Saturday, December 24, 2011

Christmas eve

The reason for the new look blog, is the other theme was too slow. no matter what PC it was viewed on, scrolling was slow and tiresome.

Russian Visa
On Thursday we submitted our Russian visa application at the consulate. When Cassie called the consulate earlier that week with a list of concerns surrounding the visa application process, Natasha (perfectly Russian name) forwarded her to the website. Not a great start as we did have an information overload already. However when we met her on Thursday, everything couldn’t have gone smoother.
After looking over the form Natasha effectively said, “ok no problem, visa will be ready 11th Jan. Your visa will start from that point”. All of our concerns seemed to be melted away at that point. Finally a human who said ‘it’ll be fine’. So I’ m 60% confident we’ll get the visa we want. In the short time we built up a good rapport which was nice. It was nice to see the ‘cold, cold, cold’ front that the Russian’s seem to put forward be melted with some pleasant small talk. Even the guy who told us we were in the wrong spot was abrupt but helpful.

Sale of drawers
I’ve been emailing back and forth with a gentleman from Bendigo, VIC regarding the sale of the 4wd drawers I made for the Pajero. He said that he would be here on the 24th, and sure enough he was. I had sent plans, photos and dimensions.

After unloading and reloading his ute and canopy which was full to the roof, we test fitted them and they fit within the millimetre. My heart was in my mouth when after the deal was done, it didn’t look like the tailgate would close. In the end it was a great feeling to see someone else so pleased with the efforts that I’d put in… all by chance, every design characteristic I had implemented had been what he was looking for.
IMG_1045IMG_1044IMG_1043

Also today someone came and picked up the alloy bull-bar I purchased. I did make a loss on that one, but at least the space is clear now. I’ve been putting off cleaning it, which I want to do tomorrow but Christmas seems to have gotten in the way. :-P

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Russian Visa application submission

So, in a slightly mad rush, we’re trying to get my visa application submitted tomorrow.  We now have the original letter of initiation, the completed application form. No offence intended, but I blacked out anything that could be personally identifiable. For your reading pleasure, you will be able to read the Russian destination list. Left to right, Moscow, Vladivostok, Magadan, Ulan-Ude and Chita.

The consulate in Canberra is open from 9-12:30 and hopefully it goes off without a hitch. Two things that could snag me:

1) Visitors are not typically eligible for a multi-entry business visa, unless you have had a Russian visa before.
2) To avoid the ‘you won’t have enough time’ discussion, I’ve specified my entry date later than the visa support document. It shouldn’t be a problem, because it is less time, but it may mean they won’t issue a twelve month one.
It’s all getting a bit annoying to be honest. All this expense and paperwork for nothing so far, I just want ONE visa under my belt before I tackle any more. This Russian one is most important (seemingly obviously), as without it we can’t (responsibly) book flights, accommodation, shipping or even coordinate other Visa’s. It all hangs on the Russian visa…. and what more, we need to repeat this for Cassie as well. We’re doing them separately so that if mine is knocked back, it means we’ve only wasted ~$500 dollars not ~$1000.

IMG_1001

ugh… Now, enough of stuff that’s out of my hands onto something I can do something about.

Today I picked up one of these blue weatherproof/dustproof boxes. It weights 11KG empty, is lockable and about 100mm lower than other models which is nice. It doesn’t look so obvious and allows easy access from the sides. I ordered another one as well, but it probably won’t arrive till early January. Every day I fix/build something on the camper, I can’t help but think “how the hell could I have done all this if I’d have bought it mid September” as I had initially planned.

IMG_0994IMG_0975IMG_0985

I used stainless steel U-Bolts to fix it front and back, and really thick rubber grommets to keep it dust/weather proof around the bolt holes. Initially I had planned to hook the U-bolts over the roof rails, but it wasn’t going to work out nearly as neat as this solution.
The whole idea of using the U-Bolts was to keep the security of the boxes, inside the boxes. i.e, you need to be able to open the box to unbolt it.

IMG_0986

The esky is now decommissioned which is a great relief as it was impossible to fix in place properly. As you can see, the ‘lower and flatter’ approach is a dream to load an unload as rarely anything is stacked on top anything else.
I’m struggling to find a spare wheel for the camper. I need a 265 75 on a 16” rim, with 5 stud. The tyre doesn’t have to be that great but would be better if it was a worn off-road tyre, as opposed to a brand new on-road tyre.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Not for use in Europe

I have identified a problem using a hi-lift jack. You can never really jack under the car because you invariably bend something or dent something because cars are designed to be jacked from the chassis, not from a sill or bumper.
The second part of this problem, is although on some bull bars you can jack up the car… but you nearly use the whole length of the jack just taking up the slack in the suspension. See how there is only about another 5 inches of jack left to use, and this is on hard, level ground. On something soft like sand or mud you need much more length to get the job done allowing for sinking and to be able to pack under the tyres.  You can see below, that this bull bar has hi-lift jacking points on each side which are a great safety and convenience factor.

