Our Touring Past

Hi All

The annual Broke village fair ( west of Cessnock in the vineyards area) is on again this year. I usually attend each year with towcar / vintage van / motorbike combo.
Plan on doing the same again this year .. but will be parking separate to the bike display with car and V.V. I will be contacting the organisers this week to ensure that there will be space reserved for a few car/van combos. As usual I will be arriving on the Saturday arvo to help the bike club "stake out" their area and camp overnight ready for the big display day on Sunday.. always a great weekend.. so if you are keen on rolling up Saturday arvo/night for a great evening around the campfire .. catch up over a few beers or Hunter Valley reds.....just reply here .

Reddo

Very much looking forward to catching up for what is always a good show.

Yo..

Just spent the past few days working on "Matilda" getting her tidied up ready for this weekends Broke Fair.
Was a difficult decision .. do I take the TD with one of the bikes inside .. or do some hard yakka and clean up Matilda and take her along instead..???????

In the end I figured I have done enough over the past 15 years to help the bike club out with show days etc... plenty of club layabouts that could get of the rrrrrsssses and lend a hand. .
So.. just have to wash n polish , do some shopping , then pack car and van tomorrow morning .. pack beer ....and .....umm... ..... oh I am sure there is something else I need to take.

Weatherman says .. bit cloudy Saturday but clearing to a perfect sunny day sunday... bring it on !!!

Will bung up some happy snaps of the cars, vans, trucks, bikes, tractors, military vehicles, chicky babes, food stalls......FOOD... they have lotsa tastings ( is wine a food ?? ).... when I get home

Still plenty of time for a few of you late starters to get your shi .... ummm ...act together and come along.. only 1 1/2 hours north of Sydney...!!!!

Reddo.

Another great weekend away with the vans.
Perfect evening ..mild with just a light breeze blowing. A good fire and great mates.
Up early sunday to clean up the stubbies and dowse the fire so that the hoardes of kids /mums and dads don't burn themselves.
Breakfast over John Strugglebrook and I set out the old gear in our respective vans. Boiled the billy for a cuppa , Kicked back and watched the fog lift ....and the crowd roll in.

Over 350 cars, bikes, buses, trucks, military gear and a stack of foodie stalls.
Just a couple of shots of our cars and vans...



Had a near death experience going home later on in the day. sitting on about 80kph down hill then felt the rear of the car starting to step out in either direction...did the unthinkable and froze... luckily I snapped out of it pretty quickly and stuck my foot into the accelerator... hit the bottom of the hill doing around 100 then washed off pace going uphill.
Matilda was mucking up/.... I have towed her to Morgan in South Oz and up to Esk in QLD at speeds of up to 110kph on the odd occasion and she has always been well behaved.
Got home and checked tyre pressure.. all good. then picked up the drawbar to see what sort of towball weight I had??... lifted it with one hand?? lucky to be 10 to 15KG??
So looking at getting some of the weight onto the ball.... Had practically nothing packed down the back of the van and only a handful of odds and ends up the front.
Will pack annexe poles and pegs. Move battery .Mount gas bottle and so on to try and cure the weight distribution.
Also looking at setting up a sway bar just behind the axle to try and counter body roll and sway if I can,
Wheels are at the local tyre service .. getting to new radials fitted.

From there I guess I will have to look at using the load levelers... not so much for leveling the car and van.. but to possibly prevent a bit of sway...... yep I know that's not what they are meant for but could be the difference between keeping things in line ... or......getting out of shape again

Reddo.

Nice twosome Reddo.

George

Thanks for the company Mate, another great weekend. Gresford show and shine this Sunday.
No van, E Type all polished up. Might see you there.

Not sure whats doing next weekend .. .... Maybe Look for Red Norton Commando Fastback accompanied by Royal Enfield
Reddo and Trish