One of the most common questions I get asked when we meet new people while out on our travels is where on earth we managed to fit a washing machine inside our 2013 Avida Esperance. It’s a bit of a story, so here goes.

Our motorhome is a 2013 Avida Esperance C7934SL. That means it was built in 2013, is a ‘C’ class motorhome with a bed above the cab (called a Luton), is 7.9 metres long and 34 is the model number. SL denotes that it has a slide-out. Our layout has a ‘dry’ bathroom across the back, then an east/west bed that lifts up to access a lot of storage underneath, then the fridge and L shaped lounge dinette on the driver’s side and the kitchen and entry door on the passenger side. Where could we fit a washing machine?

Firstly I did a lot of research into washing machines. I searched forums online and asked lots of fellow travellers what they had. I discovered that the lovely front loaders (I have had one in my home for years) are very heavy, weighing in at some 47 kgs. At the time we hadn’t upgraded our GVM so adding 47kgs was not an option.

Next I checked out twin tubs. I read and talked to a lot of people who carry one of these and store it in their shower. They are very light to move around and do a great job of washing and spin drying however I thought it would become very tiresome having to move it every time we wanted to use the shower.

So lastly I checked out small top loaders designed for RV use and eventually decided on a Sphere 3.3kg Automatic Top Loader that I purchased online from CampSmart for $369 delivered. This great little machine only weighs 18.5kg. It is 410W x 420D x 740H (mm) + 240mm with lid up. Now the challenge was where to put it.

At the rear on the driver’s side of our Espie is a large storage bin that we used to store things like our hoses, the wheel chocks, awning mat etc. It is a very large bin and can be accessed from inside by lifting up the bed. Luckily I have a very clever cabinet maker son-in-law who thought he could construct a box for the washing machine to sit in. This would also stop the machine moving around whilst traveling.

So the process involved emptying the storage bin, fitting the washing machine and taking the motorhome to our local RV repairer, Matt Best at Best RV Repairs, who plumbed in the washing machine to the cold water and drainage pipes. Then my son-in-law built the box around the machine. He cleverly lined the box with rubber matting so the machine does not move and keeps firmly in its place.

Next it was off to the auto-electrician to have the old 150W inverter taken out and a new 1000W inverter installed. The CampSmart website recommended a 600W inverter to run the machine however I went a little bigger in case we wanted to run other appliances in the future. Of course nothing is simple and the auto-electrician discovered that the new inverter could not go where the old one was as the cables are too thick to go from there to the house batteries, so the new inverter was mounted on the side of the new box built around the washing machine. Where the old inverter was is now a power point and two 12V plugs, one with two USB’s useful for charging our devices. A new power point for the inverter was installed under the bed near the existing double power point. The power cord from the washing machine can be plugged into it or, if we are on a powered site, it can be plugged back into the standard power point.

The box around the washing machine has made it really easy to stack items into the big storage bin as you can pack them up against the side of the box. What we store in each storage bin is a story for another day. That’s another thing we get asked about a lot.

So now we have a 3.3kg automatic top loader washing machine installed that I access by lifting up our bed. It uses 20L per wash for a full load and I use it all the time when we travel. I no longer have to use the, often dirty, washing machines at caravan parks or laundromats. The 3.3kg size is large enough to wash our sheets and these then get hung on our Versaline Traveller RV clothesline that Matt Best from Best RV Repairs installed on the slide out of our motorhome. Our son-in-law also installed a hanging rail above our dinette so that we can hang washing here to dry if it is a travel day or the weather is not good enough to hang clothes outdoors.

As we mostly freedom camp we are very careful with our water usage and usually only put the washing machine on if we will be filling up with water that day. Once while filling up with water at Menindee after camping in Kinchega National Park for a week I managed to do two loads of washing while we filled up. One of the beauty’s of the Sphere is that you can set it to do a wash only (this takes 14 minutes) then you can set it to spin only (this takes 7 minutes). If you only use Woolwash deturgent there is no need to rinse. So a full load of washing takes 21 minutes and uses 20L of water. The little washing machine happily runs on the inverter with no issues.

I really appreciated having it after our trip to the Big Red Bash in July. We arrived at the caravan park in Mt Isa afterwards to find the park chock-a-block full and all the washing machines in their laundry already in use. After being in the dusty outback everything needed to be washed and cleaned so the little washing machine did a mighty job. I did have to use the park clothesline as there was too much washing to hang out on my little clothesline. After a day of washing and cleaning we were ready to continue our travels.

