I'm the very fortunate owner of possibly the most super fly van known to mankind. (well, except for this one: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230542966486#descr)
1980 Toyota Hiace. Absolute Gem. She's been around for more than a few years, but still has lots left to go as she only has 128k on the clock with the original engine. Changed all the belts, plugs, fluids, oils etc. and didn't find any problems. Changed the brake pads just as a precaution, but even they still looked pretty good.
Pretty standard pop-top camper setup with fridge (runs on 12V, 240V and gas), stove and a few sweet seats that fold into the bed. Got a couple of batteries so when you're parked up you can run the stereo (got a couple of speakers in the living area, obviously) and a few of the lights off the second battery. Also plugs into a 240V wall socket via extension cord to power bigger gear and recharge the battery. Dad's got mad sparky skills so he got in and sorted it all out so the wiring's all tight as a tiger and it pretty much just runs itself all day long.
Internally it was missing a table so I grabbed a table leg from a camping store and knocked up and varnished a nice little wooden table top. Looks pretty rustic, but does the job. The bed's surprisingly comfortable and with the roof up I've got plenty enough head room. So far I've only done one trip to Lancelin and camped in the backyard, so haven't really had a go at really cooking and cleaning in there on a fulltime basis, but so far its ticking all the boxes.
Fitted a safe and a mounting for a spare gas tank. Also threw in and mounted a couple of chairs and a sweet little folding camp table ($20!! Can't make it for that!). Plus added an annexe so when I'm chilling after a surf watching the sun go down over the beach I've got plenty of shade so I don't get burnt by those late evening UV rays.
So basically I couldn't be more happy if I tried. Picked her up for a good price, runs well, looks sexy as all hell (by my standards) and should be good for some ridiculous ad-van-tures. The only issue now is that she's currently nameless. I'm assuming she'll find a great moniker along the way, but for now any suggestions are more than welcome.
Peace
Friday, December 24, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
the list
1. Drive the whole way around Australia in a van
2. Help someone build a house
3.Grow a beard
3.
4. Approach the most beautiful girl i’ve ever seen and ask her on a date
5. Learn to play the ukelele
6. Howl at the top of my lungs at a full moon
7. Donate blood
8. Go at least 2 days without seeing another person
9. Be in a protest. A big one.
11. Ride a horse
12. Sleep in the desert under the stars
13. Hitchhike
14. Work at a pub
15. Learn the difference between a good and a bad glass of wine
16. Fire a gun
18. Learn to surf half as good as i can bodyboard (won’t be hard)
19. Surf in every state
20. Eat 10 new foods
21. Swim to an island
22. Get a top 10 score on any round of buck hunter
23. Tune into at least 20 Triple J frequencies
25. 2 weeks without shoes
26. The naked man
27. Buy a block of each state’s ‘signature’ beer
28. Win a jackpot of at least 5 bucks at the pokies
29.Fly in a helicopter*
30.Meet someone famous*
31. Find a perfect, secret beach not marked on any map29.
30.
32. Listen to every song on my ipod from A-Z
Got any suggestions? Let me know
*added after they already happened. But I make the rules here, so I say its fine.
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