November
4
2007
4
2007
Mildura
We have been in Mildura for 6 days now, we will be hitting the road again tomorrow some time. The weather has been too mild for swimming but pleasant most the time, it has been raining on and off for the last few days and is expected to continue until after the week end. Last night and today has been quite cool and very windy so the aircons have been getting a work out.
This week has been relaxing, most days we have ventured into town or surrounding areas for a few hours or so, the rest of the time we have just hung around the caravan park playing on the jumping pillow, riding bikes, watching TV, walking along the river, etc…. Places we visited in the area include:
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Old Mildura Homestead – The homestead is the original Mildura Homestead, it has/is being restored as a tourist attraction. Entry is free however donations are welcome, it is well worth a visit if your in the area. | |
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Inland Botanical Gardens – There is a really nice rose garden here. We also returned here for the Farmers markets on Saturday, the markets are held every second week. | |
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Street Parade – The opening of the Mildura Jazz Festival |
More photos can be seen in Photo / Australia – Our Lap / Mildura
While parked up I have had a chance to do some improvements to our Motorhome.
First Job was to fit a water filter. The filter is used prior to the holding tank, this ensures any water that enters our system is clean and more importantly free of any germs and nasties that may cause us to become ill.
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The filter was an easy install, I needed to move the hot water relief valve drain pipe over a little, mod the filter mounting bracket a little and mount it in place. The quick connect hose connector on the inlet makes it quick and easy to use, just plug the garden hose in and turn on the tap. |
The next job was to fix the engine brakes, also known as exhaust brakes, compression brakes or Jake brakes. For those that are not familiar with this type of braking, most trucks these days have a valve in the exhaust pipe that can be closed at will, closing the valve restricts the exhaust of the engine causing back pressure or more engine compression, which then requires fare more energy to rotate. When going down hill or needing to slow a heavy vehicle, this method of slowing saves brake wear and prevents failure due to over heating on those mountain declines.
Any way, it hasn’t been working so I thought I would fix it.
The next Job was to reduce voltage to the interior lights. Before we left Mudgee I replaced all interior light bulbs with LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes), LEDs use about 1/10 of the power other lamps use for similar luminance. In-fact, before the change we were using 12 Amps (144 Watts) with the lights on, now we are using 1.0 Amps (12 Watts). Anyway, we have had quite a few LEDs fail, which is strange as the life span of LEDs is around 50000 hours. What I could only assume is that the manufacturer has designed the lights to work on 12 Volts as advertised, and not a 12 Volt auto system. Although 12V batteries are rated at 12V, when fully charged or being charged, they could be as high as 14V, this could be enough to over drive the LEDs and cause them to burn out. So what I did was add 2 series power diodes in-line with each light, this drops the voltage to the lamp by 1.4V and will hopefully prevent them from failing.
And finally, we get a new vacuum cleaner, we have been looking for a suitable vacuum cleaner since we left, but nothing has stacked up to our expectations. We wanted small in size but big on suction. After looking at many models over the past month we decided we would go with Dyson, we used a Dyson upright at home and it was awesome, so we stuck with the brand and got the small rechargeable model.
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Dyson DC16 Motorhead This little unit works well, it would be nice if it had a longer run time between charges but its fine for our use. I gave the bus the once over and then got half way through the car before the battery was flat. The dust it picked up from vacuuming what seemed an already clean carpet in the bus was suprising. This model has a ‘Power head’, a motorised brush head which helps part the carpet pile and lift particles as it vacuums. I remember when we bought the Dyson upright for home, even just after vacuuming with our old cleaner, a run over with the Dyson would remove a heap more dust. We are pleased this little model lives up to the same standard. |
It has been nice staying in Mildura, in particular it has been nice to have mains power and town water. With the luxuries of heating and long hot showers you soon appreciate the small things we take for granted. With our washing up to date, water tank full and battery bank fully charged, we are ready to hit the road again. We are not sure where our next stop will be, nor do we have a destination in mind other than to head into South Australia.
Damian 
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