IMG_0911

Ideally, if you could lift lower on the car, you would get more lift. And you usually want to get something under the wheels to get you moving again… this is where the lift-mate comes in.

IMG_0917IMG_0919

Note the WD-40… hi-lift jacks run on WD-40! See how you can use the jack at the side of the car now, without denting panels or sills. In this photo, the wheel is already 6 inches off the ground. Much higher than the bull bar method.
The other disadvantage the bull bar method, is that you end up lifting the whole front of the car, even just when jacking on one side. It means more stress on the jack, but higher chance of something slipping.
One tiny trick to watch out for, is not to pinch the valve stem between the hook and the wheel. I nearly did on this attempt, and for the exercise, jacked up just one side of the wheel to rotate it around to get the stem out of the way. The jack does all the work!

I also experimented with this at the back of the car. The rear step was already dinted, so ignore that. I think it would work a treat, but I wasn’t too keen on lifting the wheels with the handbrake on them off the ground. If your bogged, you don’t run much chance of the car moving on it’s own as opposed to tared ground.

IMG_0923IMG_0909
I’m really liking this jack stand. It is intended for the hi-lift jack to stop it sinking into soft surfaces due to four times the footprint, but works a treat with the bottle jack. It also functions great as a wheel chock.

IMG_0906

We went and ‘tried on’ one of these space case’s. They are hideously expensive, but will last a lifetime. This one pictured was $360+. You can see it does sit a bit high. The biggest problem that presents is that you can’t reach anything in it. It’s too high to get your elbow over to reach in. We came up with the idea of a mirror in the lid to at least see what your reaching for, but it doesn’t help if you can’t physically reach it. I’ve since gone back to the drawing board and come up with another idea. Two slightly smaller boxes, at  each side. It means you’re stepping up about a foot higher on the wheel rather than the rear step. It also has a bit of wind protected ‘tray space’ which comes in very handy with muddy recovery equipment. When it’s wet and muddy, you just want to throw it somewhere and get the hell out of where you are. If I keep the spare tyre on the passenger side, I’ll be able to get the maxxtrax up there in the ‘tray space’ when they are all muddy. This gap down the middle also allows for a bit of a ‘runway’ to stand and pack the boxes, or roll the spare tyre towards the back of the car to lift it off. The second problem is, they will be one hell of a wind drag, which I’m desperately trying to avoid.

image

Thursday night, when Cassie was at her final Russian lesson, I ate noodles alone beside a train track. Not real romantic, but it certainly was peaceful. I did a timer shot, and captured this uncool shot of me stuffing my face.

IMG_0886IMG_0884

IMG_0904

So, to solve the question of the weird post title…. the new globes we purchased are 100W/90W H4’s which I think although made in Germany, are not permitted  on European roads. Twice the wattage of regular bulbs, they are much better and seem to not have any detrimental effect on the wiring or lens assembly. It’s a bit funny how that although they wouldn’t be for sale in Europe, we’ll be driving through Europe with them. It’s all slowly coming together.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Procrastination FTW

I should be concentrating on visas and shipping because they need attention, but it’s so much easier to just play with the car. I did receive my ‘Letter of Invitation’ or Visa Support document which is cool, but I’m becoming increasingly confident we won’t get the multi-entry business visa. I’ve pretty much resigned to the fact that we’ll have to apply for our second Russian visa whilst we’re on the road. No idea how to do that, but it’ll have to happen or we’ll miss out on Kazakhstan.

Fuel Economy:
So a whilst Cassie was at Russian lessons, I drove to Cooma and back which worked out to be a perfect 200KM round trip. I got 12.8L/100 which is fine considering it’s got the gear on the roof, bulbar/winch and bigger wheels… oh and done nearly 250,000KM in it’s life.
Also, the road isn’t perfectly level and still. It should give us 1450KM of range in ideal conditions – or 1200KM to play it safe.

Water leak:
For a while now (perhaps since I’ve owned it) there has been a leak somewhere that allows water onto the passenger foot well after rains. Small inconvenience sure (especially since it has vinyl floors), but what it represents isn’t cool.

