Took the Work n Play out for it's maiden voyage this weekend and wow, what a weekend!! We were treated to near perfect weather and great conditions.
I loaded up the bikes into the Van and we set off for Rubicon at about 7pm and arrived at about 930 pm. Was my first time towing with anything heavier than a full three bike trailer which would be around 600kg. So the Work n Play play fully loaded with 2 bikes would have been around the 2400kg mark. No problems towing or adjusting to towing the rig, just getting used to how to drive it efficiently and trying to get the best economy out of it. Averaged 15.4l per 100km with the Jeep grand Cherokee. Not sure how good that is but im not unhappy with that.
We have stayed and slept in it twice on our front nature strip just trying to get our head around it, sort of a pre shakedown shakedown if that makes sense. I will start by saying that the fellow that took us through the handover and was showing us how to work things communication skills were very ordinary at best and whenever we asked him any questions he looked at us like it was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard and then still couldn't explain it properly anyway :/ This happened on several occasions until me and my partner who had already been giving each other" looks" both gave each other the look of "where over this guys don't be rude, let's just get this over with and get out of here". So we pretty much listened and didn't ask a thing after that.
When setting up we had a bit of an issue with leveling the van vertically. We were on fairly flat ground but it wasn't perfect. We were told to level the the van horizontally using the wheel chocks which wasn't an issue but for leveling it vertically we were told to use the Jockey wheel and never the drop jacks as they are there for support only. So i wound it up until i had used the full travel of the jockey wheel and we still had a couple of mm's to go. So i lowered the drop jacks and i had to lower the jockey wheel, unscrew it and re-attach it at the second indentation so i could get a bit of extra height. I kept winding and it didnt get much higher. The jockey wheel was moving on the wheel and I ended up bending it... So we settled on an almost level Caravan for the weekend.
Inside we go and nature was calling so went to the toilet and there was a pretty ordinary and stale stench coming from the toilet. We had used it a few times a few days prior but it appears that something wasn't quite right. We are wondering if they actually added the liquid chemicals before the gave it to us or if they just left us a spare bottle of each and we were supposed to put it in. Will call them Monday to see but we were able to get rid of the smell by emptying the toilet.
Now it was time to relax and enjoy the night. We decided to watch a movie and then get a good nights rest. There were a lot of people camping that weekend and the people group near us were enjoying music until about 3am... Not to much of a worry i can sleep through it and I am pretty tolerable for that sort of that sort of thing, i did wake up at 8am and fire up the generator to heat the Van though. I think the generator might have been a bit closer to their camp than ours
We made a cup of tea and a fruit sald with yoghurt and enjoyed eating it on the deck in the morning sun until a couple of mates rocked up and we went off a for a ride and to view the scenery while my partner decided to stay and enjoy the sunshine with our dog as she has not been riding all that long and was concerned that she wouldn't be able to keep up. We returned from our ride and went off to the pub for dinner before returning back to the Van and as we couldn't get any TV reception we decided to watch another movie before hitting the sack. I know we should be sitting by the campfire but we were really enjoying the Van and the novelty of it all
Awoke to another beautiful morning took the dog for a walk and then enjoyed a bacon and egg breakie while listening to tunes and soaking up the sun. This carried on until about 1130 until we decided that it was probablyy time to get out for a ride or we'd never go. So we both headed out for a ride for a couple of hours before returning back, packing up and heading home.
Extremely relaxing and enjoyable weekend and we love the Van. Our initial impressions so far apart from that it's fantastic is that the table is a massive PITA and has to go! We love the choice that we made with the getting the drop down rear tailgate that we also use as the deck. Just adds another dynamic to it all and increases the usable space. The battery and solar didn't miss a beat. I dont think i managed to drain it down to more than 13.1V which is about 15% used so maybe in hindsight i didn't need the 200Ah Lithium on board and a 100Ah Lithium would do the job just fine.
I loaded up the bikes into the Van and we set off for Rubicon at about 7pm and arrived at about 930 pm. Was my first time towing with anything heavier than a full three bike trailer which would be around 600kg. So the Work n Play play fully loaded with 2 bikes would have been around the 2400kg mark. No problems towing or adjusting to towing the rig, just getting used to how to drive it efficiently and trying to get the best economy out of it. Averaged 15.4l per 100km with the Jeep grand Cherokee. Not sure how good that is but im not unhappy with that.
We have stayed and slept in it twice on our front nature strip just trying to get our head around it, sort of a pre shakedown shakedown if that makes sense. I will start by saying that the fellow that took us through the handover and was showing us how to work things communication skills were very ordinary at best and whenever we asked him any questions he looked at us like it was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard and then still couldn't explain it properly anyway :/ This happened on several occasions until me and my partner who had already been giving each other" looks" both gave each other the look of "where over this guys don't be rude, let's just get this over with and get out of here". So we pretty much listened and didn't ask a thing after that.
When setting up we had a bit of an issue with leveling the van vertically. We were on fairly flat ground but it wasn't perfect. We were told to level the the van horizontally using the wheel chocks which wasn't an issue but for leveling it vertically we were told to use the Jockey wheel and never the drop jacks as they are there for support only. So i wound it up until i had used the full travel of the jockey wheel and we still had a couple of mm's to go. So i lowered the drop jacks and i had to lower the jockey wheel, unscrew it and re-attach it at the second indentation so i could get a bit of extra height. I kept winding and it didnt get much higher. The jockey wheel was moving on the wheel and I ended up bending it... So we settled on an almost level Caravan for the weekend.
Inside we go and nature was calling so went to the toilet and there was a pretty ordinary and stale stench coming from the toilet. We had used it a few times a few days prior but it appears that something wasn't quite right. We are wondering if they actually added the liquid chemicals before the gave it to us or if they just left us a spare bottle of each and we were supposed to put it in. Will call them Monday to see but we were able to get rid of the smell by emptying the toilet.
Now it was time to relax and enjoy the night. We decided to watch a movie and then get a good nights rest. There were a lot of people camping that weekend and the people group near us were enjoying music until about 3am... Not to much of a worry i can sleep through it and I am pretty tolerable for that sort of that sort of thing, i did wake up at 8am and fire up the generator to heat the Van though. I think the generator might have been a bit closer to their camp than ours
We made a cup of tea and a fruit sald with yoghurt and enjoyed eating it on the deck in the morning sun until a couple of mates rocked up and we went off a for a ride and to view the scenery while my partner decided to stay and enjoy the sunshine with our dog as she has not been riding all that long and was concerned that she wouldn't be able to keep up. We returned from our ride and went off to the pub for dinner before returning back to the Van and as we couldn't get any TV reception we decided to watch another movie before hitting the sack. I know we should be sitting by the campfire but we were really enjoying the Van and the novelty of it all
Awoke to another beautiful morning took the dog for a walk and then enjoyed a bacon and egg breakie while listening to tunes and soaking up the sun. This carried on until about 1130 until we decided that it was probablyy time to get out for a ride or we'd never go. So we both headed out for a ride for a couple of hours before returning back, packing up and heading home.
Extremely relaxing and enjoyable weekend and we love the Van. Our initial impressions so far apart from that it's fantastic is that the table is a massive PITA and has to go! We love the choice that we made with the getting the drop down rear tailgate that we also use as the deck. Just adds another dynamic to it all and increases the usable space. The battery and solar didn't miss a beat. I dont think i managed to drain it down to more than 13.1V which is about 15% used so maybe in hindsight i didn't need the 200Ah Lithium on board and a 100Ah Lithium would do the job just fine.
