joe2006
Member
Hahahaha.
Wondering who that could have been?
While I was pretty confident, it took a fair bit of courage in case I was wrong and sounded like some sort of weirdo.
The missing IPF 800's put me off a little.
Of Meetings And Trips
- Thread starter joe2006
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Wondering who that could have been?
While I was pretty confident, it took a fair bit of courage in case I was wrong and sounded like some sort of weirdo.
The missing IPF 800's put me off a little.
I guess it could have come off weird, but you weren't wrong and it was great to meet you. The smaller lights I had then are now gone too, I'm just using the 120W 50cm light bar. It does enough for me!
I guess she's also got a set of roof bars and basket as well since the avatar pic was taken, which further disguises her. I'm considering losing the basket to assist with airflow, because I don't really use it a lot, I've been managing quite well with storing things in the tub for long hauls, but the bars will stay so I can keep an awning there for small camping or picnic trips.
joe2006
Member
Taking the OP just a little off topic 
yes it was great to meet and talk cars. Imagine the number of others with whom we have crossed paths and didn't realise? Will you still be travelling if you sell the van and car as you recently posted? I'm going to soon have much more time to travel, so looking forward to that.
yes it was great to meet and talk cars. Imagine the number of others with whom we have crossed paths and didn't realise? Will you still be travelling if you sell the van and car as you recently posted? I'm going to soon have much more time to travel, so looking forward to that.
I've fixed the off-topicness 
We're still undecided either way, really. On the one hand we'd like a motorhome - a recent experience pulling into a campground in the pouring rain and having to trudge through mud to enter our caravan gave us quite a bit of impetus towards the motorhome idea. However, this does limit us in a way to both our journeys and possibly our passengers - we have two grandchildren, one male and one female, and they can't sleep in the same bed, so the caravan - with its bunk beds - is more suitable. Plus, with the caravan, we can park it in a van park and detach and drive about to those harder-to-reach places - like shopping centres, narrow winding roads to lookouts etc.
But the motorhome allows us to travel in more safety, with no concerns about getting drenched or encountering wild critters when stopping in a rest area or secluded area.
We have some things to think about!
We still intend to travel, and will continue working at Mt Panorama as well, for the forseeable future. The frequency of those journeys does depend on other issues (school being one of them at the moment). Either method works for the racetrack, although going out for necessities or just for dinner is more difficult with a motorhome.
We're still undecided either way, really. On the one hand we'd like a motorhome - a recent experience pulling into a campground in the pouring rain and having to trudge through mud to enter our caravan gave us quite a bit of impetus towards the motorhome idea. However, this does limit us in a way to both our journeys and possibly our passengers - we have two grandchildren, one male and one female, and they can't sleep in the same bed, so the caravan - with its bunk beds - is more suitable. Plus, with the caravan, we can park it in a van park and detach and drive about to those harder-to-reach places - like shopping centres, narrow winding roads to lookouts etc.
But the motorhome allows us to travel in more safety, with no concerns about getting drenched or encountering wild critters when stopping in a rest area or secluded area.
We have some things to think about!
We still intend to travel, and will continue working at Mt Panorama as well, for the forseeable future. The frequency of those journeys does depend on other issues (school being one of them at the moment). Either method works for the racetrack, although going out for necessities or just for dinner is more difficult with a motorhome.
I've fixed the off-topicness
Always new and exciting setups to please the traveling community.. i find what works for "this" trip doesnt work for "that".. Was thinking of a couple different ways you could make the motorhome idea easier and just as convenient to get around - here they are
The Flat Towed Suzi
Hoist Lifted Goldwing
Or just the plain ol' pushy
^ We contemplated the towed-car because we do have a small vehicle (but it can't be flat-towed, it's a FWD auto). Having a motorcycle license does give us the opportunity of putting a bike on the back but I really don't want a 'wing on the back - that's 400kg sitting aft of the rear axle that has to be included in the calcs for the GVM.
We've been contemplating a small scooter (about 150cc), not just because they're light, but because they actually have a little cargo space for shopping and they're pretty miserly on fuel.
We had thought about a closed trailer behind the motorhome that carries a small car (plus other things like spare fuel, generator etc) but decided that if we want to go the motorhome route, we'd much rather NOT be towing anything. And so the bike-on-a-carrier will be the likely goal if we go the motorhome route. A bicycle is a good idea but I'm not sure we'd want to do that a lot heading into our 70s and 80s, especially with Uncle Arthur spending so much time with me.
