First Test Run

Off we went into the hills, towing this great weight behind us.

We decided to test out how the House on Wheels tows, so I thought it would be good to take it for a longish drive. We headed towards Riverglen Marina, between Murray Bridge and Wellington to show a previous Jayco camper trailer owner, my dad.

We made it up and down the hills, watching the petrol gauge go down faster than my bank account. It tows very well and didn't sway once.

I have decided if you want to be inconspicuous while driving along, don't buy anything new. Everyone we passed kept on giving us a second or third look. I was not sure if it was because something was wrong or they were probably thinking 'how could anyone afford the petrol bill, driving such a big car and towing a van as well?'.

We arrived at Riverglen and had a great lunch. Luckily we had some sunshine so I could dry out the inside of the house, as I now know what the flys that cover the bed ends are for. As it has been raining in Adelaide for the past few days, I had to pack the house up wet. When I opened it up an hour later all the water had fallen onto the beds, even though I had tarps over them.

No harm done. Lots to learn me thinks.

While at Riverglen we worked out that something was not quite right with the wiring as a fuse kept on blowing if we turned on all the lights in the van.

I contacted Jayco today and they said they could book me in on Sept 1st. I politely explained that we were going away before then and as it was a new purchase, I wanted it fixed yesterday. I was put through to someone in the Service Dept who explained to me that he thought that the 7.5 fuses were not the right ones and I should put in 10 fuses. Can't quite understand how you could get this wrong but will try it and see how it goes.

I shall take some pictures of our new house on wheels next time it is up.

The Bozwalds
Counting down the days. 12 days till lift off

The Big Test

We finally have it. I think it felt a lot longer than 4 days for everyone but last Thursday, 14th August 2008 I had the great pleasure of picking up our little purchase. It took a bit longer than I expected. I had to get electric brakes put on the Cruiser as this trailer on wheels weighs about 1000kg. Then I went to get a lesson from the Hand Over man at Australian Caravan Company on how to put the van up and down and where everything is etc. Very good service I thought, except it made me late for work.

Anyway I set it up in the driveway and the kids had fun playing in it.

It even rained for me, as you are supposed to wet the canvas twice to make sure it becomes waterproof.

Everything seemed to be working great until Mitchell turned on all the interior lights and they all went out

Oh well what do you expect when you pay a small fortune. A little bit more me thinks.

Till next time

The Bozwalds

Best to go shopping alone

Well I should have known better. I went to the Caravan and Camping show last Saturday with the family after work. As our two children have out grown the great camping beds we had, it was time to upgrade. What better time than at the mid year show.
Off we went and low and behold, we found two Ozzie-trail fold up beds at a great show price of $75.00 each instead of $120.00. We bought them and started to walk out of the show when I realized that there was another pavilion we had not seen yet.
To cut a long story short we walked in with our two camping beds and walked out with a brand new Jayco Camper Trailer. (oh yeah almost forgot, we still have the two new beds).

I call it a pop top but Jayco call it a camper trailer. Must be having a mid life crisis. I have decided to do our 6 week holiday in a bit of style and luxury instead of working up a sweat putting up the heavy duty tent on a trailer set-up we had. (It was great and served it's purpose)

Anyway this blog is intended to record our little trip so that family and friends can view what we have been doing on our great adventure. It will all depend on how motivated I am in updating it with photos etc.

The Bozwalds

Picture of type we got

Picture of the inside (Sweet)