November 14, 2023 • 59 mins
Ever dreamed of the open road and the freedom that comes from a fully decked-out camper? Love the thrill of modifying your own vehicle, getting your hands dirty, and learning from the inevitable hiccups along the way? Get ready to be taken on an adventure as we share our family journeys, starting from the mid-nineties with a Suzuki Vitara, followed by a camper-converted Toyota Land Cruiser, before upgrading to a technologically advanced 200 series Land Cruiser.
We'll recount the fun we had modifying our vehicles, like adding side steps, bull bars, roller drawers, roof racks, and even a long-range fuel tank. Get ready for a laughter-filled ride as we share our mishaps and lessons learned from dealing with split rims, tire tubes, and changing wheel bearings. Discover the value of understanding your vehicle, the importance of service knowledge, and how these can make your road trip experience smoother.
Transitioning from swags to a camper trailer as our family grew brought new challenges and adventures. We'll discuss how our latest setup, a 200 series Land Cruiser filled with advanced technology like drones and Starlink dishes, revolutionised our travels. You'd be amazed by the comfort and freedom our camper offers, including a stand-up fridge, luxury bedding, comprehensive kitchen equipment, and two independent power sources. So buckle up, and join us as we journey through our vehicle adventures and share practical advice from our experiences on the road.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi everyone and welcome back.
It's David and Michelle here,explorers, for our next podcast
Journey With you.
Today we're wanting to gothrough some of our vehicles and
what we've had and how longwe've had them for and why we
made that choice and where we'reup to now.
And it's interesting becauseway back in the beginning of
(00:23):
time, before I even had any sortof half interest that we're
going to do what we've becomedoing, the mid 90s was my first
4A into a four-wheel drive andit was a little white Suzuki
Vitara manual, a littlesuper-duper light thing, and it
got taken around Golban andMitigong and a few places doing
a little bit of four-wheeldriving.
And now that I look back on theexperiences that I had back
(00:45):
then and I actually didn'treally have half a clue what I
was really doing it wasinteresting how light that
little car was and how capableit actually was because of its
weight, but you just can't carrymuch with it.
But yeah, so we started backthen but we obviously got a bit
more serious and it was at alate later in the late 90s, 96,
(01:06):
97 time frame, we made thedecision to go and do some
traveling around Australia andwe're trying to work out what
vehicle to buy and we really hadno clue other than the Suzuki
Vitara's experience that hadbeen a few years because it sold
out of that and didn't evenhave it.
So it wasn't like a continuouspurchase.
And then we got to the pointwhere with the health and the
(01:28):
other bits that we decided wewere going to go away and what
sort of a vehicle were we goingto buy.
I don't even think when westarted that well, we started
that did we start that wholething with the purchase decision
to go for years, or did wedidn't actually know at that
stage when we bought the Troopy?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I do remember the whole discussion being planning
a long-term touring trip, neverto come back to Sydney to sell
up.
So we knew all of that and sowe really needed something that
was going to be a touringvehicle.
We knew it was going to be a.
We were going to live in it.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, okay, yeah, that's what I kind of remember.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
It was just hard because and then was it because
of the lady from work that toldus about the Toyota Land Cruiser
Club of Sydney.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, basically the Michelle where Michelle was
working at the time.
There was a few people thatwere involved in the Toyota Land
Cruiser Club and I think one ofMichelle's friends, a work
associate.
You know we're obviouslytalking about what vehicle to
buy and trips and traveling, andthey kind of steered us into
the Troopy path because of it,because of its reliability and
(02:33):
suitability for the task that wewere having, and it had a big
internal space.
We didn't actually know whatTroopy were going to, what
Troopy to look for.
But I was just reading throughthe weekend paper at home one
day and saw a Troopy for sale upnear where we lived in
Bayswater in Sydney andBayswater, wasn't it Bays,
bayview, bayview, bayswaters inWA.
(02:56):
Bayview Bayview has been it'sbeen too long and a bloke was
selling a converted Troopy.
So it was previously a Brit,brits or Hertz.
It was one of those two.
At the time He'd bought it offone of those.
When it was finished he'd usedit for a some period of time.
He was selling it.
We were interested in buying it.
So it had a.
(03:16):
It had a camper conversion, thestandard Brits, apollo,
whatever all those brands werestanding for?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yeah, it was the Barbie bus.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
It was the Barbie bus , yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
It had a kitchen sink and a pop-top roof.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
And so we actually invested in that.
And you know that was our firstfull-size four wheel drive, our
first sort of sware into whatwe're going to use for our trips
and traveling around.
And so technically, you knowstandard Toyota Land Cruiser 75
series, 1-hz engine, not turbo,nothing fancy manual manual of
(03:49):
course diesel, of course, was1-HZ.
No, no fancy diff locks, nofancy anything.
It just had a camper conversion, probably had.
It did have some suspensionupgrades which we upgraded again
after we learned what all ofthat really meant.
And it was, it was a, it was agood car and we did all that
(04:11):
driving training.
So after we bought it, we wantedto understand what we were
going to do and how we could,how we could use the thing.
So, being that we bought aToyota on recommendation from
people that were Michelle's work, that were in the Toyota Land
Cruiser Club in New South Wales,it kind of made it reasonably
easy or logical for us to jointhe Toyota Land Cruiser Club in
Sydney at the time and we wentthrough all their training and
(04:33):
it was fantastic the things that, the things that we learned in
one weekend on that that, thatclub, full driving will and I
don't think I've still been ableto take the car and do things
that we did that day.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
I remember the.
What are they calling?
Speaker 1 (04:45):
that reverse and up that hill up the rock reverse
and up a rock and perch and atthe top and then trying to come
back down.
There was a whole heap of stufflike that it was really stall
starts and it was really.
That was really quite technical, so the best part of was it was
eye-opening.
We didn't really have much of,anyway, any experience at the
time, but with their guidanceand all that, yeah, and we did
(05:09):
all this great river crossingsand some great stuff with the
club and that worked out quitewell.
And so you know, when we, whenwe got ourselves a bit closer to
to moving and going on the trip, I decided that I wasn't really
happy with all the internalfitting, fit out of the of the
camper conversion that was inthe pop top.
(05:29):
So, me being me, I basicallyripped it all out and put it all
back together and rebuilt itagain.
Really I was.
It was just the age of thecabinetry, it was just all
getting a bit old and the doorlatches weren't working and some
other bits and pieces neededattending to.
But me being me, I tore it allout and built a whole new inside
fit out, basically replicatingexactly what I had, but just
(05:52):
modernizing it, making it new.
And so it was good.
Engine wise 1hz I can't evenremember the kilometers, but it
was only fairly low.
It had only done like a hundredthousand or something, and so a
hundred or a hundred fiftythousand and it was really well
looked after.
Considering it was a an ex-highcar.
I was a bit nervous about thatbecause it could have got
(06:13):
flogged and you know, you'dnever know what somebody's going
to do to those sorts of cars.
But realistically we did somesuspension mods and some shock
mods and, and realistically,from modifications in that car,
that was about it.
Electrically, you know, enginewise, only standard servicing.
It didn't.
It didn't need anything else.
(06:34):
Yeah, it could have gone better, but it didn't need to.
It was the right weight.
When we also were doing thattrip we mentioned in one of our
previous podcasts, we actuallywent with the intent of being
scuba driving instructors andtraveling around Australia in
our four-wheel drive teachingpeople about scuba diving.
So we also got a box trailerwith a, a gull-wing box trailer
(06:58):
and I think it was calledbutterfly butterfly.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
O'Brien's butterfly trailer at the time it was built
, we had it built, we had itbuilt specifically for us.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
But we then put scuba made mounts and mounted scuba
tanks and all sorts of gear intothe into that and then, you
know, then we went basically onour first trip up up to Kansan.
We started our journey with atrip to Kansan and doing.
Cape York with the Toyota LandCruiser Club.
So when we actually left tostart all of our traveling
(07:29):
around, we went to Kans to meetthe club group, to do the Cape
York trip, come back to Kans andthen we continued on our merry
way for the next few years and Iactually remember that we did.
We did the suspensionreplacement in Kans when we came
back from the, from the, fromthe Cape York trip.
As soon as we came back intoKans I had some problems with
(07:51):
the shocks or something.
I remember doing a suspension.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I remember doing the suspension mods in the coconut
carabiner park and it fell offthe airbag, inlifting no I
didn't have.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
I didn't have air jacks at the time and I was
jacked up in the in the caravanpark, as you do, yeah, changing,
changing the shocks out and thecarabiner, and and I obviously
just didn't set it up wellenough, didn't have a big enough
jacking plate.
You know all the things thatyou get taught big jacking plate
, do this, do that.
The ground seemed fairly firmbut we jacked it up and you know
(08:23):
, after the wheels off and halfeverything's off, of course the
jack goes and slips out and thecar goes thumping down onto the
grass you nearly took your armoff.
Oh my god and so there we alsohad a an exercise in what
recovery gear you need to takewhen you go away, because I
couldn't actually get the carback up on the jack because it
(08:44):
was too low on that side toactually start lifting it again.
And so the complexity cameabout what on earth we were
going to do and someone camealong with it.
Someone came along, said, oh,I've got an airbag, an exhaust
inflation airbag.
We hadn't seen these things, wehadn't seen one of those before
, so I'll give that a go.
And so we blew the thing uplike a big balloon and you put
it up underneath the body.
Yeah, airbag, so we were able tolift it up and get that going
(09:06):
again and so, yeah, that wasthat was that suspension job.
And you know, during our yearsof using that car mechanically,
um, one of the things that I'velearned over the years is that I
do tend to service everythingmyself.
I think I'm more fussy.
You know I always getdisappointed when I go and get
something serviced, or someonelooks at something and you get
(09:27):
it back and it's not right andthat there's nothing more
annoying uh to me than that.
And we've had those experienceswith all our cars going for
factory or non-factory servicingand all that stuff.
So I think you know, for thoseof us that are, if, if you
really want to be really seriousabout this game, you really
need to understand your vehicle.
(09:48):
So, understanding your vehicleand how it works and what makes
it tick and what you need to becapable of, depending on your
situation.
We travel a fair bit on our own, so I'm much more happy and
much more confident to knoweverything about my car that I
can know.
Obviously, there's some thingsthat are going to break that you
can't fix on your own out inthe middle of nowhere, but for
(10:09):
everything else, I want to makesure that I'm fairly comfortable
and confident, so we do tend todo everything, and so in
servicing the trooper on ourfirst trips, I remember packing
wheel bearings at at at like,like now than it was, I think.
I've got a picture of you doingyeah and that was way back, way
back in the days, you know.
So we'd be just driving alongand the wheel bearings would get
(10:30):
hot on the trailer.
So I have to do a wheel bearingchange the split rims is what I
remember.
Yeah, well, the split rims atjavis bay was that I tried to.
I tried to take a finger off atjavis bay doing a split ring,
change so and and split rims.
I still see so many vehiclesusing them today and I and I and
I still remember them and it'sactually not that horrible of
(10:50):
wheel, except that they don'tlook very pretty, they're not
nice and shiny and and all thiswonderful stuff.
But from a serviceability pointof view and a self maintenance
point of view, it's a hell of alot easier to swap a rim, swap a
tire, on a split rim than on a,than on a standard rim and I
know, because I've done enoughof those of both types yeah well
, when we were at marble barthere was a guy doing split rim
(11:13):
changes in the caravan parkright next to us he had a
trooping yeah, yeah, oh, do youdon't we?
do you want me to explain how todo a split rim change?
Speaker 2 (11:20):
yeah, oh my god.
Well, the difference is what asplit rim is like all right.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Well, a split rim, just just very quickly.
I don't have one in front of me, so those that are watching
still can't see it.
Those are listening.
You've probably got even lessidea.
But a split rim is basically,if you haven't seen one, um,
there's basically a, it's thesteel rim, and then the tire
goes on, and then there's like asteel, an outer rim that gets
(11:44):
placed on the outside edge andand leave it into place around
the around the tire so that it'skind of locks it in, so you
basically get it off.
You sort of it's like a bigO-ring, a big circle, a
monstrous one, and you basicallyun-prite with pry bars and it
pops off and then you caneffectively take the tyre off,
put the tyre back on, re-put thepiece of metal back in and blow
(12:06):
it up and bobs your uncle off.
You go.
You should be right.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Oh, so that's right, they're tube tyres, so this
means that you're when you havea flat tyre.
I'd forgotten all of this.
The whole concept is you'reable to remove the tyre from the
rim, put a tube in and fix yourflat by fixing the tyre itself,
Whereas these days you take thewhole rim and it's heavy and
you've got to carry a secondwhole wheel replacement is what
(12:32):
you do.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
These days, don't you ?
Speaker 2 (12:33):
So that's what it is, so our spares?
I remember that they're allthese folded up bits of tyre and
tubes under the seat because wedidn't have a dual wheel
carrier, we had a single wheelcarrier.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
And we didn't carry a second ring on a roof rack or
anything, no, but we also hadn'tlearned that lesson to have the
trailer have the same rim setup as the vehicle.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Oh really, so we hadn't learned that lesson back
then?
