We moved on and headed east and arrived at Yeoval. This is a lovely little town not much there but it is home to the Banjo Patterson Museum. Banjo spent the first 7 years of his life at Yeoval before the family moved on to Yass.
This is a wonderful museum and you could spend a good couple of hours here just wandering and reading the letters, poems and all the other memoribillia. There is also a lovely little cafe called Clancys where we had the best burger and a very reasonable price. Check out the website and take the time to visit. They have recently had a bronze statue erected out the front. Alf and his wife are volunteers at the museum, he also manages the great camp ground complete with ensuite bathrooms and power available for a very reasonable price. Alf’s wife when not at the museum also drives the school bus. Also on market days you can find Alf behind the BBQ cooking up sausages for the sausage sizzle, https://www.banjopatersonmorethanapoet.com.au
Phill once again catches up with Jeff DeAth, the subject this week is 5th Wheelers. Jeff has not actually had many come by him to weigh. Jeff does not profess he knows a lot about 5th Wheelers, only weighing 3 compared to over 500 caravans. They do not have a tow ball but more a hitch that you see on a truck, so you don’t actually have a tow ball weight. The hitch also is over the rear axels on the tow vehicle.
The wheels are more set back to the rear of the van and all the storage is towards the van.
A Fifth Wheeler is a Caravan/RV that attaches to a vehicle using a hitch or turntable placed over the back of a tow vehicle. The hitch or turntable resembles a wheel – making it the fifth wheel of the Caravan/RV.
Fifth Wheelers are towed predominantly by utes such as: the Ford Ranger, Isuzu D-MAX, Mazda BT-50, Holden Colorado and many more due to the ‘Fifth Wheel’ hitch sitting in the centre of the tray. By placing the hitch in the centre of the tray the Fifth Wheeler gains more stability and places less stress on the rear of the vehicle – handling 25% of the hitch load. This in turn provides: better fuel economy, less chance of a break down, increased stability and safety and finally, a smoother journey when venturing around Australia.
On the subject of 5th Wheelers, we are parked up at the Longford Caravan Park in Tasmania. We had us in our 5th Wheeler, then 2 vans down was another much larger 5th Wheeler and then what comes in beside us was Carole a solo traveller and her 5th Wheeler. Phill got to chatting with Carole who agreed to chat about her rig.
Carole talks us through her truck which is manual but would prefer an auto and the rig is 14 metres long. She never had experience with such a large set up. She has towed a caravan and finds this set up much easier to drive. Carole lives on the road and been travelling for the last 9 months. She even managed getting the rig on the Spirit of Tasmania and the guys were surprised at how well she managed it. Purchased the rig site unseen, delivered to where she was in the caravan park and then got a surprise at how big the set up was. Carole even organised lessons on reversing. Even hitching up is so much easier. Carole has the confidence to travel and is heading back to the mainland.