So that’s it. With a bit of ingenuity we were able to find a spot to fit a washing machine in with plenty of power to run it when we are off grid.

I know this is off-topic and has nothing to do with motorhoming but I haven’t posted for a while and felt compelled to write. Yesterday was my birthday. I was 64 years old yesterday. I could say something like ‘where did all that time go’ but, really, it’s gone on a life well lived. What a life I’ve had so far. I was one of the lucky ones to have had a very happy childhood with wonderful parents, an adorable little brother and a large, loving, extended family. I met the love of my life at high school and we finally married when I was just 21. He was 23. That seems awfully young these days. We went on to have three wonderful children and they have given us 7 beautiful grandchildren so far.

My day began with birthday greetings from Richard and the gift of a voucher for one of my favourite places Eclipse the Essential Spa. I will enjoy using that. I received text messages, Facebook and Messenger messages, phone calls and even a FaceTime call. All with warm happy birthday wishes. And this was all before I left for work for the day!

I love how social media keeps us in contact with friends far and wide. This is the real power of social media. You may not be able to see those people for some time but a short post every now and then keeps us in touch wherever we are in the world. Those messages are always warmly received. Facebook reminded me that this time last year we were camped in our motorhome by the beach at Delicate Campground near Crescent Head on the northern NSW coast.

My work colleagues made my day special with a gift of lovely flowers and for morning tea we had delicious takeaway coffees from Peeches Coffee Lounge.

I left for work with strict instructions to be home by 5pm as Richard was taking me out for dinner. I did as told and as soon as I arrived home four little people (and their mothers) came to visit with lots of cuddles for me from them all and many ‘hapbirthday Gran’ from the 2 year old grandson.

Our daughter volunteered to drive us into town and drop us at the restauarant. I was not really surprised to be dropped at Limone. Richard knows it’s one of my favourite restaurants and chef Luke Piccolo and his team always make us feel special. I was surprised however by the large bouquet of flowers on our table when we were shown to our seats. Richard had been organised to have picked them up and dropped them off at the restaurant earlier in the day.

We enjoyed a six course degustation dinner with delicious wine and, as always, the food was amazing. It was a lovely evening.

The celebration continues today however with all the family expected at our house for an early BBQ dinner at 5pm. This has all been arranged by the family without my knowledge, although a couple of little people did let the cat out of the bag. They were excited by it being someone’s birthday. Why is at our house? Well, honestly, our house is a perfect venue for a BBQ dinner for 17 people (That’s 10 fully vaccinated adults and 7 children in case you were wondering). We can all gather together, there’s plenty of room for everyone, the table is large enough for all, the children have lots of room to play and we just love having them here.

Thank you to all of you who have helped to make my birthday a special one. I am truly blessed.

TPMS or Tyre Pressure Management Systems are they worth the money to buy one or not? I’d read about these systems that measure the tyre pressure and temperature of your tyres and wondered whether they were really worth it. Lots of truck companies insist on them being on all their trucks now as a TPMS can alert you to a potential failing tyre and you can do something about it before the tyre blows out and causes a real problem.

After a bit of research reading forums and such we purchased the Safety Dave TPMS online directly from Safety Dave. Our motorhome is based on an Iveco chassis and we have two front wheels and four rear wheels, two on either side of the rear axle so we needed 6 sensors.

The TPMS arrive quickly by Australia Post and we installed it a couple of days before we were due to leave on our Big Red Bash trip. The monitor goes on the dash and the sensors are attached to the valve of each tyre in place of the valve cap. They wirelessly send data to the monitor for each tyre. Very quickly we found one of our tyres was losing air so we took the MH to our local tyre dealer. The tyre was taken off however nothing could be found wrong with it so the valve was replaced in case it was a faulty valve. We were good to go.

We set off on our way and found the tyre was still losing air slowly so once we arrived in Hillston it was straight to the tyre shop. Again they couldn’t find anything wrong and said we were good to go. We set off towards Mt Hope but the tyre was still losing air. Something was still wrong. Back to Hillston where we had to stay overnight so we could visit the tyre shop the next morning.

Next morning the tyre came off again and again nothing could be found wrong with it. The valve was fine. The only thing it could be was possibly the valve extension and they didn’t have any. We would have to try in Cobar.

