We’d planned long, long ago to do a few small trips in the van before our big trip began, hopefully ironing out any problems nice and early.
I was optimistic… With two weeks before we leave, we had our first overnight outing in Deli-chan to a camping meet organised by the awesome folk at Delicaclub.com. The Delica still wasn’t completely ready, but it was ready enough for us to sleep in.
Levuka is a private campground with numerous 4WD trails for enthusiasts to play in. It’s not an easy place to find (DON’T TRUST THE LOCATION ON GOOGLE MAPS!), but we got there eventually… Hint – when you get to the T-Section, turn RIGHT! Look for the worn out painted sign to up Plantation Road…
Small lessons we learnt. We needed more working space in the kitchen area, but otherwise it worked well. Electrical system seemed to be fine, supporting the fridge and all the lighting/entertainment without going flat.
The suspension needed attention, all the extra weight in the rear is causing it to sag excessively and was having a hard time on some of the basic off-road trails.
Biggest lesson learnt – Blankets are important! From the start I’d been concerned about ventilation and keeping temperatures down… I didn’t even THINK to bring a blanket, which would have been comfortable for the single-digit temperatures that we experienced at night!
All in all, fabulous weekend that we sadly had to cut short to prepare more with the car.
Eese
May be a bit too late but airbags in the rear would fix the sag
PEKOiSM
Yeah, a valid point, and it was considered, but lifted heavy duty springs were cheap, plus we had the additional benefit of lifted suspension (which mightn’t improve ground clearance, but will help with water crossings and entry/exit angles)