We've been contemplating a small scooter (about 150cc), not just because they're light, but because they actually have a little cargo space for shopping and they're pretty miserly on fuel.
We had thought about a closed trailer behind the motorhome that carries a small car (plus other things like spare fuel, generator etc) but decided that if we want to go the motorhome route, we'd much rather NOT be towing anything. And so the bike-on-a-carrier will be the likely goal if we go the motorhome route. A bicycle is a good idea but I'm not sure we'd want to do that a lot heading into our 70s and 80s, especially with Uncle Arthur spending so much time with me.
D40-12-Xtra-Newc
Member
Adding to the above, instead of a full-size & thus heavy two-wheeler, there are now available 'EV' full-size scooters, eg the Super Soco CPC - see latest (Feb.'22) edition of 'Australian Motorcyclist'.
joe2006
Member
Yes, everything is a compromise. I have watched a couple in a motorhome very recently, set up camp at a CP, only to pack everything up shortly after. Thinking they must have had some sort of emergency and had to go home, they were back a few hours later to do it all again. Must have run out of milk! Others just leave all thier stuff behind which must be tempting for thieves and sometimes makes it look like some rude bugger is reserving a spot for their friends.
Over the Christmas break, we travelled with the van from Central Victoria, to Berri (SA) to Narracorte, Southend and back to Central Vic, with 2 cars. All so I could do some 4WDing in Canunda National Park. The tug is great for towing but too big for much in the way 4Wding.
The Navara had the 4WD duties and it was hard enough to dig out (and snatch out by a kind cray fisherman with a slipping clutch in an old BT50) after sliding off the side of a dune.
Wifie has fortunately gone off the idea of a MONSTER 5th wheeler which would have brought a whole new meaning to the word compromise when trying to find a caravan park to accommodate it.
Then I pity the poor souls setting up and packing up the family tents in the pooring rain.
It's good that no matter your decision, you will still be travelling.
PS I actually thought the Nav was considering having a little lie down when we started coming off the dune.
PPS if someone it travelling through Canunda National Park and finds a pair of nearly new, black size 12 havaianas, you can keep them.
Over the Christmas break, we travelled with the van from Central Victoria, to Berri (SA) to Narracorte, Southend and back to Central Vic, with 2 cars. All so I could do some 4WDing in Canunda National Park. The tug is great for towing but too big for much in the way 4Wding.
The Navara had the 4WD duties and it was hard enough to dig out (and snatch out by a kind cray fisherman with a slipping clutch in an old BT50) after sliding off the side of a dune.
Wifie has fortunately gone off the idea of a MONSTER 5th wheeler which would have brought a whole new meaning to the word compromise when trying to find a caravan park to accommodate it.
Then I pity the poor souls setting up and packing up the family tents in the pooring rain.
It's good that no matter your decision, you will still be travelling.
PS I actually thought the Nav was considering having a little lie down when we started coming off the dune.
PPS if someone it travelling through Canunda National Park and finds a pair of nearly new, black size 12 havaianas, you can keep them.
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We had a Toyota Coaster come through town with a 50mm hitch receiver mounted motorcycle carrier and a small 175cc road/trail bike on it. Now my licence should cover me riding something that large, and it's a bit more "go a few more places" than a scooter, so I'm considering it as an option, although the lack of space to "put the milk in here" means I'll need a backpack - but at least we wouldn't have to pack up just because we ran out of milk!
And anyway, don't most caravan parks sell milk in their office? Even if it's not on display in a fridge, we've been offered staples like milk and bread "at reasonable prices".
And anyway, don't most caravan parks sell milk in their office? Even if it's not on display in a fridge, we've been offered staples like milk and bread "at reasonable prices".
joe2006
Member
Stepping through the accommodation into the driver's seat could certainly have some advantages.
Friends of ours recently went from a genuine off road van to a motorhome after doing all the hard stuff on their list.
Although they didn't have any actual problems when free camping, feel a little more secure in the motorhome.
Friends of ours recently went from a genuine off road van to a motorhome after doing all the hard stuff on their list.
Although they didn't have any actual problems when free camping, feel a little more secure in the motorhome.
Part of the reason is security - you pull in to a rest area and you are absolutely self-contained, you don't need to exit the vehicle, so even if there are lions and tigers and bears around (or Judy Garland impersonators) we wouldn't have to worry about them.
It'd be particularly useful up north. We were up at Karumba dipping our feet in the Gulf and the operator of the caravan park told us to be careful, because they'd seen a salty in the area just a few hours before we got there. "Big one?" "Nahh, maybe 4-5 metres".
