Weigh In

First stop on the trip is the weighbridge to check that the set up is within the design limits.

1) Gross Vehicle Mass for the car (including tow ball weight & passengers) from car specification.

2) Aggregate Trailer Mass for the caravan including water, food and clothes from caravan compliance plate.

3) Tow ball weight, ideally 10% of ATM and less than maximum from car specification.

4) Gross Combined Mass ( car and caravan) from car specification.

The Rig

A Mazda CX-5 towing an A'van Cruiser.

On the Gore Highway.

Big trip planning

When travelling remotely- beyond mobile phone reception- I carry a PLB.

A personal location beacon will bring help using satellite signals.  It helps if you have registered it properly and update the details for each trip - including car and caravan details and passenger details.

An elder writes

I have very much enjoyed David Suzuki's book The Legacy - ISBN 978 1 74237 355 3.

It describes the importance of the environment and how close we are to catastrophe. I calls on us to act.

Measure the air you breathe

A simple cheap device is available to measure air quality - 

A) CO2 = Carbon dioxide, fresh air is 350 to 450 ppm.

1000 to 2000 ppm indicates poor air quality and causes drowsiness.

Current measurement at Hawai'i is 414 ppm.

B) HCHO = Formaldehyde, maximum recommended exposure is 0.100 mg/m3

C) TVOC = Total volatile organic compounds, maximum recommended is 0.250 mg/m3

D) Temperature 

E) Humidity

You can see that inside my home the air quality is as good as the outdoor air.

In the club

The Lead Pencil have responded to my request for membership with a yes.

A pencil of one's own

The symbol of the Lead Pencil Club is a yellow Number 2 pencil with the text NOT SO FAST.

I have learned that American Number 2 is equivalent to Australian HB. The Australian ( in reality British ) system is that pencils with soft dark graphite are called Black - B. The more black are modified with a number - 2B, 4B, 6B, etc. Pencils with hard graphite are designated H, these make a fainter line. They are also graded with harder - and fainter pencils modified with a number - 2H, 4H, etc.

HB pencils are supposedly the happy medium between H and B. They are the most popular grade. You can buy they in packs of a hundred.

In 1971 - in primary school - I had moved to a new grade and - disgarding my slate - I was using HB pencil and paper. The teacher disgusted at the grubby marks on my writing pads called my mother in and said that I was to use 4H pencils. This would prevent me smearing graphite over the page. I did all my school right through to university with 4H pencils.

Recently re-looking at pencils - in my attempt to not use plastic biros - I find that I prefer 4B sharpered to a fine point. This gives a dark legible line.