Best Landcruiser ad i,ve ever seen.. I towed a 20 ft van for 23,000 k,s offroad a lot with a 23 year old 90 series diesel prado, no probs at all.. Total rig value $55k ish, Your trucks are too wide for a flat top recovery, too expensive, prone to breakdowns and not everyone can wait 2 weeks for parts. Good luck..

This is going to sound harsh but I don't mean to be. Before welding metal that has been painted get all the paint off. Especially if you aren't practiced with welding. On critical work such as in this video use fresh/new GPS rods or cook the ones you have at 120-150 for at least 1 hour. You will be surprised how much moisture they can hold. Moisture makes it hard to get started and more importantly during the welding process hydrogen gets fussed into the metal making it extremely brittle. Which is probably why the first repair failed. And if you are going to continue to do welding get some proper lessons and lots of practice. Honestly you will be thanking me after. One last thing that bracing under the A frame draw bars is to prevent flexing which in turn prevents brittle fatigue which is what causes draw bars to crack and fail. When it comes to engineering there is a good reason for everything if done correctly.

Raptor paint it all it’ll look like new forever do it once do it right

hi guys. loving the videos. loving the building and caravan reno content, too. Just wondering have you spoken to your mate "who use to build caravans" @nowornever? to get some advice on the reno 😀

Grant there is a really great product for cleaning alloy tool ones called Salty captain aluminium cleaner but you have probably finished Reno by now cheers love your content

Good luck with the caravan renovations/repairs. Going to be an interesting set of videos coming up. Just on the chines. These are a very important strength addition to your A frame. They provide additional resistance to bending stress of the A frame. They are simple and a weight saving compared to increasing A frame section dimensions. You need to view the chines as a fuse. If they are broken, this indicates the A frame has been subjected to significant bending stresses. Overloading A frames with tool boxes, bike carriers, wood storage etc, plus the dynamic forces of just towing the vehicle can lead to the chines breaking through the repeated stress applied. Many kilometers of driving on heavily corrugated roads tests your caravan’s integrity. Butt welding steel that is under high tension forces needs to be done professionally as you have done. Sorry for the rant but just don’t want you having an unwanted issue on your travels.

Awesome video guys and check out that list who needs a spreadsheet when you can make your own check list 😉 keep up the awesome work guys can’t wait for the future upgrade videos

Love your work, these things need to be done, old is always better your van will out last a lot of new one I reckon.

you can get a acid to clean aluminium , spray on hose off.

For the aluminium use purple magic with carpet pieces as a polishing cloth

Use a w40v drill for wire wheeling, higher rpm way better results

Great vid guy's. Van will come up a treat. Thought you might have said you used to build caravans the same as Alex from Now or Never.😂😂😂😂.

Awesome guys. Love the casual approach no need to stress about this stuff i say. Keep on keeping on.

Guys, you do feel the airflow / wind towing a big caravan with these american trucks. Especially with a roadtrain driving towards you. We had a RAM towing a 21ft caravan, so this is from experience.

Looks like you’re having fun with the house renos 👍. It’ll all be worth it in the end when you’re back on the road. Should we ask if Paul now doesn’t have a hot water cover on his bush tracker? 🤣 Keep up the good work.

Gidday Grant & Beanca, like your videos travelling with the boys. I see you have done a few upgrades on your Bushtracker. We have an older model Bushtracker and upgraded from our original 3 AGM batteries to an Enerdrive system with 2 X 200 amp Enerdrive B-tec batteries 3 yrs ago and it worked fine being mindful of power consumption. We were advised not to run our AC as to the high current draw on both batteries. We have recently upgraded our system again and fitted 2 X Power Paul 300 amp batteries with a smaller foot print than the 200 B-tec. These batteries work out cheaper than Enerdrive & are made in Victoria and come with a test certificate with a guaranteed rated output. One of these Batteries are capable of running of AC and any of our AC loads without issue. Do your research on batteries, there is a lot of smoke & mirrors as far as various brands of Lithium batteries specifications. The Power Paul batteries also run a lot cooler when under high discharge loads. They are definitely worth considering with the electrical loads you intend running in your van We have added 3 more solar panels on the roof to cater for the higher capacity batteries recharging. Power Paul batteries are available in 4 current outputs. We are currently travelling in our van and trialling co habituating with our 2 fir babies a Blue Cattle & a Cattle/Kelpie. Anyway look forward to your future travels. cheers Jeff & Sharyn

water blast gets rid of the dirt

clean it up with wire wheel rather than grinder

i would remove that bar and weld a piece of 50x50 box flat to the bottom of the other piece of box. much stronger ,if therod breaks from new it will break much easier when repaired

Wire brush and a bit of rust converter then follow up with some cold gal paint.

You won’t regret the OGO. I recently put one in our van and it’s awesome.

