Vehicle Updates

Update #3 - Caravan Diesel Heater and other bits and pieces

There is something a wife generally should not do, and this is to give her husband a leave pass to visit the annual caravan and camping show. Her parting words were, "Don't come home with a new van". True to my word, I didn't. I didn't even come home with a second-hand van. Being a dutiful husband, I was aware that she has the ability to feel cold whenever the temperature falls below about 20°C. With this in mind, I came home with (or at least ordered) a Webasto Diesel Heater to be fitted to the van.

The magic little devices are about the size of a loaf of bread and deliver somewhere around 2kW of heat with zero odour, minimal diesel use (500 - 750ml per night is our experience to date) and only need a small amount of battery power for running the fan. Perfect for cold nights in the bush away from mains power. Our friends Mike and Julie having been singing the praises of their heater for about a year. As the general rule, the diesel tank is screwed to the exterior back wall of the caravan; something that didn't impress either your humble scribe, not Peter who also succumbed to the temptation of a warm van. As Mike had already made his own mounting bracket (so that the tank mounted on the van's rear bumper), he very kindly offered to make one each for Peter and me.

Mike surveying the new custom-made heater tank bracket.

This has really worked out well and certainly beats the installer's method of just bolting it onto the van's skin.  Thanks, Mike!!

After the hassle of jacking the van up after the tyre blowout in Victoria last year, I've purchased a Trail-A-Mate. This is a hydraulic-powered combined jockey wheel and caravan jack with a far higher lift than my bottle jack. The only downside is that it's quite heavy, and there's no room for it in the caravan's front boot. Consequently, I've modified the luggage area in the back of the 'Cruiser to store it securely while we're under way. A piece of 6" PVC waterpipe did the job to perfection, with a slot cut to hold the actual wheel.

This is looking rather bare compared to when we actually get under way.

A few other updates, repairs, etc since our last trip have been:-

*    Two new 120AHr deep cycle AGM batteries.  At 30kgs each, just moving them into position is a workout!

*    Replaced all the interior lights (a mix of incandescent, fluoro and Halogen bulbs) with LEDs giving a decrease in drain of about 90%

*    Replaced the second 60lt fresh water tank under the van due to the outlet spigot either being hit by a rock or just failing from old age.

*    While the rear outside skin of the van was being replaced due to a water leak (fortunately covered by insurance), we had the tail and running lights replaced with high visibility LED units.

It's now getting to the stage where we have replaced so many things that we have a nearly new, 13 year old caravan!

Update #2 - Vehicle Diagnostics Display (and DIY el-cheapo phone holder)

When a manufacturer designs a car's interior these days, I suspect that a marketing or design 'droid gets to choose what information is displayed to the driver, and in what form (dials, idiot lights, bells, etc).  While some folks are only interested in essential information like speed and fuel quantity, others (there are always others...) want MORE!  With computerisation of engine management systems being almost the norm, a great quantity of data is available to the computer (or computers) that run most modern cars.  Just because you only see a few dials like the speedometer, fuel and temperature gauges doesn't mean that there isn't a lot more information hiding behind the dashboard.

Of course the obvious question is, "How Do I Get At It?"

Just about any vehicle manufactured since the late 1990s has a plug that allows appropriate computer hardware to diagnose computer-based engine (and some electrical) problems.  The current implementation of the system is called OBD-II and is a known standard across major manufacturers.  Generally, car makers would prefer that you didn't have access to this data.  This is so that they can charge more just to have their diagnostics machine tell them what's wrong with your car.  With the advent of higher-powered smartphones that are actually miniature computers, this has now become much easier for Fred or Freda Car-Owner to access the data.

A 'dongle' was purchased (from Hong Kong) that reads the data in real time from the diagnostic's port, and then broadcasts it over a Blue-tooth link.  My phone links to the Blue-tooth dongle and a software 'app' displays the information in whatever form I want it.  It's like having an extra set of instruments.  In fact in the case of the 'app' I use, seven extra sets of instruments as there is room for 6 dials per page, and there are seven pages available.

While I'm still experimenting, here's a quick glimpse of the two pages I normally have displayed. 

(Two quick disclaimers - They're not great photos, and I'm really sorry I wore a check shirt!)