Nope.
Nope.
We actually risked it, I drove the Nav right up to the closest spot we could park near the water, checked the shoreline left and right and noticed some fishermen about 400m west of us. I thought they'd probably be more appetising anyway, so after scanning the water we decided to quickly head for the sandy/muddy shoreline and get the photos, constantly vigilant for anything moving in the water.
We'd like to travel more through Kakadu and also around to Exmouth from Darwin (Fitzroy Crossing etc). The motorhome just seems so much more sensible in those areas.
It'd be particularly useful up north. We were up at Karumba dipping our feet in the Gulf and the operator of the caravan park told us to be careful, because they'd seen a salty in the area just a few hours before we got there. "Big one?" "Nahh, maybe 4-5 metres".
Nope.
Nope.
We actually risked it, I drove the Nav right up to the closest spot we could park near the water, checked the shoreline left and right and noticed some fishermen about 400m west of us. I thought they'd probably be more appetising anyway, so after scanning the water we decided to quickly head for the sandy/muddy shoreline and get the photos, constantly vigilant for anything moving in the water.
We'd like to travel more through Kakadu and also around to Exmouth from Darwin (Fitzroy Crossing etc). The motorhome just seems so much more sensible in those areas.
joe2006
Member
Gee, I could talk for ages about those areas. It was on one of the number of trips to Karumba, on the leg between Winton to Hughenden, that I almost managed to crack 30lph in the Nav towing into a stiff wind between 70-80kph. We would always stay at the Sunset CP at the point in Karumba and most evenings walk to the Sunset Tavern for dinner. Even managed to get our heads on TV for about 2 seconds when they were filming "Back Roads" at the pub.
Daughter and I would walk across the road from the CP to go fishing and loose our thongs in the sticky mud. Little scary in the dark but didn't see any eyes watching from the water. Couldn't keep the dog out of the water either although one day, saw some tourists swimming in there. I assume they survived.
There are a number of spots in Kakadu not accessible by 2wd.
My favourite was crossing Jim Jim Creek on the way to the falls. I did the creek crossing four times with the bow wave at bonnet height, while a couple of foreign tourists and I filmed each other (crossing the creek, not any of that Oooh la la). I had to winch out someone in a 2wd hire car that got stuck heading to Sandy Billabong in Kakadu.
Lots of locals hanging around at Fitzroy Crossing outside the CP. Unlike what is often reported, we never felt at all threatened but then we didn't free camp. Loved the gorge cruise at Fitzroy Crossing.
I wanted to stay at Halls Creek so we could travel out to Wolfe Creek Crater but wifie found the whole atmosphere in Halls Creek scary, not to mention that she was still freaked out by having watched the Wolfe Creek movie:
We took the van into El Questro Station and did a day trip out to Home Valley Station, crossing the Pentacost River. Lots of places where a 4wd is handy but it just depends how much you want to see or whether you are happy to go on an organised tour.
We stayed at Exmouth and met a couple free camping in their van on the beach near Ningaloo. They said the other campers had cleared out and they had the spot all to themselves. I was so envious.
Coral Bay is also a beautiful spot as is Cape Leveque.
Anyway enough from me.
Great memories, I did Coach trips from Alice to Darwin and Broome to Darwin. i figured that i would get to see some of the landscape and come back to do it by car and van later. No. After sitting in a lovely A/C coach and seeing people peeling themselves out of their car at a truck stop, tired, hot and been driving all day, it changed my mind. The coach driver knew all the great spots to stop at for a swim with no salties. I have done some great car trips through Victoria, New south Wales, and Queensland. Planning a trip around NSW visiting all the major dams that are full of Murray Cod. Just did a quick trip down the south coast to Culburra beach to do some work on a house [and give the truck a run after getting a new fuel rail] The new by-pass of Albion park and Berry combined with the north connect tunnel [cutting out Pennant Hills road] was a 4 hour trip door to door.
I've heard stories about Halls Creek - with one of the recommendations being that caravanners need to use a locking hitch pin rather than a normal one, to avoid having it replaced with a stick! Talk about wild stories eh?
We've not travelled much on the west side of the country, but we're hoping to change all of that in the next couple of years. At the moment it's going to be with the Nav and our current van which has a bathroom, bunk beds, oven etc and I've upgraded the springs from 6-leaf to 7-leaf units giving it a 50mm lift, then replaced the single entry step with a double. It's quite comfortable, although it's large (you've seen it!) - although New Age call it a 19 foot van, I had to buy it a 22-foot cover because when I measured the outside, that's what it was.
