Introducing Arnold Schwarzenranger  – AKA Arni

15^th August –  8^th September 2024

There is a lot to love about this car, and three weeks after the purchase only one thing that disappoints. We should be able to connect the camera from the rear of the caravan so that it displays on the infotainment screen, meaning we won’t need an additional monitor stuck on the dash. To date we haven’t been able to achieve this. Still trying though.

The car drives beautifully, it’s quiet (we didn’t realise how noisy Big Ears was until we’d been driving the two cars one after the other). Arni is very comfortable, he pulls chunky Bum with ease and he has a fantastic 12” infotainment screen and all the tech that goes with it including pretty blue lights at night. Hey…it’s the little things. The Platinum is set up as a towing vehicle as delivered, and includes a lot of features specifically for towing.

We were concerned about fitting all our goods and chattels into the back of the Ute, but as it turns out, everything fits nicely. It’s snug, but nothing gets squished in, we have easy access to what we need quickly (tables and chairs,) without moving things around and the auto roller cover keeps everything safe and clean. When we remember to close it. 😊

So, why Arni? Well, I’m a big fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger and just like Arni the person, Arni the car is intelligent, good looking and super strong. All the things we need to tow Chunky Bum. Ok, we don’t need it to be good looking but hey, why not.

After picking Arni up, we went cruising around Redcliff and stopped for a celebratory lunch before taking Arni home.

Putting aside our excitement for a moment, this period has been very messy. The logistics of trying to sell a car while on the road is complicated enough but it’s been made even more so by the difficulty in finding accommodation. It’s been really hard to get into any caravan park in SE QLD; they’re all booked out.

We were lucky to get in at the Caboolture Show grounds, (the twelfth park we tried). Even then, we’ve had to move sites four times and leave the showgrounds for a single night, which we spent on the side of the road with upwards of a dozen homeless folk, before they could fit us back in. Crazy! (No, that wasn’t an exaggeration – that really was so!)

We had booked Big Ears in for his service, and at the same time his roadworthy certificate. Riddle me this Batman.  Ford ticked the box saying that they replaced the brake fluid yet failed his roadworthy because the Brake Fluid needed replacing. 😏 Don’t get Peter started on Ford Service Centres.

Side Note: I was given a couple of destinations for bird watching, (thank you Rae) One turned out to be a bit of a bust, Sheep Station Creek. I could hear lots of birds in the canopy but didn’t see a thing, the second, Buckley’s Hole, was much more rewarding.

There was a bird hide there and it didn’t take me long to realise I was witnessing a barn raising, well, the bird equivalent of that, a nest building. I wasn’t much help but enjoyed watching as the Welcome Swallows worked.

In between building I got a good look at some of the residents at Buckley’s hole. I was thrilled to see a Comb-Crested Jacana. Never seen one before so that’s always a thrill, what a pretty little bird it is and just look at the size of its feet.

Finally, everyone’s favourites, the good old Australian Pelican.

Peter had gone for a walk along Red Beach while I was birding, when I’d finished, I walked back to the car along the beach. On the way I saw a Brush Turkey doing his thing, an Osprey on the beach, some busy little soldier crabs and a Spoonbill cruising by.

Ok, so it was a bit more than a side note, but hey…we had to have our bird fix. Now back to the main event.

Arni was pretty much ready to tow when we picked him up, but he needed wiring to connect the camera from the van, which would be shown on the infotainment centre, doing away with the need for an additional monitor. After a lot of calls, we found a business, Bashi’s who had worked on a Platinum before and said it should be an easy half day job, so we booked in on a Wednesday. We also booked in at ARB to have an air compressor installed (Wednesday and Thursday) the same week.

Oh boy, what a mess around! Long story short, the half a day job turned into a two-day job. This of course meant that we had to cancel our job at ARB. We couldn’t reschedule as the Showgrounds have a three-week maximum stay, and we were out of time. Luckily, ARB returned our deposit. We got Arni home from Bashi’s, after paying nearly $600, to find out that the camera didn’t work. Friday morning found us sitting outside Bashi’s, with Chunky Bum in tow to see if they could fix the issue.

Three hours later, and after trying everything they could, while Peter called Ford Australia, the manufacturer of the camera, and some other mob dealing with the cabling, Bashi’s team gave up. They were very apologetic, offered us a full refund, and we got to keep the cabling that, as yet, doesn’t work. Then we went home. Well, we took our home with us and went back to the Showgrounds.

We have two more nights here then we’re heading back to Kingaroy, me, Peter, Arni, Chunky Bum and Big Ears. Quite the growing family.

See you out there somewhere

On tow and on the go!