OK what worked and what didn't part 2.
Composting toilet (Natures Head):
- Worked a treat, I would never go back to the black tanks, porta pottie or cassette toilets.
- We use peat moss generally and I left with a fresh fill in the toilet but no spare. I did try to get more up north but it was "out of season".
- Eventually had to use pine shavings which did not work well especially in the very humid/wet conditions.
- Finally found a pet store with Coir for reptiles.
- Our toilet is in the wet bath area. Never any issues with shower leaking into toilet.
- We have the spider handle on our toilet. It is a bit of a PITA in the confined area.
Changes
- Swapping across to coconut coir bricks so I can carry spares.
- Natures head now have a "shifter handle" so I will be installing that retro kit when it becomes available.
Cooking:
- Induction cooktop on an external power outlet was the primary device for cooking.
- A small George Foreman grill also on the external outlet when fire bans or weather restricted other types of cooking.
- Skottle was the primary gas cooking source. Works great for breakfast lunch or dinner.
- Snow Peak fire pit. Fantastic bit of kit (when there are no fire bans). This is my favorite cooking source. On this trip both the weather, fire restrictions and bears did limit the use. But I did use it whenever time and conditions allowed.
- Iron skillet, works with everything, firepit, induction cooktop, partner stove. Better than any of those non stick pans. Worth the weight penality.
- Bedourie camp oven. Only minor use on this trip so no other comments apart from it is my choice rather than cast iron or a potjie.
- Microwave. Made a good vegetable/bread storage area. I did use it a couple of times to heat frozen burritos but that was just out a the necessity to get food into me in a hurry.
- Dometic ice maker. Bloody life saver on the way up in the middle of summer. Also great for smoothies. I did have an issue with it creating too much heat to make/keep ice in the position I have it at the moment. it is too close to the solar regulator.
- Bullet blender. Smoothies in the middle of nowhere. What else needs to be said.
Changes
- Microwave will be coming out and probably replaced with a glamping special oven if my power consumption tests work out OK. This will be a separate thread as I think it will be a game changer for full time/ long term living.
- Ice machine will probably stay in the same location but the solar regulator will be getting moved outside the living envelope.
Access:
This one proved to be critical. On my way up there I hoped out of the cab at a rest area and stepped on a bottle spraining my ankle rather badly. Because I was in isolation/quarantine onsite for the first couple of weeks I could not get treatment or suitable first aid supplies. Taking time off for it to heal was not an option so luckily I had a roll of duct tape to strap it up with.
- Little giant steps worked extremely well. Only issue was that they also worked well on the jobsite so a lot of "big climb in and jump back out" was required. This did result in quite a few swear words and wet eyes.
- Chain steps into truck cab. Worked great, actually worked magnificently. Only problem was being a lazy bugger I had only installed them on the passengers side. It took me 6 weeks to get the materials to install one on the drivers side. Prior to the installation there was a lot of swear words uttered usually directed at the lazy bugger who didn't install them on both sides when he had all the facilities available. In Australian this is called a "give yourself an uppercut" moment.
Changes:
- I don't think many any of us ever stop searching for the holy grail of easy to deploy, easy to store, reliable access that doesn't affect our ground clearance. Since our truck has rear air suspension the rear always lowers about 5" overnight. Couple this with me being a fat bugger and you have a situation that makes stairs that mount to the vehicle problematic. So the Little Giant steps will stay for now. However there is a Youtube channel called Ambition Strikes who are doing a camper build. I do like the way they have used the lid for their steps box as the quick access stair (
Building Our Expedition Vehicle E6 - Hidden Staircase).
- Combat boots. Luckily after a couple of weeks I could get to a CANEX and grabbed a set of combat boots. The level of support is fantastic. I could not of completed the assignment without them.
