Creative Camping in Clifton, Queensland | Automotive, aircraft & boat

Creative Camping

Locality: Clifton, Queensland

Phone: +61 416 858 308

Address: Clifton 4361 Clifton, QLD, Australia

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Likes: 11

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• Automotive, aircraft & boat
• Caravan dealership

23.01.2022 Found this little gem this week doing a service on a customers camper trailer. Quality Japanese wheel bearing that was still in fair condition except for the rust, this isn't from driving through water, this condensation from sitting. This family is planning a trip to Vic over xmas, I'm pretty sure this wheel bearing would of been quite unhappy long before their destination! A pre trip service has saved a costly repair on their trip.

23.01.2022 While we had a few spare minutes, thought would post a few pics and a bit of a post of a little (well not so little lol) job that came our way. Bloke wanted a functional but space conscious kitchen in his horse float with a battery and solar system for auxiliary power. Pics aren't the best but they give the idea. Kitchen is a steel frame with a plywood top and a large storage drawer underneath, heavy duty fridge slide (custom made, not a off the shelf job!), a recessed and re...movable poly tub as a simple sink with a pressure switched pump and a pretty little chrome tap with a secondary outlet to pump water to a hot water system for a external shower. Electrical system included a 25amp DC-DC charger under the bonnet of the vehicle with hard mounted 120Watt solar panels on the roof, Anderson plug in canopy of vehicle with the usual on the towbar. An Anderson on the draw bar of the horse float wired into the kitchen with a removable battery box. I made the battery box with a simple female cig plug, volt meter and another hard mounted Anderson for fridge connection. Under the counter is a waterproof white box that I designed as a simple power distribution box containing a fuse box for water pump, LED light and cig plug. On the front of the box is power switch for pump (for travelling), light switch, cig plug and a volt meter. Fridge cord was re-made with heavier 6mm twin cable with a Anderson plug to connect direct to battery box (this prevents common voltage drop probs with the crappy cords and cig plugs fridges come with). The system is based on the system I put in our vehicle and a couple others using a 'mobile' battery, i.e the battery can be removed from horse float and placed in vehicle to charge, power fridge and provide auxiliary power. A 3m 'Anderson extension' can be used between vehicle and float to allow greater flexibility with the hard mounted solar panels. This was a enjoyable little job, the challenge of using space and creating something that cant be bought off the shelf whilst being simple and functional. Oh and excuse the crappy occy strap on the fridge slide, it was there to demonstrate something lol See more

20.01.2022 So its been a fairly busy start to the year (hence why Ive been slack with the updats here!!) A customer needed his trailer electrics fixed up as the tail lights didnt work and most concerning, the electric brakes seemed not to work either. As you can tell from the photo below, it had been repaired numerous times over the years...this wasnt even the worst of the original wiring! So i stripped out all the old wiring and just started from scratch. I like to wire the electric brakes seperate to the trailer cable with larger diameter cable to eliminate voltage drop issues but also for the ease of diagnosing future issues (can strip out brake cable without touching the main trailer light cable). We also have a custom offroad camper in the middle of being built in the shed atm, will post some pics when i ummmmm remember to take some!lol

18.01.2022 Thought Id make a quick post, really relevant to all of our touring/travelling community. Been asked to do some repairs to a big tandem trailer, GVM of 3500kg....so its up there with some big vans, it had busted a spring pack (over the phone I even guessed it was the passenger front, pretty safe bet really) but its where it broke that told a story. It broke the main leaf right in front of the front pack clamp...sure sign of being over loaded occasionally (corrugations etc wil...l break main spring up near the eye, rough terrain and overloading will break thro centre bolt), so I pulled the brake hub off to inspect.....sure enough the grease stank like burnt diff oil but look at it in the sunlight and it looked like metallic paint (our mechanically minded friends will also notice the dull/off colour look of the bearing cup)....surprise surprise CHINESE BEARINGS!!!! These bearings were done professionally 5000km ago! Because the bearings had worn the grease seal had started to flog out, flicking grease inside the brake drum (you can actually see this in the pics), left to go longer the bearing would eventually fail BUT if caught much after I found it the grease would of contaminated the brake shoes reducing braking efficiency to bugger all.....3.5 ton trailer with even 50% reduction in braking.....good luck pulling that up......all because of a $100 saving in 4 sets of wheel bearings. I keep harping on to my mates and people we know touring WHEEL BEARINGS are IMPORTANT!! LOL. In all seriousness use only JAPANESE bearings, carry a spare set plus grease, but also know how to check, inspect and replace them.....wheel bearings will leave you stranded beside the road right next to Ship Creek lol. Cheers Dan See more

