Enlightenment and other Follies
We had owned caravans before but on our return to Australia after a two year stint overseas we decided to give camper trailers a try. Rather than buy an unknown commodity new, we decided to buy a second hand unit, that way if we didn’t like it we stood to lose less and it should prove easier to offload. Looking through the paper we found just what we were after an
orange and brown rear opener mounted on a 6x4 with 12” sides of around 1906 vintage. It probably weighed in on the under side of 300kg loaded. The door was at the end of the tent, also performing the function of a small awning when held up by poles, pegs and ropes. Although a soft floor the previous owner had manufactured a folding plywood floor, complete with carpet, which held the floor down so negating the need for pegging – setting up took all of two minutes and being an end opener, access into the trailer was from inside the tent area.
I knew absolutely nothing of off
grid power setups that we take for granted now, having always stayed in caravan parks. Solar panels, deep cycle batteries and such like weren’t so easily available then (not cheap either) and camper trailers of this vintage were pretty
well all 6x4 trailers with 12” high sides and a small tent on top. Anyway, I had an
old car battery hanging around so I mounted that on the draw bar, ran some wires under the bed installed a couple of cigarette lighter plugs and that was that. As I now know, the purpose of life is to learn - and this system served that purpose
well.
At the time we had a new Lancer which didn’t offer a lot of storage, so we searched around for a suitable vehicle and finally settled on a nice red Subaru
Brumby with 110k on the clock. Workmates thought it a pretty good copy of a wheelbarrow and so we christened it ‘
Kelso’.
I’d owned a Leone before and thought it a marvellous car, so was quite happy with our choice. The
Brumby had just enough room in front for mum and me (we’re smallish) and the dog (smaller still). The gearstick in the
Brumby must have been three feet long if it was a foot; so, I cut a foot or two off and remounted the gear knob – perfect. Replaced the seal on the oil pump (remember I had owned a Leone), replaced the tyres and gave ‘
Kelso’ a service and oil change (weren’t distributors, points and carburettors marvellous inventions) and we were set.
Now as some know, the early Subarus were no power houses (the ‘Super Roo’ monicker from GT Falcon era certainly sounded familiar, but that’s where any similarities rightly ended), couldn’t pull the skin of a rice pudding in fact, but towing a 300 odd kg trailer – no problems.
A 6x4 trailer with 12” sides doesn’t offer a lot of storage options, much less room for a 40 litre Gott. This was prior to the Supercool fridge we bought later, so the Gott required plenty of ice on a regular basis and was secreted away in the
brumby’s ‘cavernous’ tub, along with bedding, clothing and a few other items that wouldn’t fit in the trailer.
Brumbies weren’t fitted with tonneau covers from the factory, so most dealerships, fitted them prior to sale. Remember the rice pudding skin I spoke of earlier,
well I think the dealerships fashioned the
Brumbies tonneau from that – certainly it fitted as
well and provided the same sort of protection: clipped to a flimsy aluminium extrusion behind the rear window and held down around the perimeter in the normal manner, it leaked copious amounts of rain water into
the tub, soaking the bedding and clothing. This we found on our first shakedown weekend to
Morgan, necessitating an hour or so in the laundry to dry our bedding for the night.
Remember the wiring under the bed?
Well around this time I discovered a use for fuses: sometime during our first night the two wires shorted and set alight to our mattress - nothing better than being awoken by the pungent aroma of burning foam rubber at two in the morning. After replacing the wires the next day (with a fuse of course) and stuffing a cushion in the hole in the mattress we had quite a comfortable next night –
well for an hour or so anyway, the drain from a 5” B&W TV coupled with a fluoro flattened the battery in short order, so we got to spend the rest of the night the old fashioned way: talking - how long since we’ve done that.
Car batteries don’t appreciate being run down to nothing and after being on charge for most of the next day, I found the battery was still only registering around 2 volts. Next day we pulled out our emergency light: A kero pressure lantern - where would we have been without these little gems? Perhaps the surrounding ground after lighting up would have been better off, but they did provide a nice ‘dull’ circle of light.
On this trip another Subaru quirk made itself evident: the windows, being frameless, rattled almost as much as the catalytic converter did - unless wound all the way up. Trips like this with your rear window to the sun also highlight the problem with single cab utes: sunburn on the back of
the neck and head. The Sube was also using oil, I don’t remember how much, but enough to concern me and make daily checks necessary. This was another reason why I decided to off load it not long after and before moving interstate again. A decade or so later I spoke to a few Forrester owners in QLD who informed me their Foresters also used oil, perhaps just another Subaru quirk???
On return from our shakedown trip, I added another small piece of aluminium extrusion to the existing tonneau support with a couple of screws and sealed it with a little silicon (about 30 tubes from memory), replaced the now donut shaped mattress, threw out the battery and wiring and we were ready for our longer excursion across the Nullarbor.
We set off across the Nullarbor from
Adelaide, down to
Esperance and made our way up to
Perth via
Albany, Bunbury and Mandurah. Returning to
Adelaide via Kalgoorlie,
Norseman, the Nullarbor, and the Eyre Peninsular. Had no problems, save for a cheeky Cockatoo at the
Esperance caravan park who tried to remove the rubber seal from the doors. A little over six weeks, this trip was one of the most enjoyable trips we’d ever done and endeared us to camper trailers for a good time afterwards.
We went on to another five campers after this original (1906) version, gradually improving to the stage where we had fridges, solar panels, Deep cycle batteries, generators, TVs and stereos. We moved down to a caravan then back up to a camper trailer again a few times; but, unfortunately a Cub Weekender, a youth spent thinking my body was indestructible and the years now intent on rushing at me have made my bones weary, and my fondness for this type of camper is now spent. We now subscribe to ‘easier’ enjoyments, an Avan Aliner…
I sold the trailer, the Subaru and the Lancer a little while later and bought a Vitara and a small caravan (which I very quickly dubbed the ‘Misery Package’) for our move interstate. Equally as quickly I got rid of that lot in favour of an absolutely marvellous on road Towtel camper trailer and a not so marvellous Hilux and bagan readying ourselves for the Gibb and other interesting
places with a Northern exposure., but that’s another story - what is yours?