April 2013 around aus trip in the planning

[Peter Aawen]

Thanks for the feedback on all that gear Mary & Wayne, and for the pics too!! Now I can show others your thread & comments as real life support for some of the recommendations!

As for starting a Tour Company, you'd be great at it!! Just don't skimp on the insurance side, and do persist with all the bloody pointless seeming paperwork that you've gotta wade thru from every bleeding Govt Department you even dream might be involved.... and there'll be even more than you'd think!!

[emjan]

Great advice ....& levelling re tour business Peter. It's going to require a lot of pre planning, thought & cash to get up & running but it's certainly doable.

More pics to come! We're out most weekends so the camera is always at the ready

I gave Wayne a Nikon D5200 for Christmas last year but it's really become MY camera seeing I am predominantly chief passenger/air compressor-air lockers pilot/photo taker. We've got 2 short & long distance lenses with it, next purchase will be a tele lens for closer pics. Need to save up for that one. We think we will put together a series of photo books with different themes for ourselves, starting with the Oodnadatta track.

Starting to put together a few articles on the East Macs to submit for consideration, with decent photos to go with them now.

[emjan]

Some more photos, this time of the East Macs looking towards Arltunga, & the others of a drive into & out of N'dhala Gorge with its 4 watercrossings. The rock formations are stunning.

[emjan]

But wait there's more! (Now I've managed to stop windows 8 using up all our gigs & slowing us down)

[emjan]

DSC_0230.JPG

Now that I've got the hang of resizing photos......

[TLC60S]

Hi emjan
Naughty Wayne , no water blind on that deep crossing. The deep water could pull the fan into the radiator then you would have a big tow bill all for a couple of minutes to fit a trap.
Excellent photos showing the unspoilt beauty of the NT.
Cheers TLC60S

[emjan]

Actually not as deep as it looks. Just up to lower bullbar but looks deeper because of the bow wave and the car is lower than the bank. Never had an issue with any of the water crossings before because we do it slowly with momentum. Being a diesel not so much of an issue compared to petrol. If it was any deeper/longer we would've tarped the front but it wasn't

[Aaron Schubert]

Super jealous!

Aaron

[emjan]

We're heading home in June to catch up with family....1 daughter having twins....& to sort out the debacle from the last tenant with our house....30 odd roses to prune & 25 fruit trees to prune :/

We'll probably head up to the Plenty hwy & drive thru to Qld & down through to North Ryde, Sydney where we'll leave our cub camper for a new zipper before heading home to Colac.

Anyone up for a chat we'd love to catch up with you if we're passing thru your neck of the woods, but certainly looking forward to a trip back to the coast.

We've also found another nice camping spot up here along the Owen Springs 4wd track. The Lawrence Gorge is a dry river bed with some great river camping areas, with the weather cooling down over the next fortnight it looks to be on our to do list. It's about 20-30km along the 50km track. Pretty awesome. More photos & dry river driving to come

[emjan]

Super jealous!

Aaron

Yep Aaron, pretty fine life. A shame work has to get in the way of it though

[TLC60S]

Hi emjan
I was at Cub a couple of weeks ago for zipper issues they gave me a hand full of spare zippers . Mine started to come apart when you zip it up . I unstitched the stopper canvas at the end of the zipper using a Korbond Stitch ripper put the new zip on the hand sewed the stopper back on & now good as new . The actual zip was worn not closing the teeth of the zipper . Check if you don't have any damaged teeth in the zipper , if not yours could be the same with just a worn zip. When you go to Cub you will notice on the new campers now the doors don't have bends in the zippers , just straight up & down.
Cheers TLC60S

[emjan]

Yeah, the windows have curved zippers which can be a pain in the neck but the doors are all straight up n down. The problem is the canvas from the front bow through to the hard floor corner has a diagonal pull which makes it hard to do the zippers up because of the tension on them. We have reset the tent many times without much success & we feel the vertical rear bow wall is too short thus not being able to extend it out fully enough to take up the slack. I'll attach some photos....however, great suggestion TLC60S

Mary

[emjan]

TLC60S, I think a huge amount of the canvas sag issue is due to the weight of the awning which is zippered on to the main body of the tent & that tends to pull the tent body towards that side. We've tried tying it down on the opposite side & raising the centre bow but to no avail. It's almost as though the canvas has stretched & sagged. We have to push the section above the doors upwards to get the zippers closed. It's never been great but has got worse with time. Cub has been fantastic & offered to do the work under warranty, which expired Feb, so we'll see what they have to say when we get to Sydney early June. They've been a great company to deal with & very receptive to suggestions we've made to improve design. The pull out kitchen is phenomenal as well as the storage space. Improvements we've suggested include higher placement of power fitments inside, better connections from the water tank, lighting on the opposite side of the camper - there's a 12V plug but nothing on which to hang a light, solar wiring as standard, under-bed batteries to be on a slide draw which can be accessed from outside, finishing of metal edges of frame in storage edges under the bed (cut my hands a few times), better design of the extended deluxe awning where it attaches to the front of the Supavan....snap closures straight on to velcro don't last long & should really be on canvas, better quality guy ropes which we've mostly had to replace as they've worn because they're too narrow gauge rope.

It might sound like we're having a whinge but we're not. The Cub Supavan has been a little ripper & we've loved living in it the past 10 months. It's been incredibly comfortable & user friendly but as with anything when you're living in it for a while, you can see where improvements can be made, & we fully understand that the first few of this model made were really prototypes for the ones that followed. We've looked at the "Camper Trailer of the Year" awards & wonder how Cub was ignored, they're such fantastic CT's.

[TLC60S]

Hi emjan
I have that same problem & when I was showing Cub they could get it better but not out . I thought they were going to rip the canvas when they pushed up the roof adjustments. In the end changing the zip fixed it cause the fold in the canvas is back in it cause the roof poles must of slipped back down. If your run out of adjustment maybe your canvas has stretched or shrunk. The drier air in the Alice compared to Sydney may even change that fold so might be different by the time you get it back to Cub so if you haven't had any decent rain in Alice for a while if you can give it a good hose to shrink the canvas back into shape.
Cheers TLC60S

[TLC60S]

Hi emjan
That pushing up on the canvas above the door was what I was doing to get the fold out of the door to zip it up (down) , but the worse the zip wears the harder it will be till that doesn't work & the zippers teeth keeps falling apart.
Mine also has that lean & to try & help it out I put the to rear support poles on that side , one near the door & the other under the rear bar in the corner of the lean.
Cheers TLC60S