Well, a bit of a series of problems over the weekend overshadowed what would normally be a very good outing.

My weekend started on Friday afternoon, when I took the opportunity to hire a Camper Trailer from Habitat Camper Trailer Hire. Before picking up the unit, the owner went through the setup of the unit & it all seemed pretty straight forward. As there were some rules pertaining to this rental which involved not driving it on gravel roads, I had to make a change to the route for this trip to go through Lithgow, rather than take the more direct route to our camping spot, just off Blackfellows Hand Rd.

Once I picked the rental trailer up & arrived home, I thought I would give it a once over, to ensure that it was suitable for the 4 hour trip ahead of us & the same return. On this inspection I noted a small bit of panel damage, which as it was only minor, I originally decided I would report this on it's scheduled return on Monday. Everything else looked to check out OK & we were able to pack so we could get an early night, ready for departure the next morning.

The next morning, it was an early rise, to ensure the pets were taken care of (I often fail to mention we have pets & there are other responsibilities most of us campers have to take care of before setting out for a weekend or longer), before we were under way just before 6:00am, so we could make the designated meeting point of the Hawkesbury River bridge at 6:30am. Once we arrived, we all introduced ourselves to those we had not met before, I had the trip notification forms filled in (insurance purposes for the 4WD club) & we were under way.

We headed south on the F3 to Thonleigh, then while following Pennant Hills rd to the Cumberland Highway, Stella (my wife) told me she had a bit of an upset stomach, so we decided to make a slight change to our scheduled stop of the McDonalds at Penrith, to the one on the Great Western Highway, as it had a convenience store next door. Once back on the road, all was going to plan for our next scheduled stop at Lithgow, where I was to pick up the pre-arranged key to the Spanish Steps track. then on to the Great Western Highway to Lithgow.

On arrival at Lithgow, I let the rest of the convoy know that they could fuel up & so on & to meet me in 20 minutes, back on the highway, while I went & picked up the key & signed the book for the track. As it turned out, the missing locks I had reported a month ago, were apparently replaced, but vandalized again by unauthorized visitors to this track. I let the guy know if I saw anyone down there this weekend, I would report it to the association, & I was informed that there was only one other club booked for this track this weekend.

From there, I met up with the rest of the group again, & we then proceeded to the camping area we had found on the reckie a month ago, where we set up camp & where the problems started.

We found a nice level spot to set up the camper trailer, unhitched it from my vehicle & started to set it up, which involves undoing the four lock down clips & simply winding the handle up. Unfortunately only 3 corners were going up, so we had to investigate further to find out why this rental camper was not functioning correctly. As Julie owns a similar camper, we sought advice from her & she basically said there must be a malfunction within the unit, as they should go up evenly & from what she could see, we had set it up correctly. We tried winding it back down & back up, but was still the same. We decided that as it would not be suitable for use if not fully erected, we would have to do a quick repair on it, which we sort of did using the little extra equipment we were carrying, including having to damage some of our spare hose clamps to give a locking point on the shaft which we used a piece of square hollow section I had in the back of my vehicle to hold the rear barn door open on side slopes. After that, we decided that to help with the stability of the trailer, I would wind down the feet, but one of these were also faulty & on winding, the shaft started to fall out. I was again forced to do a bit of a "bush mechanic" repair & use some rocks I had found to help support the front passenger corner of the camper. With those problems sorted out, we were able to finish setting up camp & hit the trails.

Our first trail for the day, was the track through the Gardens of Stone, which is a good warm up for the other two tracks we would be doing on the Saturday. This track involves a few sections with some small steps & a few small ruts before arriving at a scenic lookout. We stopped briefly at the lookout, but as the wind was blowing quite hard & the temperature was dropping, we soon departed for the Lost City  lookout, which while the sky was clear, & we are in late spring, the temperature was a brisk 9degrees Celsius, so again we did not stay there long either.

From the Lost City, we started on our second track for the day, which is where I almost rolled about a month ago. Just before arriving at that section, I put the call over the UHF radio that we would stop for lunch & walk the track & decide what lines to take & if any road building would be needed, before we attack it. Unfortunately, Paul decided to tackle a hard section to the right of our trail & in the process, managed to get his Sierra stuck in a deep rut, so would require recovery, once we could get a vehicle past him.

