am always looking for ways to make life easier.
The internal table is something I don't use at all, so I made an outdoor table out of MDF.

table can be pushed in to make into a shelf

 The table slides inside the rectangular cross braces underneath the Camper. The table is hinged in the middle, this way I can have a shelf, or a table, which folds flat to stow inside the lockers, and no table legs to trip on.

As a table

On the trip just completed around Broken Hill I had a day or two over 36C, I have had quite hot days before and on this particular day there was not a breath of wind and very hot. I have a 9ft Dometic awning on the passenger side but the sun beat down most of the day on the divers  side of the Camper. I could feel the heat radiating off the wall inside the Camper.

36c and no wind to cool things down

 This little project is being done as I write this. I need to be able to shelter the non awning side of the camper from direct sunlight on very hot days where sometimes there isn't a lot of trees.
Problem solved, a quick trip to Bunnings, purchase a 3 metre x 3 metre x 3 metre triangular sun sail. $19.98. A chap a few doors away does awning/tent repairs, so I will get him to sew a rope along one side of the triangle. this will allow me to utilise the awning rail already fitted to the drivers side of the camper.

http://www.bunnings.com.au/marquee-3-x-3m-beige-triangle-shade-sail_p3304493

A peg through the lower corner into the ground to secure it should do the trick of keeping a lot of direct sunlight from the side of the camper. I will post a picture when I get to use it.

Since the modifications to my 3 way absorption fridge, covered in the 6 month review, my fridge continues to think it is a freezer........on 12 volt or 240 volt and temperatures under 30c it keeps freezing everything even with the fans turned off.
My solution has been to just turn it off while driving and also at night when plugged into 240 volts. I only like to travel a couple of hours in one day at most, so the fridge keeps cold for that time switched off, with the benefit getting a bit of extra charge into the battery without the fridge draining all the power while driving.

On my last trip 2 potential problems arose, the first one being the Wineguard antenna mechanism became quite gritty in operation, especially rotating the Aerial. A shower of rain resolved this problem washing away the dust binding the mechanism.
The second potential problem was a rough spot and clunking noise when raising or lowering the pop up roof. As the roof raising gear is against the headboard of the ute, I could not check it out without removing the camper from the ute.

roof raising mechanism

I had visions of being stuck with the roof unable to be raised or lowered as every day the winding mechanism got worse. I persevered until arriving home and upon removing the camper fearing a failure or overhaul of the mechanism was pleasantly surprised.

the offending screw

One of the screws had worked its way loose after thousands of kilometres and was hitting against the ajoining tube as the roof was wound up or down. I already had the 18v cordless drill out, to lower the legs of the camper, so this was fixed in about 10 seconds.

Water - With 40 litres of water in the camper tank and another 55 litres in a bladder behind the seats in the ute, I have purchased an additional 12v shower. This one is now used to transfer water, I have cut the shower head off and can now pump water from a river into either tank using the 12v pump. If the camper tank need filling I can drain the in cab bladder into a bucket and pump from the bucket to the camper tank refilling it. 
This enables me to carry 95 litres of water with the ability to refill from any source and transfer between tanks also.
The last trip away to Broken Hill gave me a good opportunity to test everything out, I have aimed for self sufficiency without the need for Caravan Parks and the expenses that come with them. My laptop, Television and everything else can be run and charged from the battery pack, and the battery pack can be replenished from either the 200w solar panels or from the vehicle while driving, although I must admit a nice long hot shower every few days in a Caravan Park is a welcome experience. 

The Combination.........
How they go together.........

There is not a lot more I can foresee doing to the combination, but in saying that something always comes up. The ute and camper are a happy combination and work well together. I have traveled many kilometres of gravel and corrugated roads in the last year and everything seems to work as desired. 
The biggest hurdle I have is trying to fit all my worldly possessions in, as I head off in the New Year into the unknown. I think I will have to be brutal and minimalistic.
My plan at this stage is to do a couple of shorter trip over the Christmas period, probably up around the Snowy mountains area, then late January, after School holidays end, head over towards South Australia spending Summer exploring the York and Eyre Peninsulas.
As the weather cools start heading North, spending a few weeks in the West and East Mc Donald Ranges around Alice Springs. As the weather continues to cool down a bit head further North to Katherine, before turning East along the Savannah Way and hopefully popping out at Cairns around November sometime.........
I hope to catch the Morning Glory cloud formations (roll clouds) at Karumba in September after spending a while relaxing at Lorella Springs beforehand http://www.lorellasprings.com.au/

my travels over the years

 After that I don't know................but i can tell you that there are good times ahead and hopefully lots of good photos too, so stay tuned, there is a lot of Queensland I haven't seen, but I am itching to head back to the West Coast. Time will tell where I end up.
Game on, look out Australia here I come......................
bye for now