You guys came up as a suggested video. I’m really glad that it did, it’s refreshing to hear honest answers and highlighting cash limits most of us and what we can do but at the end of the day, if you want to travel you make it work with what you have. Safe travels
A great honest review. I prefer watching things like this that suit your needs. My brain is pickled when choosing modifications for my ford ranger. This proves that all the big brand names are good but not exactly what you need. Nice one mate 🤙
I have been following your travels for a little while now and I would have to agree with the other persons review, that you are very down to earth and honest compared to lot of the others going Hollywood, I second his opinion please don't change, thankyou for your videos they are great to watch. Cheers
This has to be the most sensible and honest review I’ve ever seen. Really enjoyed it. Proves you don’t need to throw $10,000’s at all the show pony gear just to froth a coffee. Clearly the priority was just getting out there and look how far it’s got you to date… safe travels 👍
you guys are so down to earth i luv yas ....dont change guys....the most honest real people ..what a pleasure to watch your journey...you are both looking great and enjoying your "now or never" time...what a great rundown Alex you have a real knack for it..Erin i would be living with that fly net i cant stand them...safe travels guys
Thanks for your honesty & I we know you are because you don't have sponsorship sticker s all over it👍. I just like how you say it for what it is 😁. I'm not knocking people with all the sponsorship stickers, I take my hat off to them for working hard to find & get sponsorship. Keep up your great work team 🍻.
Hi Guys, loved your setup walkthrough. Your setup is so similar to mine, wanted a Silver XLT in 2020, definitely not a black one. Walked away with a black xls ha ha and love it. I have spent good money where I needed to and gone cheaper where I could. Best to do what works for you both financially and operationally. Love your videos, keep up the great work guys, I look forward to them each week
Haha yeah the black looks great when it’s clean doesn’t it?! Your so right about the spending, great to get the best of you have the money but not everyone can afford it, that’s why there is such a big market for the cheaper gear! Cheer mate!
Hey guys, great insight into your setup. I love how things have evolved as you get further into your trip. I have to agree about your brake controller "knob" 😁 - the auto sparkies never seem to put enough thought into their location. Mine was almost unreachable in the original spot (Holden Rodeo ute) so I shifted it up to the little panel to the right of the steering wheel (just below the air vent). Now it's literally at my fingertips, where I can get to it quickly if ever I need to apply the emergency brake if things get a bit hairy. Keep up the great videos - definitely the best out there.
Thank you!! 🙌🏼 Good work moving the co troller knob to within your reach, they mustn’t have realised that you need to be able to access is to over ride the brakes in an emergency! Cheers! 👍🏼
Good ideal setup, the bigger the car the more items you carry. Not a fan of larger vehicles. The solar panel, have you thought of getting some sliders like the draws but mounting horizontal, when you stop you could just reach up and pull it back over rear door and it would work again.
That’s a great idea!! I would like to do something like that but the only thing stopping me is how I mounted the current panel, I pretty much did it so it will never come off! 😂🤦🏼♂️
@@nowornever_aus get the sliders like your fridge but ones you can drop pin into them so they can’t move. Get piece of Alum square tube, remove panel mount Alum in same holes, then attach sliders to tube, mount the other half slider to panel. Lifting the panel will also cool it. I’ve seen a lot of utes with tinnies on top and always thought you could mount a panel between the rails then just slide it out one side when you stop, it would give you shade and charge battery but not good in high wind. But yours slide out back just need a locking mechanism with pins.
Thanks for sharing. Hope to do a lap someday in the future in our 3.2L BT so it’s great to see some content out there about how people have set up their stuff in a Ute that’s not an alloy canopy, or a wagon (there’s tons of those on TH-cam). Couldn’t agree more with the stainless steel snorkel - I hate the sound on my BT; and wished I still had that happy whistle sound the car made pre-snorkel. Oh well. Something I was hoping to see in this video was what you packed in the front seats, backseats, and tub, as I’m still trying to make up my mind where to put the fridge, camera gear, kitchen, and clothes.
