When dreams don't come true.

"I have a dream". Famous words once belted out to the masses by a great man. "I had a dream!" Me admitting I got it wrong. Difficult to live it down, especially when in the same room as the missus. :-) Anyway. If you're familiar with the last blog, you would know the issues I've had with my weight. Not my weight....The weight of the Triton. It's been a hectic couple of months after the Fraser Island incident. The Chassis was straightened and strengthened. Uprated suspension was fitted, and uprated again. the weighbridge people have been harassed, and finally, the diet came to a successful conclusion.

Here's a recap.

January 2018. A new Triton purchased, including a custom slide-on aluminium canopy.

August 2018. The canopy eventually arrives after a couple of stuff-ups.

March 2019. After a few shorter trips, I head off to Fraser Island, fully packed, intending to use the canopy as intended (Slide-off) for the first time. This is when I realised I had overloaded and " over flexed" my chassis.

July 2019. After lengthy discussions with the Dealer, accessory suppliers, insurance companies and panel beaters, I realise that nobody wants to know me and I get it fixed myself.

Anyway....August saw me fitting a new, +250kg suspension and I loaded the canopy back on for the first time in 5 months. Back I go to the suspension fitters to have an extra leaf fitted. Now the suspension kit is possibly a +400kg kit. Success! It's not dragging its arse anymore. Off to the weighbridge I go. Surprisingly the Triton weighed in at 2426kg, full of fuel and carrying nothing but the bulbar, winch and 2 people. With the GVM being 2900kg. This left us with a 474kg capacity. With the canopy fitted as it was with drawers and roof top tent, I was left with less than 100kg capacity. So. With a week left till we were due to leave for the Birdsville Races, I was stripping the canopy clean. Out came the drawers and off with the tent. Anyway, in the end we drove over the weighbridge at 2880kg, fully packed apart from our clothes.

Success! The trip almost went as well as expected and the car/canopy handled everything with ease. The original dream of pulling up at the camp and sliding off the canopy has not come true, but I have recovered from what was looking like a miserable failure to a practical compromise that works well. As I've always said. "With camping, everything is a compromise".