i’ve had the cradle for a while. i actually picked it up on the way home near brisbane, just after it had transpired that kimberley (the makers of the karavan) had bitten the dust. economically speaking of course.
the cradle was a bit raw at the time, so i got the parts powder coated. and since then they have been sitting int he garage, covered under various pieces of stuff that miraculously float from one side of the garage to the other and back. don’t ask me how.
well, given we’ll be moving soon i have to ensure the contents of the garage are all in their proper place, mostly in boxes, in some cases potentially on the local tip, or in the case of the firewood cradle on the karavan multibox.
i’d been putting this off for a while, a fact which i am very much ashamed of. well a bit anyway. however, installing the cool new firewood (and all sorts of other stuff) cradle initially required the disassembly of the multibox lid, which due to the stupidly heavy set of shocks kk installed had a seriously warped hinge.
which resulted in water getting into the multibox, interestingly only when the karavan was stationary, but that’s still incredibly embarrassing for something that is meant to be totally dust proof, so something had to be done about that. did i mention i had the hinge sitting in the garage for a while?
i decided today was the day. drilling out the old rivets was ok; the glue the guys used was still hanging in there but a little well directed violence solved that issue. installing the cradle did require a fair bit of precision: measure thrice drill once and keep all relevant fingers firmly crossed. the stainless steel bolts did annoy me a little, these guys like to bind when exposed to the wrong amount of force. thank god for dremels and cutting wheels. and those waterproof rivets are a real pain to set. talk about not popping! i decided to use bolts instead; it will be easier to disassemble as well if i ever have to.
ok, there is a bit more work to do. the shocks need to be re-routed and i need to install a set of levers that link the multibox lid to the cradle. and there are a few more little jobs to do but those are the fun bit. i can’t wait.
update: the bolts were a great idea but I think i’ll also drill a few more holes and add bolts to ensure the lid is pulled in really tight.