Slow Build in Oz

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Re: Slow Build in Oz

Postby MickinOz » Tue Aug 17, 2021 8:57 pm

So, I went to a gathering at Auburn the weekend before last.
One of the more interesting 'drops was a home built Benroy style like mine, built on a bolt together kit trailer and loaded with every camping accessory/luxury know to man.
14 x 14 foot coleman shelter to park the thing inside, storage box on the drawbar, high mounted pull out awnings both sides, kitchen cabinetry (as opposed to open storage like mine), full height inner spring queen mattress, (mine is lightweight 6 inch foam), etc
Anyway, the lady owners have posted on Facebook about how they just put it over the bridge and were very concrened at how close it came to the legal limit for un-braked trailers, and how much of that weight was on the tow hitch.

Got me thinking - since I weighed mine, and got 420kg on the wheels and 45kg on the tow hitch for a total weight of 465kg, it has evolved.

Changes since first weighing:
* added a fan, a couple books, a few DVDs, two pillows and two heavy blankets to the cabin area.
* added a drawbar box, with two folding camping chairs, a backup butane stove, and a collapsible table in it.
* added plates, cups, coffee pot, cooking pot and frypan, utensils and cutlery, primus stove, 3 gas cylinders, towels, box of condiments, noodles, baked beans, 1.5 kg fire extinguisher, etc, to the galley.
*replaced the fridge with a steel icebox - about a net zero change there I reckon.

The above is what I towed to Auburn

So off to the weighbridge at the city dump today I went
440kg on the wheels, 65 kg on the tow hitch.
Ready to camp weight was 505 kg. That'd be about 1113 pounds. I'm pretty happy with that weight for a 9 x 5 trailer.
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Re: Slow Build in Oz

Postby MickinOz » Sun Sep 12, 2021 7:06 pm

I've had a change in attitude since I built Ol' #1.
I used to camp under sufferance, a means to an end.
I slept on the ground as a way to attend the pub, social gathering or event I wanted to be at without sweating drink driving laws or driving home dodging kangaroos.

Now I have the trailer, I camp just to camp. Just to find a nice quiet bush spot, set up, cook an evening meal, enjoy a yarn around the fire and sleep in relatively luxurious comforts.
My social circle has woken up to this, and birthdays and Father's Day presents are often vouchers for the local camping store.
(I bet I'm not the only 60+ person whose assurances that I have everything I need and they should keep their money for a rainy day falls on deaf ears. :) )

So I'm sitting on a couple of vouchers at present.
Behold the latest purchase:
Firepit.JPG
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Nice little laser cut firepit breaks down into 4 sheets that will store just about anywhere.

Plan is to combine this with my antique jaffle iron and a grill plate of some sort to expand the options for meals.
Jaffle Iron.JPG
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Re: Slow Build in Oz

Postby MickinOz » Wed Sep 15, 2021 5:03 am

Camped out last night.
Tried the firepit out.
Firepit first try.JPG
Firepit first try.JPG (40.16 KiB) Viewed 952 times

Takes very little timber to get a decent fire going in that defined space.
So you can have what fire you have "roaring", but it's still a small fire.
There used to be a bush saying when I was a kid - something along the lines of "the bigger the fire, the bigger the fool."
The dull black steel sheets radiate a satisfying amount of heat.

Very wind tolerant, compared to a fire on the ground.

I learned a thing or two.
When the slotted panels slide together, they meet in the middle at the bottom.
Almost no gap at all, so the fire starves a little.
I used a stick to lever the panels up and out a bit. This left a gap in the middle, and the fire burned much better.
Before doing any permanent mods to introduce air at the bottom, I will take a couple of short half inch bolts with me next time, and drop them in as I put the pit together to keep the two panels 1/2 apart and give it a try.

The other lesson? Start the fire as soon as you get there.
Building a bed of coals up close to my mesh grill will take a while in this beast, it is deeper than it first appears.
Still, I believe I will save a bit of propane between now and fire ban season.
On the subject of propane, the little 1 pound bottles (Companion brand, not Coleman) are in stock at the shop where I bought the fire pit.
"Shortage? What shortage? Got a fresh shipment last week."
The lady knocked a buck off the price, since I was buying the pit as well.
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Re: Slow Build in Oz

Postby rjgimp » Fri Sep 17, 2021 12:38 am

MickinOz wrote:I learned a thing or two...

Start the fire as soon as you get there.
Building a bed of coals up close to my mesh grill will take a while in this beast, it is deeper than it first appears.


So, maybe you could toss a log or three in the bottom to take up some space and build your fire on top of that?

