I had to do a flying trip down to Brisbane to pick up a pop-up camper for a mate who is overseas at the moment. With being on call for work, we decided to head of on Friday and do the overnight run to Bundaberg where we were once more shown great hospitality by Katie’s mum and dad.
We made great time through the night, however approximately 300km’s north of Bundaberg the Prado starting showing warning lights on the dash. I knew the battery wasn’t in the best of health, so I replaced it – $160 later (ouch).
However on the run into Bundaberg the warning lights were starting to show more regularly. They would go out when I was down a gear giving it some revs, but back at normal touring revs the lights were back on. Being that there was nothing I could do at the time, I turned off everything electrical and limped into Bundaberg.
Now all of the tools and diagnostic gear is in the Landy, as we normally use it for the bigger trips. So I went down to Supercheap and brought a ‘cheap’ multimeter. Unfortunately this confirmed my worst fears – the alternator was screwed.
Chasing around the town I managed to find a new one in a Repco store. $450 later and I started the remove and replace procedure. The new alternator must have been sitting on the shelf for a while, as it took a while to settle in use (heat/smoke etc).
Finally I jumped back into the Prado and did the run down to Brisbane, departing at Midday. It was a 4 1/2 hour delay I could’ve done without, but at least Mitch and the kids were at Bundaberg having fun. I arrived just before 4 pm and picked up the trailer.
Travelling back it was turning dark quickly, and being Christmas Eve it seemed like every village idiot was out for a drive which wasn’t helped by intermittent rain. I finally arrived back at Bundaberg just after 2030h – it had been a big 26 hours that’s for sure. Two cans of rum have never affected me so much!!!
Christmas Day was delightful. The hospitality was again first rate, and the food was fantastic. I ended up retiring to bed just after 1800h with Mitch waking me at around 0200h. We quickly packed up the trailer, put the kids into the Prado and bade goodbye, departing at 0300h.
Again I made great time until the sun came up, Boxing Day being just as crazy as Christmas Eve. All was well until (again) 300km’s from our destination, when I noticed the Prado’s temperature gauge starting to rise. A quick stop for lunch and some diagnosis showed that towing, running on gas, high ambient temps and air conditioning was too much for the cooling system.
So being that we could really only change one of those factors, the air-conditioning got turned off and we had no issues from then until home thankfully. I think a big service is due somehow!
So overall what is the new pop-top like? Well it’s an American built trailer. Towing on road it is a delight. It tracks well, doesn’t sway (I had it up to 110) and brakes well. It’s weight distribution seems to be quite well, although I’d like to test it with a quad bike on the front and fully loaded.
The set-up inside was quite nice. It had all of the fancy mod-cons and can quite easily sleep 6, although the kids have to double up on the beds. The cooking facilites are well appointed, it has a 12V fan in the roof, heating in built, hot and cold powered water, shower and toilet. There is an outside shower and provision to cook outside as well (external gas line).
Towing off-road will have problems. The stability jacks are quite low, and I think it’d be the first thing to go. The front is quite long, which would cause issues on dips, however the departure angle is quite good. Load capacity is huge, however this would work against it off-road.
The hitch is a standard trailer which is a disappointment. A proper off-road hitch would make a world of difference. Overall I believe this will be a great trailer for corrugated gravel roads/tracks as well as beach work.
Tow vehicle wise I would not like to go any smaller than our Prado. I would’ve preferred to tow it with the Defender as we found that the Prado was consistently swapping between overdrive and not. A drop in speed sorted that issue, but it was a really awkward speed/weight combination.
Overall a very nice purchase and a few small modifications will make it a great trailer.
Cheers
Chris
