… or how to be amazed by a rock climbing camper

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Some of you may know our beloved 4×4 Camper “Wohni” … which, believe it or not, we are considering to sell. It actually hurts and pulls my stomach and I couldn’t just simply ‘chuck’ this into any classifieds section. Building Wohni was fulfilling a dream and the vehicle is like a family member, especially to the boys.

However, Wohni has become more of a boat hauler recently – it’s simply about how the family prefers spending their free time … also, other “more suitable/fitting” investment opportunities dictate that the reasonable thing may be to rather sell Wohni.

I am posting this to first and generally find out, whether or not there would be any interest at all.

All the best

Tommy (feeling weird about this)

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Desert Rain #1

The rainfall that year (2008/2009) was one the highest ever recorded. The thunderstorms moved all the way down into the Namib Desert and the Tsauchab River, thundering through the Sesriem Canyon, filled Sossus Vlei with water for the first time in many years. I jumped into Wohni, and started chasing the weather. The downpour was torrential and even though being used to storms, having flown through them many a times, I eventually ended up trying to get the heck outta there. Being the only moving object sticking out of the landscape, with lightning strikes too close for comfort and thunder deafening my ears, I decided that this may not be such a good idea after all.

Desert Rain #2

The camper, mainly composite, produces exactly the opposite effect of a protective Faraday Cage, mind you. It was exciting and terrifying at the same time, the shots I got, however, made it all worth the effort.

If you like my photography, please visit Tommy Kellner Photography.

Stay low, aim high

Tommy

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Regular visitors will have noticed two things, the blog was quiet for about a year or so only to eventually completely disappear from cyberspace during May and most of June.
The former was simply due to other priorities, the latter due to a fatal server crash and the subsequent desperate efforts to reinstate and upgrade the blog at the same time. In fact, not only did I have to upgrade WP but also the theme, the combination of both causing some havoc and pandemonium to say the least.
Anywho, it’s up and running again and I promise to start posting again soonest, starting by re-blogging some of the journeys and trips you may have missed out on.

On a positive note, I have added a nifty Gallery plug-in, some social networking tools and last but not least wohni.com now has a mobile version for the on-the-move-readers amongst you.

All the best.
Tommy

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[View with PicLens]

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Sorry for the recent (1 year) silence, but the blog had to take a back seat in my live and Wohni became more of a boat hauler and base camp at the dam than the bundu basher it was built to be. What can I say, anything for the kids, right? Right!

Anyhoo, I know that some people are eagerly awaiting feedback on the spacer story/issue, especially as we are talking about an almost 4 ton rig here, constantly pounding gravel roads and other tooth filling removal routes ‘n tracks. Furthermore, this year January Wohni conquered its final frontier, the dunes of the Namib – with honors, I might add.

To cut a long story short, it’s all good news. The spacers purchased at LA Sports Windhoek – after much to and fro and heated discussions and misunderstandings and what not – are holding up. No worries, no complaints. On the contrary, driving and stability has improved a great deal and the whole rig simply feels better then without the spacers.

For what it’s worth: I’m always carrying a torque wrench and I am making sure that the spacers and wheels are torqued (and re-torqued) correctly at all times. Mine are steel spacers and I’m torquing them at 205NM as per owners manual for steel rims, the mags are torqued at 130NM.

At the Travel Expo over last week I learned that La Sport’s spacers are selling well since, but are now made of aluminum. Call me paranoid, but with the weight we are lugging around, I am quite content with our steel spacers albeit the added (not to be underestimated) un-swung mass.

’til next time – drive save.

Tommy

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I have basically made up my mind and ordered a pair of 2″ wheel spacers from Snake Racing Australia.

By now we have now done about 5000kms through all sorts of terrain and when fully loaded for 5 days in the wilderness, we are quite heavy (close to 3.5t methinks). It was neither the dune driving, nor was it crawling steep mountain tracks, nor driving corrugated gravel roads or any such sorts, that would have been reason to raise any concern.

Ugab River Bed

Ugab River close to Messum Crater

However, when we drove through the Ugab river bed, from Mile 108 to the Brandberg, and when in deeper/heavier sand, I felt that Wohni was wagging its tail a bit more then it should (whether following other vehicle’s tracks or not). The ’swinging’ of the back, obviously caused by the hind wheels’ alternating efforts to follow the tracks made by their respective peers in the front and amplified by the rather rearward center of gravity, worried me somewhat and still does. Not right there and then, where we took it nice and easy, but projecting that tail wagging to what it would/could be like on a sloping wet beach, where you have to keep the speed up at all times, is what may be rather disconcerting. Especially along those stretches, when the wet part is your only option, because you are flanked by steep dune walls on one side and the sea on the other .