Well, I do have to add a grey water tank. I changed the plumbing for the shower outlet because it shared an outlet with the kitchen and handbasin, and if we had a full sink and a slight lean towards the left, the water would come up the shower drain ... no! I'm going to plumb the kitchen and handbasin waste into the grey water tank and leave the shower "free", with a separate 40L portable grey water tank for the shower if we can't drain that straight to ground.
joe2006
Member
If Mark McGowan ever lets us in and you initially head that way with your current set up, you will see whether travelling with a motorhome would be suitable or whether you will miss out on too much.
The washing machine in our van wasn't draining fast enough and flooded the van from the hand basin. That was fixed under warranty but then the sink would sometimes come up through the shower. I changed the plumbing and put a bigger waste outlet on and now use sections of pool hose instead of the small sullage hose. I also installed a grey water tank and would sometimes get a smell inside the van. I did install a trap which obviously wasn't too successful as it would slosh around and get an air gap when we were on the move. The trap is still there but then installed a 50mm Philmac ball valve rather than fitting a HepVo valve. The tank needed to be isolated as some water was still getting into the tank when it wasn't being used. There has really been no need to use the grey water tank yet but at least it is there.
Our van has a 7 leaf pack but I opted for drop axles due to a concern about the shed door height. There ended up being plenty of clearance and now wish I had gone for the straight axles. Independent suspension was off the cards as it would have added too much weight and the tow vehicle at the time was a Pajero with 2,500kg tow capacity.
I might have some more of a think about the grey water then. Longer (deeper) S-bends under the outlets, perhaps? That might stop smells from the tank making it up into the van. Can't do that for the shower, but certainly can re-plumb the other two by adding some more hose just under the sink's outlet ... will have to go have a look at that. If the 'S' is low enough it shouldn't slosh back into the sink while we're travelling.
It's in rest areas that we prefer to retain the grey water. Places like Florida Rest Area near Cobar have some sealed areas but a fair bit of dried clay. We weren't happy with the idea of dropping grey water at the Yunta rest area either, given where we were parked (high side of the area) and the number of used poo tickets all over the place despite the presence of a Windyloo on the northern side.
We had the choice of flipping our suspension which at the moment (and from the factory) was axle-over-spring, which would have given us an instant almost 100mm in height. However, we already need 3.3m of clearance (I like to allow a bit extra room just in case they add to the road surface when "repairing" and don't change the signs) and didn't want to create something that would teeter even more in the corners.
My change from 6-leaf to 7-leaf was actually driven by a failure both in one of the spring packs and in the ability to get a 6-leaf pack in the area. We were heading out of Nyngan towards Walgett and I noticed the van leaning considerably. Inspection revealed a loose fish plate with one bent U-bolt, one U-bolt missing and the bottom leaf gone. After returning to Nyngan and replacing the U-bolts we continued our trip, assured by the local mechanic that the lack of the 6th spring wouldn't be too much of an issue but we should stop about 100km further on and tighten the U-bolts some more. When we got home, all we could get were the 7-leaf packs, so not only did I replace all 4 springs, but I put in greaseable bolts in all joints (even the roller centre bolt is greaseable). This raised the van's floor height, resulting in the need to grab a 2-step entry step as well.
And that reminds me ... I've just replaced all of the brake magnets and had the wheel bearings repacked, but last time we were out the breakaway battery monitor was squawking at me, so I need to replace that battery ... I better do that before the next outing! It's annoying that this battery isn't charged by the house battery (which is charged by the sun).
joe2006
Member
It should be said that there is no trap on the kitchen sink or washing machine. There is a trap on the hand basin and a HepVo valve on the shower which would turn inside out in the early days when the sink would sometimes drain into the shower. Most of the smell was probably coming from the kitchen sink. Due to space constraints under the van, the trap I used for they grey water tank is simply 50mm convoluted hose shaped into a "U", in a north/south direction, so probably much easier to empty and therefore not function properly after travelling. You may have none of my issues.
Someone we met in our travels broke a leaf spring and shortly after it was replaced, the opposing spring broke. He was then told that they should be replaced in pairs because of the strain placed on on the "good" spring. If that is correct, it was a wise move to upgrade yours.
The guy ended up taking the van to the chassis maker (G & S) and having independent suspension installed. I am intrigued how this can be retrofitted as surely there would be welding involved and damage that would cause to the floor?
