The Blokey Stuff Part. 2

Ok, as promised, a few things that have made life a bit easier that I thought might help a few people out, 12 months behind us in their planning stage.

1. Pocket knife.

I love my pocket knife, I use it at least 10 times a day, on average. And don’t worry about having room in your pocket for it. Before we left I ALWAYS felt like my pockets were full, with my wallet, phone, keys, (and the oodles of cash I normally carry around) etc, but I haven’t seen my wallet for a few weeks, the keys never come out of the car and I haven’t seen my mobile phone since May.

2. Waeco in the car.

We just love the Waeco, but at $1200, and $250 for the slide, it was always going to be a big decision, so when a 2 yr old one with the cover AND slide came up on Gumtree for $600….. $600 very well spent. If we were to do it again though, we would pay the money for the MSA Drop Slide, using the fridge everyday climbing up into the back of the car does get pretty tedious

3. Outback Solutions Rear Drawer System

Again, at $2000 a pop, this was a looooong shot with the accountant. Infact, this was probably my biggest sell. I planted the seed as soon as we bought Peter Prado but Jess just wasn’t up for it, well she would argue that the drawers need to be in the essential kit list now. Again, $600 for an as new set on gumtree pushed us over the edge…. I reckon we would pay the $2000 now though awesome.

4. $40 12volt car charger for the Laptop

Found these on ebay, it is permanently plugged into the back of the car, we unplug the laptop when we arrive, use it all night, and plug it back in the next day, we drive, we arrive, fully charged laptop. I’m not sure if I even know where the proper 240V charger is anymore.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/60W-AP-60-DC-Adapter-Laptop-Car-Charger-For-Apple-Macbook-Pro-16-5V-/360662501072

5. $50 Pack of 2 spare Camera batteries and 12V charger.

Same as above, ebay Chinese special. With the original camera battery this gives us 3 batteries, one in the camera, one fully charged in the camera bag, and the last one permanently plugged into 12V plug on the dash of the car. Battery goes flat, it goes on charge, the charged one goes in the bag, the one in the bag goes in the camera, we drive, it charges.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2-Full-Code-Battery-Charger-EN-EL14-AU-Plug-for-Nikon-D3100-D5100-D5200-10814-/251300284347?pt=AU_Cameras_Photographic_Accessories&hash=item3a82aa07bb&_uhb=1

7. 12v chargers for the handheld UHFs

Again, allows us to stay charged with out 240v

6. The gas hot water system in the camper.

Almost every day we say “man I love that hot water system” sure we could boil a kettle, but hot water straight out the tap, in the middle of nowhere…. Cool.

Just for interest sake, the stuff we thought we might need but haven’t.

1. Genie (see above re. Solar panels)
2. Inverter (see above re. 12v chargers)

Look out for Blokey stuff Part. 3 coming soon….. Some truly enthralling statistics on roads, tyres, gear ratios, rpm and fuel economy/prices, wow! I don’t know about you but I can’t wait!