December 2012 trip
Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 12:44 am
DECEMBER TRIP 2012
After owning a Hilux 1996 for 2 years, the opportunity arose to take a trial run to PE for the Christmas period. After sorting out some sort of packing system and building a new battery box for the auxilliary battery, I mounted my Engel 40 l on the back seat position and off we went.
We travelled from Paarl through Bainskloof to Ceres and then to Laingsburg. There we bought some biltong and droewors for the trip and a plastic 9 liter bucket from one of the most interesting stores still operating.[we looked for a galavanized bucket but could find none] From there we visited the Floriskraal dam and proceeded to our first nights campsite.
At Sandrivier, Op die plaas camp, we spend the evening watching various bird species visiting the dam, all at their own time spot. The only ones enjoying permanent residence being the "waterhoenders". We were the only residents and it was pleasently quite and relaxing. This first nights camp gave us some time to sort out how to pitch our newly aquired awning, and I must admit, it was not designed for speedy assembly. The awning is quite solid however.
After a nice hot shower, we proceeded the next morning through the Seweweeks poort to Amalienstein. Then to Calitzdorp to buy some veggies for the next few days. It was schorchingly hot in the Little Karoo.
We took the dirt road through the foot hills of the Swartberg to De Rust.
Here we had lunch at the Village trading post under the water coolers who fought a loosing battle against the extreme heat.
After lunch, we were supposed to be on our way to the Baviaans, but I saw the alternator was nor charging. A local helpfull guy tightened the loose connection on the alternator, but this did not help. We were referred to a auto electrician in Oudtshoorn, where the voltage regulator was replaced after waiting for the engine to cool down.
Hats off to Quinten and his guys who suffered in the 45 degrees heat. The charging voltage was down, but at least we got some results. I put it down to the heat. We filled up in Willowmore and proceded to the Baviaans. On the way to Bo-kloof, our first two nights stand, the alternator stopped charghing again. I thought it might have been one of the river crossings we went through a bit fast, but there was no recovery and this left us with a big problem.
We were to spend 3 nights in the Baviaans and could not travel without a working alternator. Quintis and Anine form Bo-kloof guest farm were the perfect hosts and accomodated us in one of their guest houses as we were greeted by a impressive electrical storm and were too late to set up camp.
The next morning we pitched camp and I took some time to check all connections. After cleaning the terminals, I got a full charge! I let the engine run for a while to allow everything to heat up. The charging indicator stayed in the green. I then used my Benton charger to get the 105 ah Deltech high cycle back up to speed. The power kept on failing due to the electrical storms, but I managed to get it up to about 80 percent.
We spend the rest of the day in the kloof to get away from the heat and realized once again that we live in a beautifull country with lovely people. The next morning saw me under the bonnet within 200 metres from the campsite with the same charging problem. I realised by now that the problem could only be connections and I re-crimped the connectors on the terminals and that sorted the problem once and for all.
We spend the rest of the day travelling the Baviaans and enjoyed the splendour and water. We pitched camp at Rooihoek and had a nice swim in the pristine pool while 2 monkeys raided the vehicles. In hindsight we should have been more carefull, but we saw no monkeys in the campsite and very little in the wilderness area. No damage was done and we were more carefull following their visit. A huge bushbuck ram walked through our camp towards the evening and made our day.
On the 24th, we left Rooihoek and travelled the rest of Mr. Bains longest creations to Patensie and then PE for Christmast with the family. I had chance again in PE to plug the Engel into a 220 vac source and gave the Deltech a rest.
From PE we travelled to Natures garden and the next day through another of Bains creations to Angies G-spot in the Prince Alfreds pass. After some good conversation and refreshments, we went down the excellent Montague pass to George and on the Mosselbay. We had time again in Mosselbay to connect to Ac power and I charged the Deltech, which was getting lower all the time. It was obvious the aux. battery was not charging properly although we travelled quite a bit during the day. The alternator also does not seem to be up to the task as the voltage drops to 12,8 volts with the fan, aircon and 2 Batteries running. This does not seem to be enough to charge the aux battery.
After the aux battery was fully charged, things seemed a bit better with the alternator keeping up better. We then proceeded to Cape Agulhas via the Malgas pontoon. Quite a change of scenary from the very green Eastern Cape, but I can only imagine the splendour of this area in winter! From Agulhas we travelled through Elim to Stanford and on to Hermanus and Onrus. Luckily the massive fires have subsided and we had no delays. It is sad to see the destruction caused by these unneccessary fires to the environment.
The complete trip was 2200 km with an average fuel consumption of 6.4 km/l. Bit heavy, I will have to get the set up checked once back home.
Some good thoughts:
We really have a beautifull country. You can have great fun in an old Hilux. There are a lot of places where you can stay for the night without it costing you an arm and a leg. Thomas Bain must have been a exceptional man. Hankook AT tyr.es works well. The Baviaans rules OK. Bo-Kloof is worth at least a day. Gomad canopies works well. Led lights are worth it.
Some things I would like to change:
My packing system. The door rubbers on Rooi Oog. The aux battery charging system and a bigger alternator. Get a solar panel. Spend more time at Angies G-spot. Get a better camera. Worry less about security in the "civilisation". Reduce the heat transfer from the gearbox into the cab.
I would also like to travel all the Bains passes. [is it still possible to drive the Bloukraans?] Apart from the charging issues, Rooi Oog never missed a beat.
Photos will follow.
