In the same way as we customise our tow vehicles to suit individual requirements, customising a camper trailer is undertaken by many to minimise the compromises found in these miniature mobile homes. As an electrical engineer and born tinkerer I can’t help but to tweak and modify and the TVAN has not escaped, in fact I find that modifying the trailer brings an additional level of enjoyment from ownership given we can’t be out in it as often as desired.
Category: The Rig
Articles about the tow tug and camper trailer
Weber Baby Q1000 – TVAN Installation
Since posting the TVAN Tweaks and Tips blog and a couple of YouTube videos showing the Weber BBQ installed in the TVAN I’ve had a few enquiries about how to make the Weber support brackets, to carry and use it in the right hand front storage box of the TVAN. This blog gives information on the material and dimensions of the fabrications.
Its a Wrap – our TVAN wears the Southern Cross
Vanity is a terrible thing, but wanting to be unique is a virtue… whatever the reason I wanted to customise the TVAN so it better matched the Landcruiser and looked less like a big white esky being towed through the outback.
The reincarnated drone
Like all drone pilots I’ve crashed a few times but usually the drone has saved itself and got back into the air or the landing has been somewhere soft. The other day however luck caught up with me and the drone ended up stuck atop a pretty tall tree in grazing country out behind Stanthorpe.
She’s here!! Our new Track TVAN Zenith has arrived
A few months ago we decided to sell the Patriot Campers X3 and upgrade to a Track TVAN – this left us without a camper trailer for a while which saw us camping win swags for a while. Traditional camping was a great change and helped us to simplify our camping kit, but we still looked forward to arrival of the new trailer and the benefit of some mod cons to make camping more sustainable.
Left with 1/2 a rig… the Patriot X3 is gone
Well the sad day arrived – we sold the X3 and delivered it today.
That leaves us with a space in the garage until the TVAN arrives – I’m using that to start getting organised for our Cape York trip in August and wrap up a few other projects.
Changing of the guard – we’ve ordered a new camper trailer!!
Well it was a big call but we’ve decided to replace the Patriot Campers X3.
With a fair bit of research and investigating, mostly by Suzzanne, we have been lucky to secure a TVAN Zenith that is already on order with an August ’21 build date, effectively allowing us to jump the 9 month long queue. The Zenith is a 20th anniversary limited run version of the TVAN that has the features we would have selected, and we have grabbed it early enough to add a few more options to suit our needs
Patriot Campers X3 – X3llent modifications and fixes
Patriot has wedged a huge amount of equipment into a very small and offroad capable footprint – but like all vehicles there is room for customisation to suit the user’s unique requirements.
Many of these have also been posted on the Patriot Campers Owners – Official Group on Facebook, with the search hashtag #X3llent Tips.
Landcruiser upgrades and updates
During the month since the Landcruiser rolled off the tilt tray I’ve been throwing a lot of time (and coin) into the upgrades to suit our plans of extended overland touring. Many of the parts and upgrade kits were ordered for the previous blue GXL but thankfully they hadn’t arrived before our decision to upgrade…
Learning the ropes – The X3’s 1st outing
Well the pressure was on, the first trip in the X3 had been booked months beforehand, she was to be base camp and chuck wagon for Lachie’s bucks’ party on Teerwah Beach – a dozen young blokes and a ute full of beer, what could go wrong they said…. In the week beforehand I’d been…
1 + 1 = Travelling Two
The big day had arrived, pick up of the Patriot Campers X3 was here. We piled into the Landcruiser and headed to Patriot HQ at Molendinar, near the Gold Coast, eager to collect it.
The same but different…
Although replacement of the Landcruiser is a significant unplanned expense we believe it will pay off in the long run because the resale value will cover the intended upgrades, plus we will gain benefit of a newer higher spec vehicle for the extended overland touring we have planned.
But it doesn’t even have an engine…
Hmmm, Suzzanne’s reaction when I started showing her camper trailers was hard to refute, some serious coin gets asked for a vehicle with half the wheel count of a car, and without all of the expensive bits like engines and gearboxes and interiors made from the hides of a dozen steers. Until now, I had…