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Post by awbeattie381 on Feb 23, 2015 12:28:49 GMT 10
Great to see the old girl(s) out and about again! Not sure if I could spend more than 1 night in Cowra though. Was there a couple of weekends ago for my brother's new baby but we actually stayed in orange for the night...
Is a beautiful part of NSW to spend a week or two but I would stay at Parkes, Forbes, Orange, Bathurst, Grenfell over Cowra.
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Carl
In Training
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Post by Carl on Apr 26, 2015 17:14:08 GMT 10
New home for the old girl.
It took me a fair while to remove the old garden shed and 10,000 litre tank off this concrete slab, lay two new concrete slabs on the other side of the garage, build a new smaller garden shed and relocate the tank to the other slab. Then I dug three trenches for the house and garage storm water to the tank, and the irrigation pipe from the garden shed pump to the irrigation system. All this blood sweat and blisters just to put the caravan on it's own slab between house and garage. And now I need to build a carport to cover it.
Next week is trip to Wakefield Park race track for a weekend of motor racing, story telling and beer drinking. Might as well stay in style in the van instead of on the floor in a pit garage. |
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Post by Mustang on Apr 27, 2015 18:40:31 GMT 10
I think you should shout her a "roof"
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Carl
In Training
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Post by Carl on Jun 10, 2015 21:26:15 GMT 10
I think you should shout her a "roof" Ta daaaaaaa. One new roof, it's a Best Sheds product and higher than most carports (3.6m wide, 7m long and 2.8m high at the eaves) but if I ever buy a van with air cond on the roof, there will still be plenty of clearance. It was a tight fit in the space between house and shed, but I measured everything a hundred times and it fitted in perfectly. I'd go broke if I was a shed builder because it took me 5 days to erect it after I concreted the necessary piers the weekend before. But it turned out great and I'm very happy with it. 
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Post by youngdazza on Jun 10, 2015 22:10:11 GMT 10
I think the correct word for this is "awesome". Nice work.
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Post by Mustang on Jun 13, 2015 18:18:53 GMT 10
Well done. It took my erector 5 days also, mainly due to the supply of wrong materials!!!!
Keeping the sun off is as important as the rain.
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Post by tasmillard on Jun 18, 2015 13:03:47 GMT 10
What a great combination, well done.
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Post by awbeattie381 on Jun 23, 2015 8:10:46 GMT 10
Just went back over your photos. This is one of my fav vans on here - changing the colour of that stripe was a brilliant move! Great work getting a carport sorted!
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Carl
In Training
Posts: 44
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Post by Carl on Jun 24, 2015 17:40:53 GMT 10
Thanks Andrew, she's a great old van and I'm now looking after it a bit better under its own carport.
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Carl
In Training
Posts: 44
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Post by Carl on Nov 15, 2015 13:59:05 GMT 10
Update: We're going off to Tuross Beach soon and the last time we went down the Clyde the drum brakes in the Impala could have done with some assistance so I've restored the electric brakes that were fitted to the van but disconnected. Now I don't have to rely on the over-ride brakes, which were useless anyway if you're stuck behind a semi-trailer going down a steep hill at 10km/h.  The brake magnet on the left side still worked when 12v was applied, but the one of the right did noting, so I bought new magnets and they fitted very easily after I watched a Youtube video of how to get the old ones off. The magnet on the right side had the wires ripped out and mangled up so it's no wonder it didn't work. There was still plenty of meat on the brake shoes and the drums and inside face of the drums were good. I ran new wire for the brakes and decided to replace the old 7-pin plug and the wiring for the lights. The original light wires looked like old speaker wire because it was white and the six wires were in 3 pairs. Ah the 70's, I cut this mess off just in front of where it goes up into the van and ran new 7 core wire back to the new plug. I also bought a small brake controller for the Impala. This is a tiny unit that can be mounted anywhere and the amount of brake force is controlled by the slide control. It's the old school style that doesn't look too out of place under the air cond vent to the left of the steering column.  I connected the car up to make sure everything works and the magnets apply when the brakes are activated. everything seems to work ok, and the next thing to do will be to take it for a run to test the brakes.... Maybe next weekend. |
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Post by Mustang on Nov 15, 2015 17:24:45 GMT 10
I would be interested in your results, I have all new brakes , but not the performance I want. EDIT: I have just found this advice on the net linkWhen I re-newed our 10 " electric brakes I followed the wiring that was in place, one cable for both magnets, WRONG this is series.Parallel is what is needed, this means running a separate wire to each magnet, ahh easy when explained. Cant wait to try it , but it will be on our return next year. |
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Post by tasmillard on Nov 22, 2015 7:59:08 GMT 10
Hi Carl, any further pics? I am going to rig up my water system like yours, going to bunnings to see if they have the hose and brass fittings. How have you gone with on board water?
