First over-night trip

Adventure machine at Waipawa River looking east

Looking up to the Ruahine ranges

On the bank of the Waipawa River, on an unusually calm night we spent our first night in the adM.
Three thumbs up was the conclusion.

Bench and sink

The bench for the sink and storage is partway done.
I used off-cuts of the 'ultrasign' board and plastic drawers from 'The Warehouse'. Nice and light.
Still have the plumbing to do and a step on the left side to get up to the bunk.

Ver 3.02 big rear door

Big rear door is much smaller rear door now.

Interior in 'travel' mode

A look at where I went

I haven't tried this before but here goes..

Google Earth should show you my GPS track.

Ruahine adventure 1

Four days in the Ruahine mountains tramping. Good weather and not another soul met from start to finish. Solitude.

I didn't actually sleep in  the AdM  but it did get me to an out of the way place and I have found the site for our first overnighter.  Just 100m on from here via a 4WD track to the river is a flat sheltered spot. Perfect.

Real (off) road test

This afternoon we took the Adventure Machine for a decent offroad test. I am happy to say it went very well indeed. The roads have seen better days after the recent heavy rain so a real test of its ability.
One steep uphill section required low ratio 4WD as it was soft, rutted and very steep. I needed a cup of tea by the top.

Design flaw

The project had one large design flaw, the big rear door, in particular the inability to close it whilst in the rear cabin.
So if you are, for instance, by the sea and it gets windy, you can't close the door and hunker inside. You would have to get into the front cabin.
In addition, the big rear door was a bit bigger than I first planned and a lot heavier.
After a great deal of thought the only solution seemed to be to hinge part of the door so that it could fold down and attach to the supporting doors for strength but also allow us to get in and out.

So off the came to door again. A bit of cutting here, a bit of welding there, a few hinges extra and it was ready for a trial fit.

 Of course now that I have put in a hinge I also need a way to hold the door straight as well.
All up the door weighs 20kg. This puts a lot of pressure on the supports. It all looks ugly.

Version 3 will do without the second part of the door all together. This reduces the sheltered part at the rear but more than halves the weight of the rear door making it much easier to support and manhandle. We will have an 'awning' made to create a covered an enclosed rear. The size and details are yet to be decided.

I have spent far too many hours constructing, deconstructing and reconstructing this door and I am heartily sick of it.