craigb's Perentie FFR and No. 5 Trailer

[craigb]

Thanks mate.

Like everyone else I'm waiting for the travel restrictions to ease so I can go on a road trip. Still don't know exactly where, since it's unlikely the various state border will reopen soonish, so it'll no doubt be somewhere within NSW.

During my various travels with my other half, I've worked out that the most convenient form of accommodations for the two of us is an awning tent. Mine was relatively cheap from 4WDSupacentre. Of course, unless you like pitching and striking the tent, it's a bit of a pain in the behind when you're camped in the one place for a few days and are wanting to strike out for the various local tourist traps while you're there. You can of course simply uncouple the awning tent from the awning, drop it the tent and leave it there, which is a quick way to do it. But even that gets real old real quick.

Here's some pics of the awning tent and screen in use during a recent northern Australia jaunt.

Propped at the WWII Gorrie Airfield not far north of Birdum and Larrimah in the NT for a few days sightseeing and catching up on some writing. I was solo at this point, but the flies were a constant embuggerance - almost as bad as those encountered out past Oodnadatta in South Australia -  so I pitched the "screened room" as an office under one awning and pitched my little mozzie net tent under the other one. The hammock was for late afternoon loafing, a task which I perform with great enthusiasm.


Tent and screened area pitched at a caravan park in Darwin the morning after I picked up my better half from Darwin airport. Inexplicably, and despite the park being mostly empty, a friendly German couple in a very well set up Iveco RV and very limited English, had pulled up the night before and set up right next to me! Unfortunately for them, my mrs' flight came in close to 2AM, so ze Chermans learned a little pre-COVID-19 lesson about social distancing lest thee be kept up until 0330 by your close neighbours striking and then re-pitching camp, inflating an air mattress with a compressor, etc. They were gone by 0700 and I daresay learning had occurred.


A different view of the awning tent and screened area pitched while we spent a night at the Mary River Wilderness Retreat about halfway between Darwin and Kakadu on the Arnhem Highway.


In all of the above setups you can see that it would have been better with a standalone tent, but the awning tents are great - quick to pitch and strike, and they roll up to fit in an echelon bag so are easy to stow in the vehicle while travelling. Enter Ye Olde No. 5 Trailer.

How awesome would it be to have an awning fitted to the trailer? Extend the awning, pitch the awning tent and then go off sightseeing or whatever in the Rover. I've owned my trailer since 2016 and have avoided doing anything to modify it up to this point, however the time has come to make it more useful for trips, so it's getting a removable awning rack.

I'm making the rack bolt-on/bolt-off to keep most of the trailer's authenticity intact. The awning rack will be a telescoping type made from galvanised, primed and painted 40mm and 30mm square tube. The telescoping sections will be secured in place when up or down using pins. Simple and hopefully effective. To secure the rack to the trailer itself it will have 4 x rivnuts on each side of the wheel well. I don't really want to weld anything to the trailer body. By using rivnuts, the rack can be unbolted and the trailer returned as closely as possible to its original configuration.

Here's a couple of diagrams:




I have all the materials except for the awning, so construction of the awning rack is the next job after I finish garnishing the vehicle with cam nets, etc. for ANZAC Day.

[yerriyong]

Excellent setup, I would love to see your other mods for bush living.

[craigb]

Excellent setup, I would love to see your other mods for bush living.

Thanks mate.

Much of my travel is solo, so I either swag it next to the vehicle or use a camping hammock. When travelling with a significant other I have an assortment of tents which have been pressed into service.

I don't sleep inside the vehicle because the interior is not set up for it.

The vehicle is an FFR but has an RFSV-style dual 12v battery system installed so the house battery powers a 40 litre Waeco fridge freeze and when propped overnight, it powers 12v LED strip lights as well as a 12v toughbook laptop charger, mattress inflator if required and USB chargers. I don't carry power tools generally but I have a 600W inverter which will charge drill and angle grinder batteries while on the move.