Thank you! There’s not much in the front and back seats, just some stuff to entertain the kids in the rear. The tub just has our outboard, sand toys, fishing rods, tools, spare parts, boogy boards and a few other things 👍🏼
I hear what your saying about cost. I chose a Dmax with Pedders GVM upgrade prerego and then went a Norweld tray and canopy with extreme Enerdrive electrical package. I’ve decided not to buy a van to save money. I’m happy to use motels, hotels and a tent/gazebo when more remote. I good canopy makes life sooo much easier!
Great video. Appreciate you don't need to have the biggest and best of everything. Just an observation on your seat covers, noticed when you were sitting in the driver's seat, the tag on the seat cover that indicates it is air bag suitable was on the left hand side. We have neoprene seat covers and this tag, I'm pretty sure, should be where the airbag is, ie on the other side. No expert, but I think you may have them on the wrong seat. We have a Subaru, and the seat covers cannot be put on opposite side because of the air bag position. Just something I picked up, and may be worth you checking, because if they are wrong seat, they will interfere with deployment.
Hi Kerry! I’m pretty sure when I put the covers in they had a driver/ passenger tag on them but I couldn’t be 100% sure as it was so long ago so I will look into it as what you say makes a lot of sense!! Thanks so much for letting us know!!
Great review, the Ranger is not the ultimate towing/touring machine, but you are quite right it does a good job :) We love ours, I just find the ride to be quite harsh..
Great walk through, love your down to earth attitude. Keeping it real makes your videos a joy to watch. Can I ask where you got your round stickers on your caravan and canopy from please? We are wanting to have some made with our own logo for our caravan 👍😊
I would put a DPF back exhaust its not so much about noise, you can get a quiet version if thats an issue, why I would do it is basicly better fule economy a little bit extra power due to flow and reduced egts. I used manta simply install takes about 1/2 hour in your shed (yes they do a loud and quiet version) But cool little rig just the same.
@nowornever_aus yeah I get that I cringe when I look at the money I've spent on my own ranger build. Have the battle is finding stuff you can do yourself but she's getting there hopefully the tax man plays nice this year and I can get a few more bits done myself.
Hi Guys love your travels so far , my question is about your van , with all the dirt roads u travel do u have a dust induction fitted , I have seen plenty of reviews on the Carafan Sahara , they say they are fantastic , keep up the great blogs
Hi Brian! Yes we have the carafan Sahara and it is fantastic! We have been in lots of dirt roads and it has been great every time so we highly recommend them! Cheers 👍🏼
Came across your Channel a couple of weeks back. Excellent, down to earth advice/description of your family’s journey around the country. Am working my way through the episodes from the beginning, hence this question relating to this episode from some months back! Have you fitted any sort of rubber gasket ing/seals around your tailgate to prevent the ingress of dust into the tray? If so what system/manufacturer did you use? Thanks.
Thank you so much!! 🙌🏼 Yes we have a Grunt 4x4 tailgate seal kit, it’s definitely helping with the dust coming in but isn’t lasting too well (starting to peel off in parts)
Thanks for your response. If you decide to change from your existing seal system have a look at the EGR Dust Defender system. It is not cheap (currently advertised on their website for $349.00), but is a proper engineered product including metal extrusion plates holding the gasketing to the metal of the tub and tailgate. It does however require trimming of the standard PX tub liner to screw the metal to the tub, this may require lifting/removing the canopy to be able to trim the tub liner, however for a practical person like yourself that should not be an issue! Somebody already has a video up on TH-cam showing how he fitted the kit to the current Isuzu/Mazda ute tub.
Enjoying your content. Started following on Facebook as well now. How's the Black Bear tyres been going especially in the wet? With your lift did you 2inch or get 2inch back and 3inch front? I'm currently setting up my ranger (white) for similar travel as yourself.
