Rocky settles in

It has been a busy few weeks, and opportunities to get away under canvas have been few and far between.  We did manage a couple of nights down the coast with friends, and a mad dash to the big smoke for a night - but on each occasion we were staying in a fine house with four solid walls and a roof.

The little fisherman did his best to remove as many fish from the Tasman Sea as he could - however luck again was against us.  Thankfully one of our friends did catch a Pacific Salmon, which is in our freezer awaiting an opportunity for the Little Fisherman to sample the fruits of his labour.

Rocky now has nearly 3 000km on the clock, and continues to impress us with its comfort and capability.  I have no idea how I ever survived so long without a ute!

In that time we have used Rocky as:

A farm truck

A work truck

The build begins... Electrics for the camper. Anderson Plug install.

We have had the Amarok for just a few weeks now, and must say we are absolutely thrilled with it.  It is very comfortable to ride in, and everything just works Volkswagen style.

Whilst it is a perfect base to build our touring rig, it is far from ready yet.  There is a long (and expensive) list of things to modify, add and purchase in order to set up the Amarok for work and play.

The first thing to do was to order a canopy for the back to make it useful for camping.  This turned out to be harder than I anticipated.  There are but a few manufactures around, and many had delays until October, or provided pretty basic quotes without a lot of detail.

To cut a long story short, we have gone with a mob in Melbourne to manufacture a canopy for our tray.  The company Made 2 Order Toolbox http://www.m2otoolbox.com.au/ provided a very quick turn around on their quotes, modifying it as required until I was happy with the final version.

Professional, quick and easy to deal with - M2O Toolbox

What I really liked about their quotes was the full drawings they provided.  Whilst I have changed this again, the basic layout is what we are going with.  The Jack Off Legs mean we will be able to remove the canopy if required - either whilst we are away or at home - giving us the full flexibility of the dual cab ute.  I haven't seen the canopy yet.  I hope that it is as good as their customer service.

So with four weeks to wait until the canopy is ready to pick up, I decided to get on with the next job - electrics.