Lange Wand - Source: Wikitravel

Sometimes for many kilometers, such as when driving along the “Lange Wand” between Conception Bay and Sandwich Bay for example.

A pair of 2-Inchers for me please – and the unlikely possibility to overstress the axle and/or wheel bearings on the side, thank you very much. I promise to let you know, should something break after all.

Cheers and Beers
Tommy

Related Link: At the time of this writing the discussion is still on @ Landcruiser Club Southern Africa Forum

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I have basically made up my mind and ordered a pair of 2″ wheel spacers from Snake Racing Australia.

By now we have now done about 5000kms through all sorts of terrain and when fully loaded for 5 days in the wilderness, we are quite heavy (close to 3.5t methinks). It was neither the dune driving, nor was it crawling steep mountain tracks, nor driving corrugated gravel roads or any such sorts, that would have been reason to raise any concern.

Ugab River Bed

Ugab River close to Messum Crater

However, when we drove through the Ugab river bed, from Mile 108 to the Brandberg, and when in deeper/heavier sand, I felt that Wohni was wagging its tail a bit more then it should (whether following other vehicle’s tracks or not). The ’swinging’ of the back, obviously caused by the hind wheels’ alternating efforts to follow the tracks made by their respective peers in the front and amplified by the rather rearward center of gravity, worried me somewhat and still does. Not right there and then, where we took it nice and easy, but projecting that tail wagging to what it would/could be like on a sloping wet beach, where you have to keep the speed up at all times, is what may be rather disconcerting. Especially along those stretches, when the wet part is your only option, because you are flanked by steep dune walls on one side and the sea on the other .

Lange Wand - Source: Wikitravel

Sometimes for many kilometers, such as when driving along the “Lange Wand” between Conception Bay and Sandwich Bay for example.

A pair of 2-Inchers for me please – and the unlikely possibility to overstress the axle and/or wheel bearings on the side, thank you very much. I promise to let you know, should something break after all.

Cheers and Beers
Tommy

Related Link: At the time of this writing the discussion is still on @ Landcruiser Club Southern Africa Forum

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I have basically made up my mind and ordered a pair of 2″ wheel spacers from Snake Racing Australia.

By now we have now done about 5000kms through all sorts of terrain and when fully loaded for 5 days in the wilderness, we are quite heavy (close to 3.5t methinks). It was neither the dune driving, nor was it crawling steep mountain tracks, nor driving corrugated gravel roads or any such sorts, that would have been reason to raise any concern.

Ugab River Bed

Ugab River close to Messum Crater

However, when we drove through the Ugab river bed, from Mile 108 to the Brandberg, and when in deeper/heavier sand, I felt that Wohni was wagging its tail a bit more then it should (whether following other vehicle’s tracks or not). The ’swinging’ of the back, obviously caused by the hind wheels’ alternating efforts to follow the tracks made by their respective peers in the front and amplified by the rather rearward center of gravity, worried me somewhat and still does. Not right there and then, where we took it nice and easy, but projecting that tail wagging to what it would/could be like on a sloping wet beach, where you have to keep the speed up at all times, is what may be rather disconcerting. Especially along those stretches, when the wet part is your only option, because you are flanked by steep dune walls on one side and the sea on the other .

Lange Wand - Source: Wikitravel

Sometimes for many kilometers, such as when driving along the “Lange Wand” between Conception Bay and Sandwich Bay for example.

A pair of 2-Inchers for me please - and the unlikely possibility to overstress the axle and/or wheel bearings on the side, thank you very much. I promise to let you know, should something break after all.

Cheers and Beers
Tommy

Related Link: At the time of this writing the discussion is still on @ Landcruiser Club Southern Africa Forum

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The short and sweet of it is, that the bodywork at large and integration of the cabin is top notch. However, pursuant to some testing and trips and as early as at the time of picking up Wohni, flaws started to become apparent when “looking a bit closer”, the sum of them bordering on being a nuisance. Would I do it again? Yes, but only the bodywork together with the basic joinery and interior work. The rest, especially technical extras, water, electricity, etc., I would rather do myself and/or have them done by specialists close by.

When we picked up Wohni:
I had taken loads of stuff with me to Jeffreys Bay when I delivered the vehicle for conversion, which now had to be stowed away and/or tied to the roof carrier. It turned out that the carrier was fabricated with three struts on the top only. With only one strut in the middle, there were obviously few items that could be tied to the carrier. Utilising Schroeder’s workshop and staff I swiftly solved that problem myself by fabricating and riveting four plywood boards onto the carrier. Our beloved camping table, sturdy and hence rather heavy, was leaning quite lazily in the rear compartment. Not only would it have been rattling around while driving, but one would have had to remove it every time when accessing something in the back. That too was quickly solved by mounting it on top of the spare wheels.

