Tips and Tricks

General tips, tricks and ideas

Zip Lock Bags

Use double zip lock sandwich bags for storing meat items in your car fridge. Mark expiry dates any other info such as frozen and defrost dates on the bag with permanent marker. We still store the zip lock bags inside a plastic shopping bag for easy handling but the amount of room saved in the fridge is great. The only improvement would be a cryovac. This would mean carrying a cryovac machine and currently we do not have the room for that. We might look further into this when we have a bit more space in a caravan.

Cans not stubbies

Packing beer in a car fridge? Cans stack, less wasted space, they don't click when you hit a bump in the road and if you do break one, it is easier to clean up without glass everywhere. We avoid glass bottles and jars whenever possible.

Trailer towing tips

We are doing a LOT of kilometres towing trailers. The two-hunj is only 4 months old and already passed 19,000kms on the clock, nearly all of which is towing the camper trailer. For now it is just the camper trailer but soon, hopefully,  it will be a caravan. Here are some things that we do to help look after our car and trailer when on the road. So far, due to the time of year we haven't hit hot weather, but remember, when travelling in Australia that almost anywhere can reach in excess of 40 degree Celsius and a lot of places in the outback can hit and exceed 50 degrees Celsius at times. Road temperatures in these extreme conditions will destroy tyres and bearings fast, can boil radiators and batteries, cook engines and really ruin a trip, not to mention, be potentially deadly if you do break down and get stranded. Plan any remote area travel carefully. I worked on a remote Pilbara railway for 7 years and know how hot and unforgiving the outback can be on cars. 

Infrared temp gun

I use it all the time for keeping a close eye on wheel bearings, shock absorbers and that type of thing. it is a really good indicator if there is a slight problem. I only have a cheap one, I think I paid $40 for it on sale at an auto store. It works really well.

The trailer bearings on the cooler side of an optimal running temperature. 

Rock protecting your vehicle and trailer

The problem: I went and bought some Rock Tamers. The American brand mudflaps designed to "protect what you tow". I thought this would be a good investment as I was concerned about stones hitting the trailer and bouncing back at the brand new car. I should of been more careful...
I installed the rock tamers too far off the rear bumper as I wanted it to be far enough away from the hot exhaust. (The 2017 200 series Landcruiser TTD has a diesel particulate filter which makes the exhaust run extremely hot.) With the rock tamers sitting about 100mm off the rear bumper I had no idea how many stones would hit the rock tamers then fly straight into the back of the car. This has lead to a significant amount of stone chip damage to the rear bumper as well as to lower section of the rear tailgate. 

Solution: Well, solution is an overstatement. I have readjusted the rock tamers so they now sit far closer to the rear bumper (40mm) and there is only about 5-10mm of clearance when the tailgate is lowered but it seems to be working ok. I also angled the rock tamers back more then previously. They would now probably be at about a 15-20degree angle to help any stones that do hit them defect down to the road and not up at the car. The rear bumper will still be copping it a bit, hopefully not as bad as before but I think the tailgate should be safe now.

The rear bumper and tailgate will probably need a re-spray one day. Another solution would be to upgrade the rear bumper to a rear bar with tyre carrier. This may impact the towing capacity and would render the $1000 tow kit from Toyota a waste of money. 

Wheel bearing seals

When doing your trailer maintenance, if you need to re-grease or replace you wheel bearings don't re-use the seal if you have to remove it from the hub. When it comes to replacing the seal, don't use an all rubber one like most of the cheap auto shops have on the shelf. Go to a decent parts shop and talk to the people at the parts counter and ask for the seal for the type of hub you require (Ford or Holden hub) and get an aluminium one. The rubber ones might be ok if you have all the proper tools in a workshop to press them in evenly but this is very difficult to do reliably on the side of the road with a hammer and a piece of wood (literally what I used). The aluminium ones seem to be much easier to install. I paid $8 each for two aluminium seals and most places sell the "cheap" rubber ones for $9 each. Lesson leaned for this rookie want-to-be mechanic.

An image of a rubber style seal. I found them more difficult to get in to the hub without damaging them.

An aluminium style seal. I found these much easier to get in the hub. Unfortunately they don't come in the standard cheap bearing kits you get at most of the parts stores. You have to track them down.