16.01.2022 Well another camper repair job done for the week. This was yet another trailer marketed as a 'heavy duty off-road camper' and the owners even upgraded axle and springs prior to a Cape York trip, the mechanic that replaced the springs and axle didn't bother using his noodle and putting greasable pins in the hangers tho, also didn't tension the U bolts properly and didn't tell the owners to double check them before hitting the dirt. The 1/2" U Bolts are not suitable for offroad... touring in the first place, so the U bolts stretched and became loose allowing the axle to move around which in turn flogged out the shackles and pins. Steel bushes, 5/8" U Bolts and greasable pins are a must for reliable outback touring. So I replaced all the bushes, put greasable pins in the hangers and shackles and threw a fresh set of wheel bearings in the hubs. Also fixed a couple broken water pipes, unprotected from the factory they copped a flogging from rocks and owners got to their destination (in a isolated campsite) with no water. Manufacturers also put bloody crimp clamps on all the hoses, not sure how they expect people to fix stuff out in the bush..... The owners only got me to come out to give the trailer a check over before they took it away, with no idea there was any problems, probably lucky they did! See more

14.01.2022 We are now also specializing in Camper Trailer repairs and servicing, including but not limited to: Pre-trip checks and servicing Post-trip repairs and servicing Wheel bearing replacements Suspension overhauls... Axle Replacements Custom welding, fabrication and repairs Battery & Solar Systems On-site service available. We are also suppliers of quality Alco parts and components. Also providing 'Real World' advice and tips without the sales or marketing pitch, our experience and knowledge coming from building our own campers and clocking dozens of years of touring and hundreds of thousands of km's right around Aus and seeing what works and what doesn't, what you need and what you don't. We know what breaks, what wears out and how to fix it, hopefully before it breaks! Advice on battery systems and solar, taking the guess work out, creating cost effective reliable set ups..... keeping the beer cold! (and the lettuce and stuff for the wife and the tinlids!) Cheers Dan & Wendy

13.01.2022 Well, a bit of exciting news, so I'm going to take the chance to unashamedly do a bit of business promotion.... As part of our little venture repairing/modifying and upgrading camper trailers etc, we have picked up a new parts supplier, we can now supply and ship ALCO parts to suit caravans and trailers, the best part is WE ARE CHEAPER THAN ALCO RRP!!! All suspension components, axles, brakes and parts, hubs, hitches....you name it we will have it or can get it quickly! We ...got so sick and tired of all the Chinese (crap) parts out there and the obvious price difference between quality and un-reliable rubbish that we endeavoured to do something about it, so by cutting the profit margins down to absolute minimum we are aiming to help the travelling community as whole by supplying quality parts at a reasonable price. As we all know...the more money we can save....the further we can go! Drop us a PM on here or for those that might still have our cards, just give me a call and say G'day! P.S I will post some pics soon of some of the parts have in stock and the range we have access to. Cheers Dan See more