I have a 12V power system which is designed to be a standalone unit for the No. 5 trailer. But I don't use it very often. It consists of a pair of ex-Telstra 100aH AGM batteries installed into 20mm ammo boxes, a 120 watt folding solar panel, a pair of 120 watt solar blankets, the power distribution box out of my FFR dismounted and fitted with cables with military 3-pin canon plugs on one end and civilian anderson connectors on the other. The power distribution box can also be fitted to the vehicle as normal and used with the 12V house battery. The generator you see in the pic is part of the kit, but I don't like camping with a generator so it's more for emergencies at home - power outages due to storms or bushfires, etc. During the recent bushfires my area was hammered and we lost power for several days so the genny powered the fridge in the kitchen.


Water carriage is strictly 22 litre plastic water jerrycans with taps fitted - also a pair of flax water bags for the bullbar if travelling hot/dry climates. I have lately dug out one of my old military 3lt camelbak hydration systems and fitted it to the driver's seat back for easy access when travelling in hot dry climates.

Cooking when solo is either a campfire or jetboil with a pot stand fitted. When travelling with a significant other I use an old shellite stove (Coleman 425E - burns unleaded too if you add a few drops of diesel power to the fuel tank) or cook on the campfire. I typically carry a 10-inch Bedourie oven (triples as a frypan, pot or an oven) and an old billycan with lid plus a utensils roll. We eat out of Wildo Camp-a-Box plastic mess kits or some metal dixies I have.

Hygiene wise it's an ex-army canvas bucket shower for a luxurious shower out bush, or a 12v shower for a quick one. I do not carry chemical toilets or similar, but am well-versed in responsible bush toileting using the cat hole method. Dishes are washed in a collapsible wash basin which stores flat in the hygiene kit bag. I have a roll-up Sea to Summit tub which serves for handwashing use. Sometimes I'll carry a pop up shower enclosure for toilet or shower use if headed into an area with no facilities but likely to be frequented by other travellers.

Gear is stored in two padlockable full size footlockers which are cable locked to the ROPS on both sides.

Food storage is the fridge freezer and a timber WWII 3-inch mortar round box I use as a tucker box.

Camp furniture is usually roll up tables since they take up less space than folding ones, and collapsible camp chairs. I prefer good camping store chairs to the ex-army Chairs, Millionaires because the latter fold flat and take up a bit more space than the umbrella style camping chairs. Typically I will carry two chairs and two tables whether I'm travelling solo or not.


Here's the inside of the vehicle with fridge and one footlocker installed showing available space for gear. I'll usually throw a cargo net on top of everything while mobile.


Here's the usual mode when swagging it solo - traditional custom envelope swag which is a new-made exact replica of my 1941-vintage Australian army officer's bed roll.





Hammocking is a good choice for solo camping in warmer weather/climates. I have been using a hammock for bushwalking trips almost exclusively for close to 20 years now, so I'm quite used to using one in all weather and climates.




Aside from the awning tents I've shown in a previous post, here are a couple of other types I have used on trips in the Rover.




Here's the reason the awnings came about -

First trip over to WA in the Rover and whilst camped on the edge of the Great Australian Bight it was stinking hot and windy as anything. Trying to pitch a hootchie as a sun shade took a while. An awning off one side would have been much quicker and easier.


But awnings are not the be-all and end-all. I have had one destroyed due to it flipping in high winds - it pulled out the pegs securing it. And another was bent and took a bit to repair when I used it in snow. Snow bucketed down that night and collapsed both side awnings despite them being pitched with a sharp angle to let snow slide off. Not pleasant to wake up to on a freezing cold night hahaha

[craigb]

I added a few bits and pieces to hopefully make the vehicle look a bit more military and more suitable for ANZAC Day.

[yerriyong]

I like your 'keep it simple' approach Craig, very Les Hiddens. I have found that I have drifted from this approach but still aspire to the idea.  I also like the multi fuel stoves and have a small collection of different ones. Your idea of the camelbak works great, I have had one in the same location in recent years. Iam on a bush property on the edge of morton np if you find yourself down this way looking for a camp, drop me a line.

[craigb]

I like your 'keep it simple' approach Craig, very Les Hiddens. I have found that I have drifted from this approach but still aspire to the idea.  I also like the multi fuel stoves and have a small collection of different ones. Your idea of the camelbak works great, I have had one in the same location in recent years. Iam on a bush property on the edge of morton np if you find yourself down this way looking for a camp, drop me a line.

Thanks very much Yerriyong, I appreciate the offer.

Nice Sixby. Very well kitted out mate.

