Good news from NOVA

It's a bit late but I have to make this post.

As you know, we took the van into NOVA Caravans in Melbourne to have some repairs effected. We left the van there for the week and went down to the Mornington Penisular for a bit of sightseeing.

We were just getting to the stage where we were wondering how it was going and should we call them? No need, Steve called us with an update and a couple of questions. He called again the next day and confirmed that we could pick-up after lunch on Friday.

I can only say that the service was excellent and he work carried out to a professional high standard, which reflects the whole NOVA Caravans ideal.

Given that the van is a 2006 model, the sixth one that they made in fact, we were doubly impressed with them taking the time to fix up hall our problems, some of which may well have been inherent in the early days of manufacture, and some of which definitely occurred due to wear and tear.

Well done to NOVA Caravans and you should all rush out and buy one!

While the van has its treatment...

We have to admit to a certain amount of trepidation when towing the van up to Novas, we were half expecting to get blank stares and to be told to go away again.

Thankfully, that didn't happen and Steve, the caravan doctor, was ready and waiting for us. He had the paperwork sorted and assured us that Friday lunchtime was 'possible'. He even suggested that if we bought a "Wingman" attachment for the TV aerial, he'd attach it quick smart. Now as Coast-to-Coast caravan parts is literally right next door, how could we refuse?

So, here we are loafing around the Mornington Peninsular waiting for the all-clear so we can go get hitched up and get back to Canberra by Saturday afternoon. Had a call from Steve today and it seems all is going along just fine, even if they did have to scrap the taillight assemblies and replace them with LED units (because they had to remove the whole back skin to fix the split way down low near the bull-bar).

We live in hope!

Cheers, all

Wangaratta, Vic

Ha! Finally off again, this time down to Melbourne for this years F1 Grand Prix.

As mentioned in the last post, we only just got our car back from the wizards at Advanced Tech Automotive and along with the usual first day out 'things that go bump' we had a bit of a stress day making it down here to 'Wang' as i notice they now call themselves. The park is a bit fuller than last time, but we got the last en-suite and its still pleasant despite that busy road lout the from. I even had a swim in the pool.

The whole point of this trip, apart from going to the F1 races, is to leave  the Nova van at the Nova factory and get the few things we know need fixing, fixed.

Finally, at last...

Monday 26th became Friday 31st then miraculously became Wednesday 29th. Hey that's today! Not hanging around to be asked twice, we bolted, heading for Wellington in the west of NSW. Seemed to take an age to pack the van this time, I'm sure it's bulging at the seams, but hey, who cares, we is gone at last.

Stopped for a rest and a cuppa at Boorowa, then pressed on to Cudal where we had a hamburger at a cafe that looked more closed than open, but which was really good. Wandered into Wellington about 3:30pm and found a spot at the Riverside Caravan Park. Sign on the door read: 'Find a site, back in 10 minutes', so we grabbed a riverside spot between two others.

People on one side were rabbiting on about all the platypusses in the river. I wandered down with the camera and took some snaps up close, they are water rats! Had a wander about and then settled down for afternoon tea. The other neighbours then jumped on us telling us how someone or other had stuff stole out of their car the last night. Talk about cheery start to the trip - puts you right off. Mind you, you do have to take sensible security precautions.

Wellington looks half-dead, apparently everyone drives the 50k to Dubbo to buy anything they want, and of course Coles, Woolies and Macdonalds have sent everyone else out of business. Mind you, we went to the Calf&Cow, a remodelled or 'gastro' pub, for dinner, took one look at the menu and the price tag and walked right out again. Unbelievable. Went into the RSL expecting a bistro; found a Chinese upmarket restaurant with Chinese girls in costume, chintzy red lanterns and everything, including weird oriental music. We looked around, we were the only ones there. Bolted for the door, finally found a pub and had bangers and veg and cutlets and veg at a sensible price.

 

OK Ok, here's your snap:

Good news, not-so-good news

The good news is that we are still going, albeit a few days later than expected.
When I say 'not-so-good', I mean that its good that the Basil Cell Carcinoma on my nose can be removed quickly and cleanly, it bad that I left it so long to get a proper opinion about it and the consequence is that we have to wait until Friday week to get the Doc's clearance.