IMG_0773IMG_0776

It will eventually cause rust which isn’t cool. It looks like it’s been happening for a long time. Whenever the HVAC is on recirculate, it smells fowl - like a wet dog. I suspect I will remove it and give it a good clean and replace filters.
I tracked down the leak to one of the rubber grommets. Where cables have been pushed through, it’s torn only slightly but seems to be the leak. Without removing the batteries and cradle it’s impossible to get a good go at fixing it.
My new friend Sikaflex-227 got a work out and hopefully has fixed the problem. Although I can’t get a real good look at it without removing the batteries, hopefully it’s big enough to divert the water around the hole at least.
IMG_0818

IMG_0761

It’s virtually impossible to get at it from inside the car. It’s really high up behind the glove box. Then again, if I have to take out the air conditioner, it may get close enough. I also made a makeshift grommet that was mysteriously missing from the car using a plastic container lid and some more Sikaflex-227. I think we have a new addition to my toolbox. If it can’t be fixed with WD40, Sikaflex-227, 100 mile an hour tape, cable ties or radiator repair putty… it ain’t worth fixing!

This other picture is where I have adjusted the rear door to stop it sagging by putting two washers behind the bolts on the bottom hinge. I adjusted it up without the spare wheel on so that it was too high. Then with the weight of the spare tyre, it was perfect.

The final picture is the new headlights. They are semi-sealed but even without adjusting the result is much better. The OEM globe was fairly good but the non-genuine one is rubbish. I went to fail repco to replace it… only to find they only sell the same rubbish one I was replacing. I trusted their advice that this one would be better, but with a no returns policy on electrical I got screwed!

I’m tossing up wether or not we even take one of the spare globes – what’s the likelihood of a globe/light failure being a show stopper? Every place should have a H4 globe! Especially as we will be avoiding driving at night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_0822

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Change fuel filter

Why is it that most mechanics, tyre shops and some users over tighten bolts, filters and about anything that can be tightened. I assume it’s purely to cover their ass and get you out the door. It once took me half a day to get an oil filter off after a ‘genuine service’ by a brand name manufacturer. You watch at tyre shop, they sit with the rattle-gun on each wheel nut for maybe 5 seconds each!No person using tools included in the car would be able to get the nuts off on the side of the road. Ridiculously one day, I had to apply about 2M of leverage on EVERY wheel nut after the tyres were replaced at a tyre shop. Amazing levels of overkill seen as the car comes with a bar about a foot long! Surely the manufacturer would specify a torque that could be undone by on-board tools!

If you ask “mate, can you put those on by hand because I need to be able to get them off in the bush?” they are usually so obliging and understanding and do it perfectly… and whadya know, the wheel’s still don’t fly off.

This fuel filter was the same. It was on so tight that rather than lightly compressing the O-ring to make a seal, it was no doubt flattened resulting in a metal to metal connection. It was impossible to move. Initially I thought I just couldn’t get a good grip on it… but after purchasing and using vice grips to remove it, I’m convinced I couldn’t have applied that much force even if it was in an ideal location. I agree, the logical conclusion of all this is I must be a weak-ass.

IMG_0735image

Before and after pictures. I may adjust it a little tighter, but I’ll be reasonable!

On a side note, what is the bit of gear to the left of the fuel filter? Is it another filter?

So, we captured some video of the start after changing the filter. I deliberately didn’t prime the system as I wanted to see it run dry and need to be re-primed from dry. The purpose was to show Cassie how to prime it, and what to expect. I sound all clever and authoritative but having never done this before, I was learning as well! It ran for maybe 30 seconds till it eventually died. We primed the pump (maybe 30 presses?) and  it restarted after maybe 5 seconds of cranking and about %25 throttle. All good we thought – exercise complete. We expected it to be fine after it was running but was indeed not. No matter how much throttle was applied, it wouldn’t get over 1000RPM. Smooth as, but no more revs.
It felt like in a petrol car how when it’s out of fuel it’ll rev, but no power is attainable. Like that, but in the diesel, it was just like it didn’t have enough power to rev any more.

When you pumped the primer, (in combination with throttle) it would rev up straight away, like it was starved of fuel. Between a combination of maybe 25% throttle and priming the pump by hand it seemed to be running better, but still un-drivable.
So what do you do when you have something that is un-drivable? You drive it! We packed up and set off. 1st gear was rubbish and out of power wondering how we would make it up the small slope at the end of our street (let alone cross the traffic).