We?
Were just in our 20s yeah wewere just young and didn't
really know.
Now we know that all of ourtrailers if we have them have
the same rims and tyres as thecar, so that we've got
multitudes of spares.
So things can be swapped arounda lot easier.
So they're the things welearned.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
But yeah, we can, but it did save weight and then it
is a good option for that, forthose that are still listening.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
We use alloy rims, like most people, alloy and
steel rims on our cars andcanfers but I still carry tubes.
I've got tubes in the car nowbecause I can always put one of
those in and fix even fairlysignificantly large slices in
the tyre and rims.
Take it off, put its tube in it, tape it or whatever you've got
(13:39):
to do to protect it piece ofplastic, whatever you've got to
do to cover a gaping, great bighole and put it back together.
So tyre tubes is always a goodthing to carry, but obviously to
get now to get the tyres offnon-split rims is a bit painful
because they've got to be gluedand then yeah, you don't do that
when you're out in the bush.
No.
And then if you're trying toinflate, well, we've done a few.
(14:04):
But if you're trying to inflatea non-split rim just on an air
compressor, you'll have a hardtime getting the bead to set
unless the tyre is reallyoversized in the width because
it just won't pop out.
So a tubeless tyre, which mostof them all are now it's sealed
by being pressed out to the edge.
If you can't press it out tothe edge, it's really hard to
(14:26):
make them seal.
So if you put an inner tube init and blow it up, then that's a
heap easier to ensure thatyou're going to seat the bead
and make the thing driveable Atthe end of the day, if the
situation requires that you doanything to make the vehicle
move to get you from whereveryou were to where you've got to
go.
But you know, the Troopy was areliable machine.
(14:48):
We never it did it ever let usdown, ever any time.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
No.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I can't recall.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
All I recall I mean we are going back a lot of years
now but we had a lot of tyreissues that a lot of that, I
think, was because of theharshness of those leaf
suspensions and the front endwas hard when we started.
When we went to the next carwith coil front suspensions with
the 80 series.
I remember as a passenger sucha dramatic difference in comfort
and was like oh, why didn't wedo this before?
(15:17):
And then we've never really hadtyre issues ever since.
Oh, you shouldn't say that.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Oh, why did you say that?
Oh well, anyway.
Yeah, so you know the old 75,leaf spring suspension in the
rear and all that sort of stuff.
We drove that for a few years.
We did the bulk of our maintrips, the bulk of those
pre-explorized trips.
We actually hadn't startedexplorers at this stage.
(15:47):
This was two years of travelingaround.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Oh, that had done the Simpson Desert twice.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Oh yeah, I know, but we had all the golf and all the
Kimberley the whole everything,the whole of Australia, twice BE
before the Corrod this was backthen.
So we did that touring around,and after we'd and in a previous
podcast I recall that wementioned that we sat on the
banks of the river in Aminka andmade up this business plan and
(16:13):
decided to come to Perth.
So we decided to come to Perthand we still had the Troopy and
the trailer and we were able tomove some stuff over to here as
we popped over, and within fiveminutes Michelle was pregnant
and so I had to throw that in,because that was the reason why,
really, the Troopy was on anine month wicket.
(16:36):
We really needed to make surethat we could have a baby in a
car, and the Troopy was a twoseat full camper conversion A
two door a full camperconversion.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Two door full camper conversion it had two registered
seats.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
It wasn't even really registered to take three, so
unfortunately the Troopy neededto go back then and that was
2000,.
Was that 2000?
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah well, Leon was born in October 2000.
And I think, the first time youpicked me up from the hospital
with the AD series the firsttime I'd seen it.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
It was in the AD series picking you up from the
hospital.
So we timed it right that wedid that swap over and we bought
it from a local car dealer herein Perth, south of the river,
and that was all quite good.
I think it was second out ofthe time we bought it.
It had, think, 40,000 K's onthe clock and we've got a decent
(17:34):
deal, even though it seemedreally expensive to us being
young and having just arrived inPerth, having travelled for two
years without really having anincome, without really having
got to marry.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
It was a 93 year old vehicle at the time.
Because it was a year 2000 andwe bought a 1997 GXL, the 97,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
GXL diesel, manual, non-turbo, 1-hz engine, the same
thing that I was fairly used towith the 75.
Almost everything was identical, except that it had this plush
and luxurious coil sprungsuspension.
And, as Michelle said, we gotinto that and it was like, oh my
goodness, coil springsuspension, such luxury, yeah,
(18:15):
such luxury.
But like whenever you changeover from anything and you've
had a long term goodrelationship with one vehicle
and then you're moving into thenext one, there's all those
unknowns.
So we've bought this prettymuch stock standard GXL.
It didn't have, it didn't have.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
It didn't have race suspension or anything.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
It had nothing, it was just a standard.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
That's right.
It had nothing.
It didn't even have side stairs.
It didn't even have side stairs, All bar nothing.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
So we had the Xploros business model.
We sort of started that in 2000and got this car in 2000.
And so obviously needing it forthe baby was the main thing.
Solve that, that was easy,doesn't need much mods to put a
car seat in.
So that worked out quite well.
But then came the whole exerciseof what we were going to do and
(19:02):
obviously being early on in thebusiness and just setting up
Xploros, we decided that wewould see if, again early in
internet probably too early forall the people that we started
talking to but we decided thatwe should see if we could do
feature stories on the vehiclesetup.
So vehicle setup stories and ofall the things that we bought
(19:26):
and bought or were supplied andthe deals that we made to try
and get a bit of advertisingrevenue and all do fittings to
the car.
But it was also very importantto us that we had the right
stuff put into the car.
We're not competitivefour-wheel drivers.
(19:48):
We don't need it to climb thebiggest hills, we don't need it
to go the fastest.
It doesn't even have to be theprettiest, it doesn't have to
have the fanciest accessories,it's just got to do the job.
Back then, obviously early daysin the business we were able to
get the side steps and the bullbars and we did got that stuff
(20:11):
from ARB as the side guards,which I really do like and I
kind of miss them the rails thatcome down from the bull bar to
the side skirts to give you sometree deflection protection as
you're driving through roadsthat haven't been driven over
for a few years.
So I've kind of missed that inthe newer ones.
We had the roller drawers, theOutback roller drawers yeah, the
(20:31):
ones that we put in and thefridge went on top and then we
had roof racks and the roof bars, the long range of fuel tank.
And then, yeah, I fitted.
It became apparent that we weregoing to do the canning and
some of these longer trips, andso Fuel tanks and stuff became
an issue.
So we put in a long range offuel tank At the time, got that
(20:51):
shipped over and put that in,and then we traveled around, we
did the canning, we did a fewother, we did a few other trips
Mechanically again, servicing itall myself Every six to twelve
months or whatever.
Oil chain schedules of bits, ofpieces.
Okay, so we, we installed thislong-range fuel tank and a lot
of other stuff was given to us.
(21:11):
You know, as we startedpublishing these articles and
some of these review stories, alot of other suppliers and
people in the game Just thoughtthat they'd have a go and we
were offered all sorts of stuff.
And I remember we, we wereoffered a twine hot water shower
unit and that was great.
So we, we, we decided to putthat in into the, into the 80,
(21:35):
and so that's the.
Those showers is just a.
I'll just give you a quickexplanation.
It uses there, the carsradiator hot water To heat the
water that you pass through acoil and it heats it up on the
way through so you can have ahot shower Out out in the bush
was just with a water pump andthe showers.
The shower is kind of importantbecause, you know, in all of
(21:58):
years of us traveling with bitsand pieces, for a few years we
didn't have a shower and thenthen you're able to have a
shower and it was interestingbecause we didn't actually use
the shower that much and, as Irecall, I think we actually also
might have had one in the troop.
He didn't know, I can'tremember.
Anyway, we had a shower in the80 and that was great and you
know.
So we just kept.
(22:18):
We in those early days of thatcar.
A lot of this equipment cameinto us fairly early.
I did have the bars and railsand steps and stuff fitted, a RB
that was part of the, thedealing that they wanted to do
fuel tanks and all the otherbits and pieces.
Again, I like to do it so thatI know what I've put in, what I
can take out and what I canadjust if something does happen
(22:40):
to go wrong with any of thosesystems.
And you know, we're alsolearning about batteries and
solar power and charging and andand all of those more
complicated issues in Makingyourself self-sufficient to go
out there and also how to packthe thing.
So One of the things aboutconverting into the 80 and, as I
(23:05):
said, we had it when our firstchild was was born and we only
sold it.
What year did we sell that car?
2019 was it 19?
.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yeah, that's when we got the 200.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Yeah, so, so we had this 80.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
We had it for 19 years.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
We loved it and we.
We we gauge this greatappreciation for it.
The only thing I hated about itand it didn't really become as
apparent, but we got it webought a boat.
We bought a fairly large boatat one point and we were wanting
to take that on some trips.
So one of the things that weReally like, we really like
(23:44):
going up to Ningaloo station inthat, that whole area of the
coast there.
But we realized that not agreat place to go without a boat
, a bit a bit of a sad place togo without a boat.
So it wasn't that we wanted togo there that we bought the boat
, but we decided that we wantedto buy a boat.
And then the complexity is ofthen towing around a fairly
significantly Heavy boat.
It wasn't a small boat 6.2meters long, inboard engine at
(24:07):
weight, a fair bit great luggagetrailer, but quite a heavy,
quite a heavy piece of equipmentto pull around on the old
GXL1-HZ.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
So on a single axle trailer.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Oh yeah, I don't know the.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Ningaloo road.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Don't worry about the single axle trailer.
So we will, we'll buy in thisfairly large and reason we heavy
boat and I think even probablythe day that I picked it up
because we bought it from theMandra boat show and I'll bring
it home and it became apparentthat the old 80s 1-HZ was.
It's a little bit, it was alittle bit difficult to tow this
(24:44):
boat around the place.
Yeah, it was a bit gutless andyou know, towing it up, towing
it up the Great Eastern here, upup the hills, it's like going
up into the Blue Mountains overeast.
It's sort of a hill.
You know you'd be backing downinto third Doing 60 kph up these
hills and stuff.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
There's no power.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
And so there was no power.
So that was a that was a bitdisappointing Grateful drive
vehicle that could do everythingon its own.
But as soon as we added theboat we obviously had some
complexity.
But you know, we were doing.
We also had to deal with thealso what.
What did we do to fix thatproblem?
We bought a turbo.
A turbo.
We bought a Denco diesel kit atthe time.
(25:26):
What did Denco?
We did a deal with Dencosomething happened.
Denco supplied us with one andand, like most things, came with
a new exhaust, new new 3-inchexhaust system, new headers and
the turbo and all the plumbing,drawing holes and sumps to put
the oil feeds in and everything.
Of course I did all that as, asI've already said, trying to do
(25:48):
everything on my own, and thatworked quite well.
I was surprised.
I wasn't surprised it actually,it actually worked.
We only set the boost up fairlylow, it was only like a 10 psi
boost, and then, yeah, we've gota Exhaust gas temperature gauge
in there to measure it.
So if I'm climbing up the hillsfor half an hour or something
(26:10):
and the turbo is winding and theengine temperature is going up,
at least we could monitor, thatbeing that it wasn't a factory
turbo engine.
So and it didn't, and it didn'thave any computers and it wasn't
technological like that, whichis just perfect.
The least we might all have acomputer in our hand, we might
carry a computer on the phone,but geez, you don't really want
too many computers in the car ifyou can avoid it in these sorts
(26:33):
of cars anyway, because there'salways stories you hear about
about computers arguing with youbeing able to start the car
anyway.
So the other thing that we'dlearned over the years was how
to pack this car.
You know so how we would stackthe drawers in the back and how
we would use the cargo barrier.
We had a half-height cargobarrier and roller drawers.
(26:53):
We had an inside water tankthat was custom-made stainless
steel that sat above the wheel65, 65 litres or something and
it sat on top of the wheel archon the right hand side and we
when the roller drawers was.
Yeah, we had two kids all in theback, so we had two kids and a
dog and and we were touringaround all over the place.
(27:15):
We were doing a lot more travelthan we have in the last few
years.
Obviously, as a kid's got tohigh school years Travelling, it
reduced a little bit.
Also, business changed a littlebit.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
But you know, with that car we traveled a lot when
the kids were little.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
We quickly became very comfortable in that car and
when we were doing more seriousfour-wheel-driving without the
boat.
You know every we do a trip upthe coast every year with the
boat.
When we're doing more desert oroutback regional trips, you
know we're taking two kids, thetwo of us.
Just in the 80 series we had aroof rack bar, a rhino roof bar
(27:53):
box thing, and we basicallythrow three or four swags, oz
tent.
You know well, we slept inswags and Oz tent pretty much
for that entire period, 2018 or19 years when we had that, when
we had that car.
They were our swag and tentyears and We've done everything
(28:16):
in swags and tents in that carfor years and to be able to jam
the kids and ourselves All ofour swag sleeping gear, no
travesty equipment, recoverygear, everything we had.
