The Camping Thread

[prydey]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

Hi fellow campers, im currently spending 3 nights at Mambray Creek. The weather is perfect, 23 today and 26 tomorrow with an overnight low of mid teens, who said it was winter.
@ Prydey, im right across from the site you've booked in October, it is a good site with a communal fire pit right across the road which i just cooked curry beef massaman in. Ive taken some photos of the site if you're interested but wont be able to forward them till i get home Sunday.
So nice to be able to have an uninterrupted hot shower at midnight.

only 21 forecast for adelaide with arvo rain and yet again, a lot of wind.

if its no trouble, some pics would be good. i'll PM you my email if thats the easiest way. Photobucket has really put a downer on this thread.

spent the weekend before last down at Wirrina Cove holiday park just to continue to work out how to set our van up for us. the wind did its best to try to relocate us. van seemed to handle it fine even though the canvas sides were quite bowed in with the wind and the sound on the inside was quite unnerving. no chance of sleep when its that windy.

[DoreSlamR]

A couple of favourite shots from my GRR trip..

Cable beach


Pentecost river


Camping Kimberley style

[Trevor 57]

We loved the GRR, however some of the road was horrendous. I was watching previous sessions of 'Outback Truckers' on 7 internet last night and there was a young couple in trouble with their truck on the GRR and it bought back memories, I think it might have been PTSD - LOL

There is some beautiful sights on the GRR, we didn't take our van, we left it at Parry Creek and tented it

[Trevor 57]

Windjana Gorge (just off GRR)



Bell Gorge

[sgt_doofey]

Still on lighting (sorry!).
I've just purchased a Ryobi One+ drill to replace my old aging Bosch cordless ones. I noticed that in the range, Ryobi have these lights:
https://www.bunnings.com.au/ryobi-on...-port_p6210745

Anyone got one? Any good for camp lighting?

[beardo]

Are there any good ways of heating and cooling inside camper trailers? Obviously that isn't dangerous.
I might have to camp for work for the next 8 or 9 months in country victoria (for 4 weeks at a time)

[prydey]

Originally Posted by beardo

Are there any good ways of heating and cooling inside camper trailers? Obviously that isn't dangerous.
I might have to camp for work for the next 8 or 9 months in country victoria (for 4 weeks at a time)

if you have power, you can get oil heaters that do a pretty good job.

if not, many caravans have diesel heaters. just have to vent them outside obviously.

for cooling, again, if you have power, portable evaporative units are available. not sure how effective they are. if you are relying on 12v power, then anything more than a fan is going to chew a lot of power and may not be a viable option.

[MDS69]

Originally Posted by beardo

Are there any good ways of heating and cooling inside camper trailers? Obviously that isn't dangerous.
I might have to camp for work for the next 8 or 9 months in country victoria (for 4 weeks at a time)

Sorry coming in a bit late but for a soft floor CT or hard floor how about a tarp over the whole lot with an air gap. Kinda like a solar blanket theory.

[beardo]

I'm hoping to get a powered site at the least. I'd just buy a van with heating and cooling but I'm a casual worker in an unreliable industry so i don't really want to outlay that much cash

[sgt_doofey]

Originally Posted by beardo

I'm hoping to get a powered site at the least. I'd just buy a van with heating and cooling but I'm a casual worker in an unreliable industry so i don't really want to outlay that much cash

When we went to the Grampians in May, we took a little blow heater and used that to heat our camper trailer. We only used it whilst awake and turned it off to sleep.
An oil heater is something you could leave on all night.
Assuming you get a powered site of course.

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

[BENT_8]

9kg bottle with a camp heater element, cost u bugger all and cheap to run. Obviously you'd need to be careful but i reckon you could run it on low for 5 minutes to heat the camper tent and in an annex when necessary so long as theres ventilation and you monitor the temp of the material above your head. I wouldn't leave it unattended at all.
But if you have access to power then a fan heayer and portable A/C as Rob suggested.