By the time we were half way down the street into second gear, on came the rest of the power. Back to normal! We drove around for about 10 minutes with no noticeable problems. Woo Hoo! Must have been an airlock?
It’s all learning as we now know what that feels like and how to fix it.

Snorkel Sealing

As mentioned in a previous post, the seal around the snorkel seemed to be loose. This was confirmed when I washed it last time, I took the air filter out and to my surprise found water in the water catcher thing at the bottom and a fairly soiled air cleaner.

2011-12-10

Click here to view the photo album. There are descriptions beneath each picture to explain what is happening.

By now you will have seen the seal that appears to be incorrectly installed. Clearly someone slacked off that day! It goes without saying that if we had gotten stuck for a length of time in bonnet high water, we would have ruined the motor. The flip side of that pessimist thinking is that the air cleaner is so well designed that even without a snorkel, you’d be unlikely to do any damage as long as you kept moving through nearly any river.

The reasons I say that:

Size – it’s huge which means you will take a long time to clog it with dust or suck water through it.
Top pickup – It’ll take a while for water to get high enough in the enclosure (it’s like 30cm high)
Bottom purge trap - beneath the main filter is a trap to catch water, bugs, rocks that are sucked in. This trap has a rubber flap on it, that provided there is low pressure inside the assembly it will hold it water tight. When you stop the motor and there is no longer low pressure, it sags a bit to let out any accumulated water.

Our car, even in it’s unsealed state, could have crossed hundreds of rivers without problem… the only chance of damage would have come from if we had got stuck motionless… with water over the bonnet. Unlikely I know, but hey.

What was concerning about the seal been damaged is that it was allowing rain water in… seriously. There was water lines on the inside of the snorkel base which no doubt would have been sucked into the air cleaner when the car was started. Another interesting thing that suggests this has been like it since the day it was made, is there is rust in the bottom purge trap which would indicate it’s often getting water in it.

Another little lesson about air intakes is that they follow ‘the path of least resistance’. Even if you have a pinhole or two in the system, it’s only going to draw air/dust/water through there if it’s easier than pulling it down the nice big snorkel. Now that’s not to say water won’t casually fill through the hole, but it is to say that the motor isn’t going to try and suck water if it’s easier to pull air.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Public or not?

For the last ten minutes I've been struggling to word this post... so here goes.

So far, this blog has only been sent to family and friends. Anyone can actually read it, but it's not searchable on search engines and really only has a limited audience. As a private person, I naturally contain thoughts, views and experiences to those who need to know. I used to try and hide elements in photos and videos that could be used to identify me, such as vehicle registration, but it has proved very difficult in video.
Perhaps the motivation for this topic occurred just the other day. A retired gentleman who is a member of the 4wd club I was also a member of subscribed to one of my YouTube channels. I contacted him effectively saying 'Wow - I haven't spoken to you in a long time... I bet you would like to read my blog'.
He could hardly remember me, but referred to some videos not even on my channel of us 4wding.
He instantly took the offensive assuming we were damaging national parks without any justification.

Although no problem came from this encounter, what would happen if he was a bit unhinged. I wonder what trouble he could have caused?

Even now, I've held back on my description of the above for fear of offending this person, or risking some kind of deformation when a big part of me would like to be more descriptive. This no doubt makes my blog posts more tame and more a representation of my 'public profile' not actually what I'm thinking or feeling.

I don't wish to have any public profile (hell, I certainly do not have a Facebook profile) the worst thing in the world would be to be recognised for the wrong reasons. I have no wish for others to directly connect with us 'follow' us but the other half of me, is that I want to share our adventure with as many like minded people possible.

I'm continually suspicious that people with ill intent could use this blog against us. I can't articulate how, but perhaps sighting illegal behaviour and using it to sue us? Stalkers tracking us down but most of all, I'm mindful that if someone Google's my name, I don't want them to turn up our blog. The first thing I do when approached by a new business contact is gather a bit of perspective on them, their work and their company. If some negative, or otherwise out of context information was to turn up when they query my name... that would put an end to the professional relationship before it started. Realistically, you can't change your name.

I remember hearing a quote that has struck a chord with me:  "Everything on the Internet is written in pen"
So to try and make this relevant:
-If I keep the blog how it is, it's like writing in a diary and lending it around.
-If I make this 'googleable' it's like writing it on a toilet door

I guess the only safeguard is if I keep our surnames fairly suppressed, that should reduce the likelihood of any dramas. Obviously I don't want to give 'keys to the burgulars' but I'm sure there would be enough information in here to track us down already.