I would have hate to havethought about the GCM stuff on
that vehicle.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
It was never a never a thing.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
It didn't even exist didn't exist but we had so much
we were able to carry so muchand do so much.
But you know it was hardGetting up on the roof every day
to take down two or three swagsand ostensis and stuff.
It takes us total after aperiod of time but we happily
travelled like that for thatwhole 20 years, grew a great
love for that 80 series.
I still love the 80 series.
I'm still disappointed I soldthe 80 series but you know we do
(28:57):
the things that we do at thetime because I didn't need to
have two full drives.
But from a nostalgic point ofview I love the 80 series.
It was such a great car.
But you know, like all goodthings or like all things, it
comes to an end.
One of the things that becamemore apparent to me and Michelle
obviously it's getting harderto do all this packing up.
(29:20):
I've had a few sportinginjuries in the last 10 or 15
years.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Yeah back and your neck yeah back problems and
stuff and I'm so sure I can'thelp you with the single thing
with that roof rack.
I think the liability therecame that whilst I'm fit and
strong and active and can help,I'm just so high challenged that
that whole concept of having somuch on the roof rack was no
good.
And yeah, we had two teenagekids, but you know, it's just,
(29:45):
they just got too big the amountof food and we only wanted one
angle fridge.
We had the 40 litre fridge.
That was it for the four of us.
And yeah, we had really reachedthe limits of capacity of what
you could carry without atrailer and the only trailer we
wanted to take was the boat.
You can't tow another campertrailer behind the boat.
We were lucky we had friends tomeet up with at Ningaloo other
(30:07):
families and so one trip wetowed their boat and they took
their camper trailer when thehuge big awning and we lived
together communally there.
We've had other family tripsthat are like that with other
families as well.
So the kids had most of theirupbringing on Ningaloo beach for
three or four weeks at a timeand you know our thing was just
(30:28):
to get there.
And then we had the boat and sowe were then out fishing and
using the boat and we werestacked up with all the firewood
and the water to get there andthen when we came home it was
empty or other than being fullof fish again.
That was that era and then thatwas it.
We eventually realized that itwas just too much effort.
I remember after one Ningalootrip we came home for two weeks,
(30:50):
we packed off and then we wentto Maralinga.
So we dropped the boat off,changed the whole packing again
from a coastal trip to a deserttrip and then we went off to
Maralinga I think that was 2015.
And there was a group of usthere.
So that was a totally differentsetup, but that same car and it
was awesome with the kids andall.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
But again we were back to the swags and taking
things on, you know, to get ontothe roof rack and stuff to get
things out.
I had a system where I stand onthe sidestep, put a foot onto
the tyre, I'd open the rearlittle side window quarter
window, put my foot on thewindow sill and then I could get
up onto the roof rack, becausewe didn't have a ladder and all
that sort of stuff.
So yeah, and then we get olderand things get harder and we get
(31:33):
lazier.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Well, we had a period of time where the high school
got in the way.
Yeah, so the high school got inthe way, and we don't like
school holiday bookings and allthat, and we weren't using the
boat.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
So the boat, we ended up selling the boat.
I think, like a lot of people,you buy this boat.
You use it for a number ofyears six, seven, eight years
you use it all the time and thenit spends more time in the
driveway than it does in thewater.
So it was time for us to movethat on.
And then, yeah, we'd kind ofidentified that the camping and
(32:03):
stuff was getting harder withthe swags.
And, however, for the work thatwe do moving every day the
swags is easy, it's quick andyou just throw it off the roof
and throw it on the roof, andthrow it off the roof and throw
it on the roof.
But over time the swags getbigger.
We have a big double swag andthen you have a couple of single
(32:26):
swags for the kids and then thekids' swags get king singles,
yeah because they got bigger,and then they get bigger.
So everything gets bigger,bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger
and the kids get bigger.
So the packing becomes a bitmore of a problem.
And then we get to the end ofschool and the kids are coming
with us as much and stuffanymore.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
And I know we deliberated about what do we do,
how do we make this transitionto the next stage?
And you were.
We didn't want a caravan, wedidn't want to change our
ability to move.
Yeah, with the four-wheeldriving concept, to be able to
just go anywhere and not havethat liability.
If we were four-wheel driving,we wanted something, but we
(33:03):
needed the comforts.
And then it was like well, arethe kids?
Are we going to put all thismoney into some camper trailer?
Which one?
Are the kids even going to comewith us?
They're getting to that pointwhere they were like, yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Yeah, and the friends of ours had a camp right and if
you've ever seen one of thosethat made here at WA and now are
fold out sort of camper andthey've been quite popular and
we'd spent some time with themand that kind of worked out
quite well.
It was probably more cateredwhich it is quite well catered
to actually have a couple ofkids because when you fold it
out there's two side bunks andthe main bunk Outside kitchen
(33:35):
and that sort of stuff which weweren't sure about.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
I've just realized it was that trip to Maralinga when
my dad brought his ultimatecamper trailer and we saw it.
Yes them traveling it correct.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
So the Maralinga trip that we did that Michelle was
alluding to earlier, we met upwith Michelle's parents there
and they had the 200 series andan ultimate camper and so we we
got to have a look at theirultimate and and Follow it a bit
, because we we did some touringaround the Ambeville Highway
and areas up around there andthrough the lots of desert.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
There's a great Victoria desert, and then it was
pretty capable and it was verycapable.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
We were watching it and and thought, oh, that's,
that's a pretty good choice.
And Then it was about sixmonths or a year later or so,
when the old man decided to.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
About three years.
So we had this huge break whereyou were broken and we didn't
have the right setup and we justsaid we're not going and the
kids ended up doing their ownthing.
We just did different things,were really involved in the
triathlon for a while there, butyou were then broken.
It was just, work was happening.
We just had a period of timewhere it was Complicated.
(34:51):
We didn't have the right gear,we weren't ready to make the
next decision until a decisionmade itself upon us and dad sent
me an email saying, because mumhad been unwell, they decided
their camping and travelingtimes were over.
They were Putting up a touringpackage of the 200 series and
(35:15):
the ultimate for sale and hewanted to advertise it on our
Classified on the explorerswebsite and wanted me to have a
look at it and give him a bit offeedback.
Was a wording right?
What's the pricing right?
Was it a good idea?
Did I think it would work?
And I went oh, hang on a minute.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
We might be interested.
We had a chat and decided thatI'd just jump on a plane and fly
over to Sydney and drive back a200 series Land Cruiser and
ultimate buying it, buying itoff the father-in-law.
So you know the best part aboutthat Well it was a both of them
(35:53):
brand new.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Yeah, so it's a 2008 model 200 series.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
So pre DPF, pre KDSS, pre all that new fancy stuff
that they put into these carsthat I don't want.
So, from a car point of view,it was missing the features that
I wanted, which was great.
Hey, it was missing thefeatures that I'd.
So it was missing the featuresthat I didn't want, which was
(36:19):
great.
It was Reasonably old, but when, when we bought it, had 90,000
K's on it and it and it wasalready 15 years old or
something.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Yeah, because we bought it in 2019.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Yeah, and it had 96,000 K's on it.
So when I flew to Sydney, ithad hardly ever been used.
It had been serviced every sixmonths.
It so we so, yeah, that was.
That was basically whathappened.
I jumped on a plane and flewover to Sydney, and the
(36:51):
father-in-law and I drove itback.
He came with me to show me howto set up the ultimate.
He could use an excuse for it,camping away with me for a week
and we obviously get on wellenough that that was capable of
being done, and and it was agreat trip and we were able to.
I was able to learn about theultimate and do some bits and
pieces.
Not that we were doing muchforward driving.
We did a few bits, did a campout a hole on the Holland track,
(37:13):
a little bit on our way backthrough.
That was on the Holland track,was at the mountain.
It's just down the road fromthe height and turn off.
I can't remember exactly whatthe hills called, but we can't
there anyway.
So that was a great trip.
And so then we were the proudowners of a vdj 200 twin-turbo,
v8 diesel Land Cruiser, so wehad plenty of power now.
(37:36):
Yeah, didn't we?
Speaker 2 (37:39):
It was huge on the inside and it felt like a moving
lounge.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
In comparison to the 80, it was really posh and big
and so again, we also knew thehistory of the car in the campus
so we were fairly confidentthat that was all going to be
good and the ultimate camper Wasthen going to give us that
potential to be able to do thesecamps without me happy to get
on the roof and and all that'sstuffing around.
(38:03):
It's going to make it a littlebit more comfortable and you
know, like like anything, againit was another change.
So we're changing from the carthat the 80 series that was
really, really capable, reallyreally proven, and I knew every
inch of that was also manual,and so the new car.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
We were a bit concerned.
Yeah, it was like.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
So we were going to have all this, all this learning
to do and you know, obviouslythe kids were.
The kids were gone, weren'tcoming with us as much anymore,
so being able to just throw aswag in if one of them does want
to come was quite easy.
And having the home base, theability to set up a camp for a
night or two and move, move itfairly easily, the ultimate is a
(38:54):
reasonably ultimate solution.
It worked really well for usand and and that daily move
wasn't so bad one of the thingsyou know and Obviously, having
to learn to set up the 200 a bitdifferently and then servicing
the 200 that I decided to givethe standard regular servicing.
(39:14):
You know, send the car intoToyota for the first few
services and I Was just I don'teven know if I want to remember
the story, but the very firstone.
We bought the 200 and we got ithere and I've cracked it one of
the CV boots on the way over.
I don't know how I did it, butone of the CV boots had torn
open as we were driving home andthat was out out near Baladonia
(39:37):
.
Some way somewhere out there wenoticed that all the grease was
spewing out inside.
Anyway, we still were drivingat home, it wasn't.
It wasn't the end of the world.
The CV boots no grease.
I was going to be replacing itwhen I got home anyway, because
I needed to be replaced becauseit was bugged.
So it didn't really matter thatwe drove it.
We drove another 1500 K's a bitlike that, which was no problem
(39:58):
, and I'd do it again if I hadto.
Anyway, so we get the car backand, of course, to register it
here, you've got to put itthrough the inspection, to
transfer it from New South Walesto WA.
So it's got to go through apitch test.
So they got to weigh everything.
So the camp has got to beweighed, the trip cars got to be
weighed.
You've got to have it allcertified, do all the checks and
all the balances and geteverything done.
(40:19):
And I knew I was going to havethis procedure done, so I'll get
the car looked out at Toyotaand they can do that.
CV boot because I'd only justowned it and I hadn't really
looked at it and I didn't.
I had no confidence in what Iwas going to do, so I thought
I'll get them to do that.
Do the first service do their200 point safety inspection or
(40:40):
whatever it was.
So at least then I know that itshould all be Sorted and then
when I go for it to be pitted itshould just all be no problem
and it should have all worked.
Little loan, it didn't.
So you know, they changed the CVboot but they'd left all the
grease through and strewneverywhere under the car and in
fact it was dripping off the carwhen it went for the pit
(41:00):
inspection and they said itwould fail because of the amount
of grease it's dripping offthis thing and pouring off.
They didn't even bother toclean it.
They didn't.
They twisted one of the rearbrake lines so there was a.
They taken the caliper off andtwisted it and put it back on,
so it had a kink in it and thatwas a fail as well.
So there was like three or fourthings that were all part of
(41:21):
the safety inspection that I waspaying a significant amount of
money for by the time, the CVboot and the and a service and
all the other bits and pieces.
It was still thousands ofdollars of work and then you
take it to have it pitted and itfails straight away.
So it went back straight outstraight from the pit shop
straight back to Toyota with abig complaint and saying fix it.
(41:43):
And they did.
And then we got that sorted.
But you know, I don't thinkI've ever been really satisfied
whenever I've had my car lookedout by anybody other than me.
So you know, then, that in linebrings us into doing it myself.
So you know, recently I've justdone the water pumps and all
the other bits and pieces ofservicing.
So the only thing about workingon, you know, the 200 series
(42:05):
Landcruiser is the engine'smassive and you open the bonnet
and it's just all engine and thecar is pretty high.
So you know, doing a water pump, you kind of on your knees on
the ball bar and trying to reachin.
So it's kind of awkward, it'skind of interesting.
But you know, we've had this.
We've had this car for a fewyears now.
We've done a few trips with theultimate.
We've loved it, we've had theonly.
(42:27):
The only thing that we, theonly thing that we're probably
missing, that we think we coulddo with, would be some def locks
Rear, rear and possibly bothand that's only be, only just to
pull us out of, only just topull us out of the crap when
we've got the camper trailer onand we're doing something that.
Should we be doing it or notdoing it?
(42:47):
I don't know.
You can argue the car Flooringsoft riverbed at midday going.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
What's over there?
The trap on the map goes there.
What must be something on theother side?
So we've got to give it a goand in fact, the road doesn't
continue on and we're stuck inthe poo, have to turn around and
doing a u-turn in the middle ofa sandy riverbed up in the
Pilbara's no fun.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Yeah, so so there's a few issues like that and you
know, because we're doing thework that we're doing and trying
to Check all the roads and makesure they're open and and
everything that's published onthe, on the, on the maps and in
our apps Is accurate, asaccurate as possible.