We don't have a separate battery for the breakaway as it replies on the house batteries. I was assured at the time that was acceptable.
One thing that concerns me, I recently replaced the house batteries after eleven years! One was cooked, literally. It was hot and stunk. I assume that because two batteries are being charged together, the Ctek did not recognise that one was stuffed so it just kept charging? I tend to leave the charger on 24/7 so it was lucky that I noticed before it went kaboom. Paranoid now, I keep checking the charge rate and noticed recently that sometimes it charges at 14.51 volts. Even considering all the charging cycles that these smart charges go through, I didn't think that 14.51 volts is healthy for any 12 volt deep cycle AGM battery? I'm going to have to look into that before our next trip.
Someone we met in our travels broke a leaf spring and shortly after it was replaced, the opposing spring broke. He was then told that they should be replaced in pairs because of the strain placed on on the "good" spring. If that is correct, it was a wise move to upgrade yours.
The guy ended up taking the van to the chassis maker (G & S) and having independent suspension installed. I am intrigued how this can be retrofitted as surely there would be welding involved and damage that would cause to the floor?
We don't have a separate battery for the breakaway as it replies on the house batteries. I was assured at the time that was acceptable.
One thing that concerns me, I recently replaced the house batteries after eleven years! One was cooked, literally. It was hot and stunk. I assume that because two batteries are being charged together, the Ctek did not recognise that one was stuffed so it just kept charging? I tend to leave the charger on 24/7 so it was lucky that I noticed before it went kaboom. Paranoid now, I keep checking the charge rate and noticed recently that sometimes it charges at 14.51 volts. Even considering all the charging cycles that these smart charges go through, I didn't think that 14.51 volts is healthy for any 12 volt deep cycle AGM battery? I'm going to have to look into that before our next trip.
That's a problem with multiple-battery systems. One battery develops a fault, its voltage lowers - so the other battery tries to charge it (balancing the voltage, batteries coexist nicely in pairs if they're identical and have precisely the same voltage). This lowers the voltage of the good battery. The CTek charger (any charger) would see the lower voltage and start charging away.
Charging at 14.5V isn't a drama, especially for bulk charging. Your alternator should be providing somewhere between 14.1V and 14.7V - for a lead acid battery this is perfect. They can tolerate up to 15V, but will fizz quite excitedly at 16V (which the CTek will use in 'Recover' mode as it tries to break down any sulphation in the battery). This is absolutely NOT recommended for gel batteries, as any fast-charging (which causes a light fizzing) or recovery-charging (heavy fizzing) causes bubbles to form in the gel, preventing the gel from touching the plates in the battery and effectively destroying the battery.
But if the batteries are being charged at over 13.7V for extended periods, it's time to suspect something may be wrong with either the batteries or the charger. I've noticed some newer chargers float charge at 13.6-13.7V - that's a little high for my liking, I'd rather a float charge voltage of 13.4V, but I've tried one of these new chargers on my bike (24Ah AGM) and it doesn't seem to do anything untoward to the battery, there's no additional heat on the battery and the battery doesn't seem to have suffered any ill effects.
I read somewhere that one of the technical requirements for the breakaway system was a separate battery, but I can't recall if that was a recommendation to preserve the house battery or something to guarantee that even with a flat house battery, the breakaway system would still operate. It does make sense, but I've got a VSR that I might throw in and connect to the breakaway battery so that while the house battery is charging, the VSR turns on and feeds power to the breakaway. I'm pretty sure that the separate breakaway batteries are only charged while connected to the vehicle, and while we've been hiding away in our caves waiting for Covid to wander off and visit somewhere else, these batteries have self-discharged to the point of ruin for many (mine included, I forgot about it).
joe2006
Member
I have actually tendered to the breakaway battery in the horse float on several occasions during all the periods without use. Not only due to the many lockdowns but the daughters reasonably recent disinterest in the four legged liabilities. There is a small 12v solar charger here somewhere. Maybe that could be used to keep the breakaway topped up, but then again, it is a cheap and nasty from you know where.
Thanks for the reassurance concerning the charging voltage. I just need to find out now how long it should be charging at that rate. It seems to be well in excess of 12 hours. I also seem to have some sort of parasitic power drain when the van is in storage. I wouldn't even notice if it was parked outside as the batteries would be topped up by the solar panels but that can't happen in the shed, hence the use of the charger which I no longer trust. I did end up putting the charger on a timer but that doesn't resolve the problem if there is a malfunction when camping.
