Great video! We were just about to buy and setup the netgear BlackHawkk, antenna, mast etc after watching your last video. Now we will check out the Van Connect. Thanks for the great content guys!
Hey Simon & Liz. I bought and installed a Thirsty Camel water filtration system at the BNE caravan and camping expo earlier this year (just after I dropped in to say hi to you guys there 😁). I haven’t had much of a chance to get out in the caravan and use it much since then but keen to see what you guys think about it in your future reviews. Also, I purchased (on sale) a Bluetti AC200Max just over 12mths ago along with 4 x 200W portable panels (also Bluetti) as an alternative to installing a permanent dual battery system in my rig and I haven’t looked back since. I have even plugged the Bluetti straight into the mains input into my caravan and continuously run my aircon with the portable solar panels inputting equivalent/more power than what was being used by the aircon (perfect cloudless day). I highly recommend anyone thinking of getting a portable standalone power system such as the Bluetti’s, to also get a decent amount of (portable) solar panels to simultaneously get the power back into the unit as it’s being used. When not camping, I use the AC200Max to power my kitchen fridge overnight (fully charged by home solar during the day) so it’s effectively in use 24/7!! Awesome kit for sure but that said, I have found Bluetti a bit hot and cold to deal with at times. I think the main problem is that Bluetti are still working on getting a retail outlet set up here in Aust so having to deal with them being overseas (China) can be a bit challenging. Looking forward to tasting some of that sweet water from your desal system at the Pioneer Party next month at Burrum Heads!!! 🤘
Hey Simon love the Cowfish internet, while you showed the antenna I noticed the solar panels, question please, are they screw down or glued down, I’m wanting to put solar on my Toyota Hiace roof which is fibreglass and cringe every time I think they may have to be screwed in. I’m paranoid about leaks. Hey many thanks, you guys have some exciting weeks ahead getting the 76 done up. Cheers Judy
Hey, Judy. They panels are glued and screwed. If it's done properly you shouldn't have any concerns about leaks (I was a metal roofer for many years so I've out more than a few holes in roofs 😂)
Keep the vids comin bro! Especially plenty of detail with the 76 series uogrades! Ive been doing some work on our 76 and am lovin seeing it be the build that ive always wanted to do! Cheers phil
Hi Simon, thank you for another very informative post. We’re not full time time traveler’s so the Cowfish sounds like a good idea for us. If you buy the 5G version will it pick up 3G and 4G ? Looking for to your Land Cruiser build.
You're welcome! Yes, it will do 4 and 5G (I'm not sure about 3G, but that is being turned off now anyway) Safe travels! Don't forget to use the discount code!
Love your show, newsletter is great addition. Will be heading off myself after Christmas, will sadly miss your live, so will ask my question here if that is ok. Have you come across any no go areas for single female travellers. I know of 2 in Nth Territory that I come across in my travels years ago, where even truckie wouldn't pull up within 30ks of for the night. Any insights for QLD would be appreciated. Cheers, safe travels
Thanks, Debra! There's not many places in the country we've been to where safety and security were an issue. The majority are in the NT (Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, etc) and the northern Kimberley in WA (eg, Kunanurra). We've really only been close to the coast in Qld but haven't had any issues.
Hi Simon, congrats on getting the 76, I got a sandy taupe 76 just before the first covid lockdown and love it. Regarding your comparison of the netgear vs the cowlink, wouldn’t the netgear with the new mimo antenna you got from cowlink give you almost the same benefits as the cowlink?
Thanks! We can't wait to get out exploring in the 76! I'm not sure if the netgear is compatible with the Cowfish antenna, you'd have to ask them. Assuming it is compatible, it would probably perform similarly although you wouldn't have the large wifi signal the Cowfish emits through the antenna or the ability to run a hard drive on the network. There may be other limitations but I'm not that technical.
My Bluetti AC200P is an awesome portable lithium 2kva power supply for my Avan Leah 15' pop top caravan. I mounted the Bluetti in my car behind the driver's seat. While I'm driving the Bluett's 12v charging cable connects to the 120watt outlet on my cars dashboard. When I'm parked up I run the caravan's 240v power cable into the Bluetti. I use the 240v power system in the caravan for the coffee machine, air fryer, rice cooker/steamer. At night, if it's cold I run a portable electric fan heater for 5 minutes at a time to take the cold edge off the air inside the van. I don't use it for the caravan's air conditioner/heater but it will run the heating cycle. I also have a 10 litre Aus J 240v/12v water heater and can run it off the Bluetti power. I have a 3.5kva petrol generator that will run everything in the caravan and charge the Bluetti but I rarely have to use it. If I stay in a powered site in a caravan park I can charge the Bluetti and/or run the van. The bonus is I'm a handyman and I bought the tax deductible Bluetti for my business to run 240v power on site when there's no power. It's a great bit of kit and far cheaper than forking out $5000 or more on a built in 2kva lithium power supply for the caravan. I don't have a Bluetti portable 350watt folding solar panel to charge the Bluetti, which would be great, but last time I went away free camping and staying in caravan parks the Bluetti did what I needed to do for more than 2 months on the road. It's awesome.
