All about the car

OK so here is a bit of info about the vehicle that will be making this adventure possible. It started life as a Telstra vehicle based in Campbelltown so it had all the right gear such as bull bar raised suspension etc but never really saw the serious outback pounding that these vehicle sometime receive.

We love camping but try to avoid camp grounds at all costs preferring instead to bush camp wherever possible. Also given that we will be in some remote parts of Australia for weeks at a time we needed a setup that allowed us to be self sufficient but also comfortable. This is what I cam up with.

 First step was to strip out all the Telstra shelving and equipment so I had a clean slate to work with.


Then after many hours of measuring, remeasuring, sketching, re-sketching and measuring again I was able to start work on the storage and drawer system. I used mostly 12mm which is very strong and light and perfect for this application. Once again Jo’s car gets evicted from the garage for a few weeks whilst construction is under way.

This was a big job and took a lot longer than I had planned but I was very happy with the result.

The Kitchen

Next step was to get the gourmet kitchen installed. From the outset the design brief for this car was to be able to pull up to at a camping spot and be completely setup and sitting down with a cold beer in my hand within 5 minutes. So everything was designed to fold out and pack away as quickly as possible, We currently have that down to about 7 minutes so not bad really.

The kitchen consists of two stainless steel burners and a utensil draw and fold out food prep area. Once again mostly ply construction sprayed with three coats of polyurethane but areas closest the burners have been laminated with aluminium sheet for improved wear and heat resistance.

I also added a fold out wind shield to help improve cooking times. These burners work great and I conducted some test and and since determined that they are actually more effective than our stove in the house.

Next was the drop down fridge slide this was necessary to make Jo happy, she saw one once at a camping show at it was love at first sight, I really didn't get a say in the matter.

Electrical Stuff

The car runs three batteries, two in the engine bay and one in the back to keep the fridge running. Being a complete gadget nerd I had to do a fair bit of work to get all the electrics up to speed for the additional bits and pieces I have added.

I also run a wieless OBD interface connected to an Android table for monitoring of the cars engine management system and also for navigation.

There's plenty more gadgets on board but I wont bore you any more with the details. Cant wait to see how it all goes.