Got me a Hawk and I'm ready to fly!

[jgrant]

Hi all
After reading lots of helpful advice here and on other forums, I purchased a brand spanking new Jayco Hawk Outback. I took delivery 1 week ago and have so far spent a very comfortable night on the beachfront at South West Rocks.
It is a great piece of kit. Like many campers we started with the old 2 man tent, then as kids came along we upgraded to the 10man 'vacation home' style of tent. My hatred of tarps, ropes and poles led us to move to a camper trailer (tent on top of trailer) which I still love to the day! Our desire to do some road tripping where we would travel most of the day, pull up and set up for the night before taking off again made the camper trailer a difficult option, so we purchased a 1980 Viscount Grand Tourer 16" pop top. We refurbed the inside, but the old gal just had too much 'swagger' and became monotonous to tow. Sooooooooo, we began our search for a late model Jayco Hawk, having decided that this was the best layout for us. A chance trip to a dealer on the way home from a visit up the north coast resulted in us 'accidentally' purchasing our brand new van. We had gone in to look at a second hand model, and found that the price for the new model, as a stock clearance, was just too good to refuse! Hubby was shaking hands with the salesman before I could lift my jaw off the ground. 
We have made a few simple mods based on the wisdom of members of this forum - I have insulated under the bed-ends as I found I was a little cold from underneath, reinforced the plated where the bed end poles slip in, and hubby had put some shelving in some cupboards and cut a door in the back of the sink cabinet to improve access. Oh, and we reversed the door on the fridge.
Thats probably it for now - we are taking her away on a powered site just up the coast again for the long weekend so we will iron out any bugs with our set up and packing then.
We plan to take a 3 week trip in Sept/Oct - possibly Cameron Corner then up the guts or Fraser Island/outback QLD. I will certainly be looking for more advice then!
Until then, can I just say I'm ready to fly!!!

[sol]

G'day jgrant and welcome.
Congrats on the new camper.Heaps and heaps of Jayco's here.
Enjoy the chat.

                                                               

[Sicilianmama]

Welcome to myswag jgrant! Love the Hawk

[BigJules]

G'day & Welcome.

This is the second really cool intro I've read today. Thanks for taking the time to write it.

[Janbo]

Looks great, I wish you all the best!! 

[Black Diamond]

Very nice mate well done. How much of a difference did the insulation make?

BD

[Swannie]

Welcome aboard..looks very nice.  Have you pics of how you reinforced where the bed end pole go into the bottom ply?

Greg

[theflyingbadger]

Very nice mate well done. How much of a difference did the insulation make?

BD

the insulation makes quite a difference. i bought a roll of the silver bubble wrap type stuff from bunnings to do our hawk

[jgrant]

Very nice mate well done. How much of a difference did the insulation make?

BD

I will be testing it on the weekend and I'll let you know. I had a roll of the insulation used under click laminate flooring so I glued that to the bed base, under the mattress. I also hope it will stop the little bit of moisture I could feel in the wood that accumulated after the torrential rain we had here over the w'end.
Cheers

[jgrant]

Welcome aboard..looks very nice.  Have you pics of how you reinforced where the bed end pole go into the bottom ply?

Greg

I will try and do soon Greg, but I have also seen pics on this site - that's where we got the idea. It's basically just a metal plate sitting under the original bracket, pot riveted through the original holes. Just to stop the pole pressing through the ply - after the first night we noticed some gouging.

[Jenko67]

Looks great mate, welcome to the forum and to another Jayco owner...

[Swannie]

I will try and do soon Greg, but I have also seen pics on this site - that's where we got the idea. It's basically just a metal plate sitting under the original bracket, pot riveted through the original holes. Just to stop the pole pressing through the ply - after the first night we noticed some gouging.

Yep I already gouged it!!!!!

Greg

[Aussiecris]

Looks great
I like the sound of insulation
The more I read the longer the to do list gets on my van

[Heiny]

Hi jgrant and welcome to My Swag

bubba

[rkwpjv]

Hi Jgrant, welcome! Love your new toy!

[Nutto]

Hi JGrant
Welcome from another openly biased Hawk owner.
Soom good mods u have going there, might have to pick up on a few.
I've done a few handy ones, and after a 4 month trip last year, the best ones are:
Take the bung of the water tank and replace with a tap.  I've had a few issues with the sink pump in mine, and this tap outside was the only way to get water out.
Then there's the LED lights off ebay (36SMD, easy search) and you can actually fir 3 yent poles inside the rear RHS bumper!
There's details on my camper thread, including a stonegaurd that cost waayyy less than 500 odd bucks


Nutto