Thank you! The black bears are absolutely fantastic in the wet! The only thing I’m unsure about the these tyres is if I’ll get descent km’s out of them. Suspension is 2 inch all round with 350kg constants in the rear but in hindsight wish I had of gone 500kg constants instead. 👍🏼
Hey mate, enjoy your videos, the transformation is awesome! My first job was a tyre technician, lol, $92 bucks a week, in cash in an envelope. Lol. What size tinnie do you have? Cheers!
A closer look at the capabilities of the Land cruiser reveals you would need a gvm upgrade because they as do most other vehicles not give you all that much more than what you have at present outside of a F250 etc. The new ranger steps the game up a bit more but not a huge amount, but it does have a better GVM and a lighter kerb weight means a payload of 997kg for the V6 wildtrak vs 700kg for a GXL. and a lot lower cost. To round it out towing max on both 3500kg the GXl has payload of 350kg and the Ranger has 547kg.
Another great video, thanks guys. It is great you love your Ranger, they're pretty hard to beat. Says the man with a new LSU DMax, like you I love my truck and can't get over how good this thing is, it tows like a dream. Do you have any static with your DTX4200 UHF radio? I have the later model DTX4200X and have been trying to solve a static problem with Oricom, they've been good and helpful but the end result is so much static is spends most of its life switched off. I have the squelch set to 15 but it does not do much to solve the issue.
Thanks mate!! Love the new Dmax’s! They seem like a very capable Ute! No static at all on our UHF at all so very strange that you have so much! Thanks once again mate!
Great vid as always. Just a question about your canopy. Does it get much dust/water in? we have an aeroklas that leaks like a sieve and provides a nice layer of dust on dirt roads. did you do anything to make it dust proof if you don't get any in. Cheers in advance
Thanks!! It’s pretty good for not letting water in (small amount in very heavy rain) but average for dust but half of that is the tailgate as well. We have put a dust kit on the tailgate but it’s pretty average. I think that’s one of the main downfalls of fibreglass/ plastic canopies is they always let a bit of dust in unfortunately!
Have you thought of sliding the tiny back so the wind isn’t coming up off the windscreen and going under the boat and instead using the airflow to break the wind for the caravan.
Hi thanks for being so honest and down to earth. Please don't change your style as some of the other crew who have gone all Hollywood.
No problems mate!! We will continue being as real as we can be! 👍🏼
You guys came up as a suggested video. I’m really glad that it did, it’s refreshing to hear honest answers and highlighting cash limits most of us and what we can do but at the end of the day, if you want to travel you make it work with what you have. Safe travels
Thank you!
A great honest review. I prefer watching things like this that suit your needs. My brain is pickled when choosing modifications for my ford ranger. This proves that all the big brand names are good but not exactly what you need. Nice one mate 🤙
Thank you!
I have been following your travels for a little while now and I would have to agree with the other persons review, that you are very down to earth and honest compared to lot of the others going Hollywood, I second his opinion please don't change, thankyou for your videos they are great to watch. Cheers
Well thank you very much as well!!! 🙌🏼 we will be as real and as honest as we can be!
Cheers!
Refreshing to hear someone who doesn’t have to have the best of the best, just tried and tested stuff that gets the job done , love your work mate 👍
Thanks mate! Much appreciated!! 🙌🏼
Really enjoying your vids guys, nothing better than sharing personal mods to your camping set ups. Keeping it simple is keeping it real 💪
Thanks mate!!
We appreciate the support! 🙌🏼
This has to be the most sensible and honest review I’ve ever seen. Really enjoyed it. Proves you don’t need to throw $10,000’s at all the show pony gear just to froth a coffee. Clearly the priority was just getting out there and look how far it’s got you to date… safe travels 👍
Thanks! And to be honest there are people out there with much less but in the exact same places having just as good of a time!
you guys are so down to earth i luv yas ....dont change guys....the most honest real people ..what a pleasure to watch your journey...you are both looking great and enjoying your "now or never" time...what a great rundown Alex you have a real knack for it..Erin i would be living with that fly net i cant stand them...safe travels guys
Haha the fly net was def a good investment for me!! I don’t deal with them very well haha thanks so much for watching! We really appreciate it!