This page shows coolant temp (deg C), intake air temp (deg C), timing advance (degs), engine load (%), air flow mass (gms/sec), and instantaneous fuel flow (cc/min).

This one shows transmission temp (deg C), coolant temp (deg C), volts (v), vacuum or boost (in/Hg - Yes, sorry, I know I'm a dinosaur) and throttle setting (%).

All these dials can be shown as needles (as in coolant or throttle, above), meters (transmission temp, volts), digital readout or as a graph against time.  The displays are totally customisable with regard to selection, placement, display type, etc.  The type of data is only restricted to the data that your car's computer system measures.  The 'app' can also check your speedo reading against the smartphone's GPS version of your speed.

Is there a downside? 

1    Power / battery life.  Based on my experiments with two Android smartphones (an HTC Desire and a Samsung Galaxy Nexus), running Blue-tooth, GPS, audio player, 3G data and mobile phone services simultaneously means it's essential to have external power supplied to the phone, otherwise your OBD data filled information Nirvana will last about 10~15 minutes before the phone's battery quits.  This is not necessarily the fault of the application but that smartphones running all these services chew power like crazy.

2    The software is called 'Torque' (Google App Shop) but is only available for Android phones, so all you Win Mobile and iPhone users, here's a good reason to switch to Android!  :-))

3    You can get yourself into a tizz by worrying about some of the information that's displayed or calculated.  For instance while pulling the van up a steep hill recently, I was watching (with due regard for road safety, of course) the instantaneous fuel consumption as it hit 500cc/min.  Think about that... That's HALF A LITRE PER MINUTE!  I worried about that all the way to the next fuel stop.  As a friend recently said to me, there always a case for "too much information".  :-)

Oh, and the phone holder mentioned in the header?  You can just see it as the black objects just on the top and bottom of the phone in the pics above (or in better detail and without the phone below).  After being offered a 'Universal' hands-free phone holder for my new Galaxy Nexus by Mr Telstra for a mere $49.95, I made my own from a 3" Bulldog clip, some black electrician's tape, two thick rubber bands and the application of a bit of force from a couple of pairs of pliers to get the angles right.  It clips onto the air vent at a convenient height, and has yet to fail or drop the phone despite some rather harsh corrugations and alarming off-road excursions during this trip.  :-)

Yet another vehicle accessory sourced from OfficeWorks.

The Ross Custom Phone Holder Mk Ia Prototype.  Orders taken.

Update #1- Rear Vision System

One of the things that has been a bit of a concern is the lack of decent rear vision when (a) towing the caravan, and (b) reversing the Beast in supermarket carparks and when hitching up the caravan.  While we have extended mirrors on the Cruiser, it still doesn't help when small cars and motorbikes sit right in behind the caravan ("If you can't see my mirrors, I can't see you").  Likewise, I'm always very concerned about backing when there could be kids around as there's no way you can see anyone under about a metre high if they're behind the Cruiser (as in shopping centre carparks).  The third area is when I'm "helped" to hitch up the caravan to the 4WD.  There is the occasional lack of communication between helper and helpee when hitching up, so anything that gets around this can only be beneficial to both parties. (I'm saying no more than this as I wish to stay healthy.  :-))

Consequently, I decided that a camera on the back of the caravan would solve (a), while one on the back of the 4WD would solve (b).

After a bit of research, I came up with what I thought was a reasonable system that is made to take 2 video inputs via a 6" screen.  It came with a screen, 2 cameras, seemingly miles of cable, connectors, nuts, bolts, etc. and of course, no instructions.  Friend Peter foolishly offered to help with the installation, so we managed to get most of the 4WD cables and its camera fitted in a longish day having removed and replaced most of the interior panels.  After a rather full day, I returned home with the camera on the 4WD and most of the wiring installed.  The next day I pulled part of the dash to pieces and fitted the screen and the remainder of the wiring. 

After consultation with my caravan servicing guy, I then fitted and wired the camera into the back of the caravan.

Note: There are no pictures of the work in progress as this was not generally a pretty sight!

Location of camera and cable connection for van camera.

Screen located on a RAM mount.  This can be easily switched from car to van camera and back again.

Connection cable for the camera on the back of the van.

Camera on the back of the caravan, complete with sun shade.