[Trevor 57]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

9kg bottle with a camp heater element, cost u bugger all and cheap to run. Obviously you'd need to be careful but i reckon you could run it on low for 5 minutes to heat the camper tent and in an annex when necessary so long as theres ventilation and you monitor the temp of the material above your head. I wouldn't leave it unattended at all.

I thought these were banned?

[BENT_8]

Originally Posted by Lever T

I thought these were banned?

They may well be, i havent looked at them in years but worth enquiring.

[sgt_doofey]

If you use anything that uses gas to heat, check the instructions properly as you don't want to die from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

[beardo]

Originally Posted by sgt_doofey

If you use anything that uses gas to heat, check the instructions properly as you don't want to die from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

Yeah I'd rather not die. I reckon a little oil heater and a decent sleeping bag would do the trick.
Probably more concerned with cooling as I'm pretty warm blooded and most of this job will be in the warmer months, in the warmest part of vic

[Tassie f100]

We use a gas heater that was bought at Snowy,s for around. $100.Uses those little 220 g butane cylinders that last maybe 1 1/2 hours on full heat.In the caravan which is fairly well vented I figure that if I did nod off with it going it would run out of gas before the carbon level got to a dangerous level

[sgt_doofey]

For cooling, perhaps look at the misting systems you can get for gazebos and the like. Might be easier and cheaper to cool an outdoor spot during the day. A tent should cool down at night with it opened up.

Just be careful with evaporative or misting systems that the humidity it creates doesn't stuff up your electronic devices.

If you want to see ingenious camping setups, a walk around the Bathurst camp sites whilst the race is on will definitely open your eyes. Some truly amazing setups there!

[beardo]

Originally Posted by sgt_doofey

For cooling, perhaps look at the misting systems you can get for gazebos and the like. Might be easier and cheaper to cool an outdoor spot during the day. A tent should cool down at night with it opened up.

Just be careful with evaporative or misting systems that the humidity it creates doesn't stuff up your electronic devices.

If you want to see ingenious camping setups, a walk around the Bathurst camp sites whilst the race is on will definitely open your eyes. Some truly amazing setups there!

Yeah I'd be a bit worried about it making everything damp.
Anyway, i finally got a start date and looks like I'll get plenty of work out of this job so i might just bite the bullet and lash out on a new van

[prydey]

having discovered another free image hosting site, i thought i'd update this thread with some pics

last school holidays we decided on a spur of the moment trip to a caravan park about an hour away, just for a couple of nights to continue to get to know our new (to us) van. Forecast wasn't great but it was more about just getting away as a family.

well, it started off ok on the saturday morning, but from sat arvo, the wind started picking up and being coastal, the gusts were seriously worrying when you are in a slab sided van with canvas walls. i ended up putting guy ropes on the van roof on the opposite side to the awning just to try help hold it steady.
then the rain came.
we came close to calling it quits, but decided to trust the van would hold up, and sat it out.

not quite the relaxing weekend away but it was an experience...

[sgt_doofey]

Pack the gum boots did we Rob? Looks like a fair bit of rain fell!

I think I've solved my lighting dilemma. I've bought the following:
https://www.4wdsupacentre.com.au/pro...light-kit.html

5x led light bars and various cabling options. Runs off battery or cigarette lighter from your car. Might be a little while before I use it though as we're in the middle of selling the house!

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

[prydey]

Those lights look the same as the korr light bar I have except I paid more than that for a single 50cm one. Mine is one that does orange and white light, but 4wd supercentre pricing is very sharp.

Regardless, it is a good setup, with it all being modular so you can add bits as you need, or leave bits off.

[RHR]

Just thought I'd post about our previous camper and upgrade

Started off with a Mars branded camper that we bought off ebay of all places. $5,500 back in 2014 and we had lots of great times with it. Had a mate fab up a custom made bike, spare wheel and jerry can rack to move some of the weight off the draw bar. Ill let the pics do the talking.

It was fitted with a 105 A/H battery and had two cig sockets and a merit socket hard wired in.

https://imgur.com/tqCzdGS

https://imgur.com/a188031

https://imgur.com/HjCCgGS

https://imgur.com/wlWkrmT

Cig Sockets

https://imgur.com/yeXrBRd

https://imgur.com/2k1tF4l

It was great for what it was only bad thing is the wife and I would get divorced when setting it up and divorced when we packed up.

