Sydney Trip 2014: Plan & Prep 2014

The Plan and The Prep

So, the Sydney Woolers are having a christening on the 4th May 2014 and The Rockhampton Woolers are travelling en masse to Castle Hill, Sydney, Australia.
My sister Jill and her hubby Shaun are travelling down via Frasier Island. Noice.
My parents Wayne and Kay are doing the grey nomad thing and dragging their new caravan down to camp up in the Sydney Woolers front yard. 

ROAD TRIP!!!!!!

The Plan

Our itinerary is Maleny, Coffs Harbour, Sydney, South West Rocks, Pottsville, Bunya Nat Park (got changed on the road to Burrum Heads due to weather), Home. Should be a cracker of a trip.

Going South

 Going North

The Prep

This will be the first opportunity to get the Pajero out and about as the family tourer. I've only owned it for about 12 months and in that time I've lifted it 2", fitted new rubber and well, that's as far as I got.

This road trip will demand more storage to handle taking the family on the 3 week extended trip.

1. Fabricate a roof rack. Make the roof rack came out of necessity. I couldn't get the rack I wanted for the Pajero without spending $1000+. Just the mounting brackets alone were close to $500 before I even thought about a rack.
2. Install a cargo barrier.  While rummaging around the local tip shop (also known as the shit shop) I found a Milford Cargo Barrier for the NM Pajero. I own a NP and they are very similar so this one would fit my car.'How much?' I ask, 'ummm, $25' is the response. SOLD! Brand new they are $500. The downside was this poor thing had been living outside in rain for a long time and so every part of it had surface rust, even under the paint.
   No worries, a few hours with the pressure cleaner had the paint off, then rust convertor killed the rust and a fresh coat of hammertone paint to finish it off and hide the rough surface.
3. Replace the rear CV boots.Easy job. Once the tyre is off there's only 7 bolts to undo and the drive shaft is off.
4. Install suitable power outlets in the rear of the car to handle a Waeco fridge.
5. Install Child Attention Grabber, otherwise known as a LCD screen with movies.
6. Fuel up, lets roll.

The Fabrication of the Rack

Install a cargo barrier

As luck would have it I found a Milford Cargo Barrier at the local Tip Shop. Known to most as The Dump Shit Shop. 

The barrier was made for a NP Pajero, this meant it was a perfect fit in my NP. 

It only cost me $25 but the reason for this was the significant surface rust under the paintwork. Someone had not loved this cargo barrier at all.

So a weekend spent stripping and painting and she was good to go. I had to use a hammertone style paint as the surface was not  at all smooth thanks to the rust. My thinking was if i can't smooth the surface, turn it into a feature.

The last job was to replace the badly scratched clear panel. $15 bucks at the local supplier and I had it cut to shape and install in minutes.

Replace rear CV boots.

All done. No need to go into details.

Install suitable power outlets 

For this trip I planned on borrowing the Waeco fridge from my parents as they wouldn't need it for their trip due to just acquiring a new caravan.

The Pajero already had power in the rear cargo area but it was not designed to carry the current of a fridge. Knowing that voltage loss through the cable to the outlet would cause the fridge to run poorly I ran 8 gauge all the way into the cargo area and install a 12v ciggie style outlet and a dual USB power outlet. Who knows what gear I'll through into the back that would be powered through a USB socket?

These outlets would need to be completely isolated from a switch in the cabin. Hello custom rocker switches!

The dual power outlet.

Isolator switch in centre console.

Thanks Custom Rockers.