How to attach your drawers to the 4 WD?

So, to attach the drawers to the truck, I could just build a set of kitchen drawers and slide the whole system in - but I reckon I can get a bit more space by not having a back on the system and attaching the vertical panels directly to the sides of the vehicle with aluminium angles.

Positioning the panels is critical for the drawers to run properly and you need a way of keeping them in position while you measure things. How about this for a nice system? - you just get a nearby 4 x 2 (oregon studs work well). You put one end on the back of the drivers seat and the other on the panel - neat!

Then you can position the aluminium angles, drill the holes, rivet them onto the walls and drill them into the vertical panels.

Down at ground level commercial operators put a plywood floor under the whole thing to make their work easier, but I can get a bit more space by attaching things directly to the floor. Just have to put a few little plywood pads in place under some of the vertical panels - like this. You wont see this in the finised product as it will be under a rubber mat that goes down the asle between the drawers and the bank of stuff on the passenger's side.

Here we're getting a few more of the vertical panels nicely attached

Attaching the runner to the draw - I wonder if it will fit the other half attached to the vertical panel.

Drawing room - creating a bank of 4 x 4 drawers

Everyone says that the more drawers the better so the driver's side of the troopy is going to be a big bank of drawers - underneath a metho stove and a sink.

First step is to do something about the rear window washer bottle. It sits in the wall where it will be completely impossible to access once the drawers are built.

So I organised a system with some nice reinforced tubing from Whitworths so you can fill the bottle from outside the van if you want to. This shows the interesting system that attaches the tubing to the washer bottle's filler cap.

Here you can see the black tubing snaking around in the wall - easy to pull the end out and fill it up.

One interesting little point is that the bottle needs a breather to let air out when you put water in - otherwise, you cant get the water into it. So there is a little nick in the black tubing at its highest point in the wall.

Second job is to add some aluminium bars to the side so there is a bit more surface for attaching the drawer supports to - you'll see what I mean shortly.

So now to get the overall planning sorted out. Just how long can the drawers be? how close the the back of the front seat should they come? How high can they be without looking silly? And what sort of benchtop do we want?

This is some of the febrile scrawling I've been doing to get the answers to those questions.

And having figured out the answers to some of the questions, these are the first two vertical panels - complete with the spiffy Hettich drawer runners attached (one the left one anyway).

The short drawer at the bottom is to leave space for the wheel-arch.

These are some cans of Techniglue. Not cheap, but marvellous epoxy stuff for gluing drawers together. Reputedly good at tearing the wood apart before it lets go. Get it from Caporns boatbuilding supplies at Brookvale.

And this is the first set of drawers with their techniglue joints curing in the Avalonian sun. Pretty good huh!

Nice new bull-bar - now for the 'kitchen'

Hoo hoo, finally got all the parts attached and remarkably, everything seems to work! Winch goes in the right direction; fog lights work and the trailer wiring checks out - at least with a test lamp.

So now it's just the cupboards, sink, stove, fridge etc to go.

First step is off to Mr Ply for some hardwood exterior ply for the draws and some marine stuff for the more structural bits. They also have some very nice 45kg runners made by Hettich.

And then to Australian Laminators for some of that spiffy high pressure laminated ply to use in the areas where you'll see it.

For the benchtop, we think the Think Solid stuff from Bunnings looks about right - it's a plastic concoction that is repairable and polishes up OK with stainless steel polish.

Just bought some aluminium cutting blades for the saws I'll be using. The people at Irwin's in Victoria reckon the little teeth are the best way to minimise chipping the laminate when you cut it.

So apologies to the long suffering neighbours, the next few days will be filled with the teutonic sound of my old AEG saw, the noisiest on the planet; but still going strong with nice tight bearings and that Deutcher perseverence (the sort that Germany is going to need if they are to overcome Uruguay for third place).

And now for that bullbar, and winch, and indicator harness and ......

Having thrived in the Strzelecki Desert, it's now time for our Troopy to finally get his bull bar, winch and an alarming number of wiring harnesses attached.

Step 1 for the various wiring harnesses is take the two batteries out. This isn't usually much of a deal in a suburban car, but lifting a huge diesel-starting battery that is already at chest height makes for an intersting trip to the chiropractor next day.

Step 2 is pull off all those nice bumpercovers, support braces and other things that you just paid thousands for and take them to the tip for recycling (anyone need a second hand bumper wing?)



Alas poor crush can - I knew him well. This is a bit of the mountain of parts heading for the recycling.

For some reason a new bullbar needs a new set of crush cans. Maybe because it deforms differently in an accident and so needs different crush cans to make sure the air bags work (We bought this model to get one with airbags, so it's kind of important to do everything by the book in this department)


Toyota helpfully provides quite nice little instruction booklets with the parts - which is just as well, given that to get the trailer lights to work, you first have to install an indicator relay system in the engine bay; then run a chassis harness that snakes the full length of the troopy to the back; then attach it to the breakout plug in the trailer wiring harness; then .... you following this? suffice to say that things aren't as simple as they once were and adding almost any new bits - even genuine parts - takes longer than it used to. Still, once they're installed, they tend to do more fancy things, more reliably than back in the sixties.