Brett shared with me a little piece of literature that I wasn't aware of until recently.
"Everyone has a public life, a private life and a secret life". It's an interesting take, because I didn't really stop to think that people have secret lives. A secret life is the thoughts and feelings that you don't even share in your public life, almost the things you would never say or record.

I guess what I'm asking, is can I let public people, into our private life, whilst remaining anonymous? Is it possible?

Monday, December 5, 2011

More testing

This weekend just past, we went camping at Potato Point on the south east coast of Australia. Some people may laugh at the location description, but it’s important to make this readable for all readers. On Friday night we were too excited to wait till Saturday to leave and left at dusk to ‘stop wherever’. We stopped near Doughboy Creek on the highway and setup – and this is the video of the event. I apologise in advance, it’s boring as hell, but it will make it all relatable down the track:

Here is the shot the following morning:

IMG_1838

We left our first night’s camp maybe around 9AM and had breakfast at a picnic bench at Braidwood. Sitting with our backs to the sun was one of those ‘smell the roses’ moments, were stopping and taking your time was rewarding. I looked like a right homeless junkie washing up our bowls and spoons in the public bathroom, but hey, it saves water and mess in our camper.

The Potato Point camp ground was a lot better than I remember with brand new amenities block and new cabins.

We had a lunch of pastrami, bread and potato salad and an Australian staple of sausage sandwiches for dinner. Both meals were terrific and easy to prepare and clean up. The shot below is us cooking behind the wheel using it as a wind break. It worked a treat.

IMG_0630
IMG_2023

IMG_2031

Only on the other side of the camper were a Wallaby and Joey. With the setting sun bouncing off the waves, it’s perhaps just one of the reasons people love Australia. I can’t actually believe that the shots above don’t have more Wallabies and Kangaroo’s in them, as there were hundreds!

Late in the night it rained for maybe an hour. Even in the foggy mid-sleep state, I remember going ‘woo-hoo!’ in my head. The system works! We’re warm, dry, out of the wind, and can drive away without rolling up anything cold, wet or dirty.
Each night we wound up the day by watching some pre-recorded TV shows. It may sound a bit contradictory to the ‘getting away from it all’ idea, but it’s very relaxing. After long days of driving, endless translations and unfamiliar surroundings, it’s going to be nice just to ‘come home’ to something familiar.

We received our ‘AUS’ sticker. The quote on the RACV website is “While overseas you will need to display nationality plate (AUS sticker or plate)”. We’re not sure how gospel this is, but hey, lets not rock the boat. Plus, it’s a bit of bling and a great conversation starter. “You what?! drove this car across Russia?.. you must be mad!” It’s quite large and I’m not sure were we’re going to fit it.

IMG_0591

Fuel Economy:

I’m not sure why, but we don’t seem to be getting very good fuel economy. I’ve never just done a tank of highway driving, so it’s difficult to measure. Most tanks I’ve spent a few hours four wheel driving, which sucks juice, but doesn’t count for a lot of kilometres. So far we’re only getting 1000KM to both tanks. Which over 190L is 18L/100. Now we aren't exactly running the tanks dry, but I’d say we could only do 1100 which would be 17.27L/100.  It’s advertised that it should do 11L/100 but I don’t expect it to. I do expect something like 13L/100 with the roof rack, bull bar, possibly larger tyres. But when in fact you are getting 600KM less range than advertised is, that is a big deal. I calculate that it’s 50% worse than it should be which is huge.

I drive pretty conservatively and am never in a rush so I’m not sure what is happening. It never blows any smoke.

Here’s some thoughts to add to the equation:

On the drive back, we drove up the Brown mountain, and to Queanbeyan via Cooma. We may have had a tail wind, but we were flying up the hills. Continually having to back off so that we were not speeding. We passed a sign saying altitude 1100M . Interesting I thought. Because naturally aspirated engines drive worse at higher altitudes.

This engine has an ‘Altitude Compensator’ on it so that it doesn’t run too rich at higher altitudes (which produces smoke and burns oil). It made me think…. can a Diesel be out of tune? Perhaps it’s been tuned incorrectly and is ruining my economy and power?

I may be getting way ahead of myself as the problem may be a matter of it’s usage pattern as a 4wd, not so much a highway truck. I do have a new fuel and air filter which I’ll fit once I repair the leak in the snorkel. I plan to go for one or two consistent highway runs to see if I can spot a trend.

Another thought, is this last tank I bought from a different distributor… could the vendor be selling me rubbish diesel?

To finish on a high – have a look at the photo that this damn iPhone produces. Simply stunning for a phone:

IMG_0644