On the same good/almost good news front, we finally have our spare wheel carrier completed and installed. On the back of the Nova we have the normal sort of bumper bar, which held the bike rack and the caravan spare wheel. As we are planning to go a bit feral this time, poking right up into the gulf and other places, I thought it might be a good idea to carry a second spare for the car. The plan was to mount it on the caravan bumper alongside the caravan spare. So I took the original spare wheel bracket off, measured it up and went looking for some metal to make another one. The first place I went wasn't the shop it used to be, but had been replaced by a brand new Metal Shop. They took one look and said they could not only supply the metal but weld it al up as well. Too good to be true, so I gave them money and left the parts and instructions. Wow, what a circus. The welder left the next day, they got someone else, they welded it up back-to-front, they remade it, they got another welder in and on and on and on. Finally after about 5 weeks it was actually finished. They had lost the two caravan wheel nuts, but I was able to replace them cheaply from Lloyds Caravans in Kembla Street Fyshwick, so all ended well.

Put the new tyres on the car, had it serviced and now we are ready to roll. Talk about being all dressed up and nowhere to go!

Ah well, wont be long now and we'll be away. We'll have to cut our stops a bit short to make up for the delay and still get to Broome on time. We've booked tours out of Broome and on the way back a tour of the Bungles so there's no turning back this time.

We've also decided that we can get into El Questro. We were put off by the Pentacost River crossing you hear all about, but it turns out that its the main one down the Gibb River road a bit. The actual crossing into El Questro is only ankle deep.

Can't wait.

Getting ready... Modification to the Nova

Despite there being a wedding to attend to in the next week, it's also high time we started getting things ready for the next trip.

High on the list of refinements required was some practical and functional clothing storage for Judy's kit. The Nova we have has a 'wardrobe' either side of the double bed, hanging space above a cupboard with single drawer for your bedtime accessories. We have minimal need for hanging space, certainly not the 700mm worth we had. On our last trip we utilised a 'hanging wardrobe' in Judy's space, which proved to be almost adequate space-wise, but hopeless in the practicality stakes. The problem with a hanging design is that it sways back and forth, spilling the contents into a heap in the bottom of the cupboard. So, we elected to abandon her cupboard as hanging space, mine alone will suffice for my 1 pair of trousers and her slacks and dresses (you have to dress up once at least!).

The design criteria are interesting though: functional, light, space efficient, minimal structural change to existing, very little 'solid' construction to affix shelves to etc.

What I have is a skeleton frame of 1cm square timber: two uprights at the back and 4 shelf rails down each side. The two uprights are made up of a single long piece with 5 shorter pieces glues to it, leaving gaps for the side rails. These uprights are screwed to the van wall and the inside cupboard wall using screws that have just enough (5mm) penetration so as not to damage anything inside the walls, or stick out the other side! The side rails were then simple slipped into their notches in the uprights and secured with a single screw each at the front. A backing board of 4mm paper/cardboard was then inserted and pushed hard up against the rear uprights. The shelves, made of 6mm marine ply were cut to exact size and placed into position on the rails. Everything holds everything else in place. Job done, and pretty good it is too. Total cost? about $40.

Result: heaps of space for clothes, minimal weight increase and the whole thing can be taken out with only a few tiny screw holes left behind. Neat, eh?

Melbourne - Last days

We had originally planned on leaving on Friday but the weather turned nasty overnight with a howling gale and threatening storms. We hi-tailed it for home, but the conditions on the highway, towing a biggish van, were pretty terrible. We were only doing 90 most of the time and after taking an hour to cover 75k I called for a pit stop at a tiny place called Avenel. Took coffee and raisin toast, and suitably relaxed, rejoined the fray. Finally made it into Holbrook and called it quits for the day even though it was only 2pm.
The rain caught up to us as well, but by the looks of the news reports, we were better off than most of north east Victoria.
During a break from the rain we checked out the 'Last Post Bookshop' and bought a handful of well used tomes. Forsook the Riverina Hotel that evening for the RSL Club. Only noticeable difference is that the wine is about half price to that of the hotel!
Wandered off about 10am the next day and wandered into Canberra about 1:30 or so.

