Retro Trailer Rebuild: Part 10

New to the camper trailer rebuild? Don’t start here! CLICK THIS and start from part 1!

It’s D’day…but on this day there shall be no shells flying, fleets landing or human casualties. At least, if we’ve built this trailer right, we hope there will be no human casualties…

You’ve had a glimpse of the interior in the last blog post, but here’s a few before and after images of it complete inside and out:

Isn’t it a beautiful thing to behold!? Much pride

Anyway; it’s a 600km run from Perth to Melangata Station, which is situated near Yalgoo in Western Australia’s mid west of nowhere. Western 4wder Magazine is holding a bush doof party for the 100^th edition of the magazine here, and seeing as I have written this camper build over multiple issues of the magazine; it seems fitting to take it along!

Everything that needs to be polished off has been done, the camper is absolutely 99.8 percent complete. It would be 100 percent, but I never got around to replacing the volt/ammeter I blew up. We get just out of the Perth suburbs and beyond the Swan Valley (maybe an hour drive) before we pull over to check everything. I suppose we are both a little nervous after the issue with the tyres rubbing, which is mentioned in Part 7. But everything is in perfect order.

Our day goes down without a hitch, all the lights work great, the wheels stay on, the roof stays shut and it’s so light you barely feel it behind the 3 litre Patrol. It’s wildflower country out here and they are putting on a spectacular display this year.

Wildflower country was spectacular! Even found a few ruins

The first problem we came across is dust sealing. A bit had been missed across the top of the door; so before we hit the gravel we put a bit of tape over the door gap. The same too with the back end of the camper, although the problem here is the rubber toggles that hold the back closed. They just don’t apply enough downwards pressure to seal the gap, so the canvas and the very end of the bed got a little dusted. These will have to be changed!

On the plus side, we set the camper up at about 1pm and when I checked the Redarc charger; it was in float mode. This means it’s been charging all day off the vehicle and is now full, but is currently receiving power from the solar panel to keep it topped up. My system works!

I made this electrical drawing and followed it closely. And it worked! A bit of planning DOES pay off!

Come nightfall and we lit up the entire bloody campground with our exterior work lights. These were supposed to be dimmable, but the dimmer switch seemed incompatible and they just stayed on all the time, so I switched them to rocker switches. The brightness is plenty to do everything by, but maybe a little annoying to other campers and an excessive drain on the battery. Perhaps I’ll work something out there.

The dimmer switches would not switch off, and had to be replaced with rocker switches

After a few beers, wines, and some sweet fortified wine type drink; I eventually made it to the pillow. I had initially thought the foam might be a little too firm for my liking, but I slept like a baby. May have had something to do with the booze too.

We were only there two nights, Friday and Saturday; but I think the power system could use a little work. By the end of a full day of sun it hadn’t quite managed to top the battery up, though it was still at a respectable level. Powering my massive Camera Charging Box via the inverter put a pretty big load on the battery. I think using a newer model BCDC with the inbuilt MPPT solar controller might be the answer, or we could just put more solar on it. A 150w panel only costs $280, cheaper than the $600 upgraded BCDC; and 300w of solar has to be more than enough!

Parked up among the crew at the Western 4wder party.

At the end of the weekend John and I were both extremely happy with how it went. Before setting off, we taped up the door once again; and this time we used ratchet straps on the rear arms to hold the back of the roof down tighter and keep the dust out.

18 months of hard work, 3 burned out sanders, a few late nights, some long weekends and a lot of ingenuity have taken this classic from a wreck to a brand new trailer. It’s certainly not a time or money saver project, exactly the opposite! But quality time spent together and a sense of pride and accomplishment at the end are absolutely worth it to me. Now we’ve just gotta get out there and make our money’s worth of camping out of it!