Taking the T6 for a drive outback.

[GarryM]

Have to ask... who did your roof?? My OH is desperate for a raising roof with a skylight in it but can't seem to find any in the UK. Wondering i f it belongs to a brand we can maybe get over here too. Thanks.


By the way, loving your pictures. Australia would be like a dream holiday for me (if you could spiderproof everything, I have a bit of a phobia).

Hi Stewbys,

I purchased the roof from Cambee (who I believe do roof fittings) in UK and it is a SRA roof that they got in from Germany for me then shipped it together with one of their R & R beds to me in Australia where a friend and I fitted it. The “skylight” was a vent with an exhaust fan inside that can work either way, in or out depending on the day and installed after the roof fitted using power from one of the interior lights..

And on spiders, don’t believe everything you hear. They don’t eat much and never get in the van.

 

[GarryM]

Yesterday we went inland a bit and visited a place called Capricorn Caves. They have their own camping area and we stayed there and this morning did a cave explore, good fun. This afternoon we move further inland to Mt Morgan a gold mining town and stay there for a couple of days.

 

[GarryM]

Moved on from the caves inland to two mining areas, First Mt Morgan yesterday where they used to extracted gold both by underground then open cut for nearly a century. The open cut has now flooded. From there we moved on to Mt Hay where we are doing some fossicking for 'Thunder eggs' that come from an extinct volcano nearby. Going to do some scavenging when the temp cools down a bit later today. To hot and dry in the middle of the day.

 

[GarryM]

The sunset last night was a sight to see. Got up first thing this morning and did some fossicking in the old mine quarry nearby and found a few ‘thunder eggs’ which are small mineral deposits (mainly Agate and quartz) locked in the rock and spewed out from the volcanos some millions of years ago. The local mine manager cut a few in half for me. they are beautiful rocks that will polish up well. I have quite a few more that I have not cut but will take home for later. Tomorrow on back down to the coast to a small town called Tannum Sands for a few days.

 

[GarryM]

From inland fossicking we have moved back to the coast but another 300km south down the Queensland coast. We have stayed at the towns of Tannum Sands on the beach, through the port town of Gladstone through the city Bundaberg famous for its rum and then to Burnett Heads not far from there and will camp here for about three days. Weather has gone through wet and windy back to nice and warm. Mind you wet and windy but still 25 degree c is still nice. Camper is still running like a charm but coming due for its first 15000k service

 

[andys]

Hi @GarryM , can I ask how the roof tube is secured to your van and how much roughly it protrudes above roof height? It's a great idea I'd like to pinch as storage in a SWB is always tight and I'm looking at storage solutions that would fit inside the height/width limits of the van, up to now I'd only seen them fitted to roof racks. It would be very useful for rods etc but I'd have to find a way of mounting it so that it would stay at or below roofline like the awning I have on the other side so that I can keep my height barrier access

 

[GarryM]

Hi Andy,

My awning is a Thule and they did not appear to have any brackets that worked for the T6 so I made a set just using some square tubing and small squares of steel plate, bent at a similar shape of the roof lineon one side to fix the awning onto so that it did not foul the sliding door. I then made a second set for the other side the same shape and fixed them to the vehicle and then used 100mm PVC pipe and screw on pipe ends and the standard gutter down pipe clips to fix it to the bracket. I have actually fitted it a bit high as it is slightly higher than the roof line but does not need to be and could be adjusted to be lower. The bracket could also be a bit shorter in the body as it easily clears the driver side sliding door.

 

[andys]

Thanks Garry that's really useful, think I'll have a go at doing this

 

[GarryM]

View attachment 11557 View attachment 11558[/QUOTE]
Some suggestions, make the shaped to roof plate first then work out how long the neck of the fitting needs to be to clear the door if it is on the door side, (mine are a bit long) and attached the mounting surface on the end of the neck then attach that to the tubes base plate. After thats done then bolt or rivet onto the roof. I used a compression type nut and bolt that works in a similar fashion to a rivet. Even after over 1000km on rough corrugated dirt roads it held on just fine.

 

[GarryM]

Well we have finally given up the warmth of the north and headed south at a great rate, covering nearly 1500km in two days to get home this morning to snow, rain, ice.

A rude shock after a total of 9,000km of driving with only one item falling off, the rear side window put in by VW that fell out but did not break. Its been a great trip and now there are a few things I am going to alter/adjust to get the van perfect. They include raising the fridg up a bit higher in the kitchen bench and putting a draw under it, putting in a small cabinet in the passenger door area as an extension of the rear cabinets beside the bed and I have purchased a fly screen to fit the sliding door that I need to fit.

All minor adjustments to make it a bit more user friendly.

Oh and to just make it difficult, a ‘Masked Lapwing’ sometimes called a plover, has nested bang
inthe middle of the driveway and chicks (4) are not due out for another week so cannot get into the garage to access other cars till they hatch.

 

[Pauly]

Its been great following your story and seeing all the pics, one of the best threads here

 

[Oldrat]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us Garry, I've really enjoyed following your thread.
Top man.

 

[DaveyB]

Been awesome following the thread, never been to Aussie but now have all the memories without having to put up with all the bugs and things that are just raring to kill you.

 

[Bryn23]

Thanks for posting your trip Garry,

It was great to follow, i gotta pull my finger out and finish my camper,

As i really want to do another trip north now and go to Maggie Island and Cooktown.

Can't believe the window fell out, what is more crazy is that it didn't break.

Enjoy your rest, and looking forwards to the next trip report

 

[GarryM]

Thanks all for following our initial shake down trip. The next major trip is planned for February when we put it on the Ferry and head south off to Tasmania for a few weeks. Will have to watch out for the Tasmanian Tiger, Looking for that will definitely kill you..lol House sitter has also agreed to another four month stint for May. will have to work out a different trip in to the warmth for winter.

 

[andys]

Agree with what everyone has said, it's been like watching any Campervan owner's dream trip. Look forward to following your future adventures