Re: New Western members

[Martin B]

Hi all,

We, (Martin, Christine and 'pooch' Kali) are new members from Western Australia.

We changed over from a beautiful 18' Bushtracker with supercharged Land Cruiser "tug" in December 2008 in Qld to a 9.8m Mitsubishi Fuso MM515H built originally as a touring coach. It was imported from NZ to Qld. where the owner had the conversion started but the project was delayed for a couple of years.
Conversion included cutting the chassis and extending it by 800mm, removing the front bi-fold door and steps and relocating them into the chassis extension area; the roof was raised about 300mm (luckily for 1853mm tall me) and a new sloping in-fill piece put from the front of the roof down to the top of the original windscreen.

The internal layout has the queen length/double width bed at the rear on gas struts for access to the huge storage area underneath.
Port side - separate toilet compartment, "linen press" with Truma gas/electric water heater under, 220L fridge, door, 2 seater cafe dinette.
Starboard side - shower and basin compartment, galley with SMEV stove and oven, lockers and 1.6m settee with diesel fired heater under.
There are spacious under floor bins including one thru bin - handy for flag pole, fishing rods, sat dish etc.

looking aft.jpg

The original owner/conversion organizer was a "240v man" used to CV Parks; we are "ïndependent camp" types so we immediately changed all the high wattage 240v incandescent and halogen globes to 12v LEDs and subsequently changed the 240v domestic fridge for a 220L 24v Waeco. When 24v LEDs became available we changed a number of the 12v LEDs over to the 24v house system.

Power comes from 3 x 165 watt 24v solar panels feeding 2 x 200 amp.hour AGM type valve release lead acid (VRLA) house batteries. The vehicle batteries are 2 x Fullriver 1100 CCA 110a.hr AGM construction VRLA batteries. As both battery banks are of the same AGM construction, and thus require the same charging algorithm, they can be all charged from the same battery charger or solar controller.

The original 6.5L turbo engine was changed somewhere along the line to a 6.9L and we added a turbocharger shortly after buying the motorhome. Liquid capacity is more than adequate - 3 x diesel tanks total 800+ L; we traveled from Perth to Adelaide without re-fueling - I know it is a lot of weight to haul but we avoid paying up to $2 /litre across the Nulabour. 2 x potable water tanks total approx 380L. Grey water tank (ex fuel tank #4) holds about 200L.

The original "livery" was extremely dark green upper half of the body with this colour extending around the curve and about 250mm onto the roof; the lower half was copper/gold. In WA's hot climate the temperature inside was excessive so we had the upper half and onto the roof re-painted white. Excellent result well worth the expenditure.

MH pic.jpg

Here we are alongside the mighty Murray River in S.A.

[norman]

I welcomed you on your first post, Heres a welcome to the ugly bugger standing in the doorway. Just so,s you dont feel left out M8.... Cool rig you,ve got there same bus as our Dot and George,s ....

[BruceS]

Yes welcome Martin! What a lovely outfit you have there...
I re-read your post a couple of times and I think you meant to say ".... without refueling ....."?
You now need a picture of "Pooch" and tell us where Kali travels.
Our little dog did several thousand KM's sleeping on a crotchet blanket on the dashboard of the old Bedford bus and only got excited once 2nd gear was engaged!!!

[wanderer]

I welcomed you on your first post, Heres a welcome to the ugly bugger standing in the doorway. Just so,s you dont feel left out M8.... Cool rig you,ve got there same bus as our Dot and George,s ....

Welcome Martin.
Don't be put off by the half pint sawn off Kiwipom, he's just jealous that yours is bigger than his. (bus that is)
We'll get Dot to sort him out when he arrives at her place soon.

[Dot]

Well I did welcome Martin because I was the one that let him in here so there... Anyway an official welcome to you and yours Martin and I like the sound of your bus really looking forward to catching up so we can compare things.. You may have to bend a wee bit in our bus as we are midgets to some degree there for we didn't think we should cater for the minority that may come in our bus..I take it you are/ were an X seaman? Where are you heading when you leave Tassie, need info on your experiences going over on the ferry and the roads etc over there, maybe around a happy evening somewhere?

[ozfueler]

Welcome Martin, Christine and Kali, to the happy forum, we love your set up and the specs sound very good.

It would be great to see more photos of your bus/coach/motorhome (never know what to call them, some people get very upset over this ) in the show us your rig section, so we can compare your layout with Dot and G's similar Fuso.

It's always interesting to see how others address the same issues in their rigs.

Lorraine and Steve...

[T1 Terry]

Hi Martin, Christine and Kali the pooch, welcome to the forum. Another person who stretched the chassis and raiased the rood, we added 3ft in the chassis and a foot to the roof of our Bedford so very similar to the mods you have done. we also did away with the front bifold door and added a door in the middle, but oursa goes from floor to roof so we didn't loose any floor area. May yet have to change that as the new rules don't allow steps outside, unless I can automate them with the door opening.
How is the performance with the 6.9ltr turbo, the 6.5ltrs struggle a bit on the long hills so I'm told.
like everyone else here, more photos please

T1 Terry & Margaret

[Martin B]

Hi again,

Many thanks for the welcome messages. I probably did not go far enough on the "us" details and too far on the motorhome's details which, it appears, should have been posted in the "About your outfit" section.

So, as requested here is a pic of Kali the Bichon/Poodle cross shortly after we received her by air from NSW. (She arrived at 700 grams - here she is 1100grams)

1,100grams.jpg

It did not take long for her to decide to be the co-driver even when rugged up in her winter jacket.

Co Driver.jpg

When driving, Kali alternatively sleeps on her bed (a doggie bean bag) on the floor by the table or sitting cuddled on Mistresses lap - YES, YES I know the dog should be fully restrained when under way but try explaining that to either mistress or the dog

As pointed out by our Administrator, my first posting should of course read "Perth to Adelaide without refueling" - OOPS

Currently we are attending the Tasmanian Combined Chapters Rally of the C M C A along with about 240 other RVs. Unfortunately the number of RVs decreased by one last evening when a small Mercedes campervan (not as big as a Sprinter variety) caught fire and burnt to the ground in about 5 minutes. Driver and wallet safe.

From Tassie (8th March) we are heading for the National Rally at Maryborough, Qld. The ferry trip over was entertaining for us - 40 knot winds right on the bow all the way from Princess Pier Melbourne and our cabin was second from the bow. We thought it was fun. On our previous 2008 trip it was millpond both ways !

Unfortunately the roads in Tasmania have deteriorated somewhat since 2008 nor have they got any wider - quite a difference pedaling a 2.5m max width 10+ tonne motorhome with flat towed Kia Sportage behind compared to Land Cruiser although the 18 ' Bushtracker was maximum width as per the Fuso.

Re the comment about M. being an ex-seaman - not quite; but a yachtsman for 50 years but that's another story.

For further details about the Fuso, I will do a further post in the correct category shortly.

[T1 Terry]

The roads are a lot wider and better than when i drove 8 wheeler tippers and 38ft buses full of school kids around Tassie back in 1980. those little quaint country roads around some of the historic towns were the main highway back then I still remember going back through all 15 gears in a twin stick Acco powered by the mighty 185 Cummins climbing the main street hill In Deloraine with 15 ton of super on it's back, if I'd stopped I would had to jump out and watch the destruction, the brakes wouldn't hold it the hill is that steep

[bob r]

gee terry how did you get a 185 cummins to pull 15 ton up a steep hill ?
I could never make one do it .