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Carl
In Training
Posts: 44
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Post by Carl on Nov 22, 2015 11:39:07 GMT 10
I don't have any more photos than the ones on page 1 of this thread, but if you want to see something specific I can take more. The on board water is really just a back up because we use tap water when we go to caravan parks.
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Post by doublechevron on Nov 23, 2015 15:43:55 GMT 10
The brakes need to be in parallel, if you have wired twin axle in series, each magnet will get 3volts rather than 12volts.... and if you have *any* wiring problems to any wheel, none of your brakes will work. Are you sure it's series ?? This doesn't sound right to me. It could be parallel off the back of the one magnet. To be series you would have one wire to one magnet, then one wire from the other side of that magnet across to the other magnet, then from the other magnet to earth. The brake controller fitted to the impala looks like an old timer control one. I fitted a primus IQ which works brilliantly for me... They are proportional. Though the way it looks will suck in the impala. It's very seemless, the harder I brake, the harder the caravan brakes. SO if you do a full on crash stop 'cos someone has pulled out in front of you... the caravan anchors will come on at full power instantly as well  this one: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxHQvAPTMCsseeya, shane L. |
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Post by Mustang on Nov 24, 2015 11:21:07 GMT 10
The brakes need to be in parallel, if you have wired twin axle in series, each magnet will get 3volts rather than 12volts.... and if you have *any* wiring problems to any wheel, none of your brakes will work. Are you sure it's series ?? This doesn't sound right to me. It could be parallel off the back of the one magnet. To be series you would have one wire to one magnet, then one wire from the other side of that magnet across to the other magnet, then from the other magnet to earth. The brake controller fitted to the impala looks like an old timer control one. I fitted a primus IQ which works brilliantly for me... They are proportional. Though the way it looks will suck in the impala. It's very seemless, the harder I brake, the harder the caravan brakes. SO if you do a full on crash stop 'cos someone has pulled out in front of you... the caravan anchors will come on at full power instantly as well this one: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxHQvAPTMCsseeya, shane L. This is how my brakes were wired up, in series!! it sounds like they were getting 3 volts, working but barley detectable. Apologies for hijacking this thread, but the info is very important. |
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Carl
In Training
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Post by Carl on Nov 25, 2015 21:10:45 GMT 10
Mine are connected in parallel, with both magnets having their own earth. If I recall my electrical theory, connecting 2 components in series means that each component gets half the voltage each, but the full current (amps), so 6v each but the full current depending upon the slide setting on the controller. Therefore power is down at each magnet because the controller controls current, not voltage. If connected in parallel, each component would get 12v each, but only half the current each. This just means that the controller needs to be adjusted up to supply more current for the magnets. eg slide the controller twice as far up the scale.
I still have mechanical override function on the van to provide full brakes in a panic brake situation, and complete control of brake current for normal braking. The only real problem I have is prolonged braking down the Clyde mountain range because my Impala's drum brakes fade pretty fast, even though they're huge, which I can now control by having the adjustable electric brakes on the caravan to help. With the Impala in first gear and minimal braking, I should be able to use the electric brake controller to vary the braking power of the van's brakes to slow up.
I hope I didn't lose anyone.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 26, 2015 7:36:52 GMT 10
Even with electric brakes it feels positively sketchy coming down steep hills when you're used to putting the exhaust/jake brake on and hanging on your gears without touching the brakes at all
If the enforced the same road rules and fines for caravans coming down hills as trucks they would make a fortune!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 14, 2015 7:35:40 GMT 10
I've got a similar air con in the shed (used it in our bedroom till we got ducted for the whole house) My fridge is cactus so for the Chrismtas trip I'm putting it in the fridge hole and ducting it out through the fridge vents. There's even a power point under there to plug it into! If it works out OK I'll set it up properly with some trim paneling around it. One of these days when the budget extends to it I'm hoping to put one of these in part of what is now the wardrobe: ![]() i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTUwMFgxNTAw/z/KNQAAOSwjVVV29tT/$_57.JPG![]() For now we have a car fridge in the Triton so not having a fridge in the van isn't the end of the world. I don't like the idea of a rooftop aircon on these old vans, they weren't made with that amount weight on the roof in mind |
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Carl
In Training
Posts: 44
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Post by Carl on Dec 14, 2015 10:22:29 GMT 10