Guys, Love the channel. A little tip that will go along way. Get a plugin mic for your gopro. And a dead cat cover when there is wind around.
Thanks mate! We do have one now so hopefully in future vids (we are a fair way behind) it will improve!
Thanks for your honesty & I we know you are because you don't have sponsorship sticker s all over it👍.
I just like how you say it for what it is 😁. I'm not knocking people with all the sponsorship stickers, I take my hat off to them for working hard to find & get sponsorship.
Keep up your great work team 🍻.
Thanks mate!
Yeah I agree, the people who get the sponsors have earned it and deserve everything they have!
Cheers!
Hi Guys, loved your setup walkthrough. Your setup is so similar to mine, wanted a Silver XLT in 2020, definitely not a black one. Walked away with a black xls ha ha and love it. I have spent good money where I needed to and gone cheaper where I could. Best to do what works for you both financially and operationally. Love your videos, keep up the great work guys, I look forward to them each week
Haha yeah the black looks great when it’s clean doesn’t it?!
Your so right about the spending, great to get the best of you have the money but not everyone can afford it, that’s why there is such a big market for the cheaper gear!
Cheer mate!
Hey guys, great insight into your setup. I love how things have evolved as you get further into your trip. I have to agree about your brake controller "knob" 😁 - the auto sparkies never seem to put enough thought into their location. Mine was almost unreachable in the original spot (Holden Rodeo ute) so I shifted it up to the little panel to the right of the steering wheel (just below the air vent). Now it's literally at my fingertips, where I can get to it quickly if ever I need to apply the emergency brake if things get a bit hairy. Keep up the great videos - definitely the best out there.
Thank you!! 🙌🏼
Good work moving the co troller knob to within your reach, they mustn’t have realised that you need to be able to access is to over ride the brakes in an emergency!
Cheers! 👍🏼
Well done great info cheers
Great informative video. It just shows you don't need to spend top money on the so-called best gear to be able to get out there. It's a great rig. 🙂
Thanks mate! It does us well and can upgrade parts as we go!
Great to see , a affordable set up 😀
Thanks mate!
Good ideal setup, the bigger the car the more items you carry. Not a fan of larger vehicles.
The solar panel, have you thought of getting some sliders like the draws but mounting horizontal, when you stop you could just reach up and pull it back over rear door and it would work again.
That’s a great idea!!
I would like to do something like that but the only thing stopping me is how I mounted the current panel, I pretty much did it so it will never come off! 😂🤦🏼♂️
@@nowornever_aus get the sliders like your fridge but ones you can drop pin into them so they can’t move. Get piece of Alum square tube, remove panel mount Alum in same holes, then attach sliders to tube, mount the other half slider to panel. Lifting the panel will also cool it. I’ve seen a lot of utes with tinnies on top and always thought you could mount a panel between the rails then just slide it out one side when you stop, it would give you shade and charge battery but not good in high wind. But yours slide out back just need a locking mechanism with pins.
Cheers mate! Your all over it!
Thanks for sharing. Hope to do a lap someday in the future in our 3.2L BT so it’s great to see some content out there about how people have set up their stuff in a Ute that’s not an alloy canopy, or a wagon (there’s tons of those on TH-cam). Couldn’t agree more with the stainless steel snorkel - I hate the sound on my BT; and wished I still had that happy whistle sound the car made pre-snorkel. Oh well. Something I was hoping to see in this video was what you packed in the front seats, backseats, and tub, as I’m still trying to make up my mind where to put the fridge, camera gear, kitchen, and clothes.
Thank you!
There’s not much in the front and back seats, just some stuff to entertain the kids in the rear.