So we sold it a little while ago for what we originally paid for it which i thought was pretty good.

Took the plunge and bought a 2016 Jayco Flamingo Outback.

Sorry about the caravan sales pics.
It has a heap of extras including aircon, stereo, wind up TV antenna, Decent roll out awning, hot water system with external shower.

https://imgur.com/bc40qTi

https://imgur.com/F40EZS7

https://imgur.com/vZJ91uo

https://imgur.com/i6x7SME

https://imgur.com/AUJPs7B

https://imgur.com/9LJ1KiJ

https://imgur.com/8w4fvrc

To say its clean is an understatement. According to the seller it was bought by a single elderly lady for her and her grand daughter. It was used twice and she found it too hard to put up/down. All up going off a quote new she would have paid close to 38-40K for it.

We paid 27K which I was/am very happy with.

First trip is to Lake Tabourie (NSW Coast near Ulladulla) over the school holidays

[prydey]

I looked at flamingos but the wife preferred the layout of the swan. They are really good campers and even without racing can be set up in about 20 min, including awning.
Good price too.

[damo76]

The Girlfriend and I just got back 2 weeks ago from a 10 day trip to Ularu.
We went in her Kia Carnival, at first i was worried about the car not making it as we were doing around 7000kms. I put a cage on the roof rack to store most of the camping gear, stuff we use the least and the rest went into the back along with a double mattress, I tell you what, i didn't think much of the kia but once you take out all the seats which they just slide out, there is plenty of sleeping room in the back, i mean i'm 6foot4 and i could stretch out with no restictions. The car was reliable and did 12litres per 100kms loaded up.
We left Bunbury WA in the afternoon, going through Wagin, Ravensthorpe, Norseman, I could only get 3 hours sleep the first night as we were so excited so got up at 3am, I think we were somewhere between Lake King and Ravensthorpe so i decided to drive all night and most of next day, doing as many kms as we can the first few nights, because 3700kms to Ularu.
We did the Nullabour road and stopped at all the sight seeing places, I also wanted to do most of the kms at night while Cazzy slept so we could stop and sight see during the day, because this trip was to celebrate her 50th birthday and it would have been tight if i didn't rack up the kms at night. Her birthday was to fall on the thursday so i wanted to be comfortable at Ularu by then.
Went through Ceduna and Port Augusta, had to replace the low beam globes there as they both burnt out.
Again drove most of the night to Coober Pedy, spent the day there, what and unusual town .
That night camped near Erlanda roadhouse behind the HWY, and then carried on to Kings Canyon.. Wow..
After that we made it to Ularu, so we spent 2 days there looking around, relaxing.. Spent the night at the field of lights for Cazzy's Birthday lit the candles on her birthday cake while we were having a drink watching the sun go down over Ularu ..
Time to head back, so we came back the Great Central Road, the road was fine but when we got back we had to get the wheels balanced lol..
It was a great way to spend a holiday with Caz and celebrate her 50th.
We took $2200, most of the cost was fuel,but we ate well and could afford to pay for site seeing extras. We lived comfortably, camping on the side of the road apart from 2 nights at the Yulara caravan park.
But if i was to do that again, i'd definatly go in the Kia, we didn't even get sore bums or a blow out.

[damo76]

Here is some pics of the trip

[stock1991]

damo that eagle has spotted you

[Trevor 57]

nice pics mate - well done

[prydey]

Great pics damo.

So much to see and do in Australia. Wouldn't mind doing uluru myself one day.

[damo76]

Yer took ages to get the eagle to look at me it was a great trip, the GF and i are planning one in december from Bunbury to Melbourne on our motorbikes best gf ever, she has her own motorbike

[stock1991]

Originally Posted by damo76

Yer took ages to get the eagle to look at me it was a great trip, the GF and i are planning one in december from Bunbury to Melbourne on our motorbikes best gf ever, she has her own motorbike

lol mate, best eagle ever, notice how black the bird is, a mature adult, must of felt comfortable