We arrived in Cobar and went straight to the tyre shop where we were able to get a new valve extension and yay…..this finally solved the problem of the leaking air. Without the TPMS we would not have known the tyre was slowly leaking. It would have just kept going down until one of us noticed that it was getting flat. We could also have had a blow out in that tyre that could have caused all sorts of problems.

Already I think the TPMS has paid for itself and we can confidently continue on our journey to the Outback.

Well, what a process this has been! We purchased our 2013 Avida Esperance in 2016. It had done 33,000km at the time. As we have traveled we have added things to it such as an extra water tank, removed the tiny 150W inverter and installed a 1000W inverter, added a couple of 12V points and fitted a washing machine under the lift up bed. We have also taken out the microwave and are having a cupboard made to fit in the space it left behind. We have also had the large bottom drawer in the kitchen rebuilt and fitted with heavy duty runners as the ones that were original were just not up to the job.

We have made these changes as we have found over time that we prefer to camp in more remote places, mostly off the grid. Nothing beats being in a fabulous spot all by ourselves camped by a river, on a point overlooking a lake, next to a beach where we can hear the waves crashing or just in the bush where we can sit around our little fire pit.

To camp like this we needed the extra water, the larger inverter and we never used our microwave as it required 240V power. Instead we used it as a bread bin! It will be better to have the useful cupboard space instead.

Another thing we have purchased, but are yet to use, is a second cassette for our toilet. We bought it as we didn’t want to be camped in a great spot and be forced to pack up and go just to empty the cassette. We find we only get 3-4 days out of one cassette as we use our toilet all the time. We were limited by the amount of fresh water we can carry but we now have 180L on board. At roughly 15L per person per day this means we can camp out for 5-6 days. We can even stretch this to a week if we are really careful with our water usage.

Having made all these changes we were concerned that we would now be overweight. The GVM on our registration is 4495kg and the tare is 3790kg. That only leaves room for a small payload of 705kg and this has to include us, all our water, our fuel, food and clothing, wood, tools, my kayak, the washing machine, wine, our two heavy ebikes on their rack and all the other stuff we think we need. On our last trip we were able to test this as we came across an unmanned weighbridge in SA that is free for travellers to use. This was too good to pass up and as we drove onto the weighbridge a digital display on a pole in front us gave our weight as 4890kg. Almost 400kg overweight! We had just filled up with fuel and water in the previous town so this gave us a really accurate measurement of what we truly weigh most of the time. It was time to investigate upgrading our GVM.

Silly me! I thought this would be a reasonably straightforward process. When Avida import the Iveco chassis they build the motorhomes on they can choose to have the lower 4495kg rating or the higher one of 5200kg. The Iveco 50C can be rated at either. I’m guessing it is to enable the motorhome to be driven on a car licence that they choose the lower rating. However then you come across the same problem we find ourselves in.

I researched the internet to find out what to do to upgrade the GVM and there was lots of information but most of it was conflicting. OK so first up I contacted Avida, the manufacturer of the motorhome. They helpfully replied and said I need to contact Iveco and gave the contact details. I then contacted Iveco and they forwarded my details to the nearest local Iveco dealer which just happens to be in Wagga Wagga 200kms away. The fellow there was helpful and completed an online form which then was sent to Iveco who then sent a Rating Confirmation Letter saying that the vehicle could be rated at either weight. The dealer suggested I take this to Service NSW along with the rego papers and they should be able to process the change. This Rating Confirmation letter cost $231.

Well going to Service NSW was an experience……..NOT. The lady I spoke to there had no idea what was needed and had to contact another department. Apparently they were all at a meeting so she suggested she give me call when she knew what the process was. I did some further research of the Service NSW documentation and found that I may need an engineers certification. After asking the mechanic who looks after our motorhome who in our area is certified to do an upgrade to Light Rigid he gave me the name of a local engineer.

Luckily, when I called the engineer, he was coming to Griffith in a few days and would call out to our place and do the compliance check. He did this, took lots of photos and would send the certificate and modification compliance plate once completed. This was duly sent along with an invoice for $650.

Next step was to take all the documentation to Service NSW along with a completed Change of Details form and have it processed. Sounds simple really! Alas a rule change has meant that ALL vehicles over 4.5t now have to have National Heavy Vehicle plates and the plates were on the motorhome which was down at the mechanics. So off to the mechanic to get the current plates from off the vehicle and back to Service NSW. Finally GVM upgrade was processed and new NHV plates were issued.