The tub just has our outboard, sand toys, fishing rods, tools, spare parts, boogy boards and a few other things 👍🏼
@@nowornever_aus Thanks so much
good walk through 👍
Thanks very much mate!
I hear what your saying about cost. I chose a Dmax with Pedders GVM upgrade prerego and then went a Norweld tray and canopy with extreme Enerdrive electrical package. I’ve decided not to buy a van to save money. I’m happy to use motels, hotels and a tent/gazebo when more remote. I good canopy makes life sooo much easier!
That sounds like an amazing set up!!! There’s a set up to suit everyone isn’t there!
Cheers 👍🏼
Great video. Appreciate you don't need to have the biggest and best of everything.
Just an observation on your seat covers, noticed when you were sitting in the driver's seat, the tag on the seat cover that indicates it is air bag suitable was on the left hand side. We have neoprene seat covers and this tag, I'm pretty sure, should be where the airbag is, ie on the other side. No expert, but I think you may have them on the wrong seat. We have a Subaru, and the seat covers cannot be put on opposite side because of the air bag position. Just something I picked up, and may be worth you checking, because if they are wrong seat, they will interfere with deployment.
Hi Kerry!
I’m pretty sure when I put the covers in they had a driver/ passenger tag on them but I couldn’t be 100% sure as it was so long ago so I will look into it as what you say makes a lot of sense!!
Thanks so much for letting us know!!
@@nowornever_aus No worries. I could be wrong though!
Great review, the Ranger is not the ultimate towing/touring machine, but you are quite right it does a good job :) We love ours, I just find the ride to be quite harsh..
Thank you!
Yeah fantastic value for money but there is always something bigger and better out there. Making do with what we have!
Cheers!
Great walk through, love your down to earth attitude. Keeping it real makes your videos a joy to watch. Can I ask where you got your round stickers on your caravan and canopy from please? We are wanting to have some made with our own logo for our caravan 👍😊
Thanks so much!!
The logo was designed by designs by round and round on Instagram and the stickers were made by QA signs in Gervinho QLD 👍🏼👍🏼
Thank you, hope to see you on the road sometime.
I would put a DPF back exhaust its not so much about noise, you can get a quiet version if thats an issue, why I would do it is basicly better fule economy a little bit extra power due to flow and reduced egts. I used manta simply install takes about 1/2 hour in your shed (yes they do a loud and quiet version)
But cool little rig just the same.
Thanks for the advice mate! Would love to put one on but just a money thing really, when this one rusts out no doubt I’ll go down that path!
@nowornever_aus yeah I get that I cringe when I look at the money I've spent on my own ranger build. Have the battle is finding stuff you can do yourself but she's getting there hopefully the tax man plays nice this year and I can get a few more bits done myself.
Great review😍
Thanks so very much!! 🙌🏼
Springs are cheap mate, just order the 500’s 😉
Great down to earth review 👍
So true! Thanks heaps mate!
Hi cobba love you show just wondering in your Ford Ranger what gear do you Towing?
Cheers mate!
I put it in sports mode and lock it in 5th
Thank you safe travels
Hi Guys love your travels so far , my question is about your van , with all the dirt roads u travel do u have a dust induction fitted , I have seen plenty of reviews on the Carafan Sahara , they say they are fantastic , keep up the great blogs
Hi Brian!
Yes we have the carafan Sahara and it is fantastic! We have been in lots of dirt roads and it has been great every time so we highly recommend them!
Cheers 👍🏼
Came across your Channel a couple of weeks back. Excellent, down to earth advice/description of your family’s journey around the country. Am working my way through the episodes from the beginning, hence this question relating to this episode from some months back! Have you fitted any sort of rubber gasket ing/seals around your tailgate to prevent the ingress of dust into the tray? If so what system/manufacturer did you use? Thanks.