12.01.2022 Hi all, thought I would throw a quick post up with a few pics of a offroad multi purpose trailer I just built on site for a bloke. Its designed to carry a bobcat & attachments during the week then combined with 200 Litres of water tanks mounted under floor with a drop on module with a full sized camper trailer top (which I'm currently fabricating along with a full battery/ solar system) and 3 quad bikes it becomes a weekend hunting/camping rig. 4500 tray but 6300 metre overal...l, 2100 wide its registered for 3500kg but is built with 4 ton running gear....2x 50mm square axles, 12inch electric brakes with offroad magnets on each wheel running 2 ton bearings, 8 leaf 60mm rocker roller springs with steel greasable bushes, 5/8 U bolts with 4x custom RAW shocks finishing off the undercarriage, running on 16in mine spec load rated steel rims. A Alco 3500kg full offroad 50mm ball hitch (these things are awesome....I love my Hylands but these new 3500kg Alco versions are feckin fantastic!...) on a triple rail 100x50x4mm drawbar. I wired the electric brakes separate to the trailer cable using 6mm twin (I ran 6mm twin all the way from the vehicles battery to the Redarc brake controller then down to the 7 pin plug) to prevent any voltage drop issues....12in magnets draw 3.2amps each @12volts...12.8amp total @ 12v, wanna crank that brake controller up on a slippery downhill gravel slope to pull up 3.5 ton behind you....gotta have the power to do it. Brake Away also runs through 6mm twin. 75x50x3mm chassis rails with the front hangers welded into the bak of the drawbar plus plated on inside, reinforced shock, rocker and rear mounts makes sure stuff stays on. The flimsy caravan water tanks are only a short term thing cos they were lying in my shed and it was a late decision by the customer, 2x 100 L poly tanks are on their way. Will post a few picks of the camper module when I finish it. Oh and before someone pins me for it, one of the pics of the front hangers has a bit of a crappy lookin weld, this was ground out later, was just a lump from the vertical up root run n the 2 cap runs didn't sit well. Cheers Dan See more

10.01.2022 Sick of those plastic crates cracking and shattering? Tired of that rickety plastic step trying to kill you? We started making timber boxes & storage solutions because we couldn't find anything on the market to suit our needs and got tired of wasting money that just broke or created a lot of wasted space. Our boxes have been done 100,000km around Aus, survived the Cape and the Gibb and being thrown in and out of a camper everyday for years on end. All of our products are hand... cut and built by 2 blokes in a shed, not mass produced in China, with over 50 years experience in camping, touring caravanning, camper trailers and outback touring, we have a pretty good idea what works and what probably wont lol. Send us your ideas and measurements we will find a way to build it! We believe in KISS (keep it simple stupid) and do it once, do it properly whilst trying to keep more money in peoples pockets to get there and use the stuff! Drop us a line and say G'day or share our page with your friends. See more

04.01.2022 Was that busy over Xmas I forgot to post pics of a couple storage box and camp kitchen boxes we did, even forgot to take pics of some of them!....here is a couple pics I quickly snapped though.

03.01.2022 Sometimes you need that extra little bit of motivation to keep on keeping on, so we have this on our wall, have to walk past it every morning. For us every day worked is one day closer to filling in more of the roads on the map, another day closer to the freedom of the open road, exploring those hard to get at places....as a family. Your only here once, live your life while you are able to with the people you love and are important to you. Firmly believing that things happen ...for a reason and following our gut has seen us have some of the most awesome adventures as a family....I mean whats the worst that can happen!???? Your already gunna end up in a pine box lol. Sitting together in a boat watching the sun come up, or watching the sun set in the Kimberlies with dinner on the fire, threatening to leave someone halfway across the Nullarbor if he asks 'are we there yet'....This feels slightly more important to us than working extra long hours to impress the boss to get a promotion or sitting in rush hour traffic for hours watching a guy manscape his eyebrows in the car next to you lol Live life while its here! oh and thought id add a photo of someone that didn't get left 30km west of the Nullarbor Village with his toy guy and gun noises lol See more

02.01.2022 They reckon picture tells a thousand words, well these ones tell a story of sheer luck! This tandem trailer was loaded with over 1500kg of steel when both spring packs broke through the main leaf whilst turning a corner with one broken spring spearing thro the sidewall of a tire. Years of lack of maintenance, rough roads and (possible) overloading being the suspected culprit. 4 new spring packs, rocker arms, shackle pins, bushes and plates, new U bolts and plates with new wheel bearings all round with a new handbrake cable thrown in for good measure and was back on the road the next day.