Author: Scott

This was a pre- retirement trip. It was also our first trip with the Earthcruiser Group. From time to time one of the Earthcruiser Owners will organize a trip and other Earthcruisers will come along. It is a great chance to get to know other owners and pick up lots of information about the trucks.

So this trip was to the Garig Gunnar Barlu National Park. Also known as the Cobourg Peninsula. We met up with the other owners at Kakadu National Park. It was about 3000km up to Jabiru which took 4 days.

We had some great stops on the way up to Jabiru. One great advantage of the Earthcruiser is that it can get you away from the crowds. The free campsites in Australia can get very busy. The Earthcruiser lets you get to places that motor homes and caravans can only dream of – so often we had the sites to ourselves.

One of the joys of traveling in outback Australia is finding unique and off beat places. We met up with our friends Mike and Kate Manly at the Pink Panther Road House north of Daily Waters. They were traveling around Oz in their van. We had a great evening with them. The Pink Panther serves up a good BBQ feed.

We filled up with water at Jabiru and headed off to meet the rest of the Earthcruiser gang at Ubirr. This has to be one of the most special places in the world. The rock art is stunning as is the lookout from Ubirr rock. We have been here before but the sunset never ceases to amaze.

We spent the following day traveling up through Arnhem Land on dirt roads. In general thes were in good condition and dry. They were no problem at all for the Earthcruisers. On the way up we stopped at Gunbalanya (also known as Oenpelli) to take a look at the art Centre.

We had been having some problems with with one of the doors on the Earthcruiser so the team set to work on fixing it. How many Earthcruiser owners does it take to fix a dunny door -a lot! Thanks to Martin for some great work with a file.

Then into Garig Gunnar Barlu National Park. We spent about a week in the park. Exploring, fishing and generally kicking back and relaxing. In the evenings we caught up with the other owners around the camp fire. The drives along the beaches were particularly good. The camp site was great with hot showers.

On one of the days we took a boat out to Victoria Settlement. This was an old British Penal colony. It really must have been one of the worst places on earth. Soldiers and inmates must have felt that they were at the end of the world. Many of th buildings survive.

Then the long drive home. One the way we visited the hot springs at Matakana, the lost cities in Limmen National Park Andy got to nurse joeys at one of the camp sites we stayed at.

A great trip.

 

 

 

 

 

The Ozpig can be used for just about any form of cooking. On our last trip we used it with our pressure cooker. We did a beef curry. Took about 20 minutes on the pig. came out great!

We like the the inside shower/toilet set up in the EC. We did have the large outside shower fitted. We have made modifications to the outside shower curtain to make it a true outside cubicle. Tags and elastic guy lines around the bottom and Velcro down the door so that it can be closed.

Probably would not be good in strong wind. I have even put a pop up pooper in there in case I feel the need to sit on the thrown and contemplate the world for an hour or two.

On the 8th and 9th of June we stayed over at Red Rock Camping site in Byfield National Park. The stay demonstrated that you don’t have to travel a long way in Australia to find a special place. We stayed over with our friends David and Jodie Luck and their children Alex and Lacey. They own an Iveco Daily 4×4 but not an Earth Cruiser.

I guess the first thing to note is that the set up in an Earth Cruiser is so much easier and faster than setting up a true camp site. Our set up involved putting up two chairs, rolling out a mat, putting out a bin and setting up the Ozpig – 5-10 minutes.

David and Jodie took quite a bit longer – but their set up was impressive when it was done.

We are still adapting to living in a very small area. Definitely when some one is up cooking or using the living space the other person needs to be sitting or lying on the bed. The other thing to remember is that outside the truck is also a living space. we are adapting to living outside as much a living inside. I am sure that over time we will adapt. so far we are having a lot of fun.

in April 2018 I (Anita) did my heavy vehicle training in Central Queensland at Rockhampton. The truck seemed huge for me. My instructor was Sally who helped me appreciate my driving ‘bad habits’ such as riding the clutch, only keeping a couple of fingers on the steering wheel and moving quickly into other lanes and up to traffic lights. I learnt all about staying inside the lines too!  We spent five hours practising manoeuvres and routes. The hardest bit was reversing round a corner. I was nervous during my driving test but was lucky enough to pass first time 😀. This was especially awesome as Scott needed two attempts! 😆

 

So this is my experience of picking up my IVECO Daily 4×4 fitted out as an Earth Cruiser. We went for a Euro 5. We did this because we did not want to carry Adblue and due to Marcus Tuck ‘s positive experience of using poor quality fuel in the Euro 5. We plan to drive the EC around the world hence our concerns about Adblue and fuel quality.