Thank you so much!! 🙌🏼
Yes we have a Grunt 4x4 tailgate seal kit, it’s definitely helping with the dust coming in but isn’t lasting too well (starting to peel off in parts)
Thanks for your response. If you decide to change from your existing seal system have a look at the EGR Dust Defender system. It is not cheap (currently advertised on their website for $349.00), but is a proper engineered product including metal extrusion plates holding the gasketing to the metal of the tub and tailgate. It does however require trimming of the standard PX tub liner to screw the metal to the tub, this may require lifting/removing the canopy to be able to trim the tub liner, however for a practical person like yourself that should not be an issue! Somebody already has a video up on TH-cam showing how he fitted the kit to the current Isuzu/Mazda ute tub.
Thanks mate!
Enjoying your content. Started following on Facebook as well now. How's the Black Bear tyres been going especially in the wet? With your lift did you 2inch or get 2inch back and 3inch front? I'm currently setting up my ranger (white) for similar travel as yourself.
Thank you! The black bears are absolutely fantastic in the wet! The only thing I’m unsure about the these tyres is if I’ll get descent km’s out of them.
Suspension is 2 inch all round with 350kg constants in the rear but in hindsight wish I had of gone 500kg constants instead.
👍🏼
Hey mate, enjoy your videos, the transformation is awesome! My first job was a tyre technician, lol, $92 bucks a week, in cash in an envelope. Lol. What size tinnie do you have?
Cheers!
The tinnie in this vid was a 3m dolphin but we now have a 3.5m quintrex explorer 👍🏼
Thanks for the walk through. We’re hitting the road soon in our BT50. What’s your fuel consumption? Did it change much when you added the tinny?
Awesome!!
We average around 22L per 100k and nah the tinny made bugger all difference, in saying that ours is extremely light!
A closer look at the capabilities of the Land cruiser reveals you would need a gvm upgrade because they as do most other vehicles not give you all that much more than what you have at present outside of a F250 etc. The new ranger steps the game up a bit more but not a huge amount, but it does have a better GVM and a lighter kerb weight means a payload of 997kg for the V6 wildtrak vs 700kg for a GXL. and a lot lower cost. To round it out towing max on both 3500kg the GXl has payload of 350kg and the Ranger has 547kg.
Yes the new Ranger is stepping up the dual cab market towing capabilities! Keen to see how they go
Another great video, thanks guys. It is great you love your Ranger, they're pretty hard to beat. Says the man with a new LSU DMax, like you I love my truck and can't get over how good this thing is, it tows like a dream. Do you have any static with your DTX4200 UHF radio? I have the later model DTX4200X and have been trying to solve a static problem with Oricom, they've been good and helpful but the end result is so much static is spends most of its life switched off. I have the squelch set to 15 but it does not do much to solve the issue.
Thanks mate!!
Love the new Dmax’s! They seem like a very capable Ute!
No static at all on our UHF at all so very strange that you have so much!
Thanks once again mate!
Great vid as always. Just a question about your canopy. Does it get much dust/water in? we have an aeroklas that leaks like a sieve and provides a nice layer of dust on dirt roads. did you do anything to make it dust proof if you don't get any in. Cheers in advance
Thanks!!
It’s pretty good for not letting water in (small amount in very heavy rain) but average for dust but half of that is the tailgate as well. We have put a dust kit on the tailgate but it’s pretty average.
I think that’s one of the main downfalls of fibreglass/ plastic canopies is they always let a bit of dust in unfortunately!
Thanks
Have you thought of sliding the tiny back so the wind isn’t coming up off the windscreen and going under the boat and instead using the airflow to break the wind for the caravan.
Yes but then I would need a rack on the canopy, it hasn’t really affected the fuel economy at all so I’m not too concerned 👍🏼
@@nowornever_aus fair enough. Looks a good little tinny. I like that it’s so light you haven’t had to get a boat loader etc etc
Yeah we just wouldn’t have been able to do it with a thing heavier! 👍🏼
Bagusss man
Ranger headlamps are weak as piss. Spotties are a must when doing any kind of night driving.