Guys, you need a 2nd 40A or 60A dcdc charger. You can have an 240A alternator installed and a 80 - 100A dcdc charging load should not fase it. 40A dcdc charging is not nearly enough for you.
So far it's been fine. While driving we see up about 130A/hr @12v going into the batteries with the solar combined with the DCDC charge which tops the batteries up pretty quickly. We might look into that in the future if it becomes an issue though. Cheers
Why don’t you test the power bank with the induction top that you have? How many hours can you actually cook with it? Waiting for the reverse osmosis system, I still don’t understand why all caravans do not come with it!!!
It depends where you're travelling and how much it bothers you being out of range from time to time. For most of the country, CowFish is less limited and more reliable. I haven't measured the current draw, but it doesn't seem significant. You can easily turn it off to save power if needed (overnight, for example).
Wow you have been busy, With you van connect have you checked the antenna for the TV from codfish as would be good if they could get it in one antenna. I will be checking out the thirsty nomad filtration system . Great idea to see how dirty filter gets when using it. Can't wait to see your set up at the pioneer party at Burrum shores.
Thanks again for informative vid been watching since u started and grow,my question our Cel-Fi go coupled to outdoor router4G with wifi high gain antenna gain 6dBi/frequency 698- 2700.We don’t travel full time but will nighthawk replace the other 2, I know it will be faster but everything else confuses me I’m 66 and love yourselves and feel good for honest reviews cheers happy trails😎
Thanks Richard. I'm no expert on Cel-Fi and it's operation but they kind of do a different job. While they're great at boosting your phone signal, they aren't great at boosting data. If what you have is working, I'd stick with is. The Nighthawk is essentially a 4G/5G router so you might not see much difference to what you have.
Hey Simon & Liz, Thanks for the Cowfish vs Starlink segment. Good to hear Cowfish better than nighthawke. That rooftop Antenna, with integrated WiFi will make a huge difference. Re water filtration, I only filter water going into the tanks if it is from a dodgy source, as those filters also take out the good stuff they put in town water to stops the bugs growing, which you actually want in your tanks. This, along with good quality water filters in your van is the way to go. Cheers.
Glad you enjoyed it. We find the water doesn't stay in our tanks long enough for it to be an issue and we have the under sink filter as an added precaution for our drinking water.
I always give you guys a like, including this episode, however, since I've been following you for a very long time, I've noticed that your episodes have become a lot more commercially orientated. . Not so much fun with the old travel vlogs anymore. Sorry guys, but if people, like myself are setting up a vehicle to travel Oz, we kind of know what we want. What is great about travel vlogs is information about places that we want to visit.
Noted! Thanks Jason, we really appreciate this feedback as I'm sure many wouldn't bother and we wouldn't hear about it. We also really appreciate your support. As I'm sure you can appreciate, it's impossible to create content everyone likes and finds useful. Most of our content is based around questions we regularly get asked which gives us a great insight into what information people are looking for. While setting up our new caravan and building our new Landcruiser, there's a lot of new products and ideas we're exploring and not as much travel happening. There's not a lot we can do about that. We can assure you though that in the coming weeks, we'll be back out doing what we love and travelling this great country. If you stick with us, I'm sure there's more content coming you'll love. Thanks again.
Thx Simon for sharing such great, informative info. Am 72 years and getting ready to take off around our amazing country until I fall off the perch 😊. Finding your segments so very helpful. Thx again
Thanks for the info champions, I'm a bit of a dinosaur on the you tube, would you have a link to the last video...compost toilets. Back to WA, no doubt about it you guys get around, safe travels. Signed up to ECC also
Hi Guys, loved this video, very informative once again. You met up with my son and his partner in Tassie, exploreoz, Allan and Jess, they were very impressed with your set up. I've subscribed to everythingcaravanandcamping but I'm pretty sure I did that a while ago as well. I've used your recommendation for The Thirsty Nomad filter system and ordered one, can't wait to use it as we have risked filling up from bores and paid the price. Cheers Brian and Sue
WOW! So much helpful information. We are new to the caravan and camping lifestyle so lots to learn. Ill definitely be looking further to some of the products you reviewed. Thanks for helping demystify some of this complicated stuff. There is lots to learn ❤
Thanks Simon, another handy vid…. I will get that water filtration system, cheers….. The Bluetti unit is great, had one powering my setup in my old Multivan. All the best !