Anyway after today, I will have a lot more time to tinker and travel, so will get stuck into the things that I have been putting off.
On another note, I think that when we spoke you mentioned rolling up the awning with the sunscreen attached? I did give it crack but perhaps my sunscreen is too heavy as it made the roll to wide to store. Either that or I did something wrong?
The young fella must be pretty much all grown up now?
Thanks for the reassurance concerning the charging voltage. I just need to find out now how long it should be charging at that rate. It seems to be well in excess of 12 hours. I also seem to have some sort of parasitic power drain when the van is in storage. I wouldn't even notice if it was parked outside as the batteries would be topped up by the solar panels but that can't happen in the shed, hence the use of the charger which I no longer trust. I did end up putting the charger on a timer but that doesn't resolve the problem if there is a malfunction when camping.
Anyway after today, I will have a lot more time to tinker and travel, so will get stuck into the things that I have been putting off.
On another note, I think that when we spoke you mentioned rolling up the awning with the sunscreen attached? I did give it crack but perhaps my sunscreen is too heavy as it made the roll to wide to store. Either that or I did something wrong?
The young fella must be pretty much all grown up now?
The time taken to charge the battery does depend on the amps your charger is delivering. The amount shown on the charger is the peak charge rate during the "bulk" charging stage and it will back that off as it moves from bulk to absorption stages, so a 10 amp charger will actually take longer than 10 hours to charge 100Ah of battery (if it's dead flat).
Parasitic loads are an issue. Your master distribution box (where all the fuses are) is a great place to test this. Pull ALL of the fuses out, then use a multimeter in "Amps" mode to check how much current is being asked to come through by touching the leads to each side of a fuse. If you've got water pumps always active, they'll draw current - we've made a habit of turning our master pump control off at night, but I also have a pump control switch down near the pumps so I can turn individual pumps off because I added another pump for the front tank (and another tap at the sink) that is purely for drinking water. I completely separated all the plumbing so one tank can't taint the other, which guarantees us 60 litres of good drinking water.
The AES fridge and the hot water system may also drain the battery. We had a faulty interior light (one of the individually switched wall units, not the roof lights) that started consuming power but that was easy to spot because it stopped functioning correctly (it still turned on, but instead of being multimode, it only came on with one mode).
We still roll our side screen up in the awning. It does make the roll a little bulkier but doesn't have any problem latching when it's up. We lost the Dometic awning when a tornado touched down next to the caravan and ripped it off ($15K to repair and re-skin the left side of the van and fit a new awning, thanks Mr Weather Man). The new one has a different latching mechanism that has a clip retaining the two upright parts together so they can't separate during travel, and these clips still fit together without a problem despite the screen rolled up in the awning.
We'll have to accidentally run into each other again one day and I can take a look if you like. Be good to catch up! We're travelling to Bathurst at Easter (6 Hour) and again in early May for the 12 Hour, otherwise we're buckling down for a little while because the little guy starts high school next week. Time flies, eh?
Parasitic loads are an issue. Your master distribution box (where all the fuses are) is a great place to test this. Pull ALL of the fuses out, then use a multimeter in "Amps" mode to check how much current is being asked to come through by touching the leads to each side of a fuse. If you've got water pumps always active, they'll draw current - we've made a habit of turning our master pump control off at night, but I also have a pump control switch down near the pumps so I can turn individual pumps off because I added another pump for the front tank (and another tap at the sink) that is purely for drinking water. I completely separated all the plumbing so one tank can't taint the other, which guarantees us 60 litres of good drinking water.
The AES fridge and the hot water system may also drain the battery. We had a faulty interior light (one of the individually switched wall units, not the roof lights) that started consuming power but that was easy to spot because it stopped functioning correctly (it still turned on, but instead of being multimode, it only came on with one mode).
We still roll our side screen up in the awning. It does make the roll a little bulkier but doesn't have any problem latching when it's up. We lost the Dometic awning when a tornado touched down next to the caravan and ripped it off ($15K to repair and re-skin the left side of the van and fit a new awning, thanks Mr Weather Man). The new one has a different latching mechanism that has a clip retaining the two upright parts together so they can't separate during travel, and these clips still fit together without a problem despite the screen rolled up in the awning.
We'll have to accidentally run into each other again one day and I can take a look if you like. Be good to catch up! We're travelling to Bathurst at Easter (6 Hour) and again in early May for the 12 Hour, otherwise we're buckling down for a little while because the little guy starts high school next week. Time flies, eh?
