Around Oz the First Time - Chapter 1 - Let's Get Started

Virgins attack everything with passion. At times passion to get to the end takes away the value of the journey and you end up wondering what all the fuss was about as the conquest becomes the driver. As pending “grey nomads” the start of our journey was no different. Having personally retired, the frenzy of getting things done still weighed heavy and for my wife still looking to give birth to a small business the madness was very much evident.

Travelling around Oz for the first time we have been caught up in such a journey. Thankfully we have many old hands to slow us down and say – “hey, stop and smell the roses”.

First there was the equipping. The caravan – no idea what we were doing. One aunt and uncle had done what we had intended in a “rolls c’nardly” Coaster bus which was lucky to do 80 kph downhill with the wind behind it. Another had the $250K Winnebago Both were inappropriate for what we thought we might like to do. Being both old Scouts we had thoughts of exploring. The Toyota Prado we had was equipped with all the bells and whistles (or so we thought), so we would be able to purchase a van and unhitch it when we saw fit and blast off into the wilderness at our hearts content.

Now we encountered our first problem. Looking around there are a myriad of vans. A friend of ours told us of a trip they were planning and the van they were getting especially for it. They suggested we have a look at the site, then look around for comparable vans and see if what we were willing to accept in luxury or not, could be fit within our budget (not that we really had one).

We originally settled on a 4wd functional van – a JB Caravans Gator – but it had only 2 wheels and for perceived safety reasons we shied away from it in favour of a 4 wheeled option. Now the passion sets in and the destination becomes the driver. Our friends Pete and Rosie had decided to have a JB Caravans Scorpion Sting modified and built specifically for them, but the lead time was four months. At the time we were five months from the suggested start date so this lead time would not give us enough time to have the van built and have enough time to test it enough to iron out the kinks and then be ready to set off around Oz on what is a planned 90 day jaunt.

Robyn as is her want, decided that wasn’t good enough and we should settle on something off the lot. This we did and so we purchased a 21foot 6inch Scorpion Sting much like Pete and Rosey’s but without many of their personalised upgrades. Problem 1 solved.

But problem 1 led to problem 2. The Scorpion is a relatively heavy van but with a perceived upgrade of the Prado’s carrying capacity we will be OK. After checking around the internet, it would be a costly but relatively easy fix to the problem – or so I thought. Little did I know that a decision to purchase what I thought would be my last vehicle with a few more creature comforts than a standard car would leave me with this issue. I had bought the Kakadu version of the Toyota Prado which means rather than a normal rear suspension it is electronic. You can’t upgrade the suspension of an electronic suspended vehicle legally in Australia.

Committed to the Scorpion Sting van we had no alternative but to upgrade the Prado to a Land Cruiser (sorry I am a Toyota man through and through). We were lucky enough to find a very good deal with our local dealer looking to get rid of a VX version, off his lot and tricked it up to the same as what we had on the Prado for virtually list price. Changeover was not what I thought was “over the top”, so problem solved – actually not.

Problem 3 – having tricked up the Cruiser with a bull bar, Drifta drawers and table assembly, an Engel fridge just to name a few we had all but exceeded the GVM of the Cruiser. How absurd. My research on an alternative suggested that should I wish to upgrade the suspension it had to have been done pre-registration. Given the car yard knew what I was going to do with the Cruiser, it would have been nice to know!

Fortunately since my research (don’t believe everything you find on the internet) I find it is possible to re-engineer the suspension to give you something like an extra 350kg of carrying capacity and the problem would have been solved – only problem, I find this out a week before we are supposed to leave. Perhaps I can play around with weight distribution for this trip and upgrade on our return.

So here we are, a Cruiser with a GVM of 3,350kg, weighing in at 3,300kgs at the weighbridge at the local tip, a ball weight of around 220kgs when first we sit the monitor under it and a total GVM tested at the same weigh bridge with all water tanks full of 6,440kg, well under the 6,850 kgs allowable. So with some clever redistribution of weight and the addition of three jerry cans on the back of the van, we feel we are looking reasonable.

That was until we loaded the van.

Now to problem 4. We decided to get a weight with absolutely everything we could in the mix. All water tanks full, including the extra jerry cans, even the grey water tank plus all our “personal items”. Given we had weighed it previously at 6,440kgs a few clothes, a bit of food and Robyn’s office would go anywhere near it – WRONG.

At the weighbridge the numbers just kept rolling up and up stopping at 6,980kg. What had we done? Would Robyn spend the 90 days running behind the van because the weight was too much? Immediately we emptied the grey water tank – 95kg and headed towards Port Macquarie a little overweight and reducing as we used fuel. Once in Port we could have showers and leave one of the water tanks empty and empty the jerry cans for another 40kgs and be well under the total GVM should we get called into either of the checking stations between here and Lennox Head, our destination tomorrow. We would just need to be careful on fuel intake (although the checking stations are well away from the proposed fill up point allowing for significant use prior to the chance of testing) and ensure that the days we were heading to a van park rather than free camping we kept the tanks as low as possible until we sorted it out.