It has been a long time between ordering our EC and picking it up. This gave me a lot of time to do a lot of reading about the Daily 4×4 EC. After reading about all the short comings of the Daily I picked the truck up with some concern. Was the transfer case going to explode? Were we about to be killed by the run away truck on the first down hill section? Worry worry worry.

I should note that we did have the brake up grade offered by EC. I will also note that our truck comes in at about 5000kg.

We we picked up the truck ran it around the Wollongong area for a few days and then drove it up to Rockhampton. So this report is based on experience of only driving the truck for 2000 km. I acknowledge this is VERY limited experience.

Let’s start with the less positive issues encountered. I simply could not get my head around the air con or air recirculation control to the point where I thought the controls were broken. I called into IVECO Newcastle. They checked the controls and found them to be working fine. They took time to explain the controls and a few other features of the truck. I could not fault IVECO Newcastle in terms of service or friendliness.

We did encounter the problem of the fuel gauge not recognising fuel that we were pumping over from auxiliary tanks in he EC. This was not a major issue. If we stopped and turned the ignition off the fuel was recognised when we restarted the engine.

The brakes did feel sluggish compared with my daily drive – a Mustang. I never had any problems pulling up when I needed to in normal traffic.

We did not have any problems in controlling the truck on hills. We did not do any massive hills but we did take the truck down the Mount Morgan range. Not a massive stretch but a test none the less. I descended the hill in forth and third gear half gear. I used minimal foot brake. I felt in control all the way down. I was greatly relieved. I will of course try the truck on bigger hills.

I did not use low range at all so cannot comment.

The truck was sluggish going up hills. At the weight we were running I think this was to be expected and it was not a great problem.

I really enjoyed diving the truck. It was great being up so high – you get to see much more than in a car or a 4×4. As I said I was apprehensive about picking up the truck and I have had worries that I had chosen the wrong truck – these worries are now gone – this is the right truck for me.

In terms of the Earth Cruiser I cannot believe how good it is – just fantastic.

This report is based on VERY limited experience but there might be some people who are interested in first impressions.

Not really an overlanding post – but the Oz Pig is a firm favorite when we are traveling. One of the best things you can do on it is smoke low and slow Texas style. Today I smoked a brisket one of the more difficult things to smoke in any smoker. This was my first brisket attempt on the Oz Pig.

Used a rub of Brown sugar, sweet paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, cracked black pepper, salt, and chili powder. I covered the joint in French and English mustard so that the rub stuck to the meat.

I used the Minion method. Used a half chimney of burning brickets on top of about a chimney of in unlit brickets. This gave a long slow burn. Temperature was controlled by adding lump wood charcoal, use of the vented door and the vents on top of the Magma Pig. Used a BBQ Go to record temperature remotely on my iPhone both inside the meat and in the Magma Pig.

Started mopping at 1.5 hours – every 30-40mins. Using apple cider, beer and spice mop. Maintained 220-230F. Great way to pass a rainy afternoon.

Once the internal temperature reached  195F I wrapped the brisket in a double layer of foil and put back into the pig – a Texas Crutch! (or cheat). I also added about half a cup of apple juice. I brought the temperature of the pig up to 250F for the final hour and a half.

 

The internal temperature got to 210F. The result was very good. The meat had a lot of favor and was very tender. If I had left it for another hour it could have been pulled.

 

This was the first time I had smoked a brisket on the Oz Pig. Great to see just how versatile the Pig is. The Pig comes apart and is easy to carry. We have used it across of Australia and are looking forward to using it across the world.

Our Earth Cruiser weighs in at 6000kg. The Car license in Australia restricts you to driving vehicles up to 4500kg – so no good for the Earth Cruiser. I could have got away with taking a Light Rigid Vehicle test but decided to go for the Heavy one. In retrospect this was a good decision – learning to drive this kind of truck was really good fun.

I did a two hour lesson in a Stirling truck followed by a one hour pre test lesson – then the test. FAIL. I went through a red light. I found out you don’t speed up in a truck to get through an amber light – lesson well learnt. To be honest I was never very comfortable in the Stirling. Every time I used the brake I nearly put the examiner and instructor through the wind screen. Sally Brown my instructor from Advanced Heavy Vehicle Driver Training in Rockhampton was very brave.

So I did two more lessons in a Volvo. I was much happier in this truck. Very like driving a car only much bigger. No problem with the brakes this time. The only thing I had to watch was keeping the speed down. Off to the test. PASS. No problems only a couple of minor comments. Great so now I can drive the Earth Cruiser. Anita’s turn next.