Making Shade!

Being married to a meteorologist, I have worked out that I may not be able to make the sun shine on demand, however I am able to make shade!

With us planning on chasing the summer next year, the ability to make shade anywhere will be an important part of making our trip an enjoyable experience for everyone.  As such, we had determined that an awning was going to be an essential part of our travelling equipment.

Our camper's kitchen is well equipped, however if the camper is not set up - there is no shade to be had anywhere - unless you're parked under a shady tree.  And with trees not always conveniently sited, an awning was added to the shopping list. 

And so it was off to the local 4WD shop to get a price on an awning.

Fitting Out the Canopy for Camping

It seems that the closer we are to leaving, the more and more things there are to do… and somehow the time available to do them decreases exponentially.  After lining the canopy with carpet to reduce sweating, it was time to make the space useful.

For those who are interested, our canopy was made by Made 2 Order Toolbox in Melbourne, (www.m2otoolbox.com.au) and I am thrilled to bits with it.  

Thus last weekend I decided it was time to make a concerted effort to fit out the canopy in a useful and flexible way.  The real trick was to make it fit the equipment we have – in a snug way, whilst providing the option of carrying awkward or odd shaped items with minimum fuss.  It is worth noting that although we will be travelling with ‘Matilda’ – our camper trailer next year – we want to set the ute up to be able to camp independently too.

And so it was time to start turning electricity into noise, and plywood into sawdust. 

Measure twice, cut once... or something like that!

One of the many concept drawings

The basic concept was to have the right hand side of the ute fitted out with a multi – function space, whilst the left set up with a kitchen and space for the esky (or provision for a fridge).  The initial concepts  were sketched out and mulled over for a while – but ultimately it came down to experimentation, trial fitting and command approval from Jo.

Now it is worth pointing out that my lovely wife will tend to try to plan things to the smallest detail, before starting.  I tend to start work – and figure it out as I go along.  This usually means we need to compromise and meet somewhere in the middle – and on this occasion we were able to come to an arrangement that we are both happy with... I think!

The false floor is fitted - with the right hand side hinged

Design Meeting

The biggest difficulties we faced was working out how to stow the canopy jack-off legs, and how to arrange the kitchen – but I think with a bit of trial and error – we will get there.  The basic concept is now in place.

The Little Helper - adept with a screw driver and face painting!

Slots are cut to help position the legs - before strapping and wrapping in foam.

Oh, and did I mention we have power.  Not only do we have a 100 amp hour battery charged by Rocky as we travel, but we have a 1000 watt inverter to provide 240 volt AC current to charge laptops, printers and so on.  We also have 12 volt DC current available in the form of Hella Plug, Anderson Plug or standard cigarette lighter, as well as LED lighting throughout.  The cabling is all fused, and in addition everything feeding off a 100 amp circuit breaker which can also be opened to isolate all power. 

We have power!

The battery is charged by the car alternator, but our camper’s solar panel can be plugged in, if required to supplement the second battery.

The second battery is isolated from the main car battery with a REDARC voltage sensitive relay, but it also is fitted with an over-ride switch, so that if the car battery is flattened, I can jump start the car of the canopy (or camper) batteries if available. I am a big fan of redundancy – and hope that I have enough built into the circuitry to meet most eventualities.

Under the bonnet - dual battery cabling and isolation

And then it was back to geting the kitchen set up - and this was perhaps the most critical of it all.  Jo and measured her containers and gave me a 5mm tolerance for my cutting... a little too tight for my comfort. 

And so it was more thinking and more design work - before we came up with a design we hope will work for us.

I think she likes it... so far

All that is left to do is fit the bench

We have made the space for the esky big enough to fit a 40 litre fridge - but for now it also snugly fits our esky - and a 20 litre water jerry.  We will probably leave it in this configuration for now - and see if it works for us. If it doesn't, I can change it, but I fear that any changes now will be minor tweaks rather than major revisions.

But for now it seems to tick all the right boxes - and we will see how it goes. 

Next up - installing an awning!

