Adventure starts at expo

When there’s new gear on the market for camping and four wheel driving, there’s no better place to check it out than the Rockhampton Outdoor Adventure plus Home and Lifestyle Expo.

It’s a bit of a mouthful, right? But that’s because there’s so much jammed into one weekend and one venue that if you walk past something and don’t stop, you may never see it again.

For us, it’s our chance to set up a display and show what we’ve been up to with vehicles and suppliers. The conversations are what I look forward to most. The trips we take, the trips you’ve been on, and the ones you’re gearing up for.

The camps, the cooking, the drive in. It’s all exciting.

If you’re up for a yarn, come and find us.

We’ll have our newly modified Suzuki Jimny on display. It’s a work in progress, but this little weapon turns heads everywhere we drive it, and it’s a good chance to take a close look at the modifications and talk through ideas for your own setup.

Vehicle upgrades won’t be the only thing on the table. Logbook servicing, preventative maintenance, and all the jobs that aren’t usually front of mind when you’re out wheeling around Central Queensland are worth a chat too.

We’ve been planning a little outback trip, one that will take us right out to the Queensland border in the South West.

It’s been a while since my trusty Nissan Y62 Patrol has seen that kind of country, but it has always been the workhorse of our fleet.

If you know us, I usually have the cars that do the heavy lifting and Nyree has the fun and exciting ones.

So it’s time to get the Patrol into the workshop and check it right over.

The trip I took to the Simpson and Strzelecki Deserts in September 2023 saw us make some big changes to the Patrol in preparation, setting it up for reliability.

We replaced all the bushings front and rear, lifted the suspension two inches, fitted 35-inch tyres and added extra tie-down points to the roof rack.

Since then, this workhorse has towed a caravan and now a race car. We still take it off road every now and then, but even towing puts extra stress on a vehicle that you might not think about.

So we’ll go over the whole car with a fine-tooth comb.

I’d rather fix my car in my workshop than on the side of the road somewhere in the outback.

Let’s be honest, I won’t be carrying the tooling I have at the workshop.

Basic hand tools, a multimeter and a test light are about all the drawer in the back holds.

Nothing ruins a good trip like a breakdown. Get to know your car through your local mechanic.

Ask for a report on anything that seems suspicious. If you hear a sound that wasn’t there before, have it checked out.

Letting noises develop can be costly, and they always seem to fail right when you desperately need to be somewhere.