You know, we basically try anddrive all these things, so us
moving around a fair bit isimportant Getting familiar with
(43:30):
the car, getting the service.
In getting all that done, thediff locks would be handy.
We just have to use the winchmore.
So we tend to winch more thandiff lock.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
Yeah, that last trip we did was really interesting
with this car because we'venever had a front-mounted
electric winch.
So this 200 series came withthat and we obviously we've got
two sets of max max tracks onewe carry on top of the camper,
one we carry on top of thevehicle.
And one of the things wequickly discovered in those
Situations in the middle of theday, in the middle of the sand
(44:02):
and getting the getting boggeddown a bit and being too slow
With no traction, was it was fartoo slower process and less
efficient To chuck down thesemax tracks and make very slow
progress when we could easilyjust unwind the winch cable,
find the tree on the riverbankon the other side, and most of
(44:22):
these riverbanks were dry, I'mtalking about completely dead
dry.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
If you've got a long, if you've got a long, if you've
got a long, sandy thing to do.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
And it didn't.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
Max tracks is going to take you all day unless you
can get it up and moving again.
But the trouble that we'd findis that you get it up and moving
again, you just drop off theend of the track and you just
get disappear again.
So you know, recovery forrecovery there's all different
gear and all different things.
But yeah, we learned somelessons in, In fact, in a five
day window.
Speaker 2 (44:47):
In a five day window there's a blog on our website at
the counter.
There's some videos.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
We wish every day.
So the diff locks would havebeen a bit handy for that.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
That's probably one of the odds of being able to do.
I know the day that I suggestedto you well inquired.
What did you think about addingsome diff locks to this vehicle
?
Was that I was aware that wewere relying quite heavily on
there actually being a tree towinch to, and I was getting
concerned that if we got outinto the middle of.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
Bird dropped something on me.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
Oh, we just had a nature intervention here, it's
all right.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
It was only a seed, it wasn't a bird's.
A drop there came down out ofthe tree into David's lap.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
Ok, yeah, so what I was saying was I was a little
bit concerned.
We were reliant on thereactually being a decent tree to
winch off, and my recognitionwas it was possible that if
there was no tree then we weregoing to be in a much harder
situation.
So the idea about consideringhaving extra diff locks is to
(45:50):
mitigate that issue, becausewe're always alone, we're always
travelling solo.
So, look, a lot of people don'tdo this, of course, because
solo isn't for everybody.
Speaker 1 (45:59):
Oh, the other thing I was just going to say, the
other thing that I learned oneof the things that we had in the
80 was that extra long rangefuel tank and that was great,
you know.
And then we bought the 200 andthe first trip I spent most of
the trip stressing that we werenot going to have enough fuel,
that we just couldn't.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
We went to do dracals , we just didn't have the range
so it had 100 and what is it 140?
Speaker 1 (46:23):
137 litres 137 litres is a rated standard tanks, and
it was within the first fiveminutes, the first few days out
on this trip.
I'm going oh my God, the fuel'sdisappearing.
I don't have the fuel range.
I don't have the fuel range,and so I was always.
It then became a whole stressabout where are we going to stop
(46:44):
to get the fuel.
It played on my mind enoughthat I said to Michelle when we
get back from this, I've got todo the fuel tank, and so we did
that as well.
Now we've done that, and sothat's perfect.
There's a whole story about that.
There's a whole story aboutfitting that and breaking down
on the Tonka.
Enough if we just fitted it onour next trip.
But you know well, in fact wecould talk about it, but the
(47:07):
car's been.
We then had to go through thesetup process of the car and the
camper, and so things were alittle bit different, Because
one we had a camper that we weretowing so it could hold a lot
of fridge space, food space, allthe kitchen equipment, bedding
space, all the kitchen.
Speaker 2 (47:24):
We never used it.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
All the other stuff that we used to carry in the car
.
We could then put into thecamper.
But of course, as technologychanges now we've got to fit
drones and Starlink dishes andall these other things into the
car.
So now we filled the car againanyway, even though we don't
have kids in it.
We've got no kids and we stillgot no space, but we don't have
to utilize the roof racks, theroofs as much as we used to, but
(47:48):
this setup feels like suchluxury.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
There's no denying that.
I mean there's some big thingsthat change from the previous
setup with this 200 series isthat the kitchen is and all the
cooking, as you said, is all inthe camper.
But this camper I don't knowhow many people know the
ultimate is under 1,000 teardweight, so under 1,000 kilos,
it's 940 kilos 990 or somethingis the rating.
(48:13):
Yeah, so this means it's stillvery super lightweight, even
though we're talking aboutgetting bogged occasionally
Because you are loading it upstill and you've got maybe some
firewood on top, you're draggingthat around and okay.
So it's just the logistics.
But, yeah, for us the comfortsof having the bed almost fully
(48:34):
made up, stand up fridge in thekitchen, so a second fridge
because we carry a fridge in theback of the four wheel drive.
So how we've done this is we'vegot the car fully set up that
if we want to disconnect and goa four wheel driving, we can, or
camping because we've gotcooking fridges dual battery.
Speaker 1 (48:50):
we've got lithium batteries in it, we've got a
whole setup in the car as wellas a whole setup in the camper,
so that we can basically beindependent.
But it also gives us redundancyand, being the computer people
in the work, we rely on power.
Speaker 2 (49:04):
so having a full electrical system, lithium
battery based system, in the car, Well, we've got two inverters
one in the car and one in thebig ones.
Speaker 1 (49:13):
We've basically got a lot of duplication in there so
that we've got relative securityof everything working and then
so the ultimate was great.
We've done a lot of touringaround.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
We put our bikes, on the roof rack of the ultimate.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
We put the bikes on the roof of the ultimate, which
was something that we designedto do.
The only problem was thatultimate was a manual lift, so
you had to basically lift up thelid manually.
It has a big 1700 Newton metergas strut on it which is
(49:54):
massively strong for people thatunderstand about these gas
struts.
But still the lid wasreasonable.
You had to flip it over andbring it back down and over a
period of time this was startingto play havoc with my back
issues and stuff.
So some people have been askingwe've just bought another
(50:16):
ultimate.
So we've just bought a newultimate now, which we've only
just got in the last week or two, and why change what we've
already had?
We've already got an ultimateand, realistically, the space
and the size and almosteverything else is almost
exactly the same, exceptobviously it's all new.
But one of the most relevantthings for me with my back and
(50:36):
other issues is this electriclift.
So now it's all electric liftand we can actually lift it with
the bikes still on it.
We've had the 150 kilo lidupgrade done so that we can lift
up to 150 kilos on the lid, andso we've just mounted the bikes
on there and we'll put some howmuch of those two mountain
(50:57):
bikes weigh.
Do you reckon oh, I don't knowby the time we put these out
back tire tubes in there thatweigh about five kilos each
because they're thornproof?
No, the two bikes would bearound about 30 kilos by the
time you add the two bikestogether, because mine's carbon
fiber, so it's fairly light, butthe mass is about 30 kilos.
(51:18):
But the advantage of not havingto take it off to lift it, it's
all just realistically, the newcamper, other than a bit of
luxury, oh, come on.
And oh yeah, okay, it's got ahot and cold running water.
It's got internal heating.
You can heat the inside of it.
It's got 200 litres of watertanks.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
It's got grey water tanks You're 56, I'm 55.
We're not 20 year olds.
Anymore, we're happy to wash ina bowl of seawater.
Speaker 1 (51:52):
So now, why do we change that?
Why have we got the new thing?
Well, because it's got allthose mod cons and it's more
fancy and it's new.
But our plan is to spend muchmore time in it.
So now, with the kids finishedschool and the position of our
business, we want to do moretrips.
We want to be out thereresearching and doing the work.
(52:14):
We've spent a bit of time inthe last trips to make sure that
we can work remotely.
We've got the Starlink, we'vegot all bits of pieces happening
.
Speaker 2 (52:22):
Yeah, the Starlink's a game changer because of the
customer service of being ableto keep up to date regularly
with people, because on the lasttrip, whilst I was keeping up
to date and working, there wouldbe a delay of at least one week
.
Sometimes it was two to threeweeks, and then we had issues
with the phone.
You know, we had dual SIMphones, we had Optus, we had
(52:44):
Telstra, but then we chose the Idon't know the Penitel, the
budget phone thing, and I hadproblems where I just couldn't
get the voicemail for a while.
So whilst I had phone service,it was the wrong carrier, I
couldn't get the message, youknow, and that put a lot of
stress on us and by getting theStarlink that's taken away the
stress of being able to be dailyresponsive in the business and
(53:08):
that's what we can do now.
Speaker 1 (53:08):
But of course it uses more space in the car, because
the antenna's quite big and thenyou've got to take poles to
mount it on and all the otherbits and pieces.
So you know, there's always somethere's always pluses and
there's always minuses, but youknow so the progression to the
new ultimate is for that.
We actually haven't taken itfor a trip yet.
It's all about to happen.
So hopefully we'll get outthere and be able to actually
(53:29):
use these great toys that we'vebeen spending all our time,
years and money putting together, and you know from a vehicle's
point of view.
That's about where we're up totoday.
Obviously, we just had the carswrapped and I've just done a
load of servicing on the cars,the graphic wraps, and we've
just done a lot of servicing onthe cars.
And we didn't even talk aboutthe other projects, like
(53:51):
building the sun's bus, camperconversion and all these other
things that we've been workingon over the last few years.
So you know, whilst these bitshave been going on, we've always
I've always, I've always liketinkered and tunkered with the
cars.
I've always tinkered andtunkered building camper
conversions.
I've done three or four camperconversions now with buses and
cars and campers and working onour own car and looking at the
(54:14):
best options for what we'vetaken Whilst our car you know it
looks really pretty now becauseit's got a wrap on it, but
because it kind of looks allshiny and all new and everything
, but it's really scratchedunderneath it because we use it.
You know Our usage of thesecars and stuff is practical.
(54:34):
Everything we put into the carwe hope is practical.
And it's only practical for usto be able to go and do this
longer term touring on our ownor with people, if we happen to
meet some people which wehaven't traveled with many
people for a long, for a long,long time.
Speaker 2 (54:49):
But We'll find some new friends.
Speaker 1 (54:51):
Yeah, we'll find some new friends, but, you know,
whilst we've got all this goingand making all these plans and
setting everything up, it'simportant I believe it's
important to keep working onthese things and have a very
good picture in your head of howeverything sits together and
how it all works.
So you know, we're here now,ready to go for our trips and
(55:16):
travels, and that's the story of, realistically, how we got here
.
We could talk, as I said, wecould have talked about other
bits with all the otherconversions and things that
we've conquered with, but Ithink we might leave the story
for the Leon's bus.
We might leave the bus foranother story.
Speaker 2 (55:31):
Yeah, we've got a little bit on the YouTube
channel of building Benji.
That's been a massive projectfor the last 12 months and
really interesting one.
Speaker 1 (55:40):
But yeah, I've learned more mechanic stuff.
I've learned stuff that Ididn't know before.
So we've got more into weldingand got more into lots of other
stuff.
So yeah all life experiences,but that's what it is.
Speaker 2 (55:48):
you can never know enough with this recreation.
It's like every vehicle isthere for a different stage of
your life.
You know, we've gone travelingwithout kids pre-kids Then we've
had the young kids growing upall through teenage life.
Now the kids are off our hands,and so that's why we've I mean,
a lot of people go through alot more vehicles than we do.
We have just found vehicles,though, that have really worked
(56:11):
for us, and because you'veworked on them, you've been
comfortable to modify them andserve them, oh yeah, but we've
also spent significant time andinvestment and resources into
making it what it is.
I know you don't.
We just want to flick it off.
Speaker 1 (56:23):
Because to go from.
Speaker 2 (56:24):
The attachment to that 80 pound setup.
Speaker 1 (56:26):
So you go and buy a 300.
But I don't think I would.
But let's say you went andbought a 300 today.
It's going to take you a longtime to get your fuel tanks,
your suspension changes yourroof racks, your roof bars, your
drawer systems, all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (56:41):
That's what the appeal was when Dad's car was
off.
Speaker 1 (56:43):
Because it had all of it.
Speaker 2 (56:44):
Yeah because it solved our dilemma.
This was a big dilemma that youreally didn't want to strip out
what we had and then have to gothrough that process.
It's exhausting shopping aroundand finding all the right bits
because they're different sizes.
It's like, oh you know, thisrack's a different size, this
bar's a different size.
Speaker 1 (56:59):
It's all right if you've got an unlimited budget
and you just say buy this carand go there and have everything
done, but I'm afraid we don't.
Well, the other problem is yougo there and have all this done
and then you take the thing outin the field and something
really basic.
Speaker 2 (57:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (57:10):
Doesn't work properly and you look at it with your
and that's the problem with thecomputerized car as well.
It's like if something goeswrong you're in a lot of trouble
.