Once lunch was finished, we walked up the track to check out the situation & what lines to take & saw the position of Paul's Sierra. We decided as it was a difficult situation, that it would be best for Darryl to head up first with the Defender & recover the Sierra. After that, I picked a line, engaged the rear locker & I went up the track. We managed to get to the point where I almost rolled last time (which I had told Stella about) & when the front passenger wheel started to come up about half a metre, Stella started screaming & wanted to get out. We calmed her down & then proceeded a little further & convinced her that what she has just experience was OK, but I think that contributed to her further dislike for four wheel driving.

Movie of my vehicle coming up the hill with a little wheel lift

Once I managed to get through, it was Allan's turn in the 60 series, but after a few attempts, he needed to be towed up the hill behind the li'l troopy.

Then was Julie's turn & with her new locker, made it look easy, traversing the section where most of lifted a wheel, making it look like just a little bump in a hill..

From there, we headed on further on this same track to a section I call the 3 hills, which the middle section is almost impassable, the track to the right has a bit too much cross slope for my liking & the track to the left has a step which is a bit off square, so can cause a few problems with limited articulation & momentum.

I attacked this last track first & with the locker engaged, climbed it easily. Then Paul tried the middle track & after several attempts, realized that his short wheelbase & no front locker was not going to get him there, so had to back down & come up the same track I had.

Allan came up the same track I came & after a few attempts & a bit of right foot, overcame the obstacle. Julie was next & again with the locker & good suspension setup of the 80 series, she easily climbed this section.

Last was Darryl & he decided he wanted a go at the hard track, so lined it up & almost made it. I can only say almost, because only his front wheels made it over the step (as tall as I am) & that is where it stopped. He had a few goes at it before realizing her would not make it & decided to take the same track as the rest of us had & also did it easily.

After this section, this track joined onto the power lines track, which we then had a few obstacles & we met up with another club doing a trip. We all waited at the bottom of one of the hills, where there is a bit of a mud hole, where Paul had a little play & managed to get stuck & needed a snatch to get out.

Once this had been done, we went up this section of track & from there back to Blackfellows Hand Rd, where I took everyone around to Sunnyside Rd. From there, we went down to Sunnyside lookout, which on this track there were a number of mud holes, including one which stopped the progress of Allan in his 60 series. We hooked Paul's Sierra up to it & after a few attempts, realized that the 60 was going to be too heavy to be extracted by the little zook, so I hooked up my heavier vehicle & after two attempts (first was a gentle tug to see if I could & second was a proper snatch) we extracted the 60 series from the mud. The other vehicles took the easy option of going around.

After this, there were a few small steps on the way to the lookout & again as the wind was really blowing, we did not stay very long before going back up that track. I decided to go back through that same mud hole where Allan had got stuck & that is where I managed to get my bonnet all muddy, as when I dropped in, the muddy water came up over the bonnet, so I gave it a bit of right boot & made it through. Paul followed & made it as well, but nobody else attempted this obstacle again.

From there, we headed over to the Spanish Steps track, which changes every time I come down here. I went down the harder track to the steps & managed to scrape my underbody on a few of the larger steps, but when I arrived at the steps, decided to take the easier line down them to the bottom. Paul then came down the hard track as well & took the harder line & with his new rock crawler gears, made it look easy. Then was Allan, who decided to take the easier track & easy line, which resulted in no scrapes & an easy passage to the bottom. Julie came down the same was as Paul, but scraped a few times. Darryl also took the same line, but for his first time, managed to get down without scraping.

Movie of my vehicle coming down the top step

From the steps, we crossed the 3 river crossings & a few bog holes at the bottom, before heading to the rock face. I went up first & as I had tackled this a few times before & noted my errors from previous visits, picked a good line, used just enough right boot & the rear locker & made it up quite easily. Paul came up the hard side, showing how capable the zook is with the right setup. Then Allan came up the muddy side & made it up with very few problems. After that, Julie decided she wanted to have a go at the same line Paul had taken. Unfortunately after a few attempts & a burnt out clutch, she was not successful, so we limped her up the middle section. Darryl also had a go at the harder line, but due to his wheelbase, was stopped by two ledges. He then had another go & failed before backing back & coming up the easier line, up the middle.

