Last weekend, I installed an Anderson plug to the Patrol’s auxillary battery. Messing about underneath cars has never been my idea of fun, but with the suspension lifted so high, there is quite a lot of space under there, so I couldn’t really justify spending the money on an Auto Electrician for such a simple job.

This weekend, thanks to help from some chaps on the Mates of Mobi Nomad Australia Facebook forum, I have also installed a 4000kg tow hitch. It’s a bit overkill for a 2000kg caravan but we might be glad of it when we are off-road.

When you get really remote, it has been reported that a few of the locals sometimes find it amusing to “borrow” tow hitches so I have also added a tow hitch lock.

I took a little detour this morning to the Mobi factory. To my pleasant surprise, work had just begun on the final fit out of our little Mobi Nomad. I didn’t take a good look, but I could see that the heater was partly installed, and the fans were unpacked, ready to be fitted. There is still quite a bit to do, but Claude reckons that it will be ready to pick up, towards the end of next week, hooray!

I could have saved myself a lot of effort. For 24 bucks, I sourced a box of 100 stainless steel replacement bolts and my wheels are  now like new.

Also, on the advice of Mr Dahl, and because they are located 100 yards from the office, I went to visit Malaga Suspensions. The idea was to firm up the rear suspension, ready for Mobi, with further consideration given to clearance when Debbie sends us through those creek beds, to search for the elusive gold stuff. The result was a 2” lift which ended up as a 3 ½” lift because they told me that the factory fitted suspension had sagged about 1 ½”. Debbie hasn’t tried to climb in it yet, so I am expecting to have to provide some steps, it is a bit high!

I now have a suitable spare wheel but that has created the next issue. Patrol’s have their spare wheels bolted to one of the rear doors. These wider wheels do not fit on the bracket on the rear door.

I need another plan.

Ronny Dahl says that “your spare wheel and tyre should match the wheels on your car exactly”, and this is sound advice. I have always made sure that I carry two spare wheels when we go bush, but both my spares are standard issue factory Patrol wheels, and the car has wider wheels with mud terrain tyres. This is not a great idea, but it was the way it was when I purchased it.

The first thing is to find spare wheels that match those on the car. Of course, there are none in WA but, with a little research, I located some in Queensland. In Queensland they are $100 cheaper than they are in WA, but I must pay the WA price, plus postage, why is that?!?

Anyway, it arrived, and I compared it with the existing ones. I expected the new one to be nice and shiny against the old ones, but I had no idea how rusty the false bead lock nuts had become, it looked like a different wheel.

I blame my son Matthew for this, because he makes me use tyre foam to make the tyre shiny black, and it is this that rusts the bolts. Patrol tyres should not be shiny, they should always have at least a hint of red dust.

So how to get the rust off my bolts? My first attempt was to coat them with CLR while the wheels were still on the car. That was a waste of time.

There are 72 of these rusty bolts, so it takes a while to remove them, but I did it and then soaked them in white vinegar overnight and low and behold, the rust was gone. Marvellous, until they started to dry, and the rust appeared like magic.

Debbie says, “you now need to soak them in bicarbonate of soda”, so I give that a go. Lots of fizz and bubbles and there you have it, the rust has gone, even after I had dried them. So, to put the 72 bolts back on the wheels. How proud am I? Lovely shiny wheels, that is, until it rains, and the rust is back, worse than before!

I need another plan.

As mentioned in a previous post, we are upgrading our accommodation, but we are having to be very patient. We ordered our new Mobi Nomad in February and were told that it would be built in September in South Africa for delivery in December.

Having never owned a caravan before, it appears that there is a lot to learn and Youtube as usual has some very sound advice and lots of utter rubbish to offer. My biggest worry is learning how to reverse it, I struggle with parking the car in tight spots so this should be interesting.

We are very excited. David and Bec, are moving from Queensland to Perth and they are bringing our grandchildren, Sophie, and Alex with them. It’s a big move for them and we are thrilled. But first, we have to get them here. It has proved impossible for us to visit Queensland due the WA’s border restrictions despite our best efforts, however, for now, the borders are open and now is our chance.

The plan is for us to fly over and while Debbie helps Bec with the children and with the final farewells and formalities, Dave and I will drive their two fully laden vehicles the 4600 klms back to Perth. The girls and the kids will then fly back and meet us at home.

It’s a BIG drive, which we expect to take us at least six days. If you don’t live in Australia, you are likley to have little concept of distances. Lands End to John O’Groats is a long trip but you could do it in a day, this is a week’s travel and you are still in the same country.

We all just have to stay Covid free until then!