But anyway, that's where,that's our cars and our
progressors and our vehicles andthe setups and why we've done
what we've done, and I hope youfind that really interesting.
And again, make sure yousubscribe and we'll catch up
(57:32):
with you next time.
Speaker 2 (57:33):
Just pop them on the YouTube channel, maybe ask us
questions at the bottom of that.
And if you've got any othersuggestions for other topics
you'd like us to talk about inthese podcasts, please contact
us and let us know.
More than happy, there's tonsand tons of opportunity for us
to keep chatting away and wepromise there'll be lots more
(57:53):
episodes coming and, yeah, hopeyou subscribe and stick with us.
We're really enjoying it so far.
Thank you so far.
Hi everyone and welcome back.
It's David and Michelle here,explorers, for our next podcast
Journey With you.
Today we're wanting to gothrough some of our vehicles and
what we've had and how longwe've had them for and why we
made that choice and where we'reup to now.
And it's interesting becauseway back in the beginning of
(00:23):
time, before I even had any sortof half interest that we're
going to do what we've becomedoing, the mid 90s was my first
4A into a four-wheel drive andit was a little white Suzuki
Vitara manual, a littlesuper-duper light thing, and it
got taken around Golban andMitigong and a few places doing
a little bit of four-wheeldriving.
And now that I look back on theexperiences that I had back
(00:45):
then and I actually didn'treally have half a clue what I
was really doing it wasinteresting how light that
little car was and how capableit actually was because of its
weight, but you just can't carrymuch with it.
But yeah, so we started backthen but we obviously got a bit
more serious and it was at alate later in the late 90s, 96,
(01:06):
97 time frame, we made thedecision to go and do some
traveling around Australia andwe're trying to work out what
vehicle to buy and we really hadno clue other than the Suzuki
Vitara's experience that hadbeen a few years because it sold
out of that and didn't evenhave it.
So it wasn't like a continuouspurchase.
And then we got to the pointwhere with the health and the
(01:28):
other bits that we decided wewere going to go away and what
sort of a vehicle were we goingto buy.
I don't even think when westarted that well, we started
that did we start that wholething with the purchase decision
to go for years, or did wedidn't actually know at that
stage when we bought the Troopy?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I do remember the whole discussion being planning
a long-term touring trip, neverto come back to Sydney to sell
up.
So we knew all of that and sowe really needed something that
was going to be a touringvehicle.
We knew it was going to be a.
We were going to live in it.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, okay, yeah, that's what I kind of remember.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
It was just hard because and then was it because
of the lady from work that toldus about the Toyota Land Cruiser
Club of Sydney.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, basically the Michelle where Michelle was
working at the time.
There was a few people thatwere involved in the Toyota Land
Cruiser Club and I think one ofMichelle's friends, a work
associate.
You know we're obviouslytalking about what vehicle to
buy and trips and traveling, andthey kind of steered us into
the Troopy path because of it,because of its reliability and
(02:33):
suitability for the task that wewere having, and it had a big
internal space.
We didn't actually know whatTroopy were going to, what
Troopy to look for.
But I was just reading throughthe weekend paper at home one
day and saw a Troopy for sale upnear where we lived in
Bayswater in Sydney andBayswater, wasn't it Bays,
bayview, bayview, bayswaters inWA.
(02:56):
Bayview Bayview has been it'sbeen too long and a bloke was
selling a converted Troopy.
So it was previously a Brit,brits or Hertz.
It was one of those two.
At the time He'd bought it offone of those.
When it was finished he'd usedit for a some period of time.
He was selling it.
We were interested in buying it.
So it had a.
(03:16):
It had a camper conversion, thestandard Brits, apollo,
whatever all those brands werestanding for?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yeah, it was the Barbie bus.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
It was the Barbie bus , yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
It had a kitchen sink and a pop-top roof.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
And so we actually invested in that.
And you know that was our firstfull-size four wheel drive, our
first sort of sware into whatwe're going to use for our trips
and traveling around.
And so technically, you knowstandard Toyota Land Cruiser 75
series, 1-hz engine, not turbo,nothing fancy manual manual of
(03:49):
course diesel, of course, was1-HZ.
No, no fancy diff locks, nofancy anything.
It just had a camper conversion, probably had.
It did have some suspensionupgrades which we upgraded again
after we learned what all ofthat really meant.
And it was, it was a, it was agood car and we did all that
(04:11):
driving training.
So after we bought it, we wantedto understand what we were
going to do and how we could,how we could use the thing.
So, being that we bought aToyota on recommendation from
people that were Michelle's work, that were in the Toyota Land
Cruiser Club in New South Wales,it kind of made it reasonably
easy or logical for us to jointhe Toyota Land Cruiser Club in
Sydney at the time and we wentthrough all their training and
(04:33):
it was fantastic the things that, the things that we learned in
one weekend on that that, thatclub, full driving will and I
don't think I've still been ableto take the car and do things
that we did that day.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
I remember the.
What are they calling?
Speaker 1 (04:45):
that reverse and up that hill up the rock reverse
and up a rock and perch and atthe top and then trying to come
back down.
There was a whole heap of stufflike that it was really stall
starts and it was really.
That was really quite technical, so the best part of was it was
eye-opening.
We didn't really have much of,anyway, any experience at the
time, but with their guidanceand all that, yeah, and we did
(05:09):
all this great river crossingsand some great stuff with the
club and that worked out quitewell.
And so you know, when we, whenwe got ourselves a bit closer to
to moving and going on the trip, I decided that I wasn't really
happy with all the internalfitting, fit out of the of the
camper conversion that was inthe pop top.
(05:29):
So, me being me, I basicallyripped it all out and put it all
back together and rebuilt itagain.
Really I was.
It was just the age of thecabinetry, it was just all
getting a bit old and the doorlatches weren't working and some
other bits and pieces neededattending to.
But me being me, I tore it allout and built a whole new inside
fit out, basically replicatingexactly what I had, but just
(05:52):
modernizing it, making it new.
And so it was good.
Engine wise 1hz I can't evenremember the kilometers, but it
was only fairly low.
It had only done like a hundredthousand or something, and so a
hundred or a hundred fiftythousand and it was really well
looked after.
Considering it was a an ex-highcar.
I was a bit nervous about thatbecause it could have got
(06:13):
flogged and you know, you'dnever know what somebody's going
to do to those sorts of cars.
But realistically we did somesuspension mods and some shock
mods and, and realistically,from modifications in that car,
that was about it.
Electrically, you know, enginewise, only standard servicing.
It didn't.
It didn't need anything else.
(06:34):
Yeah, it could have gone better, but it didn't need to.
It was the right weight.
When we also were doing thattrip we mentioned in one of our
previous podcasts, we actuallywent with the intent of being
scuba driving instructors andtraveling around Australia in
our four-wheel drive teachingpeople about scuba diving.
So we also got a box trailerwith a, a gull-wing box trailer
(06:58):
and I think it was calledbutterfly butterfly.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
O'Brien's butterfly trailer at the time it was built
, we had it built, we had itbuilt specifically for us.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
But we then put scuba made mounts and mounted scuba
tanks and all sorts of gear intothe into that and then, you
know, then we went basically onour first trip up up to Kansan.
We started our journey with atrip to Kansan and doing.
Cape York with the Toyota LandCruiser Club.
So when we actually left tostart all of our traveling
(07:29):
around, we went to Kans to meetthe club group, to do the Cape
York trip, come back to Kans andthen we continued on our merry
way for the next few years and Iactually remember that we did.
We did the suspensionreplacement in Kans when we came
back from the, from the, fromthe Cape York trip.
As soon as we came back intoKans I had some problems with
(07:51):
the shocks or something.
I remember doing a suspension.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I remember doing the suspension mods in the coconut
carabiner park and it fell offthe airbag, inlifting no I
didn't have.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
I didn't have air jacks at the time and I was
jacked up in the in the caravanpark, as you do, yeah, changing,
changing the shocks out and thecarabiner, and and I obviously
just didn't set it up wellenough, didn't have a big enough
jacking plate.
You know all the things thatyou get taught big jacking plate
, do this, do that.
The ground seemed fairly firmbut we jacked it up and you know
(08:23):
, after the wheels off and halfeverything's off, of course the
jack goes and slips out and thecar goes thumping down onto the
grass you nearly took your armoff.
Oh my god and so there we alsohad a an exercise in what
recovery gear you need to takewhen you go away, because I
couldn't actually get the carback up on the jack because it
(08:44):
was too low on that side toactually start lifting it again.
And so the complexity cameabout what on earth we were
going to do and someone camealong with it.
Someone came along, said, oh,I've got an airbag, an exhaust
inflation airbag.
We hadn't seen these things, wehadn't seen one of those before
, so I'll give that a go.
And so we blew the thing uplike a big balloon and you put
it up underneath the body.
Yeah, airbag, so we were able tolift it up and get that going
(09:06):
again and so, yeah, that wasthat was that suspension job.
And you know, during our yearsof using that car mechanically,
um, one of the things that I'velearned over the years is that I
do tend to service everythingmyself.
I think I'm more fussy.
You know I always getdisappointed when I go and get
something serviced, or someonelooks at something and you get
(09:27):
it back and it's not right andthat there's nothing more
annoying uh to me than that.
And we've had those experienceswith all our cars going for
factory or non-factory servicingand all that stuff.
So I think you know, for thoseof us that are, if, if you
really want to be really seriousabout this game, you really
need to understand your vehicle.
(09:48):
So, understanding your vehicleand how it works and what makes
it tick and what you need to becapable of, depending on your
situation.
We travel a fair bit on our own, so I'm much more happy and
much more confident to knoweverything about my car that I
can know.
Obviously, there's some thingsthat are going to break that you
can't fix on your own out inthe middle of nowhere, but for
(10:09):
everything else, I want to makesure that I'm fairly comfortable
and confident, so we do tend todo everything, and so in
servicing the trooper on ourfirst trips, I remember packing
wheel bearings at at at like,like now than it was, I think.
I've got a picture of you doingyeah and that was way back, way
back in the days, you know.
So we'd be just driving alongand the wheel bearings would get
(10:30):
hot on the trailer.
So I have to do a wheel bearingchange the split rims is what I
remember.
Yeah, well, the split rims atjavis bay was that I tried to.
I tried to take a finger off atjavis bay doing a split ring,
change so and and split rims.
I still see so many vehiclesusing them today and I and I and
I still remember them and it'sactually not that horrible of
(10:50):
wheel, except that they don'tlook very pretty, they're not
nice and shiny and and all thiswonderful stuff.
But from a serviceability pointof view and a self maintenance
point of view, it's a hell of alot easier to swap a rim, swap a
tire, on a split rim than on a,than on a standard rim and I
know, because I've done enoughof those of both types yeah well
, when we were at marble barthere was a guy doing split rim
(11:13):
changes in the caravan parkright next to us he had a
trooping yeah, yeah, oh, do youdon't we?
do you want me to explain how todo a split rim change?
Speaker 2 (11:20):
yeah, oh my god.
Well, the difference is what asplit rim is like all right.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Well, a split rim, just just very quickly.
I don't have one in front of me, so those that are watching
still can't see it.
Those are listening.
You've probably got even lessidea.
But a split rim is basically,if you haven't seen one, um,
there's basically a, it's thesteel rim, and then the tire
goes on, and then there's like asteel, an outer rim that gets
(11:44):
placed on the outside edge andand leave it into place around
the around the tire so that it'skind of locks it in, so you
basically get it off.
You sort of it's like a bigO-ring, a big circle, a
monstrous one, and you basicallyun-prite with pry bars and it
pops off and then you caneffectively take the tyre off,
put the tyre back on, re-put thepiece of metal back in and blow
(12:06):
it up and bobs your uncle off.
You go.
You should be right.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Oh, so that's right, they're tube tyres, so this
means that you're when you havea flat tyre.
I'd forgotten all of this.
The whole concept is you'reable to remove the tyre from the
rim, put a tube in and fix yourflat by fixing the tyre itself,
Whereas these days you take thewhole rim and it's heavy and
you've got to carry a secondwhole wheel replacement is what
(12:32):
you do.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
These days, don't you ?
Speaker 2 (12:33):
So that's what it is, so our spares?
I remember that they're allthese folded up bits of tyre and
tubes under the seat because wedidn't have a dual wheel
carrier, we had a single wheelcarrier.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
And we didn't carry a second ring on a roof rack or
anything, no, but we also hadn'tlearned that lesson to have the
trailer have the same rim setup as the vehicle.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Oh really, so we hadn't learned that lesson back
then?
We?
Were just in our 20s yeah wewere just young and didn't
really know.
Now we know that all of ourtrailers if we have them have
the same rims and tyres as thecar, so that we've got
multitudes of spares.
So things can be swapped arounda lot easier.
So they're the things welearned.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
But yeah, we can, but it did save weight and then it
is a good option for that, forthose that are still listening.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
We use alloy rims, like most people, alloy and
steel rims on our cars andcanfers but I still carry tubes.
I've got tubes in the car nowbecause I can always put one of
those in and fix even fairlysignificantly large slices in
the tyre and rims.