Movie of my vehicle climbing the rockface

Movie of Julie trying to climb the rock face

Movie of Daryl coming up the rock face

From there we had a small problem where Julie took a corner a little sharper than she needed to & managed to get hung up on a small ledge, but after a little line change she made it up. From there we all made it back out the gate, & on our way to collect firewood. Just before getting there, I saw what looked like a large puddle across the track & as it did not have any obvious ledges on it, I thought I would drive through the middle, as I had done on every other puddle on this trip. Unfortunately, I was stopped about 1/2 way when my vehicle bellied out & the water level was part of the way up the doors. My vehicle is quite water tight, so that wasn't a real problem. The problem was, as I have weather shields, I had no way of getting out, other than opening a door, which I did a little to see if I was above the water line, but found I wasn't, so close it promptly. About 1/2 litre of muddy water came in, so it wasn't too bad.

Movie of being snatched out

As Paul was wearing shorts, I asked if he could hook up a strap to the rear of my vehicle, sop I could be snatched out backwards, which he did. After 2 goes, I was extracted & we then decided to go a little up the track & collect firewood.

After collecting the firewood, we returned to camp to have a few drinks & prepare our meals. When I pulled the pots & pans out, I noticed one of the saucepans was still dirty from whoever had used it last & still had food stuffs in it. I was a little annoyed by this, but just cleaned it anyway, so I could start preparing our dinner. This is where I encountered yet another problem with the rental camper. The problem this time was the gas burners were not working. I then looked for the instruction booklet to see if there was any mention of what to do in this situation, but unfortunately there wasn't. I checked to make sure I had turned on the gas at the bottle & the rest of the line & all looked normal. I also checked the bleed valve to see if it worked & there was gas getting through there, so that sort of eliminated any problems with the regulator.

This to me was the last straw , so I then drove about 30km to where we had some phone reception. As it was Saturday evening, I decided firstly to ring the mobile of the owners of Habitat Rental Campers, but after 2 attempts, it rang out. I then contacted their home phone number & again no answer, so I left 3 detailed messages, letting them know I was having problems with their camper.

They returned my call at 12:30 the next day, but as I was still out of range, I did not receive it until I returned home, which unfortunately was a little late for me to get any sort of satisfactory use from this unit.

That night we managed to borrow some cooking equipment from Julie so we could prepare our meals, but as I was quite annoyed from the substandard gear I had paid good money for & had not received, both Stella and I struggled to enjoy my meals. After all of these problems, I was quite annoyed & quite frankly am not going to accept anything short of a refund on what has turned out to be nothing more than a heavy tent (which I own 2 of already).

OK Back to the trip.

The next morning, we awoke around 7:00am & had a hot shower before hitting the trails (I guess the only way to guarantee quality is to use your own gear). As Julie's vehicle had suffered clutch problems the previous day, we decided it would be best for her vehicle to be rested & only used to get her home. The first track up was the Spanish Steps track, this time in the reverse direction. As I mentioned in the trip report from the reckie, this is quite challenging in the opposite direction & this time I decided to do it after checking which line to take without an external guide, just to test my skills. I arrived at the bottom with no problems & was time to guide the rest of the convoy down the rock face. Again each person came down with no problems. Once we were all at the bottom, we then made our way across the river crossings & through a few mud holes, before arriving at the Spanish Steps. Again I decided to walk it first to ensure I had a suitable line, then proceeded slowly up the steps with the locker engaged. The vehicle made it look easy as it climbed up the steps.

Movie of me coming up the steps

Next was Paul, who decided on a tougher line & after a few slight line changes on the way up, made it. Allan followed my line & only required a little road building at the bottom to make it easier for him. Darryl followed next in the Defender & again with the assistance of the rear locker, made it easily.

Once at the top of the Spanish Steps, we went through the gate & then up the series of rock steps to the car park, where we stopped for morning tea.

Again I have to thank Darryl for taking care of us for morning tea, as due to the lack of cooking facilities in the Camper Trailer, we were unable to boil water for our thermos, which is the first time on any of my trips that I have not been able to be self sufficient, which regardless of the kindness of my friends I was camping with,  is an embarrassment to me.

