William's 150 GXL D4D

[hookedon4wding Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close hookedon4wding]

G'day William, like the wheels. Adds plenty of bling. With so many Prados on the road we have to do something to make them stand out!

Cheers, Sam.

[William Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close William]

Diff locker William. Go William go. I see you haven't got the Mako Avenger winch there yet, William. You know, to fish out the 150 when needed. Different type of fishing, but still fun.
John (##########).

No, I am wrong, I can see you have a winch now. The Rhino gear is just sooo... nice, ha William. The rig is coming along just nicely, looks good.
The Roo.

You're a cracka mate haha. Yeah thanks... I actually ran out of things to do to the rig.

I actually just got back from 5 nights camping along the Murray for some much needed R&R. Yes I did make good use of the Toyota genuine (ahem, rebranded Rhino gear).... and no I didn't get to give the winch a workout.

Here's a quick snap I took while we were setting up the camp site.



Cheers

[Rogerthatv2 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Rogerthatv2]

That is a great looking camp spot William, nice and close to the river!

[William Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close William]

That is a great looking camp spot William, nice and close to the river!

Yep we always camp next to the water. This is just one of the many spots we frequently visit. Nice, secluded and away from the main track. The water level has risen about 2 meters since the last time we went. It was still rising about 1cm every day that we were there.

[Melbo Member Find all posts View Profile Close Melbo]

Where's the fish William :-)... put some photos of the fishing.

[berniebgf Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close berniebgf]

Hey William,

We are heading up to Echuca in the next few weeks to do some free camping, have a couple of spots in mind but still deciding....

Barmah Lakes Camp ground, Christies beach Camp ground or more towards (between) Tocumwal / Yarrawanga.

Got any advice on good spots from your experience? even P.M. if you want to keep it "on the low down".. ;-)
Looking through "Camps 6 Australia Wide" for idea's....

Hook a brother up!

Bernie

[William Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close William]

Where's the fish William :-)... put some photos of the fishing.

They were at the bottom of the fridge, sorry no pics but I'll take some for you next time I go (which is probably over the Melb Cup long weekend in November). Caught a few yellow bellies and a ton of carp. Given the high water level and strong current, I wasn't expecting the fishing to be hot. I really just went there to kick back and soak in the atmosphere.

Hey William,

We are heading up to Echuca in the next few weeks to do some free camping, have a couple of spots in mind but still deciding....

Barmah Lakes Camp ground, Christies beach Camp ground or more towards (between) Tocumwal / Yarrawanga.

Got any advice on good spots from your experience? even P.M. if you want to keep it "on the low down".. ;-)
Looking through "Camps 6 Australia Wide" for idea's....

Hook a brother up!

Bernie

Sorry mate, I don't go camping over that end of the river. Too crowded for my liking. Hot tip would be to jump on google maps and sus out a few tracks via satellite view. It's the best way to find a spot. Best of luck!

Cheers

[berniebgf Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close berniebgf]

Will Do, thanks for the Tip!

Bernie.

[Geoffury Find all posts View Profile Close Geoffury]

[QUOTE=William;316459]Note the pictures show inferior T10 bulbs that cost about 2bucks each on ebay... they've sinced been replaced with far brighter ones that go for about 10 bucks a pop (and definitely worth it).

Hi William,

The more expensive LED bulbs, can you point me in the direction that you got them?
I've looked at a few stores, but only found cheap ones.Worth getting the expensive ones?

[William Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close William]

[QUOTE=Geoffury;367697]

Note the pictures show inferior T10 bulbs that cost about 2bucks each on ebay... they've sinced been replaced with far brighter ones that go for about 10 bucks a pop (and definitely worth it).

Hi William,

The more expensive LED bulbs, can you point me in the direction that you got them?
I've looked at a few stores, but only found cheap ones.Worth getting the expensive ones?

The ones I got can be found on ebay. Not affiliated with the seller, didn't even buy it from this seller. For your reference only:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2-X-T10-4...item4606b5ab03

There's probably better ones out on ebay right now, but this is just what I could find at the time. They're definitely worth the money. I only changed the two bulbs in the dome/map housing. I didn't see any point in changing the others.

