Living as we do in the Sydney's Inner City quick weekend getaways can be a real drag.  Like everyone, we yearn for the longer but far more infrequent journeys that see us covering big distances over multiple weeks and really exploring new places and just generally living the 4WD touring and camping life.  So it is that we have to satisfy our selves with quick weekend trips, usually leaving mid-afternoon Friday and returning Sunday arvo.  There are some key factors that we look for with these weekend escapes and they are, in no particular order, the ability to have an open fire, be within two to three hours drive from home and close to water.  River, dam or coastline, it matters not.  So it is that we have made Grady's Riverside Retreat our go-to camping spot for our sneaky weekend trips.  Located just two and half hours drive from home 20 Klm's inland from Nowra on the Shoalhaven River, Grady's ticks all the boxes and the nice level grassed sights and decent amenities are a bonus.  But this blog is all about our Patriot X1-GT camper trailer so if you want more info on Gradys you can see our review here or go straight to their website for more detailed info.

So we had had the Patriot into our local dealer whom we purchased the trailer from back in August 2018.  As mentioned in the last post the compressor had failed and we had an awning in dire need of repair due to the excessive winds we encountered in South Australia's Flinders Ranges.  Upon collecting the trailer we were advised by the service manager that the trailer had been washed as part of the service, twice in fact because it was so dirty.  Good job to the team at Off Grid Outfitters on that front for making it look almost as good as new.  On the not so good front was the scratches on the rear of the trailer, there were two of them and they were very light and about 6 to 8 inches long.  I ran my finger over them as I chatted to the service manager about the work that had been performed, we'd also requested a full service whilst they had the trailer.  My none to subtle hint wasn't acknowledged and I never verbalised my concern as they may well have happened on the night that the awning broke, when I swung by home to pick up Rainey the first thing she did was point and say 'They're new' but how do we prove it that.

The service itself was expensive at $550.00, we could get a European car serviced for that but we did want to take care of the trailer so we paid it without dispute.  We thought we'd check Bundeena campground near Kangaroo Valley for the first time and stayed there on Friday night.  It's not a bad place but it was fairly crowded and you can't have fires, so we decided to pack up on Saturday morning and move onto Grady's as originally planned.  I folded up the awning in the usual manner and as I swung it around into the closed position the hinge where the whole thing pivots came apart.  Was I annoyed? Well, just a little.  You see the $550 we were charged for the trailer service didn't include the awning repairs and so we again we paid the additional $100.00 for the work.  I rang Off-Grid Outfitters on Monday to let them know that I wasn't happy with the work and this is where the real disappointment began.  The service manager advised that 'we didn't charge you to service the awning, just replace the broken part' to which I replied that the hinge was part of the area that they were repairing and that also we'd paid for a trailer service.  The answer will go with me to my grave, 'the trailer service doesn't include the awning, just the trailer itself and we did take the job on at short notice'.  It's disappointing that all I was hearing was excuses and as far as the short notice goes we had advised Off-Grid that we had the compressor failure a couple of weeks earlier and would it be OK to drop it in on our way past on our return from our South Australian trip to which we were advised that it wouldn't be a problem.  Adding to that we advised them that when we dropped the trailer in that we had no planned trips so take their time with the work.  We also lost a rubber plug that stops the spare wheel from rubbing on the trailer body and could they replace it whilst they were working on the trailer.  Not only did that not happen, but there was also another one missing.  Now I understand people get busy but the lack of acknowledgement of the issues and the lack of attention to detail means that we'll be taking care of servicing ourselves or seeking out alternatives for trailer servicing in the future.

Anyway back to the weekend away.  We arrived at Grady's early but due to it being fairly quiet we had no problem checking in.  We set the trailer up and proceeded to attach the kids' tent for the first time, even though we don't travel with kids we wished we'd had it on our South Oz adventure as at times we needed an escape from the chilli winds blowing in from the Bight.  The tent itself seems like a fairly simple but effective design but attaching it to the main tent can be a little fiddly, you know that thing with zippers when you wish you had a third arm so you could hold tension on each end of the zipper?  Anyway, we thought that once it was on we would just leave it on so this would be the last time we'd have to do it, we were wrong though.  Canvas is heavy and attempting to heave the thing up on top of the trailer with added weight of the kids room proved too much for us.  Sure if we only did long stays you'd manage but we do a mix of both long stays and short overnight stops where fast set-up and pack downs are essential.  So when removed the kids room lives in its canvas carry bag and just gets thrown on top of the folded up tent along with the awning walls and man cave and tent door extensions.  There's still enough room to avoid making the bag difficult to fit.

The kids room itself is roomy enough for us to use it as an area to store clothes thats far more accessible than reaching under the bed to get them out of the cupboard where they are stowed when in transit.  Access to storage cupboards on the right hand side of the trailer under the bed is fine for a night or two but when set-up for a week or more it becomes frustrating, to get in there you have to stoop down and contort yourself around the staircase.  The advertising blurb states that folding the bed up each morning is easy, which of course allows easier access to the cupboard but we purchased a camper trailer so we didn't have to partially pack up each day just to make the space usable.   We have an Oztrail collapsable cupboard thats light weight and folds down to about 50mm in height and we put it in the kids tent and this becomes our change room or somewhere to sit if the weather is really shitty.  I believe the unit we have is no longer available but there are loads of similar options out there.  Our kids tent appears to have a bit of a fabrication issue but I can't quite put my finger on what it is thats wrong, it doesn't matter how much tension we put on the straps or how we peg it down we just cannot get tension on the canvas.  We're yet to have it set up in inclement weather but pooling will be an issue.  We haven't taken this up with Patriot yet as we're not convinced that this isn't down to something we are doing wrong during set up.

We decided on this trip that the rear door being suspended at 90 degrees made life very difficult getting into and out of the main storage compartment and rather than dropping another thousand bucks on more kit, ie: the Drifta slide out unit, we would just removed the guy wires and allow the door to swing down out of the way.  Access, whilst still challenging with heavier items up the front is greatly improved.  We have removed the guy wires all together and just leave them stowed away with some various spares and things that live in the Prado.  Another option if you feel the need to use the door as a table as it was intended you just un-clip the bottom and leave them hanging and simply re-attach when needed.  Another little trick we've added to the remaining guy wires is a light weight lead sinker.  This slides up and down freely on the guy wires and places just enough tension on it to stop getting caught in the rubber seals when closing the storage cupboard doors.

We're really starting to get the hang of setting up and packing down the tent now and we can have it sleep ready with in ten minutes of arrival and that's not rushing around like lunatics either.