After a year or so as a frequent site visitor, I'm now a brand-new member and looking forward to it !
I'll soon get my rig and other details up to date, but here's a potted summary:
My partner and I are lifelong
Wollongong denizens; she's in government, I'm in IT, and we're both occasional professional musicians. During my two score years and ten (in order to potentially increase my age I won't mention hers) many a mile/kilometre have been travelled to numerous
places in this great country, up 'til recently in 2WD vehicles, camping in tents. My enjoyment of this has gradually decreased with the increasing numbers of 'soft-roaders' at formerly fairly empty roads and
places, so a year ago we bought an (excellent) Adventure traytop camper and a '99 Hilux XtraCab 3L Tdi to put under it, as
well as recovery and emergency gear.
The Hilux proved underpowered and thirsty for its load and use, in addition to being too short and tail-heavy for the camper, so we recently traded it for a new Rodeo single cab C/C ute, at a ridiculously low price - way too low to be refused.
The Rodeo has a superb 3L Tdi donk which carries the camper effortlessly at highway speeds, using 10L/100km at full load and only slightly better unladen (~9.3L/100km). Its tray/body/cab dimensions are also much better suited to carrying a big heavy traytop camper - nice even weight distribution and a much lower tray height.
Unsurprisingly though, the Rodeo's 4wd capabilities are not ideal. Other than air bellows to help carry the camper's weight and vehicle-transferable items like seats and an under-bonnet air compressor, we haven't spent any money on modifications yet. Before improving its off-road capability we'll do a few trips to
test clearance, traction, and driveability in 4wd conditions, and if it proves capable enough to spend money on improving we'll do the usual permanent changes as we can afford them - better tyres;
suspension upgrade/lift;
snorkel; bigger fuel tank; diff lockers; bar/winch; chip; lock/water boxes and so on. we wish a new LandCruiser or similar 'serious' 4wd was within our budget, but if we can get this thing set up to be almost as capable it'll be at a price we can cope with (and probably use less fuel).
Getting 'out there' is our greatest pleasure in life, as I imagine it is with lots of you. We hope and look forward to sharing at least some of it with at least some of you in person, and at the very least swap yarns, experiences, and information via this excellent site.
Thanks for having us !
Nic and Michelle