Wednesday 19 June 2013

New shoes for Rocky

With so many tyre options available, it is easy to get overwhelmed when it comes to picking the right tyres for your ride.

So after reading enough forums to make my eyes bleed, and talking to several tyre retailers, I suddenly realized that I had run out of time to organise a set of tyres before we head to Birdsville.

As I was going to be away in the lead up to the trip, I didn't want to leave the hassle of organizing the tyres to Jo.

So, in the manner all decisions of importance, I made an impulse decision on the way home and wheeled into Costco.  After determining they had a set of D697s in stock, I said if they could fit them within the hour, I'd take them.

Challenge thrown down, and Dave from Costco rose to the occasion and fitted the tyres, as promised in under an hour, and for $25 a corner cheaper than anyone else in town.

Job done.

Initial impressions on the way home were positive. A quiet ride, and considerably more grip on our dirt road (fresh after 7mm of rain).

I hope they're up to the miles of corrugations ahead!


Monday 17 June 2013

Fitting out... the finer details

 
Whilst our dash to Birdsville might still be a couple of weeks away, the time at home available to prepare for the trip can be measured in hours. 

And the list of little jobs I want to get done on the truck doesn't seem to get any shorter... but there is always time for a little play! 

Rocky shows the limitations of an independent front end!


One of the many little things to do was a maintenance run on one of the local RFS trucks.  The boys love to crawl all over the BRT (Big Red Truck) - and declared that travelling around Australia in a dual cab 4WD truck would be a great thing to do.

After becoming acquainted with the capabilities of these trucks last year, I would be inclined to agree, that they would be a fantastic way to get around the country, with enough space for all the comforts of home. They can crawl up and down just about any mountain... however the thought of getting one stuck in sand sends shivers down my spine!

Friday 7 June 2013

A new sound system for Rocky!

Whilst the canopy on the back was my first priority to get fitted out into a useful space for us to use,  with the prospect of a long road trip ahead of us, in car entertainment for the family became a much higher priority on the list.
The Canopy is starting to be useful.

So the next thing to sort out was the in car entertainment.

For some reason the Trendline Amarok is fitted with a four speaker stereo... where all four speakers are in the front!! So our previous trick in the Terracan of fading the speakers to the rear, and putting on an audio book weren't going to work. Oh, and the VW iPod kit was about $1000, and blue tooth another $1000... yeah no thanks.

The original unit. Functional - but pretty basic

With the Terracan, a simple replacement radio and wiring loom for under $150 was a sufficient upgrade to give us all we needed in a radio, and a free Garmin GPS when renewing our NRMA membership kept us on the right track mostly. Unfortunately with the Amarok, nothing was going to be that simple, or cheap!

The first thing to sort out was to put some speakers in the rear door.  Thankfully this was something I could do - and as the space was already there - it was a simple task of removing the trim, installing the speakers and refitting the trim.  I did purchase a whole heap of new trim clips as the original clips are very brittle. I managed to break every single one when removing the trim.  Thankfully I wasn't he first to do this, and had new trim clips on hand.

After reading many forums and reading most people's opinions of aftermarket gear for the Amarok, we went with the Zenec 2011D. It essentially is the following:
  • CD/DVD Player
  • Radio
  • Bluetooth Handsfree Phone Kit
  • iPod connectivity
  • Bluetooth music streaming
  • Satellite Nav
  • Reverse Camera

    What impressed us is that the dash looks just like it rolled out of the factory. It works beautifully and seamlessly and more importantly intuitively. The guys who fitted it upgraded the reverse camera, and gave me the other one, which I will be able to fit to the Camper Trailer - perhaps not in time for Birdsville!



    The funny thing is that whilst this unit will support the playing of DVD's, including screens on the back of the headrests for the kids, this is something we will not do.  We have lots of audiobooks on the iPod, and the kids (and big kids in the front) enjoy listening to the stories such as Wind In The Willows, Peter Pan and all the classics by Roald Dahl.

    The other thing we fitted was the old UHF radio,  in the parcel shelf under the A/C controls.  it slotted in easily, and I picked up power from one of the cigarette 12v outlets just forward of the gear stick.

    Fitted up - and about to plug the microphone in.

    It is a 40 channel UHF radio - but still in perfect working order.  The aerial I mounted to the bullbar.  This is not my preferred position for the aerial, as it resonnates beautifully on the dirt road home, and I am not entirely convinced thousands of kilometres of corrugations, or the odd kangaroo strike will do good things for it.  Still the mount is there, and I didn't need to use a Z bracket under the bonnet (which didn't fit comfortably with the Amaroks tight seams).

    The aerial is mounted on the bullbar
    So, now you will be able to hear us coming.  We will be the Amarok with audio books such as The BFG blaring from the rear speakers as we barrel along the highways and byways of Australia!  Gloriumptious!

    Sunday 2 June 2013

    Shake down trip... Destination Birdsville

    Whilst we were at camping at Boorowa a few weeks ago, campfire conversation turned to a forthcoming concert to be held at Birdsville in July.  It would appear that one of Australia's most popular and engaging entertainers was going to be hosting a sunset concert on the top of Big Red, the famous sand dune on the eastern end of the Simpson Desert.

    John Williamson was going to be performing songs from his latest album - The Big Red, at Big Red... Something stirred inside me and said we had to make it happen.

    We returned to civilisation, calendars and the cloud.  A quick check revealed the concert was going to be the middle weekend of the NSW school holidays.... and I had already planned to take leave! 

    The clincher though was when I found out the concert was part of a bigger series of events, The Big Red Run raising money for Type 1 Diabetes.  As the Little Fisherman is a Type 1 diabetic, it was all the motivation I needed, so in a moment of madness I bought tickets to the Big Red Sunset Concert.

    It was only once the tickets were booked that I realized that it is over 2000 km to Birdsville from home, and with the whole family coming along for the ride, a bit of planning would be necessary. In short a swag and an esky won't cut it.

    
    Of course planning can be fun... particularly when you spread your trip over three maps!