Nellie Caravan - 2019 Ezytrail Ceduna 13 Mk1

Photos of upgrades, modifications and repairs

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Alice - 2012 Range Rover Vogue, Luxury with 4.4 Turbo Diesel V8

Repairs, upgrades and modifications

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Sally - 1999 Land Rover Discovery ES, 7 seater, 4.0 V8

Repairs, upgrades and modifications

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Toby - 1977 Land Rover Series 3, SWB, Game #205

Full nut and bolt restoration, 200tdi engine conversion and power steering.

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Discovery 2 wired Aux/Mp3 audio input.

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The issue for me has been how to connect an Mp3 player to the Disco Stereo.

I tried the FM transmitters but the dynamic range was poor and the constant retuning for a clear frequency drove me insane.

I tried the tape adaptor which was better but sound quality was still dodgy, I'm not sure if its just a crap tape deck or if my heads are dodgy and I presume because its not grounded the mobile phone cased interference.

The solution I have had in my mind for sometime was to use the CD inputs as the Mp3 input, but I searched the Internet for someone who had done this before but i came up blank. I did find a few adaptors available but all were $$$$.

The stumbling block for this project has been trying to find the CD audio wires, I searched the electrical diagrams on the RAVE CD and couldn’t make head not tail of them and then by pure chance looking for something else I found the pin outs of the connectors on the stereo.

There are a few limitations with this install
It can only be used if you have the CD stacker installed, if you don’t have the CD stacker then you cannot select “CD” as an input on the head unit.

It isn’t a separate input, it just uses the CD audio input and the head unit thinks its playing a CD and will continue going through playing the CD’s in the stacker.

3x different scenarios for doing this
1. Disconnect the CD audio inputs and wire directly to MP3.
2. Wire a switch ( 4 Pole Double Throw) to select input from CD and MP3
3. Or use a switched head phone socket that will switch to the Mp3 when the plug is inserted.

I used the 3rd option but now I think I should have taken the 2nd option?

More caravan work, hinged shelf, stretcher bunk bed and sink splash back.

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Continuing on with more updates on the caravan from the last instalment which was where I replaced the lino and installed a sofa bed. Now that the sofa bed was in I wanted to create a table to use when the sofa bed was in the couch position and that could be folded flat when it was in the bed position.

I still had ply left over from when we created the shelves for the caravan and it didn't take long to have something whipped up and a coat of clear coat on it. I found there was a stud running across horizontally along the half partition wall to secure the shelf to and just used a piano style hinge along the length of the shelf.

Where I did run into trouble was trying to find a solution to secure it in the folded out position, my intention was to use the metal hinged style brackets that they use on things like card tables and picnic table legs to hold them in place. I found something similar at Bunnings but when I came to use them found that due to the design they didn't fold flat or worse didn't allow the table to fully extend out.

I messed around modifying them by drilling out the rivets at the hinged points, cutting them down so each half was at equal lengths and riveting them again. This solved the extension and folding flat issue but after finally getting them sorted a new issue arose where they were to weak to reliably hold the shelf out. After 3 hours of mucking around with these supports I gave up and binned them and instead I just used the simple option a wooden support, which is hinged up from the floor.

One of the major projects that I needed to do was to add an extra bed into the van, with Malcolm using the caravan at Xmas he requires an extra berth to sleep his 3 kids. This has posed quite a dilemma for me, I didn't want to create a permanent fixture so it needed to be removable, Malcolm had suggested a stretcher bed type arrangement, as this is what the caravan he used whilst in Denmark had.

I looked at getting a piece of canvas sewn up but the cost was prohibitive, I looked at camp stretcher beds but once again they were too expensive, but as luck should have it Aldi came to the rescue with a stretcher bed for $40 in one of there weekly specials.

Armed with an Aldi stretcher bed I was pleased to find that I could unbolt the centre section to remove the canvas (its actually PVC & polyester) and this also allows the canvas to be put back on if we ever require a camp stretcher.

I needed to figure out the construction, I have probably over engineered it but the thought of it collapsing worried me greatly. As the stretcher poles span from side to side and are unsupported in the middle I needed something that would not deform and possibly pop out of each end. I had 2x pieces of 50x50 box tube left over from when we made the rear bumper, they weight an absolute ton and make it awkward to put the stretcher bed in and out of place but at least I don't need to worry about there strength.




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Repairing the walls, replacing the lino and installing a sofa bed.

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The latest installment of caravan works, with a couple more things completed and a couple more projects still left to do before we head off to Marlo after Xmas.

Although, the bumper we made back in March this year was a success the bike mounting was a bit of a disaster. The issue is that the suspension on the caravan is taken from the days of horse and carts, with dual live axles connected via leaf springs and no dampers. This might be fine for something travelling at 15km/h but travelling at 110km/h it does tend to lead to everything being shaken to pieces.

The bike rack with the bikes on it bounced its way down the highway and gained enough momentum to flex the bike rack and the bumper as well which lead it to keep bashing into the rear of the van. The rear of the van isn’t very solid and this constant pounding caused flexing in the rear wall which in turn caused the repairs that I did inside in 2007 to crack.

So my solution has been to place a piece of 50mm angle iron across the rear of the caravan to not only strengthen it, but to give a fixing point for the top of the bike rack and to cover the dent that was caused. Although this is a less than attractive repair especially considering its painted black, I hope that it provides a solid enough solution.