:campfire:
-Rob


I hope to make it to a Procrastinators Anonymous meeting someday...
just as soon as the steering committee gets around to scheduling one!
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Re: Slow Build in Oz

Postby edgeau » Mon Sep 27, 2021 5:42 am

I have a similar one but the end plates have air holes.Image

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Re: Slow Build in Oz

Postby MickinOz » Mon Sep 27, 2021 8:52 am

I tried it again the other night, and wedging the plates apart to allow air up lets a lot of live coals fall out. Kinda defeating the purpose of the thing really.
So today I was looking at it again and wondering whether I could put holes in the end plates!
Looks like it is very effective.
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Re: Slow Build in Oz

Postby MickinOz » Tue Sep 28, 2021 6:11 am

Many years ago, I drove past a spot that intrigued me.
On the side of a bush track not far from my home, no more than an hours drive I'd say, a little creek with a concrete weir built in it; rather than the more usual earthen dam. The weir isn't far into the farmer's paddock from the road, so it seems there is more or less permanent water back to the crossing.
The road side is quite wide at this junction, and there is a bit of a campsite in under the trees. I thought it looked a beautiful spot for camping, but as the years went by I slowly forgot how to get there.
I finally found it on Google Earth tonight. Looks like it even has a drum for rubbish these days.
I'm going there tomorrow night for a camp.
I will take my new fire pit, and if it looks safe enough to light it without starting a bushfire, I'll try it out again. I am going to drill some air holes in one of the ends tomorrow. It's been a bit dry, so I may skip it, even though it isn't fire ban season just yet.
I'll take it just in case. It's been trying to rain tonight, here's hoping it does.

Bushcamp.jpg
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Re: Slow Build in Oz

Postby MickinOz » Wed Sep 29, 2021 8:53 pm

This turned out to be a great camping spot. Room off the road for truck and trailer.
There is a quite large concrete slab there, presumably the floor of a no longer existent shed.
Only downside was that the rain got pretty heavy this morning while I was trying to cook breakfast and clean up.
Got some water in the galley, and I got saturated. Ended up just giving the cooking gear a rinse and brought it all home to wash properly.

I previously posted how I had to reseal the leading edge of my Hurricane hinge.
This has been entirely successful. With the hatch shut the galley is dry. Not a drop in there this morning.
I should have re-sealed the hatch side, too.
With the hatch up while doing breakfast, rainwater runs down to the hinge. The water eventually came through between the hinge and hatch and started dripping.
I have another tube of Sikaflex. When I open it to use on my new build, I'll treat the hatch on Ol' #1.
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Re: Slow Build in Oz

Postby MickinOz » Sun Oct 17, 2021 12:10 am

Wanted to go camp out on Friday night.

While we were both working, when others would probably have take away or eat out on a Friday night to avoid cooking after a long week, we would buy crusty rolls or nice middle eastern flat breads or something like that and load 'em up with fillings we normally wouldn't have.

Friday was first Covid shots for the missus and #3 son, and I was feeling a bit flat myself, so comfort food was back on the Friday dinner menu.
My dear wife made my sandwiches 'to go", I stocked the trailer with breakfast fixings, snacks and half a bottle of port, and took off for Bowman Park, a lovely partially-funded-by-donations RV park about 35 km from my front door. This joint's awesome, it's in a spot that gets rain and the trees and understory are magnificent, it's got play equipment for kids, semi tame peacocks walking around, the kookaburras wake you in the morning, Beautiful.
With our local free RV parks, I work on donating a gold coin for every time I use the bathroom or cooking facilities.

(Cooking facilities are free or donation-based in many country towns here.
Our gold coins are $1 and $2, so they generally get $6 or so from me by the time I wash up a couple times and use the gents toilet a couple.)

When I got there it was wall to wall campers, caravans and motor homes! I couldn't see where I could park without crowding someone.
I took off for the crossing.
Had that to myself again.
Lovey spot. The rain clouds cleared, the wind followed the weather forecaster's predictions and dropped below 5 knots.
Spent a beautiful night watching Quentin Tanatino classics, walking in the moonlight, and contemplating the future.

But, no toilets. I had to make like a bear in the woods. Buried my waste and bagged the toilet paper for home disposal, but not my idea of environmentally friendly.
Will definitely have a portable toilet of some sort before my next free camping session.
The spotlight off my hunting rifle made a pretty good light for photographing the camp.
Friday night at the crossing.JPG
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Re: Slow Build in Oz

Postby MickinOz » Sun Dec 05, 2021 1:25 pm

Attended a "milestone" birthday party on a small farm this weekend.
It was a full weekend - big birthday bash Saturday night, and Bathurst 1000 race watching session on Sunday.

This is one of the places I have assisted in the building of a brick wood fired oven, and usually my mate runs the BBQ (also wood fired) and I run the pizza oven.
This particular party, he figured we deserved a night off the kitchen duties.
There is a guy a couple towns over who did slow cooked briskets, pork shoulders, kransky and greek style lamb sausages in the smoker.
Magnificent tucker, but I think I may have to go vegetarian the rest of the week, just to give my poor stomach a rest.