*UPDATE October 2013*
So the past few months have seen us trying a few different options in the back.  We initially used an esky, but soon found an Aldi fridge proved the concept of the benefit of having a dedicated fridge in the back, so we hunted around and found a 12v compressor fridge on ebay. 

The kitchen is perfect for a quick stop on the side of the road.  Lunch can be easily made and everythnig accessed.  I don't have a tap or water in the back, other than in a 20 litre jerry - but this is something we are considering after our trip, where we hope to do more car based camping.

The awning is a great size, allowing food to be prepared AND a table and chairs for the family to be set up in shade. 

We have elected not to take the jack-off-legs with us when we travel, as they add about another 100kg to the weight we will be carrying, and we will be very unlikely to go anywhere without our canopy on the back.  It does open up the shelf on the right hand side for many other options - it is just a shame the canopy is only 1800mm long... and I an 1870mm! It works if I am on my own... just... on a diagonal!

The double swag - perfect for width... length can be a problem!

**UPDATE December 2014**

After 12 months of travelling and over 50 00km on a lot of dirt roads, the canopy has been outstanding.  It has remained dust proof, waterproof and has made camping so easy.  With careful packing we were able to keep all the most commonly used things close a hand thanks to the large gull-wing doors.  

I cannot recommend the guys at Made2Order Toolbox enough for the quality of their workmanship.  This canopy lived up to and beyond all expectations.  Check their gear out here:  www.m2otoolbox.com.au

It lived up to all we threw at it!

A movie or two under the stars!

With conditions being so dry around home lately – and barely a drop in the rain gauge since Christmas, we thought the best thing we could do to break the drought would be to get a camp in before it really gets too cold in these parts.   We were rewarded with a fantastic weekend at a friend’s farm near Boorowa – however we were unable to break the drought!

Looking back towards camp

There is something magical about sitting around a campfire at night enjoying the serenity.  It is also a lot of fun watching a great Australian movie under the stars, with full surround sound… unless you are camped nearby and not a part of the party.  Hence we enjoyed our night on private property with no one to upset with our whisper quiet generator, 5.1 surround sound, or raspy out of tune voices singing along with the soundtrack!

Bullbar Installation - Amarok Style

With a long list of equipment and toys to be fitted to Rocky, saving a few pennies here and there is always a good thing.  One such opportunity arose when a second hand ARB bullbar came up for grabs.

After sitting in the shed for a couple of months, I finally got around to organising a day for fitting the bullbar.  Now with such a big job - I figured I would be wise to have a helper.  In fact, I would be really wise to enlist the help of someone who knows what their doing, so I could be their helper.  Andrew was indeed that man, without whose help I could not have fitted the bar.

The ARB instructions are available online - so we printed them out and followed them.  Overall it went really well - except for a few minor bits missing.  Ever resourceful, Andrew had enough bits in his shed to keep the fitting on track.

The bumper off shows a lot of plastic and foam!

Let The Planning Begin

With a little more than eight months to go, it is time to get serious with our planning.  We would hate to travel around Australia and miss something that is a 'must do'.  We are also fully aware that we will not be able to get to see and everything we want.  We also don't want to fill up our days with such a busy agenda that we feel like we are on a tour, with every moment planned.  If a camp is perfect - well, why don't we stay an extra night or two.  The weather perhaps will be our biggest influence on the direction our travelling will be, but we do want to hit all the most important bits on our trip.

And travelling with school age kids means we will also have to devote some time to schooling whilst we are on the road.  I will come back to schooling as we get closer to departure, because that is another story in itself!

As a young man I was given a fantastic road atlas, that has served me remarkably well over the years.  It traversed much of this big wide land with me in what was then a relatively new Ford Falcon, covering every state, with the exception of Tasmania and the Northern Territory.  My travelling plans were relatively simple in those days, with a rough idea of the destination in mind, I would fill up with fuel and point the bonnet in the rough direction.  Perhaps my longest road trip was a three week drive from Cairns to Perth, via the Nullarbor.  Iconic - Yes.  Would I do it again - Yes - but perhaps taking a little longer to admire the view!

It may be time to upgrade the Road Atlas too!