Wednesday 12th March 2014:
Another purchase, this time a very large (1200 x 2100) Rola Roof rack and luggage tray. I measured up one of the racks on the car, and it is 2010mm to ground – gives me just 90mm clearance into most car parks, gulp!
Sunday 16th March 2014:
We were invited to Redhead beach yesterday by some friends – so of course we HAD to go and test out the truck in the sand! We met at Redhead, which was locked off, so we trooped off to the Blacksmiths entrance a few kilometers south. Tyres were let down to 15 psi on all vehicles, and the fun began. I hadn’t driven ion sand since driving the VW Baja on Fraser Island in 1989, so I had a lot to remember. The Cruiser was great, about 2000 rpm in 2nd gear is about 40 kph, which was a good even speed. I even had a chance to use the new winch – one of our party, driving a V8 petrol 100 series Cruiser) got stuck trying to drive up out of a water crossing, so we winched, dug and winched some more and out he came. It was good to see that everything worked perfectly under full load, and that the power cables stayed cool.
Monday 31st March 2014:
I took the plunge and bought a car stereo yesterday. A Sony XAV-612BT. It plays DVD’s, mirrors the iPhone, can connect a reversing cameras plus another two if you like, plus it’ll play rough cuts of our home movies on the run! I saw it at JB HiFi, 30% off the rrp of $799. Not a great price, but something else I can forget about. Still, it now has to be installed, along with the half fitted reversing camera (last location under the tow ball was uselessly low), half built Anderson plug, fuse block, repaired UHF radio, hi-gain mobile antennae removal and the rear drawer system I’ll have to build for the fridge.
On a more exciting note, my weekly trawl of on-line adds for the vaunted Jayco Outback 14.44-4 came up with a winner this morning. A near new 2013 model, with plenty of extras, for $37,900. It’s in Sydney too – not too far. I rang the seller and told him I could buy a new 2014 model for $39,000, so he’d have to sharpen the price.