[craigb]

A new military "vehicle" to go with the FFR and the No. 5 trailer -



A 1987-vintage Klepper Aerius II Expedition "Quattro" military kayak.

Ex-1 Cdo.

I've christened it "Tigersnake", after the WWII Services Reconnaissance Department vessel of the same name.

[craigb]

Dragged the No. 5 trailer out for the first time in a while over the weekend. Nice little spot in the Riverina with some mates.

[craigb]

Some pics from a quick three-nighter out by the Turon river.





We have a new pup, a kelpie/blue-heeler cross called Mika. She's just coming up to six months old and this was her first trip in the Rover. I think she enjoyed it. Puppy accommodations consist of a wire crate secured behind the vehicle's bulkhead, with a soft, half-chewed dog bed inside.



With the addition of some early Surveillance model bins for the rear, I've finally almost got the vehicle the way I want it. Last on the list is the installation of a set of RFSV/SRV footwell kick vents I've had sitting in the spare parts box for a couple of years. What I've got now is an FFR with lots of RFSV-esque mods and additions and set up for long-range touring.

I lost one of the caps off a terrafirma heavy duty drive flange, so I have to replace that. The passenger side awning is a little worse for wear so I will replace that too. The brown paint is looking a bit tired and ratty despite the  occasional spray can touch-up, so not sure whether to respray the same colour, go cam or go all over olive drab.

[craigb]

Windscreen woes.

The windscreen has had a big chip in it since I purchased the vehicle and last time I had it inspected for rego they suggested it would need a new windscreen.

A couple of months out from rego, I'm working on all those little and not so little jobs and one of these has been a new windscreen.

I have no idea how to replace the windscreen in one of these vehicles, and unfortunately it looks like my windscreen guy doesn't either.

First attempt at changing the windscreen resulted in a smashed driver's side top corner, which of course spider-webbed its way across the whole glass. He said that the corner wouldn't seat properly and it smashed from repeated slapping with a gloved hand. Bummer.

Second attempt was doomed to failure before it even started. The guy installed the windscreen (aside from that problematic corner which he says would pop in by itself with use), and THEN noticed a hairline crack running vertically down the centre of the windscreen.

He's back tomorrow for round three and we'll see how it goes.

[glbest]

you can buy the paint from protech the green is called camo green

[Mick]

Hey Craig,

I know it's off topic but tell us about your dog.

Looks like a great offsider

Some of your pic's are awesome 👍

Cheers,

Mick

[craigb]

you can buy the paint from protech the green is called camo green

Cheers mate!

[craigb]

Hey Craig,

I know it's off topic but tell us about your dog.

Looks like a great offsider

Some of your pic's are awesome 👍

Cheers,

Mick

Thanks Mick,

She's a good little mutt. She flunked out of puppy school due to bad behaviour. Apparently in Mika World, when another dog even glances at you it means WWIII. She's great with people but is only now coming out of the jumping-up phase. Her mum was a working dog so she has all the traits. They are a bit wasted in this environment, although we live on 5 acres, but she gets some satisfaction out of seeing off the mob of young Indian mynas which has shown up the past couple of months and she is known to indulge in the odd spot of impromptu rabbit coursing since we have a ton of them around here.

She's been on a couple of short trips with us and is pretty well-behaved. I have a germ of an idea that I should finish off my interrupted circumnavigation of the continent sooner rather than later, so either September, October, November this year or January, February, March next year. Stupid-hot weather doesn't bother me, so a January departure might be nice. I'll head over to the west and then up to the Pilbara and then the Kimberleys. The plan would be Sydney to Perth to Broome to Darwin to Adelaide to Sydney, with the Little Dog in tow. I just have to research ahead of time where they may have been baiting for wild dogs because I'd be heartbroken if she took a poisoned bait. She should come out of that trip with a great deal of respect for creeks and rivers too.

The only issue I can see with her acting as offsider on a transcontinental trip is route planning to avoid national parks, etc. She loves the Rover and she'll have a ripper of a time.

[Mick]

Mate I think you have answered the " meaning of life " question.

It's having a great, beautiful country to explore, a Land Rover and a awesome dog.

I hope the trip is a lot of fun and look forward to your updates.

Enjoy 

Mick