Well that's it for the moment, next planned departure is 27th May for another 1/2 'lap' up through the top-end

Brian & Judy

Melbourne Trip March 2013

Well finally we get to take ourselves and the trusty rig out on the road once again. It's been too long. Funny how you get back from a trip and swear to go out again at least once a month, even just to the coast, but how it never happens and before you know it, 6 months have slipped by.

Anyhow, we left home about 2 and made an uneventful run down to Holbrook to our favourite van park. Had dinner at the Riverina Hotel. Gotten a bit expensive though, probably due to all the workers living in town while they build a bypass – you’d need a by-pass if you ate there too often!

Great to get away again and blow the cobwebs of the van, and our caravanning skills.

 

We'll tackle the Melbourne leg tomorrow.

In the beginning...

Getting started was simple enough, we had a rush of blood to the brain and bought a van...

Us and our 3yo Nova Caravan

... and then we bought a vehicle to tow the thing. 

2006 BMW X5 3.0 Diesel

We took a few small steps getting to grips with the concept of caravanning, then we took some bigger ones, up to six weeks at a time.

The van was found in Shepparton, where we had gone to look at a used Jayco, which was 'orrible. On our way out we stopped at the Tourist Info Centre and asked about caravan sales yards, of which there are two. We opted for the one north of town and found a big old shed with a few vans parked out the front. On closer inspection three of them were locked, one was a huge off road setup and then we came to this. Basically it was 'love' at first sight. It had nothing we thought we needed such as the full size stove, separate freezer or toilet and shower, but one look was enough to convince us that what this van had, was what we wanted. The sign said "... or offer". The little man ummed and arhed at my offer. He counter-offered. I told him to sharpen his pencil and pointed at the sign which clearly said "or offer". You'd think I was cutting his arm off - if they don't want to take less, then don't suggest that you can make an offer - it's that easy. We negotiated and the deal was struck. We only had one tiny problem, we didn't have a vehicle to tow the thing with, our trusty V8 Fairlane certainly wasn't going to be up to it. The van for those so inclined, is 17'6" (actually its 18'6" as we discovered later) and its Tare is 1660 kilograms. They agreed to park it out back and mind it for us for a few weeks.

We had been looking for a BMW X5 Diesel for a few months, and were on a promise from a member of the white-shoe brigade. In the interim, my brother kindly lent me his Land Rover Discovery II, 2.5 litre 5 cylinder, manual, diesel and off we went to bring it home. We are very thankful for the use of the vehicle, but it showed me one thing - we'd need something bigger than the Disco to tow it comfortably.

Eventually an X5 that suited my needs came up on one of the car sales web sites: a 2004 3litre diesel, auto. One owner, low miles. I flew from Canberra to Adelaide to check it out and again, a deal was struck. The attraction of the 2004 X5 was: its a 3 litre six diesel, it's a six speed auto, it was the first of the 'update' series, and being 5 years old, was a semi-sensible price. Also, it's a mid-range truck, not a baby toy nor a goliath. Rated to tow 2700kg and with 400 Nm of torque, it sounded perfect. Oh, and it's a BMW, which I happen to fancy as we've had a few over the years and they have all been solid, comfortable and reliable.

My first surprise was that i filled it up in Adelaide, all 90litres, and drove it right home to Canberra on the one tank. Having been used to the Fairlane needing refreshments every hour, i was suitably impressed.

Now we have covered 17,000 kilometres, up and down the east coast and Tasmania, in all kinds of weather, all kinds of terrain, and i'm still delighted with it. We get 9 l/100k around town without the van and 14.5 litres towing at all kinds of speed. The sheer pulling power has never ceased to amaze me. We're in Canberra, so the coast for us includes the notorious Clyde Mountain. No drama here, but had to dip into 2nd gear once coming up. The whole rig is so stable I ditched the Hayman Reese weight distribution hitch as too much trouble.

So there we are, all set to take on the big one.