Thread: preparing for the big lap

Originally Posted by orville

They light goes on when the continuity is cut so joining the wiring together turns the warning off.

I knew it was 1 way or the other, couldn't remember without going and having a closer look. Have edited my post to say so

Cheers Ean

Originally Posted by Ean Austral

You can bypass them if needed , 1 of mine broke on the Gibb River Road , from memory if you open the outer cover there are 2 thin wires , just separate them and tape them up joined together . it will take the warning message off the message centre on the dash.

Actually they are still like it , when I need to fit new pads I have new sensors that came with the pads so will get around to it then.

Cheers Ean

Take care when you unplug the old one. The wires are very thin and the plug is difficult to take off. My brother, a mechanic, looked over my shoulder and pulled the plug, broke it so I had to cable tie it!

I've got three kids and have done quite a bit of driving with them over the last 10 years, in Europe, Japan and Australia. If you have three kids and are going for a long drive and you have a caravan then I'd strongly suggest not fitting a drawer system so that you can have at least one kid in the third row. This means that everyone gets a window, has lots of leg-room and an air vent and no-one is touching elbows. Depending of course on the ages of the kids, in my experience having kids elbow to elbow for 1000s of ks leads to .... friction.

In our case since it is our youngest (now 10 years old) who usually ends up in the third row she got to test the third rows of the new cars that we were testing. (Actually, her favourite third row was in the Y62 Patrol, but I didn't like the potential fuel cost so that got nixed.)

I've had a look at putting drawers in half the area of the third row, and I've actually seen this done, but I can't see any way of doing it safely for the kid in the third row.

We've been camping a bit and have never needed any more space than what's in the D4, or our prior car, which was a CR-V. Coming from an ultralight bushwalking background I think that a lot of the gear being flogged in places like Rays or BCF is not only about 5 times bulkier and heavier than it needs to be, it's also comparatively expensive. Case in point, I couldn't find a "family" tent locally that I liked, so bought a North Face one from Campsaver for US$400. It weighs just 8kg and being based on a mountaineering dome tent is immeasurably stronger than most of the rubbish being sold in Australia. We were down at Wilsons Prom last year on a beach front site when a storm came in overnight - our tent was fine but the rest of the campground looked like a cyclone had been through.

Similarly, I'd query whether a lot of the stuff that people are kitting their cars out with is really necessary - the D3 is very capable out of the box and I'd suggest that it doesn't really need that much modification. And you have the caravan for carrying stuff in any case.

Edit: And if you have a caravan, why would you put an additional fridge in the car itself? I wouldn't've thought that was necessary.

Edit: And if you have a caravan, why would you put an additional fridge in the car itself? I wouldn't've thought that was necessary.

If you are restocking the fridge every 2-3 days and you don't require cold drinks or beers then a single fridge would probably be OK But Not ideal.
If you intend to camp for more than 2-3 days at a time you will need the extra refrigeration especially if you have Kids travelling with you.
Most caravan fridges are not that big with a tiny freezer compartment so an extra fridge can be used as a freezer so that you can stock it up at the major towns and save a heap of quids on meat and other freezer goods.
A lot of the 12v-240v fridges now also come with "Dual Zones" so that you can have a freezer section and a fridge section for your cool drinks/beers and are very handy to have especially if you are travelling with kids.

Originally Posted by BobD

If you are towing a caravan the car should be pretty well empty apart from the fridge. Why would you want drawers and a roof rack? As I said, you should cull everything that is not essential. Even then you will take far too much stuff!!

i want to carry my surf board and also the kids ones. i was thinking rails?

Originally Posted by Arapiles

I've got three kids and have done quite a bit of driving with them over the last 10 years, in Europe, Japan and Australia. If you have three kids and are going for a long drive and you have a caravan then I'd strongly suggest not fitting a drawer system so that you can have at least one kid in the third row. This means that everyone gets a window, has lots of leg-room and an air vent and no-one is touching elbows. Depending of course on the ages of the kids, in my experience having kids elbow to elbow for 1000s of ks leads to .... friction.

In our case since it is our youngest (now 10 years old) who usually ends up in the third row she got to test the third rows of the new cars that we were testing. (Actually, her favourite third row was in the Y62 Patrol, but I didn't like the potential fuel cost so that got nixed.)

I've had a look at putting drawers in half the area of the third row, and I've actually seen this done, but I can't see any way of doing it safely for the kid in the third row.

We've been camping a bit and have never needed any more space than what's in the D4, or our prior car, which was a CR-V. Coming from an ultralight bushwalking background I think that a lot of the gear being flogged in places like Rays or BCF is not only about 5 times bulkier and heavier than it needs to be, it's also comparatively expensive. Case in point, I couldn't find a "family" tent locally that I liked, so bought a North Face one from Campsaver for US$400. It weighs just 8kg and being based on a mountaineering dome tent is immeasurably stronger than most of the rubbish being sold in Australia. We were down at Wilsons Prom last year on a beach front site when a storm came in overnight - our tent was fine but the rest of the campground looked like a cyclone had been through.

Similarly, I'd query whether a lot of the stuff that people are kitting their cars out with is really necessary - the D3 is very capable out of the box and I'd suggest that it doesn't really need that much modification. And you have the caravan for carrying stuff in any case.

Edit: And if you have a caravan, why would you put an additional fridge in the car itself? I wouldn't've thought that was necessary.

we want to carry the fridge so we have extra room to stock up and are able o go out on day trips without van and still keep everything cold. also to store extra food prep. Draws i suppose i though just to keep the back organized, maybe sore tools, fishing gear etc.. i really hate chaos so was hoping to be as organized as i can lol (probably will fail ).

my kids will be 3, 7 and 8. so 2 car seats and eldest in middle. maybe having rear free could be an option but not sure if i can do it. i find the 2nd row in the D3 really spacious and i hope to keep the distances we drive each day to a minimum. On some days it will probably be unaviodable but if world war 3 breaks out in the back we will just stop lol

Gee, I'd hate to be the 8 year old, sandwiched between the 2 littlies in the back seat and not even be able to see out the side. Sounds like a great way to start a lot of arguements.
LuckyLes

I agree with your thinking to have the car setup for day trips without van, including a small/medium fridge. On a long trip you will inevitably strike wet weather and hot places so while you don’t need an awning, one can be very handy at times. A roof rack storage bag may be handy for extra stuff when travelling around away from van; packed flat when not required. Stackable storage containers beside a fridge slide may be worth looking at for the rear; to both avoid chaos but also be more flexible than a full drawer system, ie to leave some things in camp or even raise a 3rd row seat (if fridge slide is restricted to being over one seat only). A few people run a fridge slide inside a mesh cage to allow better packing above and beside.

Only you’ll know if the second row seating will work for your family. Have you done any long drives with all three sat in that way? Not driving huge distances in a given day will help.

Scott