Cheers

[William Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close William]

Just realised I haven't posted here in a long while.

Where's the fish William :-)... put some photos of the fishing.

As requested Melbo. Caught this fella over the weekend @ the Murray. Weighed in at 21KG.




We went with 3 other 150 VXes ...couldn't fit the other one in the photo.



Just can't get enough of the sunsets.


Also got bogged in mud along the rivers edge while retrieving my mates boat (not the tinny I'm towing above). The water had just resided approx 2m over a couple of weeks and the surface looked and felt fine but it was soft underneath.. Anyway got to give the winch a work out. Worth every penny and did what I got it for. Love it!


As for the build... Been pretty happy with the setup. Nothing much has changed except for a Blackvue HDII dash cam that's been hardwired to the aux battery.

Thoughts... wanting a mobile phone antenna as I'm only getting 1 out of 5 bars on Telstra when out in the bush. Not sure if it'll make a difference in thick shrub.... Wondering if I should install a UHF while im at it.

Also been keeping a close eye on the transmission cooler threads recently and am pretty keen on getting one. According to the scanguage the fluid gets pretty hot when towing a loaded boat up steep hills. I can only cool it back down either means shifting into 4th or easing off the throttle. Have read of the benefits others are reporting so I'm really interested in getting it done now. I know what I want but don't have the expertise to do it myself. Anyone know any reputable fitters in Melbourne?

Cheers

[vxcruiser08 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close vxcruiser08]

Nice rig there William. You can definitely increase the mobile reception if you are getting 1 bar already. I researched this topic quite heavily as I go on call for work and wanted to still be able to go bush. I purchased a Telstra GSM/3G 1.2m 6db i think from memory as manufactured by mobileone antennas. As I was in very hilly areas the lower gain antenna worked well, you dont want any higher. Highly recommend mobileone service is great and they know their stuff.

Also id recommend the direct antenna connection into a Telstra ZTE phone for example for best results! They're cheap too .

[VXWesty Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close VXWesty]

Hi William,

I can highly recommend getting a transmission cooler, but even with one you'll still need to use 4th when climbing hills and towing. I did a recent trip towing a 1T camper trailer and found that very slight inclines @ 100kph was fine to leave it in D, but anyhting steeper and the TQ lock-up would disengage and temps would rapidly rise to over 100 degress. It only takes a few seconds to drop temps back down when put in 4th and you'll learn pretty quickly when it's needed just by keeping an eye on the tacho.

VXWesty

[William Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close William]

Nice rig there William. You can definitely increase the mobile reception if you are getting 1 bar already. I researched this topic quite heavily as I go on call for work and wanted to still be able to go bush. I purchased a Telstra GSM/3G 1.2m 6db i think from memory as manufactured by mobileone antennas. As I was in very hilly areas the lower gain antenna worked well, you dont want any higher. Highly recommend mobileone service is great and they know their stuff.

Also id recommend the direct antenna connection into a Telstra ZTE phone for example for best results! They're cheap too .

Thanks for the info mate. Exactly what I was looking for. Will look into it some more and hopefully make a purchase soon.

[William Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close William]

Hi William,

I can highly recommend getting a transmission cooler, but even with one you'll still need to use 4th when climbing hills and towing. I did a recent trip towing a 1T camper trailer and found that very slight inclines @ 100kph was fine to leave it in D, but anyhting steeper and the TQ lock-up would disengage and temps would rapidly rise to over 100 degress. It only takes a few seconds to drop temps back down when put in 4th and you'll learn pretty quickly when it's needed just by keeping an eye on the tacho.

VXWesty

Excellent. Yep I keep a close eye on the temps using the scanguage. I rarely let it go over 100degs even when towing. It generally hangs around 85C but creeps up to 100C on steep inclines when towing.

Yeah all I'm hearing is good news. I think you were the one with the write up on the install in your build thread. I'm not game enough to do it myself. Really looking for an expert in Victoria to do it for me.