OH MY LIL HEART!!! What happened to the “luscious Locks” Ohhhhhhh Nooooo hehehe

You might have the portable solar controller already sorted but if not what I did was install two identical DCDC chargers. One is dedicated to the rooftop solar panels. The second one charges from the Anderson plug on the truck when moving as well as the portable panels when stopped The advantage of going tis way is that having two the same gives you a spare if one fails when remote. Having two means that when driving you get charge from the roof solar as well as the truck. This can double your charge rate. Having a seperate solar controller for the portable panels means that it doesn’t matter if the portable panels are a different voltage to the roof panels you will get the maximum power that they can deliver. I have a 2010 BT. I reused some existing cable that ran from the batteries to the drawbar for my DCDC charger. I suspect the factory installed it to run a fridge in the back of the tow vehicle from the van batteries. The wire gauge was a little small but it would still charge the van battery at 50 amps. The problem it did cause though was that the voltage rise on the earth return cable caused the Towpro brake controller to go into an error state. It took me quite a while to work out what the problem was. Heavier cable fixed the problem. Picking up a used HWS cover is a good think. They are stupidly expensive new - even the crappy little plastic latch is expensive. I’ve painted mine with white heat proof paint a couple of times.

Leave as much galvanising on it as you can , galvanising was done better 20 years ago than today's stuff and paint over it , marine aluminium acid cleaner wash for boats is great for cleaning Ali and removing the black shit out off the metal then apply an Ali pollish and buff your heart out will come up shiny beautiful

Wire wheel the parts then use lpg gas torch to warm metal and go buy some Comwell galvanising bars (cig)and galvanise it properly. When it molten wire brush it to adhere and smooth the raw galv.

Not sure if you’re aware & I’m not 100% familiar with the new ADR laws. I recently saw a Farcebook Advert for some engineering firm about the new ADR laws on trailer draw bars? Basically as I read the advert it was saying that you can no longer legally design, build, modify, repair etc any trailer draw bar in Australia, without having the design, construction overseen & certified by a qualified engineer. Essentially it means that only those large businesses with an engineer on staff can import or build new or repair trailers with draw bars that their engineer can certify the design & materials and construction method. The laws appear to be designed mostly to prevent imported light trailers from China made from Chinesium steel that’s glued together with a bowl of rice water from being imported & licensed for Aussie roads, but the unintended consequences MIGHT mean that your welding repairs etc are actually illegal & require engineers certification & the trailer require re-licensing etc. Speak with someone in the industry much more qualified than me, to find out the details / nitty gritty of exactly what all this is about to cover your butt in my suggestion. You don’t want anyone sending this video link to Dept Transport Inspectors & end up with your van defected and unregistered & unable to be re-licensed without the requisite engineering certifications. Just a heads up.

Hey guys, love your content, just from my experience and height, The OGO is smaller in height and quantities than the Natures Head option, do your research And fyi Installation is a breeze

Good to hear people choosing to keep their old van. Too many characters spending too much money getting new vans.

If you have rust it is already at bare metal Aluclean will bring the toolbox will come up like new.

Just get some salty captain aluminium cleaner works a treat

If there is rust then there is no galvanising left. I suggest remove the rust then paint with a zinc rish paint to help prevent the rust returning. There is a dulux product called bright zinc I think that is pretty tough. I used it on my draw bar.

G'day guy's looks like ya traveling well health wise ,go the low shave mate looks better om N you, black hammer finish on A-frame and bits n Bob's, legs would look update, go hard or go home i say a nice facelift orsme. Lookin forward to see how its going to be. Please please don't be"ALEX" and tell us you used to build caravans loloooo😂😆😆😅 Look forward to seeing you in action, good luck.

I have a BT about the same age. The best fix for chine is to use angle instead of the current round chine. Much stronger. It's bound to break again on the back of the stiff truck.

Hey guys great start. As mentioned in other comments you will need to paint the a bar now. Grant when our new van arrives you can have a play with the Airbags 😂🤣 Excited to hear you are heading back on the road.

Just a quick paint you’ve taken the coating off the draw bar and tool box so for protection and looks you will be happier

Cold gal paints the go. We do our every year.

What about paint how would the chequer plate look black

Cool

Galvanised metal is galvanised metal, right through the material mate , clean it up as much as like and but cold gal paint with a spray gun . Wagner spray guns are the best for paint scrappers mate . Penetration is important !

Can't wait to see you back on the road it's about time. If you've got the right licences there is tons of work out there

So far this is a gr8 series

Hope to see you take out the old loo 🚻 and replace with new

Very excited to see all this guys.. Especially the toilet love those Ogos

Great job Grant careful not to wire wheel the gal off. Don't wire wheel the aluminium just polish. Use gal paint on the drawbar. If you don't know stuff ask Alex did you know Alex used to build caravans lol

after cleaning off all rust use gal paint to paint a frame

Grant. Absolutely NEVER argue with the barber BEFORE the haircut 😂😂😂. Great work on the van, guys 😊

Rust converter and cold gal will protect the draw bar

Sounds like you need to hire.. Mr I used to build caravans

Hi guys, good work. But with the chequer plate aluminium. Just acid wash it it will come up bright like new alluminum with very little work. If you do that don't worry about anything underneath the area until you've done it. This is sort of in my realm of experience as a metal worker. If you want to ask me a question, no problems. Cheers Bill D.

Hey Grant id be painting the draw bar as it's going to rust on you now ,it's looks like the wire brush has removed the galvanise . All the with the reno Mate.