Toy Hauler Our Work n Play Shakedown trip

Walks

Member
Sep 15, 2013
84
34
18
Melbourne
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.
 

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Deano

Well-Known Member
Aug 10, 2011
540
286
63
Bargara, Qld
Top report @Walks and sounds like you had heaps of fun. Great pics too.
That fuel economy is very good. My triton must have gummed injectors because our economy is shocking at the moment. Will have to get it sorted before our NSW trip. We are towing 2.4 tonne too.
Cheers Deano
 

Grano n play

Active Member
Apr 18, 2013
150
144
43
Perth W.A
Congrats nice van, your right about the table it does get in the way abit. We hardly use ours, but I did make up a couple of substitute ones that are abit smaller, like the drop down rear tailgate, one of my regrets. Enjoy
 

blacky

Well-Known Member
Sep 17, 2013
630
680
93
37
Townsville QLD
Sweet set up mate! Looks like one hell of an angle on your campsite, no wonder it was a pain in the arse mate! Love your work :)
 

blacky

Well-Known Member
Sep 17, 2013
630
680
93
37
Townsville QLD
Haha it probably was flat compared to where you would have been riding, looking at the surrounding bush... Looks like fun!
 

Walks

Member
Sep 15, 2013
84
34
18
Melbourne
Haha it probably was flat compared to where you would have been riding, looking at the surrounding bush... Looks like fun!

Yeah it was hilly but the riding there is pretty easy going with no real tuff sections at all and pretty much all 4WD tracks. Was a very good cruisy scenic ride that is very suitable to novice riders which was perfect for my partner being only her 4th time on the bike. So if you have a bike it's not really full of extreme or single track stuff but is pretty good if you have beginers you want to teach.
 

blacky

Well-Known Member
Sep 17, 2013
630
680
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Townsville QLD
Very nice.. more my kinda track then ;) Theres a reason i don't have a dirt bike anymore, think i'll stick to me horses haha
 

Walks

Member
Sep 15, 2013
84
34
18
Melbourne
Very nice.. more my kinda track then ;) Theres a reason i don't have a dirt bike anymore, think i'll stick to me horses haha

We came accross a couple of groups of horse riders of about 10+ and we stopped and chatted to them for a while and they were all having a great time.
 

blacky

Well-Known Member
Sep 17, 2013
630
680
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37
Townsville QLD
Ah cool! Hope my wife doesnt see this or we'll be straight down there lol. What is Rubicon and where roughly is it mate?
 

Meanderthals

Aka PhilD
Mar 16, 2012
837
1,356
93
Near Darwin
Congratulations on the van. We share the opinion of the table as it's both a pain to get around and so unstable that we've tossed it in the shed as soon as we got home. Now replaced with a simple Bunnings fold up one that can be taken outside as well. Although it would have been nice if the Dealer, and Jayco, had advised of the drop down choice I doubt that we would have gone for it anyway. Makes us wonder what else we weren't told about that was possible.

Phil
 

Walks

Member
Sep 15, 2013
84
34
18
Melbourne
Congratulations on the van. We share the opinion of the table as it's both a pain to get around and so unstable that we've tossed it in the shed as soon as we got home. Now replaced with a simple Bunnings fold up one that can be taken outside as well. Although it would have been nice if the Dealer, and Jayco, had advised of the drop down choice I doubt that we would have gone for it anyway. Makes us wonder what else we weren't told about that was possible.

Phil

Yes i find it strange, there was so many more extras available than what is listed in the catalogue and they could have easily presented me with a full list and increased the $$ value of the sale. Must be making to much money already....