New updates to the old MQ

Well, not one to not keep up with technology, it was time to upgrade a few things in the old MQ for the 2011 oz trip.

First up was adding a dual band VHF/UHF Ham radio. After some research, the FT7900R seemed a good value for what I wanted which was primarily a 2M rig with a remote face. Bonus was the UHF band.

I mounted the rig itself into the center console, since it's well protected and gets it out of the way. I drilled a hole in the side that lines up with the fan in the rig for ventilation. While installing the rig I also added another two 12V outlets in the front/bottom area of the console. Can't have enough 12V outlets :)

The next picture shows the dash as of 2011. The remote face/head unit for the FT7900R mounts via some lockline and a strip of velcro secures it to the top of my trip computer. Works great, doesn't rattle, doesn't block forward visibility while still being easy to see/access. The microphone is mounted via its clip that is screwed into the instrument cluster pod.

For this trip I also replaced the old tape deck with a digital only deck. It's a cheap Blaupunkt that has SD and USB for music and also an Ipod cable. No more cassettes to rattle around. I never had a CD player since with corrugations and dust it seemed likely to fail quickly. With solid state only media I now have LOTs of music choices and all fits neatly on SD or USB flash. Bonus is getting rid of a lot of cassettes in the center console and freeing up more room for other toys instead...

Of course with the new toys, it was time to add more fused outlets to the engine bay. Picked up a very nice fuse panel in the US (Bluesea unit) and installed it connected to the aux battery. Also put in a new dual purpose (deep cycle / starting) battery. Nice feature of these batteries are the extra lugs for lower current draw devices - which covers all the fused items. I "recycled' the original fuse block for the Ham radio, since to be follow Yaesu's recommendations they require dedicated fuses for both the +12 AND Ground feeds for the radio. Also, the radio Ground is run all the way to the fuse and then to the battery.

Anyhow, all done and the Bluesea fuse panel still has a LOT of spare slots for future additional toys. I populated all the fuse slots with various value fuses, so that for now they just become 'spares' that are easily accessible if needed.

The white cable in the picture above is a new 50A capable Powerpole outlet (SB50 unit). I added another unit to the main battery as well. I've put powerpole connectors on my second air compressor, on my solar panel and on my 12V drill. Powerpole connectors are GREAT!

The great thing about the powerpole connectors is that they are hermaphroditic and as such will plug into each other, i.e. you buy one connector and it can act as the male or the female while maintaining correct polarity connection, brilliant!

So, after a bunch of years of driving through scrub and low hanging trees/branches etc, the food & fuel boxes were showing some signs of wear and tear. The fuel box took a good hit during the 2011 trip - low branch managed to take out a jerry can. Found it on the ground, bit dented, but still fully sealed and not damaged at all from a fuel carrying perspective - tough stuff!

The food box has also had quite a few hits and the leading edge had quite a few chips out of the plywood since the original aluminium angle was on the thin/small side. Figured I'd upgrade to full1" material and 1/8" thick. This will prevent the lid trying to 'rotate' if it gets hit by a branch since the aluminium will help transfer the force to the front edge of the box.

So, here's a picture of the inside of the food box with 6 partitions installed - it's got harder and harder to find cardboard boxes (clamshell banana boxes etc at supermarkets). Rod generously provided his tablesaw and cutting skill to get all the wood cut for me. The partitions are 3 sections of wood that are cut to interlock. I also picked up a section of offcut rubber for use in the back of utes. That will sit on the bottom of the box to a) prevent cans and stuff from rattling and b) allow any water that gets in when it rains to drain out of the box. The box has holes in all 4 corners for drainage.

Here's the box with the new lid screwed down (after a few coats of polyurethane) to the large rear hinges and with the new aluminium angle installed. I haven't installed the clasps yet since I was planning to find some nice ones here in the US, which I did a few weeks back. So, next trip to oz will have me installing them.

This is one of the clasps that I sourced in the US. It is made by Southco and is of great quality. The butterfly rotates to extend (to open) or retract (to lock) the clasp. The small section on the left will be screwed into the lid, through the aluminium angle and into the plywood.

Here's the clasp retracted. The butterfly can then fold down to the right so it isn't sticking out.

This is the clasp section folded away to release itself from the lid. Three bolts will go through the holes and through the side of the box to securely mount it. The spring that you see is to provide a few millimetres of 'clamping' play. i.e. the hinged part of the clasp can move a few millimetres in the provided slots. That way there is always tension keeping the lid closed down, nice feature.

So, on the 2011 trip the folding kitchen table was showing signs of falling to pieces as the chipboard was rotting due to rain, age & use. Since I was replacing the food box lid, the old lid with a some cutting of worn out bits was recycled to become the new surface for the table. A few coats of polyurethane and the new table is all done and ready for many more years of camping use.

In the picture below you can see the new table and also the new side of wood (lighter in colour) on the fuel box - to replace the piece that was broken when the jerry can went flying...

A bunch of small fixes/improvements that will provide many more years of camping service for these items.