On our maiden trip:

Secured with cable ties

Making camp the first night, it turned out that opening and especially closing the pop-up roof was a bit tricky, to say the least, and that you have to be quite the contortionist to make the main bed on top. We still don’t understand why they didn’t come up with a slide-out solution for the bed’s extension board, rather than having to lift, squeeze, pull and shove at the same time, in order to get the board stowed under the mattresses and bedding (Doris still cannot do it on her own). As for the pop-up roof, you also need some practice and knowledge of applied science in order to open and/or close it. The main problem is the rear roof carrier which has been positioned way to close to the roof frame and thus more often than not is in the way of the pop-up roof’s rear edge. We usually close the roof together, with Doris pulling down from the inside and me pulling forward while sitting on the spare wheels. A rather worrying phenomenon are the clips at the front, securing the roof in its down position, which had to be mounted on the outside due to the fact that you cannot reach the front closing mechanism in the cabin’s nose where the bedding and mattresses are stowed away. The way the clips are positioned, they pull the roof more forward than downward and by now, with the roof and sealing properly settled, the downward action is close to non-existent. Schroeder’s words are still ringing in my ears: “I suggest you make a plan with those clips, once you’re back home, as I don’t trust them fully”. Huh?

Two-night test camping at the dam together with the kids:
The middle part of the kiddie bed, which according to Schroeder would stay in place once the mattress pieces are puzzled together, kept on crashing down. In order to avoid the boys potentially hurting their heads on the protruding slide-out support, I installed a simple locking mechanism, right there and then.

Five-day trip to the desert and coast:

The Middle Of Nowhere

Fully loaded with water and supplies for five days and fuel filled up to the brim, Wohni actually provides a very pleasant ride, although the ride height at the rear is a bit low for my taste, also causing the steering wheel to feel somewhat “sluggish” when traveling on gravel. 300km out of Windhoek, in the middle of nowhere at 40 degrees in the non-existing shade, we accessed the Engel fridge for the first time to quench our thirst. Trying to slide it back in, it wouldn’t travel the last two centimeters, which also made it impossible to lock it in place. Try as I might, I wasn’t able to locate the problem there and then and with the spot, we picked for camping that night only two hours away, we decided to continue. Doris had to hold on to the slide-out, preventing the monolith from becoming a destructive furniture basher. At the camp we had to empty the fridge for trouble shooting and found out the the slide-out floor bends downward under heavy load and gets stuck on a way to closely mounted cable duct right underneath. The only option there and then was to simply remove the duct. Back home I would spend more than a day to fix the slide-out and to properly support the weight of the Engel, by not only replacing and reinforcing screws, mountings and fixture, but also by adding screws which seemingly had been simply “forgotten”.

No comment

On day three, or rather night two, I ended up inside the cabin with the door handle in my hand. I decided to let this be tomorrow’s worry, only to learn that having to climb over the kids and out the front, with a close to bursting bladder at two o’clock in the morning, is a very unpleasant experience. What I assumed would be a minor effort, to simply replace the handle, would eventually become a two hour makeshift ordeal accompanied by swearing and sweating. Some of the fine-thread screws had been tightened with pliers - and obviously broke - others, such as the ones holding the handles in place had yet again been “forgotten”. At our last camp, at a cozy and secluded spot near the Brandberg, we realised water dripping out the bottom. One of the two main tanks had come loose due to a broken (very bad) weld and, probably rubbing against the before mentioned, had chafed a small hole through its skin. I spent the better part of the next morning securing the tank back in place with the aid of ratchet belts and wire and also fixed the hole in the tank.

Summa Summarum: The above is a rather brief synopsis of the surprises and flaws we found and/or experienced. I presented a 12 page list/report to Schroeder hoping he would be co-operative, considering that we had already paid the full amount for the conversion. Pursuant to some hick-hack and arguments and once I had made it clear that I WOULD NOT COME TO JEFFREYS BAY to have the issues rectified and/or addressed (especially not at our own costs), Claus Schroeder apologised professionally and showed a very service orientated attitude. As per his suggestion, we are now in the process of gathering quotes from workshops and specialists here in Windhoek. The work and materials used will be reimbursed by Schroeder Motorhomes.

Even with the happy ending in sight, we still have that bitter sweet taste lingering in the back of our throats. IMHO most of the issues could have been avoided and/or were really unnecessary.

Cheers & Beers
Tommy

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