Meet Frank

 No, we haven’t added another cat to our family.  “Frank” is our new Fuso Canter truck.

It had come to the time to update Mick’s vehicle and we decided to replace his Mazda BT50 ute with a small truck.  

The reason behind this is that there is currently a crack down on overweight caravan/tow vehicle combinations on the roads.  The powers that be are setting up random mobile weigh bridges and many vans are coming in over weight.

When we were in Darwin a couple of years ago Mick got talking to a fellow who was weighing vans as a business.  Of those he had tested, 100% had failed.  The problem goes right back to the sales people selling the vans and the tow vehicles.  Our van was sold as “Prado suitable”.  Yes, if the van was totally empty, had no water or food and the vehicle was also empty it might comply, but under realistic conditions, no way.

We knew we were overweight.  Mick had added extra suspension under the back years ago, for carrying around all his work tools.  However, that would now need to be certified and they won’t certify anything over a couple of years old.  The main thing is that if you are in an accident and your vehicle/van is deemed to be overweight the insurance company will not cover you.

Therefore, we decided to update to a very small truck that will mean that we have no ongoing weight issues.

We had the tray of “Frank” made as small as possible and  as a result, he is actually shorter than the Mazda. He has automatic transmission and can be driven with a normal car licence.  There are all the mod cons in the cab, but not quite as many creature comforts, but we can live with that.  As to cost, he was surprisingly less expensive than a Ford Ranger or Mazda BT50.

We picked him up in Orange on Friday, in the rain.

By dinner time that day, Mick had installed the canopy, which was previously on the Mazda, onto the tray.  On Saturday, he installed the additional storage box onto the tray.  He built this unit to match the canopy while waiting for the delivery of the truck.  It slotted in beautifully.

Then it was time to get the towbar and Rock Tamers on the back, ready to tow the caravan.

We took the set up down to the local shopping centre car park to make sure everything was nice and level, which it was.  Phew!

I thought our little “Rosie” Sierra would look tiny next to her big brother “Frank”, but surprisingly no.  

It just goes to show how small he is.  Mind you, the cab space is much roomier in the truck.

The maiden voyage with the van will be tomorrow, as we head up to Baradine for Scrub Stitchin’.  As we haven’t been anywhere with the van since November, and not been on holidays since September, we are really looking forward to getting away again.

There are a few things that Mick still has to set up on “Frank”, but they can wait till we return home.  He has done extremely well to get so much done in just a few days.  He’s a handy fellow to have around.