Thanks for info on another option for water filter. Do you know how compares to the B.E.S.T. filters? Also been looking at the Bluetti seriously as an option. Please enter us in your draw 😊
Hey guys. I’ve been using the Telstra nighthawk for a few years. On the east coast and with no external antenna, it works pretty damn good for us. Mind you, it’s mainly so my wife can watch Netflix etc and not uploading content like you guys. This was another really great informative video that should be a big help for heaps of people. Travel safe guys 😊
Yeah, the Nighthawk is a great little unit. We used it for almost 2 years. When going more remote it is more limited where it will get signal without an external antenna.
Another super helpful and informative episode. Thanks guys! I’m looking into the thirsty nomads filter systems because I do love the ideas of seeing how grotty it is and knowing when to change it out. Signed up and follow everything. Might bump into you while you’re on the coast 🤙
Simon maybe time to update your intro from Zone to your new sponsor Titanium !! Really love the water filter will be looking hard into that product keep up the Good work thanks mate 👍
I’ve just finished 3 months on the road. I had the Thirsty Camel units for filtering the water - fantastic. Yep, was slow to fill the tank. Made up a hose connector arrangement to connect the other filter to the van tap for filling drinking water bottles - small van with one tap on drawbar only… I also chose to use a BLUETTI Ac200Max instead of a dual battery system in the car. I installed a 1000W inverter in the car and the 400W Bluetti charger (so only using 400W of the inverter) - this unit delivers 400W into the unit for a draw of not much more than 400W and has no fan (noise). I also installed a 12V feed to the second charging socket on the unit. So 500W total charge (like having a 41.6A DCDC charger). The Bluetti 500W charger that comes with the unit draws 500W but only delivers 460W approx and is very noisy (fan). Used the unit it to run the fridge continuously and in camp (and on the side of the road), boil the kettle, charge camera/drone/MacBook batteries, toaster and an electric frypan for cooking. So no gas! Was brilliant! The downside = inverter in Bluetti is only about 90% efficient and has a rather big flag fall draw. So using if to charging batteries and doing nothing else on AC would use double the energy required. Forgetting to turn the inverter off after cooking would also see around 30% usage overnight just to keep the inverter alive. I found it much better to use the DC supply and the UCB C. Much higher efficiency. I made up a lead to run the fridge from the 30A socket - screwed in so did not work loose or fall out like the cig lighter socket. The Cig lighter plug/socket also got hot so wasted energy. My next time improvement is to have a USB C charger for my Nikon batteries. Had it strapped down behind the fridge in back of car (Prado). To run the AC gear I used a 4 point power box with RCD protection - the orange square ones you can get from Bunnings. It made access to the sockets easier at the back of the car AND provided RCD protection. The other reason for choosing it was I can (and do) use it at home to run my PC and other appliances - not called a UPS by Bluetti but it is - full time AC from the batteries and able to charge at the same time. I can also charge at home when my home solar is pumping. This, whilst not a $$$ justification, does protect my PC from the mains and allows me to use more of my solar at home. If I’d put a dual battery system in the car, it would only be useful in the car. I’m at home way more than out travelling so I get some use from it all the time. It is very heavy! I’m on the mailing list.
@@TheLifestylePioneers to use an over used phrase “game changing”. So windy on our trip. Keeping the outside gas burners going in the wind requires magic.
Thanks for the info. It amazes me that we need to filter our water to get rid of nasties. especially this day and age. We need to question more. What nasties are in the water and why. If we need to filter the water that millions of people consume, that should raise questions. Filter your water the best you can until these questions are answered and acted upon. Stay healthy.
@TheLifestylePioneers boiling your own water for the correct amount of time and filtering that would be less toxic than town water. Unfortunately. What i was getting at is the water that is supposed to be fit for consuming is far from it. Just because we are told its ok, doesnt mean it is.
I have the Blueetti in your vid and yep it is good , but when your testing it and charging it by a solar blanket you need at least a 350 watt blanket , this is the only down side I have found so far, and also thanks for all the good info in all the vids.
We’ve just returned from a trip to Darwin from east coast NSW and found Telstra reception to be absolutely shocking unless you are in a town, off grid reception is zero. Will be interested for you to do another review of cowfish after your trip to WA. Look forward to your new water desalination set up.
Telstra 4G typically has a 70km coverage from the antennas, if line of sight. Telstra has an extensive exisiting network of radio towers along the major routes, and the Telstra mobiles antennas are installed on these towers. Many are on elevated ridges and hill tops further increasing coverage.
We generally don't need coverage between towns, but when we do the Starlink is fantastic. The problem is Starlink isn't as great in towns or around trees. Both systems have their limitations.
Another great episode, lots of info. I like the applications for older vans especially as there would be many of us not in the position to upgrade to the big set ups that are now getting around, and of course some of us are still weekend campers lol
