Monthly Archives: February 2020

Planning

First Night in Holbrook

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HMAS Otway, Holbrook

After picking up ournew van from the Supreme dealership in Melbourne we headed off on our first tow to Holbrook. Holbrook is exactly half-way home from Melbourne and is a postcard country town famous for the the submarine that is centrally located on the main street.

Thanks to the Country Pub Camping website we discovered The Riverina Hotel in Holbrook. Instead of staying in the Holbrook caravan park we stayed for free (unpowered) in the large grassy area behind the pub. As good guests do, we had dinner that night at the pub and it was exceptionally good. The Riverina Hotel in Holbrook also allows campers to use their toilets and showers at no extra cost, which was particularly useful to us since our van’s toilet was not set up to use at that point. We can’t recommend the The Riverina Hotel in Holbrook highly enough… flat level camping area, friendly staff, excellent food, cold beer/wine and good country atmosphere. A perfect place for our first night in our new van.

The Grand Tour, Uncategorized

Picking Up Our New Van

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Van at the dealership

As we sort of expected…Supreme called up to let us know that our van was finished and ready to pick up a bit earlier than expected. We set our date for Tuesday, 11th February 2020. This meant a a quick trip down to Melbourne for hand-over on the Tuesday morning followed by towing back to Holbrook (half-way) in the afternoon, an overnight test sleep and then tow back home on the Wednesday.

The hand-over itself was quite comprehensive and also involved the fitting of a Weight Distribution
Hitch (WDH) to help take the load of the back axle of the Landcruiser. This isn’t mandatory but I’m convinced that this piece of extra kit helps keeps the van straighter and more level under tow.

Weight Distribution Hitch

The folks at Supreme were very happy and helpful, took their time and made us feel very comfortable before we took off on that first tow out of Melbourne.

Happy New Owners

We also bought a 12V TV and some leveling ramps at the dealership in anticipation of upcoming trips.

There was only one snag at hand-over, which was that the Annex company didn’t turn up the previous day to measure up and install the tracks for our annex. No big deal though, Supreme organised for them to do the measuring and tracking at our place when we return home.