Thank You Oceanus !

Surprise ! Surprise! I didn't get seasick!
The oddest thing was that I felt quite strange in the first 10 minutes tied up in the dead calm harbour while we were getting ready to go.
After that I was absolutely fine all day.
To the extent we even called into Hillarys for a nice lunch!
We were taking the boat from Fremantle up to a new pen in Two Rocks about 70km in a more or less straight line, which we're certainly NOT going to travel given the reefs, craypot lines and other hazards off the coast here.
In addition we could have picked a better day weather wise!
The weather backed from a very early strong SW to NW during the day bringing quite a heavy rain squall which seemed determined to hunt us down, which it managed to do about .5km from the Alkimos Reef complicating the situation with heavy rain and a flattened sea which meant we couldn't see any waves breaking on the reef.
Thank goodness for GPS and echo sounders.
Safely tied up in the new pen by about 3:30pm.
Quite a good day all in all.


So today (even though for some odd reason I kept thinking it was Monday) I set about finishing the air tanks.
Cut and slide some of the air line tubing, which by happy coincidence is the appropriate size, over the "U-bolts" and " Ahhaa" some left over rubber matting which is perfect for lining the support bracket.























Drop in the first (original) tank and clamp it down. Do up all the fittings, mechanical and electrical.














Everybody keeps saying :
"Why don't you pressure wash | steam clean | etc. the chassis and fittings?"
There are a number of reasons actually.
I appreciate that after I've done it I would stay a lot cleaner while working over | under | around it (mind you I seem to get pretty filthy while I'm cleaning these sorts of things), however;
1) It would last until I make my first off road excursion (about 20km after I leave). In actual fact the chassis was perfectly clean when I bought it. All the dirt is from transporting it back here. It builds up until it reaches a natural level and then stays like that.
2) All the fittings were never designed to be pressure washed. They are generally OK for road splash etc., which is normally about the only way they get wet, but I don't like the idea of forcing water into places which were not designed to deal with it.
In engineering spraying seals with high pressure jets is a NO. NO.
I know I am not going to be happy when the time comes to clean it all for shipping as you need to get every last crevice cleaned out. But until then the minimum number of attacks.

Time to put in all the necessary blanking plugs (thank goodness the tanks are all BSPT which makes obtaining the parts easy. NPT are not as "off the shelf").
So in with the second tank - which now nicely clears the shaft underneath.












And the third one as well.














I have put a ball valve leading from the original tank to the first of the other two and another on the output from the third tank.
This way if there are problems with any of the hoses or fittings I can isolate everything to protect the brakes.
And for the rest I am using these lovely fittings again to make everything easy.
It is the same tubing I used for the differential, gearbox and transfer case breathers so in an emergency I am actually carrying about 10metres of this tubing around the truck.
I am trying to make everything as common as possible for redundancy of spares.























So now cut up all the necessary pieces and fit them in place.
And I'd better close off the ball valves until everything checks out in the original brake circuits.

I haven't actually started the truck since I changed all the fuel tanks etc. so this is going to be interesting.
I have had described to me what to do if I run out of fuel (which is what this situation equates to) by about three different people - three different explanations. Hopefully this will provide enough information when combined to get it all going properly.
I really am quite happy with this situation as I believe it is something I need to know how to do before setting off. It's the same reason I helped fit the new tyres - it demystifies the process in a non-critical environment while you have time to think properly. You don't want to be finding this stuff out in a foreign possibly unfriendly country in the dark!

So :
. Loosen the fuel filter drain plug.
. Use some air pressure in the fuel tank to force the fuel up to the filter.
. Close the drain plug.
. Loosen the hose fitting to the inlet side of the priming pump.
. More air pressure in the tank to get the fuel to that point.
. Tighten the hose fitting.
. Loosen the fitting at the highest point in the injector circuit.
. Operate the priming pump to get fuel to the fitting.
. Close the fitting.
Now in theory we should be OK.
Of course there will be fuel in the injector circuit anyway so the truck will start - it's just a matter of will it keep running.
Start her up.
Running beautifully so let's wait for a while to see if there are air pockets in the system anywhere.
Sure enough - some slowing down and irregular idle are signs that something is not right so pump like crazy with the primer. Every pump brings more life back until she is running nice and smoothly again. Pity the primer pump is very primitive and leaks a bit while in use but that's tolerable. I hope never to use it again!

OK let's see how the brake pressure is building up.
Coming up quite nicely; Oh and look the fuel guage is registering as well -that's nice.
Switch off the engine and listen for any leaks in the brake circuits.
Nothing.
I'll have to do my Tony Grieg impression at this point; (you'll have to imagine the accent)
"I can't believe it!"
OK. Open up the valve to fill the other tanks. Now I can hear the leaks.
Out with the soapy water to blow some bubbles.
Most of the leaks are just fittings I haven't tightened up properly (probably nervous about putting too much pressure on the aluminium threads) but an extra turn solves all but one.
Pulling this plug out reveals that somehow a "parallel" plug has snuck past where it should have been a "taper".
A quick trip to Couplers tomorrow will fix that .
Quite happy with that result!