The next step was to get a heavy vehicle pink slip. Our mechanic was able to do that and, as the motorhome was in for a service, he was able to do the pink slip at the same time.

Back again to Service NSW and rego was renewed for another year. When we get back from our next trip I will need to order an Auxiliary plate for our bike rack.

As the motorhome will be rated as Light Rigid I will need to upgrade my licence to Light Rigid as well. Richard already has a Light Rigid Licence so I am able to drive it as long as Richard is in the vehicle ‘supervising’. This might be OK most of the time but there are occasions where I drive it on my own so an upgrade to my licence is needed. This involves sitting for an online Driver Knowledge Test at your local Service NSW. I downloaded the test questions from their website and practised the online test a few times before booking a test time online. I’m happy to say I passed that one with 100%. Really the only questions that I needed to learn were the ones related to trucks, loads, heights etc. The other questions are really just general road knowledge and if you’ve been driving for as long as I have you should know those already.

The next step is the Driving Test and that is booked at the time you pass the Driver Knowledge Test. You can take the test in your own vehicle so was able to do it in the motorhome. I’m happy to say I passed the test and now have a Light Rigid licence.

What a long winded process but I’m happy it is done now and we can travel knowing we are within our legal weight limits.

On our recent trip following the Murray River and exploring the amazing Silo Art in Victoria we took our Apple TV with us. Neither of the 2 TV’s in our motorhome are SMART TV’s and in the past when we wanted to watch a movie or TV show on Netflix or Stan it was a complicated process to connect my iPad to the RV Wifi (on an old phone), connect it to the TV with an HDMI cable and then open Netflix app on the iPad and watch it on the TV.

The Apple TV has made this a much easier process. The Apple TV connects to the RV Wifi network and just plugs into the HDMI point on the TV. The power cord has to be plugged into either a 24V power point or the inverter power point. Then you just watch the Apple TV the same as you do at home. We found on this recent trip as long as we had at least one bar of mobile service we could watch something with no problem.

Our RV Wifi network is set up on an old iPhone that we had lying around the house. It has a data only SIM from Aldi installed which uses the Telstra network and we set up the phone as a hotspot for all our devices to connect to. This works quite well except the the hotspot does turn itself off if it is not being used and you have to reconnect again. For this reason I have purchased a Netgear Nighthawk M2 and will give this a try on our next trip. This should make it easier as we won’t have to connect to the hotspot all the time as the Nighthawk will continually broadcast. I will let you know how this works down the track.

Don’t you love planning a trip? I do. I am a bit of a researcher and love to map out a rough route and add to it the things we might want to stop and see along the way. My husband, Richard, always jokes half-heartedly when we arrive in a new place ‘tell me about this place Jen!’

I mostly use the app WikiCamps for planning our trips. This is a brilliant app for planning and saving your planned trips and you can even share your trips with your friends. It is available for download on the App Store, Google Play and Microsoft Store and is worth the small $7.99 price tag. I have it on my iPhone but mainly use it on my trusty iPad Pro.

However, as much as I love the planning and research, I also love being flexible and there is nothing better than coming across something unexpected and changing your route to take in a recommended ‘must see’ from a local with extensive knowledge of their area.

Being flexible was the reason we found Bald Rock National Park in northern NSW near the Queensland border. We had never heard of Bald Rock and were so glad we made the detour from our planned route to go there. The campground in the NP is a fabulous bush camp with well marked out, flat, gravel sites, most with fire pits and there’s even ‘free’ wood. What a gorgeous spot and one of our all-time favourites! The hike to the top of Bald Rock is fantastic and the 360 degree view from the summit is incredible. If you ever get to Tenterfield, do yourself a favour and check out Bald Rock National Park. It’s only about 30km from the lovely historic town of Tenterfield.

Speaking of planning, where are we going next?

We have a friend of ours turning 60 so we will be off to the NSW/VIC border town of Albury to help her celebrate. After a weekend of dining and dancing we plan to follow the Murray River Run from Albury NSW to Goolwa SA where the mighty Murray River meets the sea.

We have previously followed the Murray River from its small beginnings near Tom Groggin in the Snowy Mountains in NSW down to Albury so now we plan to follow it until we reach its final destination in The Coorong, South Australia. The trip home may include a journey along The Silo Art Trail in the Wimmera Mallee area of western Victoria before heading northwards across the Murray again and home to Griffith in the Riverina. The journey is roughly 3,000km and we have a whole month to do it.

Watch this space for the start of our next adventure.