A good 2013 to all,
Regards, Andre and Marlize.
After owning a Hilux 1996 for 2 years, the opportunity arose to take a trial run to PE for the Christmas period. After sorting out some sort of packing system and building a new battery box for the auxilliary battery, I mounted my Engel 40 l on the back seat position and off we went.
We travelled from Paarl through Bainskloof to Ceres and then to Laingsburg. There we bought some biltong and droewors for the trip and a plastic 9 liter bucket from one of the most interesting stores still operating.[we looked for a galavanized bucket but could find none] From there we visited the Floriskraal dam and proceeded to our first nights campsite.
At Sandrivier, Op die plaas camp, we spend the evening watching various bird species visiting the dam, all at their own time spot. The only ones enjoying permanent residence being the "waterhoenders". We were the only residents and it was pleasently quite and relaxing. This first nights camp gave us some time to sort out how to pitch our newly aquired awning, and I must admit, it was not designed for speedy assembly. The awning is quite solid however.
After a nice hot shower, we proceeded the next morning through the Seweweeks poort to Amalienstein. Then to Calitzdorp to buy some veggies for the next few days. It was schorchingly hot in the Little Karoo.
We took the dirt road through the foot hills of the Swartberg to De Rust.
Here we had lunch at the Village trading post under the water coolers who fought a loosing battle against the extreme heat.
After lunch, we were supposed to be on our way to the Baviaans, but I saw the alternator was nor charging. A local helpfull guy tightened the loose connection on the alternator, but this did not help. We were referred to a auto electrician in Oudtshoorn, where the voltage regulator was replaced after waiting for the engine to cool down.
Hats off to Quinten and his guys who suffered in the 45 degrees heat. The charging voltage was down, but at least we got some results. I put it down to the heat. We filled up in Willowmore and proceded to the Baviaans. On the way to Bo-kloof, our first two nights stand, the alternator stopped charghing again. I thought it might have been one of the river crossings we went through a bit fast, but there was no recovery and this left us with a big problem.
We were to spend 3 nights in the Baviaans and could not travel without a working alternator. Quintis and Anine form Bo-kloof guest farm were the perfect hosts and accomodated us in one of their guest houses as we were greeted by a impressive electrical storm and were too late to set up camp.
The next morning we pitched camp and I took some time to check all connections. After cleaning the terminals, I got a full charge! I let the engine run for a while to allow everything to heat up. The charging indicator stayed in the green. I then used my Benton charger to get the 105 ah Deltech high cycle back up to speed. The power kept on failing due to the electrical storms, but I managed to get it up to about 80 percent.
We spend the rest of the day in the kloof to get away from the heat and realized once again that we live in a beautifull country with lovely people. The next morning saw me under the bonnet within 200 metres from the campsite with the same charging problem. I realised by now that the problem could only be connections and I re-crimped the connectors on the terminals and that sorted the problem once and for all.
We spend the rest of the day travelling the Baviaans and enjoyed the splendour and water. We pitched camp at Rooihoek and had a nice swim in the pristine pool while 2 monkeys raided the vehicles. In hindsight we should have been more carefull, but we saw no monkeys in the campsite and very little in the wilderness area. No damage was done and we were more carefull following their visit. A huge bushbuck ram walked through our camp towards the evening and made our day.
On the 24th, we left Rooihoek and travelled the rest of Mr. Bains longest creations to Patensie and then PE for Christmast with the family. I had chance again in PE to plug the Engel into a 220 vac source and gave the Deltech a rest.
From PE we travelled to Natures garden and the next day through another of Bains creations to Angies G-spot in the Prince Alfreds pass. After some good conversation and refreshments, we went down the excellent Montague pass to George and on the Mosselbay. We had time again in Mosselbay to connect to Ac power and I charged the Deltech, which was getting lower all the time. It was obvious the aux. battery was not charging properly although we travelled quite a bit during the day. The alternator also does not seem to be up to the task as the voltage drops to 12,8 volts with the fan, aircon and 2 Batteries running. This does not seem to be enough to charge the aux battery.
After the aux battery was fully charged, things seemed a bit better with the alternator keeping up better. We then proceeded to Cape Agulhas via the Malgas pontoon. Quite a change of scenary from the very green Eastern Cape, but I can only imagine the splendour of this area in winter! From Agulhas we travelled through Elim to Stanford and on to Hermanus and Onrus. Luckily the massive fires have subsided and we had no delays. It is sad to see the destruction caused by these unneccessary fires to the environment.
The complete trip was 2200 km with an average fuel consumption of 6.4 km/l. Bit heavy, I will have to get the set up checked once back home.
Some good thoughts:
We really have a beautifull country. You can have great fun in an old Hilux. There are a lot of places where you can stay for the night without it costing you an arm and a leg. Thomas Bain must have been a exceptional man. Hankook AT tyr.es works well. The Baviaans rules OK. Bo-Kloof is worth at least a day. Gomad canopies works well. Led lights are worth it.
Some things I would like to change:
My packing system. The door rubbers on Rooi Oog. The aux battery charging system and a bigger alternator. Get a solar panel. Spend more time at Angies G-spot. Get a better camera. Worry less about security in the "civilisation". Reduce the heat transfer from the gearbox into the cab.
I would also like to travel all the Bains passes. [is it still possible to drive the Bloukraans?] Apart from the charging issues, Rooi Oog never missed a beat.
Photos will follow.
A good 2013 to all,
Regards, Andre and Marlize.