Take it off, put its tube in it, tape it or whatever you've got
(13:39):
to do to protect it piece ofplastic, whatever you've got to
do to cover a gaping, great bighole and put it back together.
So tyre tubes is always a goodthing to carry, but obviously to
get now to get the tyres offnon-split rims is a bit painful
because they've got to be gluedand then yeah, you don't do that
when you're out in the bush.
No.
And then if you're trying toinflate, well, we've done a few.
(14:04):
But if you're trying to inflatea non-split rim just on an air
compressor, you'll have a hardtime getting the bead to set
unless the tyre is reallyoversized in the width because
it just won't pop out.
So a tubeless tyre, which mostof them all are now it's sealed
by being pressed out to the edge.
If you can't press it out tothe edge, it's really hard to
(14:26):
make them seal.
So if you put an inner tube init and blow it up, then that's a
heap easier to ensure thatyou're going to seat the bead
and make the thing driveable Atthe end of the day, if the
situation requires that you doanything to make the vehicle
move to get you from whereveryou were to where you've got to
go.
But you know, the Troopy was areliable machine.
(14:48):
We never it did it ever let usdown, ever any time.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
No.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I can't recall.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
All I recall I mean we are going back a lot of years
now but we had a lot of tyreissues that a lot of that, I
think, was because of theharshness of those leaf
suspensions and the front endwas hard when we started.
When we went to the next carwith coil front suspensions with
the 80 series.
I remember as a passenger sucha dramatic difference in comfort
and was like oh, why didn't wedo this before?
(15:17):
And then we've never really hadtyre issues ever since.
Oh, you shouldn't say that.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Oh, why did you say that?
Oh well, anyway.
Yeah, so you know the old 75,leaf spring suspension in the
rear and all that sort of stuff.
We drove that for a few years.
We did the bulk of our maintrips, the bulk of those
pre-explorized trips.
We actually hadn't startedexplorers at this stage.
(15:47):
This was two years of travelingaround.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Oh, that had done the Simpson Desert twice.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Oh yeah, I know, but we had all the golf and all the
Kimberley the whole everything,the whole of Australia, twice BE
before the Corrod this was backthen.
So we did that touring around,and after we'd and in a previous
podcast I recall that wementioned that we sat on the
banks of the river in Aminka andmade up this business plan and
(16:13):
decided to come to Perth.
So we decided to come to Perthand we still had the Troopy and
the trailer and we were able tomove some stuff over to here as
we popped over, and within fiveminutes Michelle was pregnant
and so I had to throw that in,because that was the reason why,
really, the Troopy was on anine month wicket.
(16:36):
We really needed to make surethat we could have a baby in a
car, and the Troopy was a twoseat full camper conversion A
two door a full camperconversion.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Two door full camper conversion it had two registered
seats.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
It wasn't even really registered to take three, so
unfortunately the Troopy neededto go back then and that was
2000,.
Was that 2000?
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah well, Leon was born in October 2000.
And I think, the first time youpicked me up from the hospital
with the AD series the firsttime I'd seen it.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
It was in the AD series picking you up from the
hospital.
So we timed it right that wedid that swap over and we bought
it from a local car dealer herein Perth, south of the river,
and that was all quite good.
I think it was second out ofthe time we bought it.
It had, think, 40,000 K's onthe clock and we've got a decent
(17:34):
deal, even though it seemedreally expensive to us being
young and having just arrived inPerth, having travelled for two
years without really having anincome, without really having
got to marry.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
It was a 93 year old vehicle at the time.
Because it was a year 2000 andwe bought a 1997 GXL, the 97,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
GXL diesel, manual, non-turbo, 1-hz engine, the same
thing that I was fairly used towith the 75.
Almost everything was identical, except that it had this plush
and luxurious coil sprungsuspension.
And, as Michelle said, we gotinto that and it was like, oh my
goodness, coil springsuspension, such luxury, yeah,
(18:15):
such luxury.
But like whenever you changeover from anything and you've
had a long term goodrelationship with one vehicle
and then you're moving into thenext one, there's all those
unknowns.
So we've bought this prettymuch stock standard GXL.
It didn't have, it didn't have.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
It didn't have race suspension or anything.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
It had nothing, it was just a standard.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
That's right.
It had nothing.
It didn't even have side stairs.
It didn't even have side stairs, All bar nothing.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
So we had the Xploros business model.
We sort of started that in 2000and got this car in 2000.
And so obviously needing it forthe baby was the main thing.
Solve that, that was easy,doesn't need much mods to put a
car seat in.
So that worked out quite well.
But then came the whole exerciseof what we were going to do and
(19:02):
obviously being early on in thebusiness and just setting up
Xploros, we decided that wewould see if, again early in
internet probably too early forall the people that we started
talking to but we decided thatwe should see if we could do
feature stories on the vehiclesetup.
So vehicle setup stories and ofall the things that we bought
(19:26):
and bought or were supplied andthe deals that we made to try
and get a bit of advertisingrevenue and all do fittings to
the car.
But it was also very importantto us that we had the right
stuff put into the car.
We're not competitivefour-wheel drivers.
(19:48):
We don't need it to climb thebiggest hills, we don't need it
to go the fastest.
It doesn't even have to be theprettiest, it doesn't have to
have the fanciest accessories,it's just got to do the job.
Back then, obviously early daysin the business we were able to
get the side steps and the bullbars and we did got that stuff
(20:11):
from ARB as the side guards,which I really do like and I
kind of miss them the rails thatcome down from the bull bar to
the side skirts to give you sometree deflection protection as
you're driving through roadsthat haven't been driven over
for a few years.
So I've kind of missed that inthe newer ones.
We had the roller drawers, theOutback roller drawers yeah, the
(20:31):
ones that we put in and thefridge went on top and then we
had roof racks and the roof bars, the long range of fuel tank.
And then, yeah, I fitted.
It became apparent that we weregoing to do the canning and
some of these longer trips, andso Fuel tanks and stuff became
an issue.
So we put in a long range offuel tank At the time, got that
(20:51):
shipped over and put that in,and then we traveled around, we
did the canning, we did a fewother, we did a few other trips
Mechanically again, servicing itall myself Every six to twelve
months or whatever.
Oil chain schedules of bits, ofpieces.
Okay, so we, we installed thislong-range fuel tank and a lot
of other stuff was given to us.
(21:11):
You know, as we startedpublishing these articles and
some of these review stories, alot of other suppliers and
people in the game Just thoughtthat they'd have a go and we
were offered all sorts of stuff.
And I remember we, we wereoffered a twine hot water shower
unit and that was great.
So we, we, we decided to putthat in into the, into the 80,
(21:35):
and so that's the.
Those showers is just a.
I'll just give you a quickexplanation.
It uses there, the carsradiator hot water To heat the
water that you pass through acoil and it heats it up on the
way through so you can have ahot shower Out out in the bush
was just with a water pump andthe showers.
The shower is kind of importantbecause, you know, in all of
(21:58):
years of us traveling with bitsand pieces, for a few years we
didn't have a shower and thenthen you're able to have a
shower and it was interestingbecause we didn't actually use
the shower that much and, as Irecall, I think we actually also
might have had one in the troop.
He didn't know, I can'tremember.
Anyway, we had a shower in the80 and that was great and you
know.
So we just kept.
(22:18):
We in those early days of thatcar.
A lot of this equipment cameinto us fairly early.
I did have the bars and railsand steps and stuff fitted, a RB
that was part of the, thedealing that they wanted to do
fuel tanks and all the otherbits and pieces.
Again, I like to do it so thatI know what I've put in, what I
can take out and what I canadjust if something does happen
(22:40):
to go wrong with any of thosesystems.
And you know, we're alsolearning about batteries and
solar power and charging and andand all of those more
complicated issues in Makingyourself self-sufficient to go
out there and also how to packthe thing.
So One of the things aboutconverting into the 80 and, as I
(23:05):
said, we had it when our firstchild was was born and we only
sold it.
What year did we sell that car?
2019 was it 19?
.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yeah, that's when we got the 200.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Yeah, so, so we had this 80.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
We had it for 19 years.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
We loved it and we.
We we gauge this greatappreciation for it.
The only thing I hated about itand it didn't really become as
apparent, but we got it webought a boat.
We bought a fairly large boatat one point and we were wanting
to take that on some trips.
So one of the things that weReally like, we really like
(23:44):
going up to Ningaloo station inthat, that whole area of the
coast there.
But we realized that not agreat place to go without a boat
, a bit a bit of a sad place togo without a boat.
So it wasn't that we wanted togo there that we bought the boat
, but we decided that we wantedto buy a boat.
And then the complexity is ofthen towing around a fairly
significantly Heavy boat.
It wasn't a small boat 6.2meters long, inboard engine at
(24:07):
weight, a fair bit great luggagetrailer, but quite a heavy,
quite a heavy piece of equipmentto pull around on the old
GXL1-HZ.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
So on a single axle trailer.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Oh yeah, I don't know the.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Ningaloo road.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Don't worry about the single axle trailer.
So we will, we'll buy in thisfairly large and reason we heavy
boat and I think even probablythe day that I picked it up
because we bought it from theMandra boat show and I'll bring
it home and it became apparentthat the old 80s 1-HZ was.
It's a little bit, it was alittle bit difficult to tow this
(24:44):
boat around the place.
Yeah, it was a bit gutless andyou know, towing it up, towing
it up the Great Eastern here, upup the hills, it's like going
up into the Blue Mountains overeast.
It's sort of a hill.
You know you'd be backing downinto third Doing 60 kph up these
hills and stuff.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
There's no power.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
And so there was no power.
So that was a that was a bitdisappointing Grateful drive
vehicle that could do everythingon its own.
But as soon as we added theboat we obviously had some
complexity.
But you know, we were doing.
We also had to deal with thealso what.
What did we do to fix thatproblem?
We bought a turbo.
A turbo.
We bought a Denco diesel kit atthe time.
(25:26):
What did Denco?
We did a deal with Dencosomething happened.
Denco supplied us with one andand, like most things, came with
a new exhaust, new new 3-inchexhaust system, new headers and
the turbo and all the plumbing,drawing holes and sumps to put
the oil feeds in and everything.
Of course I did all that as, asI've already said, trying to do
(25:48):
everything on my own, and thatworked quite well.
I was surprised.
I wasn't surprised it actually,it actually worked.
We only set the boost up fairlylow, it was only like a 10 psi
boost, and then, yeah, we've gota Exhaust gas temperature gauge
in there to measure it.
So if I'm climbing up the hillsfor half an hour or something
(26:10):
and the turbo is winding and theengine temperature is going up,
at least we could monitor, thatbeing that it wasn't a factory
turbo engine.
So and it didn't, and it didn'thave any computers and it wasn't
technological like that, whichis just perfect.
The least we might all have acomputer in our hand, we might
carry a computer on the phone,but geez, you don't really want
too many computers in the car ifyou can avoid it in these sorts
(26:33):
of cars anyway, because there'salways stories you hear about
about computers arguing with youbeing able to start the car
anyway.
So the other thing that we'dlearned over the years was how
to pack this car.
You know so how we would stackthe drawers in the back and how
we would use the cargo barrier.
We had a half-height cargobarrier and roller drawers.
(26:53):
We had an inside water tankthat was custom-made stainless
steel that sat above the wheel65, 65 litres or something and
it sat on top of the wheel archon the right hand side and we
when the roller drawers was.
Yeah, we had two kids all in theback, so we had two kids and a
dog and and we were touringaround all over the place.
(27:15):
We were doing a lot more travelthan we have in the last few
years.
Obviously, as a kid's got tohigh school years Travelling, it
reduced a little bit.
Also, business changed a littlebit.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
But you know, with that car we traveled a lot when
the kids were little.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
We quickly became very comfortable in that car and
when we were doing more seriousfour-wheel-driving without the
boat.
You know every we do a trip upthe coast every year with the
boat.
When we're doing more desert oroutback regional trips, you
know we're taking two kids, thetwo of us.
Just in the 80 series we had aroof rack bar, a rhino roof bar
(27:53):
box thing, and we basicallythrow three or four swags, oz
tent.
You know well, we slept inswags and Oz tent pretty much
for that entire period, 2018 or19 years when we had that, when
we had that car.
They were our swag and tentyears and We've done everything
(28:16):
in swags and tents in that carfor years and to be able to jam
the kids and ourselves All ofour swag sleeping gear, no
travesty equipment, recoverygear, everything we had.
I would have hate to havethought about the GCM stuff on
that vehicle.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
It was never a never a thing.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
It didn't even exist didn't exist but we had so much
we were able to carry so muchand do so much.
But you know it was hardGetting up on the roof every day
to take down two or three swagsand ostensis and stuff.
It takes us total after aperiod of time but we happily
travelled like that for thatwhole 20 years, grew a great
love for that 80 series.
I still love the 80 series.
I'm still disappointed I soldthe 80 series but you know we do
(28:57):
the things that we do at thetime because I didn't need to
have two full drives.
But from a nostalgic point ofview I love the 80 series.