I took the trailer so I could party, sleep over, and watch the race on Sunday.
My mate shifted the livestock out of the paddock closest to the house, so anyone who wanted to setup camp could be close to the action.

Was a great show, I become more pleased with Ol' #1 every time I use it.
This started out as portable accommodation to enable me to go for a night out without worrying about being done for drink driving on the way home, but this is only about the second or third time it has actually been used for that purpose. And then I drank so little alcohol I could have driven anyway.
:)
Was nice waking up with the roosters and enjoying an early morning coffee with a clear head.
:coffee:
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Re: Slow Build in Oz

Postby MickinOz » Mon Dec 27, 2021 5:12 am

If you have followed this thread you may remember we started down this labyrinth because, when we woke up on New Year's Day 2019 and rolled/crawled out of the tent after an uncomfortable night on a slightly underinflated air mattress, we decided we were over sleeping on the ground.
After nearly a year of dithering, we settled on a teardrop and got building. That took roughly a year, too.
New Years Day 2021 saw us parked in the same spot we pitched our tent 2 years earlier, cooking a nice breakfast as the sum poked its head over the horizon.
A brilliant and very satisfying maiden voyage.

But, I just checked on Facebook.
Yongala Pub, where all this began, has decided it's not viable t have a New Years Eve night with the current Covid-19 restrictions.
There are restrictions of 1 person for every 4 square metres of floor. Can't get enough patrons through to cover expenses.
Bugga. Spewin'.

The hunt for an alternative begins, but of course all pubs are in the same boat.
Might be a nice quiet bush camp on the cards for Friday night.
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Re: Ah FFS!

Postby MickinOz » Tue Dec 28, 2021 7:00 pm

Covid-19 has hit town.
I'm told someone high risk went for a Covid test, then ignored the instruction to stay home until they got the result.
They were positive and visited lots of places while waiting.
I know that could be anyone - if you are positive and don't know it you can spread it a long way before you find out.
But if you have been told to isolate until the results are available (24 hours at the moment in my town).............
News Years Eve is the big night of the year for me - for the first time in many years it looks like we'll be staying home.

Meanwhile, in the state capital, a silver spooner ignored his positive result and went clubbing.
The entitled 19 year old f@ckwit caused a nightclub to be shut down and 150 people were forced into quarantine.
He's been arrested and charged. Maximum penalty is $20,000 or 2 years jail. Hope he gets the max.
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Re: Slow Build in Oz

Postby TimC » Tue Dec 28, 2021 8:00 pm

Stay home and stay healthy Mick and live to enjoy a bunch more new years celebrations. We're in a similar situation wanting to spend this weekend with our middle kid, his wife and our only grand baby. It's touch and go right now. But I'll take my own advice and stay healthy and live to see the kids down the road someday.
Tim
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My First Benroy Teardrop Build Thread - A 5x8 Woodie - http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=63575
My Second Teardrop (partial) Build Thread - Started August '16 - http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=66939
#3 My son's Benroy Foamie team build - Started July '20 - http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=72877

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Re: Slow Build in Oz

Postby Staryder61 » Tue Dec 28, 2021 11:31 pm

Mick, enjoyed reading through your posts. Nice teardrop and the workmanship is outstanding. :thumbsup:

TimC wrote:Stay home and stay healthy Mick and live to enjoy a bunch more new years celebrations. We're in a similar situation wanting to spend this weekend with our middle kid, his wife and our only grand baby. It's touch and go right now. But I'll take my own advice and stay healthy and live to see the kids down the road someday.


:applause: :thumbsup: :applause: :thumbsup:

Totally agree with you Tim, my better half and my thoughts exactly.. better to have more and more years to spend different times with family then to risk it all for one family gathering, and maybe not any after that..
Here's hoping y'all stay healthy and safe..
Stay safe, David



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6' X 12' CTC = Texas Sized Tackle Box
http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=74704
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Re: Slow Build in Oz

Postby MickinOz » Wed Dec 29, 2021 4:16 am

Thanks chaps.
Yes I will stay home and live to fight another day. Took my mother for a Covid test on Monday. 3 cars including me.
Went past today and the line of cars was literally around the block. At least 2 dozen cars.
Been like it for two days and no end in sight apparently.
I'm a little bit of a fatalist about it all.
I believe one way or another, whether the pro-vax pro-restrictions camp or the anti-vax no restrictions camp is correct, this virus will eventually blow out.
Whether the vaccines finally eliminate it, or it ultimately wipes out anyone who cannot muster enough immune response, eventually equilibrium will prevail.
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