Thread: The D4 is maturing like a fine red wine....

Originally Posted by Stornoway SA

Home safely. Not a single drama. Just too easy really. Even over 5000kms;

What a relief to be home in Brisbane without a single worry and a great family holiday - especially given some of the dramas (bush fires) happening as I type this!

For those interested, the final "numbers" were:

Distance: 5194km's
Fuel consumption: 13.4l/100 (towing and with a full roof basket etc)
Avge speed: 70km/hr

Brisbane-Dubbo (Big 4, great!) - Broken Hill (included a long stretch in 45 degree heat at 110km/hr and yes we did opt for the air cond. cabin in the caravan park) - Adelaide (Big 4 Marion - awesome) - Swan Hill (Big 4 a bit crowded!) - Canberra (great Canberra Tourist Park) - Sydney (Lane Cove Park - excellent)- Coffs - Yamba (wow!) - Brisbane.

The Coromal F400 series hire pop top was brilliant; I also was pleased to see the (Brisbane dealer fitted) electric brake controller (redarc remote head) worked perfectly (yes, the van was fiited with electric brakes!) as did the lights (including the dash flashing green trailer icon).

Dual battery kit (Traxide) and ARB fridge - all perfect, despite 45 degree heat at times!

GG tyres (19's) puncture free.

Whole family looking forward to next trip at Easter - up to Airlie Beach via Yeppoon. This time with an Air conditioned!! 21 foot Jayco Sterling (triple bunk) Hire Van (expandyahorizons in Brissie).

Saw a few nice D4's on the way - including a nice white one with bull bar etc here in Brisbane as I dropped the van back on Monday, but mainly Prado's and Lc200....I bet they weren't as comfortable as we were!

cheers from a very, very happy D4 owner!!!! (and can I say again, 600nm of torque is a VERY good thing!!!!!!)

Hi Stornoway,

I will be installing a few mods on D4. Did you mount the ARB fridge on sliders or tie down? If on sliders where did you bolt to? Any photos would be great.

Thanks

Ah yes, the fridge dilemma. I own an ORE full drawer system with ORE fridge slide which we would normally use - so solves the problem. This time we didnt want the drawers in (as we wanted to use the 6th seat occasionally while away) so we simply tied the fridge to the two lhs tie down points and given the cargo barrier was in place we thought that was pretty good - albeit we had to "lean in" to extract stuff. The wife reminded me that she spent years travelling around the outback in her Dad's 60 series LC in the 1980's with the Engel on the back seat and no cargo barrier - so we have vastly improved safetly levels!

I want to build a floor that allows one seat to be up and the fridge permanently in place on a slide.....but I havent got there yet!

Originally Posted by Stornoway SA

Ah yes, the fridge dilemma. I own an ORE full drawer system with ORE fridge slide which we would normally use - so solves the problem. This time we didnt want the drawers in (as we wanted to use the 6th seat occasionally while away) so we simply tied the fridge to the two lhs tie down points and given the cargo barrier was in place we thought that was pretty good - albeit we had to "lean in" to extract stuff. The wife reminded me that she spent years travelling around the outback in her Dad's 60 series LC in the 1980's with the Engel on the back seat and no cargo barrier - so we have vastly improved safetly levels!

I want to build a floor that allows one seat to be up and the fridge permanently in place on a slide.....but I havent got there yet!

Thanks for the fast response. I was looking at trying to shoehorn the ARB behind the third row seating or attaching a slide to the floor with one seat down (maybe with the ability to remove the slide easily if the 7th seat was needed). Having a fridge in the vehicle all the time is very handy. Thanks again.

My Waeco is almost always in the vehicle strapped to the 2 left tie-downs. Never having had a slide perhaps I don't know what I'm missing but access over the lower tailgate is the norm with occasionally having to lower the tailgate and climb up to have a deeper look. The fridge would be higher on a slide and therefore harder to see into which could mean that the tailgate must be opened more often. Anyway that's my excuse for not spending the money on a slide then having to remove it on those occasions when I need all the space.

Robbotd5, u r correct - should have hung onto the old D3 and could have afforded a van now...sigh....will keep saving (and will promise to stop looking at Bushtrackers, Kedrons and Track Masters.....oooo they look nicceeee ) and will stick with looking at something within budget

I have a Bushmans on an ORS slide mounted to a customer floor plate - bolts into the tie points and works a treat!

Will try and grab a picture and post it up for anyone that is interested.

Ozad4x4, assume you can't use one of the rear seats?

Correct - 6 seater only when the fridge is in..

Originally Posted by Stornoway SA

Ozad4x4, assume you can't use one of the rear seats?