It was such a great car.
But you know, like all goodthings or like all things, it
comes to an end.
One of the things that becamemore apparent to me and Michelle
obviously it's getting harderto do all this packing up.
(29:20):
I've had a few sportinginjuries in the last 10 or 15
years.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Yeah back and your neck yeah back problems and
stuff and I'm so sure I can'thelp you with the single thing
with that roof rack.
I think the liability therecame that whilst I'm fit and
strong and active and can help,I'm just so high challenged that
that whole concept of having somuch on the roof rack was no
good.
And yeah, we had two teenagekids, but you know, it's just,
(29:45):
they just got too big the amountof food and we only wanted one
angle fridge.
We had the 40 litre fridge.
That was it for the four of us.
And yeah, we had really reachedthe limits of capacity of what
you could carry without atrailer and the only trailer we
wanted to take was the boat.
You can't tow another campertrailer behind the boat.
We were lucky we had friends tomeet up with at Ningaloo other
(30:07):
families and so one trip wetowed their boat and they took
their camper trailer when thehuge big awning and we lived
together communally there.
We've had other family tripsthat are like that with other
families as well.
So the kids had most of theirupbringing on Ningaloo beach for
three or four weeks at a timeand you know our thing was just
(30:28):
to get there.
And then we had the boat and sowe were then out fishing and
using the boat and we werestacked up with all the firewood
and the water to get there andthen when we came home it was
empty or other than being fullof fish again.
That was that era and then thatwas it.
We eventually realized that itwas just too much effort.
I remember after one Ningalootrip we came home for two weeks,
(30:50):
we packed off and then we wentto Maralinga.
So we dropped the boat off,changed the whole packing again
from a coastal trip to a deserttrip and then we went off to
Maralinga I think that was 2015.
And there was a group of usthere.
So that was a totally differentsetup, but that same car and it
was awesome with the kids andall.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
But again we were back to the swags and taking
things on, you know, to get ontothe roof rack and stuff to get
things out.
I had a system where I stand onthe sidestep, put a foot onto
the tyre, I'd open the rearlittle side window quarter
window, put my foot on thewindow sill and then I could get
up onto the roof rack, becausewe didn't have a ladder and all
that sort of stuff.
So yeah, and then we get olderand things get harder and we get
(31:33):
lazier.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Well, we had a period of time where the high school
got in the way.
Yeah, so the high school got inthe way, and we don't like
school holiday bookings and allthat, and we weren't using the
boat.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
So the boat, we ended up selling the boat.
I think, like a lot of people,you buy this boat.
You use it for a number ofyears six, seven, eight years
you use it all the time and thenit spends more time in the
driveway than it does in thewater.
So it was time for us to movethat on.
And then, yeah, we'd kind ofidentified that the camping and
(32:03):
stuff was getting harder withthe swags.
And, however, for the work thatwe do moving every day the
swags is easy, it's quick andyou just throw it off the roof
and throw it on the roof, andthrow it off the roof and throw
it on the roof.
But over time the swags getbigger.
We have a big double swag andthen you have a couple of single
(32:26):
swags for the kids and then thekids' swags get king singles,
yeah because they got bigger,and then they get bigger.
So everything gets bigger,bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger
and the kids get bigger.
So the packing becomes a bitmore of a problem.
And then we get to the end ofschool and the kids are coming
with us as much and stuffanymore.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
And I know we deliberated about what do we do,
how do we make this transitionto the next stage?
And you were.
We didn't want a caravan, wedidn't want to change our
ability to move.
Yeah, with the four-wheeldriving concept, to be able to
just go anywhere and not havethat liability.
If we were four-wheel driving,we wanted something, but we
(33:03):
needed the comforts.
And then it was like well, arethe kids?
Are we going to put all thismoney into some camper trailer?
Which one?
Are the kids even going to comewith us?
They're getting to that pointwhere they were like, yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Yeah, and the friends of ours had a camp right and if
you've ever seen one of thosethat made here at WA and now are
fold out sort of camper andthey've been quite popular and
we'd spent some time with themand that kind of worked out
quite well.
It was probably more cateredwhich it is quite well catered
to actually have a couple ofkids because when you fold it
out there's two side bunks andthe main bunk Outside kitchen
(33:35):
and that sort of stuff which weweren't sure about.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
I've just realized it was that trip to Maralinga when
my dad brought his ultimatecamper trailer and we saw it.
Yes them traveling it correct.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
So the Maralinga trip that we did that Michelle was
alluding to earlier, we met upwith Michelle's parents there
and they had the 200 series andan ultimate camper and so we we
got to have a look at theirultimate and and Follow it a bit
, because we we did some touringaround the Ambeville Highway
and areas up around there andthrough the lots of desert.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
There's a great Victoria desert, and then it was
pretty capable and it was verycapable.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
We were watching it and and thought, oh, that's,
that's a pretty good choice.
And Then it was about sixmonths or a year later or so,
when the old man decided to.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
About three years.
So we had this huge break whereyou were broken and we didn't
have the right setup and we justsaid we're not going and the
kids ended up doing their ownthing.
We just did different things,were really involved in the
triathlon for a while there, butyou were then broken.
It was just, work was happening.
We just had a period of timewhere it was Complicated.
(34:51):
We didn't have the right gear,we weren't ready to make the
next decision until a decisionmade itself upon us and dad sent
me an email saying, because mumhad been unwell, they decided
their camping and travelingtimes were over.
They were Putting up a touringpackage of the 200 series and
(35:15):
the ultimate for sale and hewanted to advertise it on our
Classified on the explorerswebsite and wanted me to have a
look at it and give him a bit offeedback.
Was a wording right?
What's the pricing right?
Was it a good idea?
Did I think it would work?
And I went oh, hang on a minute.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
We might be interested.
We had a chat and decided thatI'd just jump on a plane and fly
over to Sydney and drive back a200 series Land Cruiser and
ultimate buying it, buying itoff the father-in-law.
So you know the best part aboutthat Well it was a both of them
(35:53):
brand new.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Yeah, so it's a 2008 model 200 series.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
So pre DPF, pre KDSS, pre all that new fancy stuff
that they put into these carsthat I don't want.
So, from a car point of view,it was missing the features that
I wanted, which was great.
Hey, it was missing thefeatures that I'd.
So it was missing the featuresthat I didn't want, which was
(36:19):
great.
It was Reasonably old, but when, when we bought it, had 90,000
K's on it and it and it wasalready 15 years old or
something.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Yeah, because we bought it in 2019.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Yeah, and it had 96,000 K's on it.
So when I flew to Sydney, ithad hardly ever been used.
It had been serviced every sixmonths.
It so we so, yeah, that was.
That was basically whathappened.
I jumped on a plane and flewover to Sydney, and the
(36:51):
father-in-law and I drove itback.
He came with me to show me howto set up the ultimate.
He could use an excuse for it,camping away with me for a week
and we obviously get on wellenough that that was capable of
being done, and and it was agreat trip and we were able to.
I was able to learn about theultimate and do some bits and
pieces.
Not that we were doing muchforward driving.
We did a few bits, did a campout a hole on the Holland track,
(37:13):
a little bit on our way backthrough.
That was on the Holland track,was at the mountain.
It's just down the road fromthe height and turn off.
I can't remember exactly whatthe hills called, but we can't
there anyway.
So that was a great trip.
And so then we were the proudowners of a vdj 200 twin-turbo,
v8 diesel Land Cruiser, so wehad plenty of power now.
(37:36):
Yeah, didn't we?
Speaker 2 (37:39):
It was huge on the inside and it felt like a moving
lounge.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
In comparison to the 80, it was really posh and big
and so again, we also knew thehistory of the car in the campus
so we were fairly confidentthat that was all going to be
good and the ultimate camper Wasthen going to give us that
potential to be able to do thesecamps without me happy to get
on the roof and and all that'sstuffing around.
(38:03):
It's going to make it a littlebit more comfortable and you
know, like like anything, againit was another change.
So we're changing from the carthat the 80 series that was
really, really capable, reallyreally proven, and I knew every
inch of that was also manual,and so the new car.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
We were a bit concerned.
Yeah, it was like.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
So we were going to have all this, all this learning
to do and you know, obviouslythe kids were.
The kids were gone, weren'tcoming with us as much anymore,
so being able to just throw aswag in if one of them does want
to come was quite easy.
And having the home base, theability to set up a camp for a
night or two and move, move itfairly easily, the ultimate is a
(38:54):
reasonably ultimate solution.
It worked really well for usand and and that daily move
wasn't so bad one of the thingsyou know and Obviously, having
to learn to set up the 200 a bitdifferently and then servicing
the 200 that I decided to givethe standard regular servicing.
(39:14):
You know, send the car intoToyota for the first few
services and I Was just I don'teven know if I want to remember
the story, but the very firstone.
We bought the 200 and we got ithere and I've cracked it one of
the CV boots on the way over.
I don't know how I did it, butone of the CV boots had torn
open as we were driving home andthat was out out near Baladonia
(39:37):
.
Some way somewhere out there wenoticed that all the grease was
spewing out inside.
Anyway, we still were drivingat home, it wasn't.
It wasn't the end of the world.
The CV boots no grease.
I was going to be replacing itwhen I got home anyway, because
I needed to be replaced becauseit was bugged.
So it didn't really matter thatwe drove it.
We drove another 1500 K's a bitlike that, which was no problem
(39:58):
, and I'd do it again if I hadto.
Anyway, so we get the car backand, of course, to register it
here, you've got to put itthrough the inspection, to
transfer it from New South Walesto WA.
So it's got to go through apitch test.
So they got to weigh everything.
So the camp has got to beweighed, the trip cars got to be
weighed.
You've got to have it allcertified, do all the checks and
all the balances and geteverything done.
(40:19):
And I knew I was going to havethis procedure done, so I'll get
the car looked out at Toyotaand they can do that.
CV boot because I'd only justowned it and I hadn't really
looked at it and I didn't.
I had no confidence in what Iwas going to do, so I thought
I'll get them to do that.
Do the first service do their200 point safety inspection or
(40:40):
whatever it was.
So at least then I know that itshould all be Sorted and then
when I go for it to be pitted itshould just all be no problem
and it should have all worked.
Little loan, it didn't.
So you know, they changed the CVboot but they'd left all the
grease through and strewneverywhere under the car and in
fact it was dripping off the carwhen it went for the pit
(41:00):
inspection and they said itwould fail because of the amount
of grease it's dripping offthis thing and pouring off.
They didn't even bother toclean it.
They didn't.
They twisted one of the rearbrake lines so there was a.
They taken the caliper off andtwisted it and put it back on,
so it had a kink in it and thatwas a fail as well.
So there was like three or fourthings that were all part of
(41:21):
the safety inspection that I waspaying a significant amount of
money for by the time, the CVboot and the and a service and
all the other bits and pieces.
It was still thousands ofdollars of work and then you
take it to have it pitted and itfails straight away.
So it went back straight outstraight from the pit shop
straight back to Toyota with abig complaint and saying fix it.
(41:43):
And they did.
And then we got that sorted.
But you know, I don't thinkI've ever been really satisfied
whenever I've had my car lookedout by anybody other than me.
So you know, then, that in linebrings us into doing it myself.
So you know, recently I've justdone the water pumps and all
the other bits and pieces ofservicing.
So the only thing about workingon, you know, the 200 series
(42:05):
Landcruiser is the engine'smassive and you open the bonnet
and it's just all engine and thecar is pretty high.
So you know, doing a water pump, you kind of on your knees on
the ball bar and trying to reachin.
So it's kind of awkward, it'skind of interesting.
But you know, we've had this.
We've had this car for a fewyears now.
We've done a few trips with theultimate.
We've loved it, we've had theonly.
(42:27):
The only thing that we, theonly thing that we're probably
missing, that we think we coulddo with, would be some def locks
Rear, rear and possibly bothand that's only be, only just to
pull us out of, only just topull us out of the crap when
we've got the camper trailer onand we're doing something that.
Should we be doing it or notdoing it?
(42:47):
I don't know.
You can argue the car Flooringsoft riverbed at midday going.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
What's over there?
The trap on the map goes there.
What must be something on theother side?
So we've got to give it a goand in fact, the road doesn't
continue on and we're stuck inthe poo, have to turn around and
doing a u-turn in the middle ofa sandy riverbed up in the
Pilbara's no fun.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Yeah, so so there's a few issues like that and you
know, because we're doing thework that we're doing and trying
to Check all the roads and makesure they're open and and
everything that's published onthe, on the, on the maps and in
our apps Is accurate, asaccurate as possible.
You know, we basically try anddrive all these things, so us
moving around a fair bit isimportant Getting familiar with
(43:30):
the car, getting the service.
In getting all that done, thediff locks would be handy.
We just have to use the winchmore.
So we tend to winch more thandiff lock.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
Yeah, that last trip we did was really interesting
with this car because we'venever had a front-mounted
electric winch.
So this 200 series came withthat and we obviously we've got
two sets of max max tracks onewe carry on top of the camper,
one we carry on top of thevehicle.