After morning tea, we headed to Bungleboori for people to use the pit toilet facilities, before heading to our last track, the power lines track, which comes off the Lost City Track & the later part of this was traveled on the Saturday.

Movie of Darryl coming down the hill

This track had a few challenges, with one rut giving my vehicle a little wheel lift, Paul followed a similar line & managed some lift as well, Allan drove around the rut & Darryl drove through it, but managed to keep all wheels on the ground.

After that rut, I was not 100 percent sure of the rest of this track, so I walked what looked to be the difficult part to choose the easiest lines for myself, Allan & Darryl, while Paul took the more difficult lines in his zook We all managed to get through that section with no problems & then only had 1km of trails we had covered the previous day to negotiate before returning to camp to pack up, have lunch & then return home.

Movie of Paul playing on some of the more difficult lines

The trip home was fairly uneventful, with most of us refueling at Lithgow before traveling to the McDonalds on the M4 for afternoon tea / ice cream, where we said our goodbyes & returned home the same way we traveled down. Darryl, Julie & Allan returned a different way & from what I can gather of his phone call on where he was & at what times, looked to take a very similar time.

All in all, I must thank my traveling companions, Paul, Darryl, Julie, Allan & my lovely wife Stella for what should have been a very good weekend, but will be remembered for the inadequate equipment rented to us.

Footnote

As many people would know, the baby troupe is not exactly noted for it's breathtaking power & performance on hills, so I was expecting it to struggle a bit over the road section of the trek while hauling the Habitat Rental Camper Trailer, but surprisingly, it handled the extra tonne of weight with little affect on speed, except on extremely steep inclines & starting off at traffic lights. Barring those areas, it went quite well & outperformed my expectations of being more than capable of hauling a camper of similar weight over a longer distance.

The Outcome of the Camper Trailer

On return of the camper trailer, I gave them a copy of this trip report & explained to the owners of then camper trailer hire centre that while my report is scathing, it is stating the truth combined with my feelings at the time. The lady owner of the facility seemed quite happy for me to receive a full refund, but had to discuss the issue with her husband.

That evening, the husband rang & gave me plenty of criticism, saying that a report like this goes against his business & he cannot see where he has done anything wrong. He also said that he opened the van up & had no problem in using the gas, so basically said that there was nothing wrong with that part of the unit. He said that in all of the time he has known of Jayco vans, that the only occurrence of a van failing to erect properly, as described here was due to abuse by the person using it, which I asked was he accusing me of breaking his van.

He has, according to what he told me, sent the van back to the manufacturer for repairs & depending on their findings & what repayment he gets from them (I guess) to whether I am entitled to a refund.

I tried to explain to him that this is an opportunity to not only right some wrongs regarding the faulty equipment, but as at this point in time, this report is only negative, it is also an opportunity to get something positive written into this report.

I gave him a copy of this report a week before it was published to give him an opportunity to correct this situation & at this point in time, it has been disregarded. I have also tried to call him a number of times, but he has not answered the phone.

Finalization of the Rental Camper

Two days after this report has been published onto my site, I have received a call from the owners of Habitat Rental Campers. He has said that the problems within the camper had been addressed by Jayco & their findings were as follows;

The winder had been overwound, which had caused the problem with one corner not working. As this had worked prior to me picking the unit up, again it seemed like I had treated the equipment poorly, but as I explained to him that I hadn't, he has accepted it.

With the gas not working, they said that the tap under the van was turned off. Again, I explained that I had tried this in both the open & the closed position & again he has accepted that it seems like a strange occurrence that really cannot be explained.

The state of the dirty pot, unfortunately was due to a previous renter who had said that they had cleaned everything, but as I found, had not. He was quite embarrassed by this & has apologized for it. He has also said that they will be more careful in this area.

He also said he cannot explain what was happening regarding the phones. I explained that I tried to call him on the Saturday, Sunday & the Monday (week after the trip). On the mobile number it seemed to me that the phone was turned off or not in a mobile service area, and the home phone was answered by the answering machine. Unfortunately I did not leave a message on any of these calls, so again a lack of communication compounding what was already a difficult relationship between customer & vendor.

Regarding my refund, he said due to the nature of this report, he will be only refunding my deposit (bond) & as he also knows, he cannot make me feel happy about the way that the weekend turned out.

Col (BT)