I would be interested in your results, I have all new brakes , but not the performance I want. EDIT: I have just found this advice on the net linkWhen I re-newed our 10 " electric brakes I followed the wiring that was in place, one cable for both magnets, WRONG this is series.Parallel is what is needed, this means running a separate wire to each magnet, ahh easy when explained. Cant wait to try it , but it will be on our return next year. G'day Mustang, the van's going in for it's roadworthy today so I thought that I better check my electric brake setup. I started out with the slider on minimum and couldn't really feel anything at about 10mph, so I sped up a bit and moved the slider to about a 1/4 up the scale. When I touched the brake pedal I could feel a slight tug from the van and the car slowed pretty well without using it's own brakes at all. Because the system is either on or off, it does tug a bit on braking and jerk back a bit when I release the brakes, but it's not bad with the slider about a 1/4 up the scale. I should note that I have got the over-ride brake lever on the van locked out so there is no over-ride braking at all. I then moved the slider to about half and touched the brakes and it tugged hard and jerked back when I released the brakes. I cannot see the need to use higher than about a quarter for normal driving. Next I went to a big hill near where I live and braked from about 40mph from the top. I could instantly feel the slight tug from the van that slowed the car without the need for me to push the pedal any harder. As I went down the hill with the brakes still on, I slowly moved the slider to about half scale and the braking noticeably increased from the van until the van's drum brakes started to fade, so I increased the slider to about 3/4 but without much more braking felt from the van. At this point I needed to push the pedal a bit harder so the car brakes started to get used more and it all slowed really well. This tells me that the van brakes work really well until the drum brake fading starts, but at this point the car's drum brakes have hardly been applied, so they are not hot and can then be used to assist with the braking. There's not much I can do about the drum fade, so I'm really happy with their performance up to that point. I also learned a valuable lesson after I reached the bottom of the hill - REMEMBER TO MOVE THE CONTROLLER SLIDE BACK TO THE 1/4 POSITION - because as I came up to the 50 km/h zone on the outskirts of my town I touched the brakes and at least one wheel on the van instantly locked up!!! I was only on the brakes for a split second before I realised and slid the controller back down again, but it goes to show that once the brakes cooled down they were obviously ready to brake at full power again. Now to put on a load of washing and clean the brown undies.... |
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Post by Mustang on Dec 14, 2015 12:36:54 GMT 10
Thanks for that Carl I will let you know our results when we get back home.
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Carl
In Training
Posts: 44
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Post by Carl on Dec 25, 2015 10:49:23 GMT 10
Ah, the serenity.... The week at Tuross Heads was great, the electric brakes worked great going down the Clyde and made braking something I don't have to think about any more. We did however have one problem with the van when the window locks on one of the windows failed and the window started flapping. A nice person who was overtaking us pointed it out and we pulled over to see what had gone wrong. I had replaced the window locks on this window with new plastic ones in the original style, but the clips had failed and both locks had fallen out meaning that there was nothing holding the window shut. I had to tape the window shut with duct tape - old RAAFie thing - always have "100 mile an hour tape" in the tool box. You can see the taped up window in the second photo. I've ordered some steel window locks that have a rivet holding the knob on. If they fit and work ok, I'll replace all the other plastic and old brittle locks.  replace these with these  as they are supposed to fit and work the same. The success story was the portable air conditioner. The weather last week was HOT and after taking half a day to get to Tuross, which involved a stop for coffee and Xmas shopping at Bateman's Bay, by the time we set up the van on our site at about 2pm, it was 37 degrees inside the van!!! I rigged up the portable AC unit and it was down to 24 degrees in a couple of hours. We didn't need to have it on at night, and it's pretty noisy, so that was lucky, but we had it on all the next day to keep the van cool, and on the third day the weather cooled down because of a fierce southerly buster and we didn't need it at all after that. Nothing blew away, but a van a couple of sites up lost their annex. Another new useful item was the outside flooring mat, which replaced the old tarps and because it's a netting type of material, it allows the sand and water to pass through meaning it's always nice to walk on and doesn't need cleaning. All in all, a lovely place to stay and relax.    |
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Post by tasmillard on Dec 25, 2015 17:01:35 GMT 10
We used the netting for camping in our tent, for the same reason. I am also interested in your annexe setup, keeping it simple. I like it, do you have sides also?
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Carl
In Training
Posts: 44
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Post by Carl on Dec 26, 2015 8:39:03 GMT 10
The annex is an awning only, there are no sides. It's made of very thick vinyl and appears to be very strong, our local canvas business made it. I use a small tarp and four small bungy cords between the poles if I need shade from the sun on that side. We don't need a full annex because we never stay anywhere longer than a week and don't need to sleep or store anything valuable outside. We also figured we didn't need the full annex and the many thousands of dollars a new "retro" canvas one would cost.
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Post by myarrow1 on Dec 26, 2015 9:56:28 GMT 10
Wow. Awesome set up ! Love that awning.
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