To repair the inside wall I cut back the damage and bogged it back up with car filler, when choosing the car filler I noticed one that was supposedly “flexible” what I soon learnt was this actually meant “it never actually dries properly so is a damn bugger to sand without the sand paper clogging!”




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LPG install into "Sally" the Land Rover Discovery 2.

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Sally converted to run on LPG, using an Italian made vapour sequential injection system made by Tartarini and fitted by Range-Rov Automotive in Vermont.

There are 2x tanks that replace the original 90 litre fuel tank and give a useable 80 litres of LPG and a smaller 50 litre petrol tank is installed in the RHS wheel arch. With this setup it should provide 350KMs on LPG and 250kms on Petrol



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Restoring Scotts old Shogun Katana for Jamie

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Restoration of Scott's old bike that he kindly gave to me to pass onto Jamie.

A complete restoration with every nut and bolt removed cleaned, polished and then reassembled. It has so far taken 3 full days and in which time it is almost completed with probably another half day to finish everything off.



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More caravan work, making additional shelves for the caravan.

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Although the caravan has plenty of storage, the majority is located under the seats making it tricky to find a home for everyday items.

So i decided to make 4 additional shelves for the caravan:

1. A small shelf beside the bed, so that there is somewhere to put a book, drink, clock etc
2. A medium size shelf above the bench top on the other side of the bed
3. A very small shelf in the kitchen to put coffee, sauces or herbs
4. A large shelf above the couches where the girls sleep to put their toys, pillows and blankets.

David came through with the ply to make them out of and also edged 2 of the shelves with American Oak veneer which has come up a treat.



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Caravan rear bumper with bike rack mounting point.

Making a rear bumper for Dad's Caravan to mount the bike rack onto and to offer some protection has been a plan on the cards since i first used the caravan 2 years ago.

After picking up the caravan from storage in Portarlington and on our way home we made a detour to Cath's Dads to have a rummage around his back-yard for some steel. We found a nice looking piece of 100x50 from a pallet packing shelf for the bumper itself, some 75x75 angle and some 50x50 box tube to form the bumper mounts.

With the steel in hand i came up with a rough plan which David dropped over to have a look and confirmed that it would be okay. From here i came up with the final design and cut the steel to suit ready for David to weld for me.

Taking the caravan over to David's we spent the day welding up the bumper bar and putting the spare wheel carrier on... with David doing all the welding :) .

A quick coat of black kill-rust applied with a brush and it looks like its always been there.

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Caravan Exterior Clean.

This is something I have been wanting to do for the last couple of years and have been slowly making progress with the exterior the last few times I have had the caravan at home.

The paint is so thin and chalky on the caravan now that if you scrub a little to hard you go back to the aluminum underneath and with the paint so porous it stains with every bit of dirt that comes in contact with it.

This time I scrubbed the van clean and gave it a wax, what a difference it made and I never realised that the paint is actually cream and beige, as its always been flat chalky white in colour.

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January 2007 - Dad's Caravan before i started work on it.

The caravan has been sitting for 2 years, so after checking the brakes and with 4 new tyres that Dad kindly paid for, I dragged it back from storage in Ballarat.

As the drain holes in the windows had filled with moss the rain was unable to drain from the windows and had been over flowing into the caravan itself.

Having only 3 days for maintenace and packing before it became our home for 10 days in Robe SA we set to work cutting the rot out of the plywood and cleaning everything up before heading off.

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May 2008 - I beefed up the standard Discovery 2 recovery point

A block has been welded in place between each side of the hook and the u channel below the bolts has been braced with a horizontal support.




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April 2008 - Home-made CDL Lever

A quick and dirty home made Centre Diff Lock lever made from what ever i had laying about.




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April 2008 - Rewire of the Calibra's Headlights

Due to the terrible headlights in the Calibra i rewired them to use relays in an attempt to improve things buy avoiding the small gauge wire running to the lights.


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Tonka Sall

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Well we've just bought our very first Land Rover, its a 2000 Discovery ES Series 2, 4ltr V8, 7 seater, with ACE, 18" wheeels and optioned up Harman Kardon Stereo.

She is known by the family as Tonka Sall, the Tonka part is obvious but the Sall part is a little obscure. After filling in the VIN # on the finance paper work, transfer papers etc i started calling her Sall as this is the begining of the VIN number

She is a seriously well sorted bit of kit!

Some of the cool features & specs in no particular order:

• Harmon Kardon 12 Speaker Stereo, CD Stacker - 6 disc (located under the drivers seat)
• 18" Alloy Wheels
• ABS (Antilock Brakes), EBD (Electronic Brake force Distribution), Calipers - Front & Rear 4 Spot, Disc Brakes Front Ventilated Rear Solid
• Air Cond. - Climate Control 2 Zone, Air Conditioning - Rear 2nd & 3rd Row Seats
• Airbags - Driver & Passenger (Dual)
• Central Locking - Remote/Keyless, Engine Immobiliser
• Centre Differential, Control - Traction
• Cruise Control
• Electric Seats - Front, Leather Trim 7 Seats
• Fog Lamps
• Front, Headlamp Washers
• Headrests - Integrated 2nd & 3rd Row
• Power Door Mirrors - Heated
• Power Windows - Front & Rear
• Rear View Mirror - Electric Anti Glare, with Compass
• Stainless Steel Exhaust
• Suspension - Auto Levelling, ACE - Active Ride (leans into corners)

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