Monday, Jul 25, 2011 at 20:56
Hi Wilko,
I have a Jayco Discovery 17.55.3 Double bed with shower
toilet in the OUTBACK model.
We graduated to this after taking our offroad camper all over Australia.
With a few easy mods and some careful driving to conditions you can go most of the
places that the big 3 tonne plus boys go.
After some very easy blacktop trips I was concerned with the number of plastic corner brackets that hold the furniture to the frame breaking and the short screws pulling out. I replaced these with aluminium angle held in place with multiple screws and construction adhesive. I used a fair bit of Liquid Nails and even if I could not fit the angle I filleted the glue to every angle joint and even used a plastic tube extension on the cartridge to get the glue in. This ensures that the different furniture pieces do not fret against each other when subjected to corrugations and twisting. The slight give in Liquid Nails [ or even better use Sixaflex] helps absorb the vibration.
I reinforced all the drawers by running thin model aeroplane super glue into all the drawer joints and bracing the bottoms with small square aluminium strips as
well as filleting some more with Liquid nails.
The draw runners are held in with only a few screws and these easily fall out. I used extra screws as
well as gluing the runners on. I also added extra hinges to the cupboard doors.After this the furniture was as solid as a
rock and these mods only took a day to complete.
Underneath the van there are a few things that you can do to protect the underpinnings. I fitted a full width mudflap to the chassis cross member underneath the front boot. This helps protect all the normally exposed pipes and wires underneath. The tank guards are flimsy and are easily dented with rocks and they do not protect the pipe fittings. This is easily fixed by gluing sections of old rubber backed carpet tile [using Liquid Nails again] to the front of the tank guards and extending the guard to protect the pipes.[ie full width]
I also gave the underneath of the van a heavy coating of thick black underbody coating as
well as doubling up on the sealing of all penetrations into the van.
Having done all that the van has survived some pretty rough treatment over some very corrugated and uneven roads including Gulf and desert tracks in recent months.
I have had some issue in getting the van to sit level behind the raised Landcruiser which have included raising the van tow hitch which was mounted to the bottom of the draw bar and raising the handbrake lever for better clearance. This will not be entirely addressed until I fit straight axles to replace the overlay models.
As my Discovery is very similar to your Destiny I hope these thoughts are helpful.
With sensible driving to the conditions your Destiny will go 90% of the
places the Gall Boys have traveled albeit with more care, less speed and dont forget your tyre pressures
I am situated in
Mudgee NSW and willing to talk if you so desire.
regards...Guy
AnswerID:
460921
Follow Up By: Wilko (Parkes NSW) - Monday, Jul 25, 2011 at 21:16
Monday, Jul 25, 2011 at 21:16
Thanks Guy,
Great ideas to make it stronger. I've heard that structurally the jayco's are sound but it was the smaller things like draws etc that can break. I've ad to do similar to my Cub camper
Cheers Wilko
FollowupID:
734607