And one of the things wequickly discovered in those
Situations in the middle of theday, in the middle of the sand
(44:02):
and getting the getting boggeddown a bit and being too slow
With no traction, was it was fartoo slower process and less
efficient To chuck down thesemax tracks and make very slow
progress when we could easilyjust unwind the winch cable,
find the tree on the riverbankon the other side, and most of
(44:22):
these riverbanks were dry, I'mtalking about completely dead
dry.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
If you've got a long, if you've got a long, if you've
got a long, sandy thing to do.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
And it didn't.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
Max tracks is going to take you all day unless you
can get it up and moving again.
But the trouble that we'd findis that you get it up and moving
again, you just drop off theend of the track and you just
get disappear again.
So you know, recovery forrecovery there's all different
gear and all different things.
But yeah, we learned somelessons in, In fact, in a five
day window.
Speaker 2 (44:47):
In a five day window there's a blog on our website at
the counter.
There's some videos.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
We wish every day.
So the diff locks would havebeen a bit handy for that.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
That's probably one of the odds of being able to do.
I know the day that I suggestedto you well inquired.
What did you think about addingsome diff locks to this vehicle
?
Was that I was aware that wewere relying quite heavily on
there actually being a tree towinch to, and I was getting
concerned that if we got outinto the middle of.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
Bird dropped something on me.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
Oh, we just had a nature intervention here, it's
all right.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
It was only a seed, it wasn't a bird's.
A drop there came down out ofthe tree into David's lap.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
Ok, yeah, so what I was saying was I was a little
bit concerned.
We were reliant on thereactually being a decent tree to
winch off, and my recognitionwas it was possible that if
there was no tree then we weregoing to be in a much harder
situation.
So the idea about consideringhaving extra diff locks is to
(45:50):
mitigate that issue, becausewe're always alone, we're always
travelling solo.
So, look, a lot of people don'tdo this, of course, because
solo isn't for everybody.
Speaker 1 (45:59):
Oh, the other thing I was just going to say, the
other thing that I learned oneof the things that we had in the
80 was that extra long rangefuel tank and that was great,
you know.
And then we bought the 200 andthe first trip I spent most of
the trip stressing that we werenot going to have enough fuel,
that we just couldn't.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
We went to do dracals , we just didn't have the range
so it had 100 and what is it 140?
Speaker 1 (46:23):
137 litres 137 litres is a rated standard tanks, and
it was within the first fiveminutes, the first few days out
on this trip.
I'm going oh my God, the fuel'sdisappearing.
I don't have the fuel range.
I don't have the fuel range,and so I was always.
It then became a whole stressabout where are we going to stop
(46:44):
to get the fuel.
It played on my mind enoughthat I said to Michelle when we
get back from this, I've got todo the fuel tank, and so we did
that as well.
Now we've done that, and sothat's perfect.
There's a whole story about that.
There's a whole story aboutfitting that and breaking down
on the Tonka.
Enough if we just fitted it onour next trip.
But you know well, in fact wecould talk about it, but the
(47:07):
car's been.
We then had to go through thesetup process of the car and the
camper, and so things were alittle bit different, Because
one we had a camper that we weretowing so it could hold a lot
of fridge space, food space, allthe kitchen equipment, bedding
space, all the kitchen.
Speaker 2 (47:24):
We never used it.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
All the other stuff that we used to carry in the car
.
We could then put into thecamper.
But of course, as technologychanges now we've got to fit
drones and Starlink dishes andall these other things into the
car.
So now we filled the car againanyway, even though we don't
have kids in it.
We've got no kids and we stillgot no space, but we don't have
to utilize the roof racks, theroofs as much as we used to, but
(47:48):
this setup feels like suchluxury.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
There's no denying that.
I mean there's some big thingsthat change from the previous
setup with this 200 series isthat the kitchen is and all the
cooking, as you said, is all inthe camper.
But this camper I don't knowhow many people know the
ultimate is under 1,000 teardweight, so under 1,000 kilos,
it's 940 kilos 990 or somethingis the rating.
(48:13):
Yeah, so this means it's stillvery super lightweight, even
though we're talking aboutgetting bogged occasionally
Because you are loading it upstill and you've got maybe some
firewood on top, you're draggingthat around and okay.
So it's just the logistics.
But, yeah, for us the comfortsof having the bed almost fully
(48:34):
made up, stand up fridge in thekitchen, so a second fridge
because we carry a fridge in theback of the four wheel drive.
So how we've done this is we'vegot the car fully set up that
if we want to disconnect and goa four wheel driving, we can, or
camping because we've gotcooking fridges dual battery.
Speaker 1 (48:50):
we've got lithium batteries in it, we've got a
whole setup in the car as wellas a whole setup in the camper,
so that we can basically beindependent.
But it also gives us redundancyand, being the computer people
in the work, we rely on power.
Speaker 2 (49:04):
so having a full electrical system, lithium
battery based system, in the car, Well, we've got two inverters
one in the car and one in thebig ones.
Speaker 1 (49:13):
We've basically got a lot of duplication in there so
that we've got relative securityof everything working and then
so the ultimate was great.
We've done a lot of touringaround.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
We put our bikes, on the roof rack of the ultimate.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
We put the bikes on the roof of the ultimate, which
was something that we designedto do.
The only problem was thatultimate was a manual lift, so
you had to basically lift up thelid manually.
It has a big 1700 Newton metergas strut on it which is
(49:54):
massively strong for people thatunderstand about these gas
struts.
But still the lid wasreasonable.
You had to flip it over andbring it back down and over a
period of time this was startingto play havoc with my back
issues and stuff.
So some people have been askingwe've just bought another
(50:16):
ultimate.
So we've just bought a newultimate now, which we've only
just got in the last week or two, and why change what we've
already had?
We've already got an ultimateand, realistically, the space
and the size and almosteverything else is almost
exactly the same, exceptobviously it's all new.
But one of the most relevantthings for me with my back and
(50:36):
other issues is this electriclift.
So now it's all electric liftand we can actually lift it with
the bikes still on it.
We've had the 150 kilo lidupgrade done so that we can lift
up to 150 kilos on the lid, andso we've just mounted the bikes
on there and we'll put some howmuch of those two mountain
(50:57):
bikes weigh.
Do you reckon oh, I don't knowby the time we put these out
back tire tubes in there thatweigh about five kilos each
because they're thornproof?
No, the two bikes would bearound about 30 kilos by the
time you add the two bikestogether, because mine's carbon
fiber, so it's fairly light, butthe mass is about 30 kilos.
(51:18):
But the advantage of not havingto take it off to lift it, it's
all just realistically, the newcamper, other than a bit of
luxury, oh, come on.
And oh yeah, okay, it's got ahot and cold running water.
It's got internal heating.
You can heat the inside of it.
It's got 200 litres of watertanks.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
It's got grey water tanks You're 56, I'm 55.
We're not 20 year olds.
Anymore, we're happy to wash ina bowl of seawater.
Speaker 1 (51:52):
So now, why do we change that?
Why have we got the new thing?
Well, because it's got allthose mod cons and it's more
fancy and it's new.
But our plan is to spend muchmore time in it.
So now, with the kids finishedschool and the position of our
business, we want to do moretrips.
We want to be out thereresearching and doing the work.
(52:14):
We've spent a bit of time inthe last trips to make sure that
we can work remotely.
We've got the Starlink, we'vegot all bits of pieces happening
.
Speaker 2 (52:22):
Yeah, the Starlink's a game changer because of the
customer service of being ableto keep up to date regularly
with people, because on the lasttrip, whilst I was keeping up
to date and working, there wouldbe a delay of at least one week
.
Sometimes it was two to threeweeks, and then we had issues
with the phone.
You know, we had dual SIMphones, we had Optus, we had
(52:44):
Telstra, but then we chose the Idon't know the Penitel, the
budget phone thing, and I hadproblems where I just couldn't
get the voicemail for a while.
So whilst I had phone service,it was the wrong carrier, I
couldn't get the message, youknow, and that put a lot of
stress on us and by getting theStarlink that's taken away the
stress of being able to be dailyresponsive in the business and
(53:08):
that's what we can do now.
Speaker 1 (53:08):
But of course it uses more space in the car, because
the antenna's quite big and thenyou've got to take poles to
mount it on and all the otherbits and pieces.
So you know, there's always somethere's always pluses and
there's always minuses, but youknow so the progression to the
new ultimate is for that.
We actually haven't taken itfor a trip yet.
It's all about to happen.
So hopefully we'll get outthere and be able to actually
(53:29):
use these great toys that we'vebeen spending all our time,
years and money putting together, and you know from a vehicle's
point of view.
That's about where we're up totoday.
Obviously, we just had the carswrapped and I've just done a
load of servicing on the cars,the graphic wraps, and we've
just done a lot of servicing onthe cars.
And we didn't even talk aboutthe other projects, like
(53:51):
building the sun's bus, camperconversion and all these other
things that we've been workingon over the last few years.
So you know, whilst these bitshave been going on, we've always
I've always, I've always liketinkered and tunkered with the
cars.
I've always tinkered andtunkered building camper
conversions.
I've done three or four camperconversions now with buses and
cars and campers and working onour own car and looking at the
(54:14):
best options for what we'vetaken Whilst our car you know it
looks really pretty now becauseit's got a wrap on it, but
because it kind of looks allshiny and all new and everything
, but it's really scratchedunderneath it because we use it.
You know Our usage of thesecars and stuff is practical.
(54:34):
Everything we put into the carwe hope is practical.
And it's only practical for usto be able to go and do this
longer term touring on our ownor with people, if we happen to
meet some people which wehaven't traveled with many
people for a long, for a long,long time.
Speaker 2 (54:49):
But We'll find some new friends.
Speaker 1 (54:51):
Yeah, we'll find some new friends, but, you know,
whilst we've got all this goingand making all these plans and
setting everything up, it'simportant I believe it's
important to keep working onthese things and have a very
good picture in your head of howeverything sits together and
how it all works.
So you know, we're here now,ready to go for our trips and
(55:16):
travels, and that's the story of, realistically, how we got here
.
We could talk, as I said, wecould have talked about other
bits with all the otherconversions and things that
we've conquered with, but Ithink we might leave the story
for the Leon's bus.
We might leave the bus foranother story.
Speaker 2 (55:31):
Yeah, we've got a little bit on the YouTube
channel of building Benji.
That's been a massive projectfor the last 12 months and
really interesting one.
Speaker 1 (55:40):
But yeah, I've learned more mechanic stuff.
I've learned stuff that Ididn't know before.
So we've got more into weldingand got more into lots of other
stuff.
So yeah all life experiences,but that's what it is.
Speaker 2 (55:48):
you can never know enough with this recreation.
It's like every vehicle isthere for a different stage of
your life.
You know, we've gone travelingwithout kids pre-kids Then we've
had the young kids growing upall through teenage life.
Now the kids are off our hands,and so that's why we've I mean,
a lot of people go through alot more vehicles than we do.
We have just found vehicles,though, that have really worked
(56:11):
for us, and because you'veworked on them, you've been
comfortable to modify them andserve them, oh yeah, but we've
also spent significant time andinvestment and resources into
making it what it is.
I know you don't.
We just want to flick it off.
Speaker 1 (56:23):
Because to go from.
Speaker 2 (56:24):
The attachment to that 80 pound setup.
Speaker 1 (56:26):
So you go and buy a 300.
But I don't think I would.
But let's say you went andbought a 300 today.
It's going to take you a longtime to get your fuel tanks,
your suspension changes yourroof racks, your roof bars, your
drawer systems, all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (56:41):
That's what the appeal was when Dad's car was
off.
Speaker 1 (56:43):
Because it had all of it.
Speaker 2 (56:44):
Yeah because it solved our dilemma.
This was a big dilemma that youreally didn't want to strip out
what we had and then have to gothrough that process.
It's exhausting shopping aroundand finding all the right bits
because they're different sizes.
It's like, oh you know, thisrack's a different size, this
bar's a different size.
Speaker 1 (56:59):
It's all right if you've got an unlimited budget
and you just say buy this carand go there and have everything
done, but I'm afraid we don't.
Well, the other problem is yougo there and have all this done
and then you take the thing outin the field and something
really basic.
Speaker 2 (57:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (57:10):
Doesn't work properly and you look at it with your
and that's the problem with thecomputerized car as well.
It's like if something goeswrong you're in a lot of trouble
.
But anyway, that's where,that's our cars and our
progressors and our vehicles andthe setups and why we've done
what we've done, and I hope youfind that really interesting.
And again, make sure yousubscribe and we'll catch up
(57:32):
with you next time.
Speaker 2 (57:33):
Just pop them on the YouTube channel, maybe ask us
questions at the bottom of that.
And if you've got any othersuggestions for other topics
you'd like us to talk about inthese podcasts, please contact
us and let us know.
More than happy, there's tonsand tons of opportunity for us
to keep chatting away and wepromise there'll be lots more
(57:53):
episodes coming and, yeah, hopeyou subscribe and stick with us.
We're really enjoying it so far.
Thank you so far.
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