Now, which one do I read first.

Most of these are pretty good, but there seem to be about three winch fitting ones - which you need to read symultaneously while balancing 40 kg winches and tightening nuts to 77 Nm with a very long bar.

On a Paroo Billabong and on to Gundabooka

After Wanaaring we turned north towards Hungerford looking for a nice camp on the Paroo. And in the gathering dusk, we found a great billabong just off the road. It appeared to be a bit of an impromptu boat ramp with a big area of lighter, slightly less clinging clay making a little road into the water. We three vehicles parked around the ‘boat ramp’ and after eating the results of a marvelous damper bake-off, we retired.

At 11.30 PM some spotlighting boys blundered into our camp, shining their million candle-power searchlight into every nook and cranny. Hey are you guys reading this?!! We weren’t exactly impressed.

But our boisterous visitors departed as quickly as they came, leaving some big 30-30 cartridge cases as a calling card – that being an excellent pig caliber. I guess we were camped in the middle of their preferred pig shooting range.

Next morning the billabong was resplendent in the rising sunlight – as these pics will attest. We had a really nice 1 km walk around the water, seeing a variety of dotterels, herons, egrets and ibis – including the endangered glossy ibis.

A glossy ibis -honest! Not the world's greatest photo, but it is endangered

As usual with areas flooded by inland rivers, the water was alive with tiny insects and crustaceans – a dotterel’s version of lobster.








Heading off towards Bourke and Gundabooka, we passed through a depressing area where the trees had been poisoned – hopefully the culprit will be seeing the Environment Dept in court soon.

Gundabooka had some neat birds and other creatures. Mulga parrots so bright it was like there was a light inside the bird; crested bellbirds with their punk mohawk haircuts and a 'did you get drunk?' call and this amazing little red-caped robin.

The robin owned the camping area and was happy to sit within feet of the campers.

As it got later and colder, he fluffed his feathers up more and more - finally looking like an exquisitely decorated ping pong ball - as delicate and beautiful as the surrounding mulga scrub was tough and spiky.

Ahh the desert - you gotta love it.

On the Bulloo Overflow

We reached the Bulloo Overflow between Tobooburra and Wanaring and were amazed to see a sheet of water stretching out of sight to the north into Queensland and south into NSW. On the shallow muddy edges a myriad of tiny insects and desert crustaceans wriggled through the water, frantically living out their lives in the few months of plenty while the water lasts.

The first thing we noticed was a pair of brolgas dancing with each other - leaping into the air with wings extended and then landing with still-extended wings. Like everything else out there, they had romance on their minds. Makes you realise that our inland wetlands are the engines that drive our bird populations.

The brolgas didn't think much of us and quickly made off to more secluded spots where they could continue their flirtations undisturbed.

Soaring overhead you could see gull billed and whiskered terns swooping down to catch little fish - and even the odd seagull - a bit out of place 1000 miles from the nearest packet of fish and chips

This is a gull-billed tern looking for breakfast....

Ahh - he's found it - and also gained an instant best friend shadowing him from above and keen to help him eat his catch.

Gull-bills are not above chasing the smaller whiskered terns to steal their fish

Black-winged stilts have much better manners - daintily picking up tiny critters with their forcepsy beaks.

It's sooo good that at least some our our wild rivers can still flood - despite the huge irrigation systems being built. It will be a very sad day when all the water ends up in some cotton farm dam where it is completely useless for wildlife. The extraordinary flush of life we are seeing at the moment only happens whendry ground is flooded. Permanent water might be a reasonable drought refuge, but very few birds will breed there.

We hit the road next day for a series of great desert vistas....

And lots more budgies

Got to Cobar next day. It has to be the goat capital of the world. They are everywhere.; wandering along the side of the road; browsing the bushes in farmers' paddocks; standing on their back legs to reach the tastiest morsels - or like this little kid, just acting the goat by the side of the road. Unlike thick-as-two-short-planks sheep, goats seemed to have great road sense and never did that stupid thing of running in front of you at the last moment.


Off to Gundabooka National Park tomorrow.

Everybodies breeding

Spot the chicks upstairs and downstairs!

It could be Kakadu - unbelievable in the middle of a desert.



But a reminder of what's to come!

In the footsteps of Strzelecki

Today we followed Polish explorer Strzelecki's steps northwards from Arkaroola into the desert that bears his name.

This is one of the little waterways that meander across the plain. Most had water in them after all the rain in March.

And they didn't look too bad in the sunset, with more rain threatening in the background.

A bit of desert washing.

Red gums must be the ultimate survivors. They bordered every desert stream - providing a biological beacon to the possibility of getting a drink.

Drinks on Strzelecki Creek at sunset.

Not a bad view huh?

Michael tentatively examines the camp oven.

The results?.......

marvellous!

With all the rain, every hollow tree held a breeding pair of zebra finches or budgies.