The fourth video in the series, but the first I thought really got exciting.
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Full Series Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3k_zbyfFeEdLOsk_c6juJsdDqvMGZgP7
In the fourth instalment, I discuss the electrical system and let loose some opinions which when heard by some people will make the sparks fly! We cover how to charge lithium batteries with no DC-DC converter, how certain manufacturers cut corners on Lithium BMS systems, how to adjust alternator voltage outputs, how to make diode block splitters work with modern alternators, what we use to charge USB-C devices, and why everything’s Anderson Powerpole connectors.
0:00 Intro (featuring terrible pun)
0:08 Batteries (under bonnet)
01:10 Third battery - Lithium
01:26 How to charge it without a DC-DC converter
03:24 How to make a diode block splitter work on a modern alternator
05:25 Battery in the back - accessory fusebox
06:11 What does a BMS do?
07:35 And why a good BMS means you can just connect it up and it’ll work
10:09 Battery monitoring in the front
12:06 How we know we’re not ruining the battery in this setup
12:22 Lithium batteries are expensive! But actually they’re cheaper…
14:17 Anderson PowerPole connectors on everything!
15:22 Additional DIY battery pack for portable use
16:07 A decent USB-C laptop charger and what to look for
17:32 A decent 5v USB charger
18:00 Up Next / Outro
Full Series Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3k_zbyfFeEdLOsk_c6juJsdDqvMGZgP7
In the third instalment of this series about the Landcruiser 200 GXL, we cover the recovery gear - the winch, winch controller, recovery points, winch extension straps, bridle straps, snatch straps, shovels, a decent alternative to a chainsaw (Silky Katanaboy 650), and finally tyre deflators and air compressors.
00:00 Intro
00:02 Winch
01:22 Front Recovery Points
01:51 Maxtrax
01:57 Recovery straps kit
02:20 Digging tools
02:28 Silky Katanaboy 650 saw
03:23 Tyre Deflators and Tyre Pressure
04:25 Air Compressor
04:56 Up Next / Outro
00:00 Intro
00:04 Bullbar
00:48 Snorkel
01:43 Rear Bar
03:06 No Rear Locker
03:30 Supension / GVM Upgrade / 2" Lift
04:49 Rear HF antenna mount
05:16 Front Diff Drop - do or don’t?
06:30 Wheels and Tyres
08:27 Sidesteps
08:56 Catch Can
10:45 Transmission and Constant 4WD
11:19 Manual or Auto?
13:10 Up Next / Outro
I just arbitrarily declared this was the start of Series 5.
A video series about the full setup.
I uploaded this to YouTube in ProRes 422 to see what would happen, the result turned out little different to H.264, with the resultant bit rate being the same (unlike what many others claim).
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Full Series Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3k_zbyfFeEdLOsk_c6juJsdDqvMGZgP7
In this series of videos (yes I said “in this video”, at that point I thought it would be feasible to make this a single video), we’ll go through how we set up this 2008 Landcruiser 200 GXL to be able to travel just about anywhere. It’s a non-KDSS model, but we explain why that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
This is the first part of a series of videos, where we’ll cover the running gear, recovery gear, electrical, interior, radios (yes, they warrant an entire video), the rear, and what we decided to do about roof racks.
00:00 Intro
00:14 About the vehicle
01:39 Series Overview
This one is a complete remake of the original, unlike the last.
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This is the complete 2010 Japan trip video, presented as it was, as close as possible to the original video we made in 2010. The frame-rate mixing issues have been corrected by retiming it into 60fps - the video was made up partly of 1440x1080i50 anamorphic HDV, partly 1080p30 MPEG4, and partly whatever aspect ratio a Nikon D90 takes pictures in - with the final export being in 1920x1080i50. Where I’ve still got the 1080p30 clips, I’ve improved the quality by directly using upscaled versions of these clips to avoid the quality loss as they were converted to interlaced.
The commercial music of course has been replaced with royalty-free tracks. This was of course no small effort to find tracks that not only sounded similar to the originals but were of approximately the same length.
The Mt Fuji climb sequence isn’t the same as the one that was recently posted - it’s as it was in the original video, rather than having been re-edited into the style of a modern DropTableAdventures video.
Also, in the Sumo wrestling section, if you’re wondering why it didn’t contain any actual wrestling - the camera ran out of tape shortly before the two actually started.
Some of the footage has had a bit of motion stabilisation applied to it - it’s amazing what you get out of a GoPro now by comparison!
00:00:00 The Bluff, Victor Harbor - Christmas 2009
00:01:08 Heading for Japan - July 2010
00:03:48 The Japanese love Baseball
00:05:45 … and Sumo
00:11:12 Timelapse around Japan
00:16:34 Tsugaru Shamisen
00:18:45 Back to Kyoto
00:23:47 Finding Kiramisu House
00:25:15 The Gion Matsuri Festival
00:40:41 Climbing Fuji
01:04:20 Epilogue
In the previous video, I edited some ancient footage in much more modern tools.
To make this video, I decided to do the opposite, for some reason.
It did strike me that it’s a bit anachronistic - back when this was state of the art, to get footage that smooth and steady would have required specialist wide angle lenses and a very expensive steadicam setup. But now it’s just a GoPro on a suction cup.
The music’s some royalty free track that was shipped on the CD as a sample.
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So I’m not exactly sure why I did this, but I had the idea to get out my old PowerBook G3 again, install Final Cut Pro on it and have a go editing a video.
Final Cut Pro 3 was chosen, the last version that runs on Mac OS 9. This version, released in 2001, originated the ability to preview effects in real time (if you’ve got a G4), some very rudimentary offline proxy support, and the ability to record voiceovers directly.
Now obviously we can’t run 4K through this, so the footage was transcoded to standard definition DV.
I’ve got the final export back off the machine, so here’s the finished video, edited like it’s 2001 again!
I thought I’d dig this one out of the archives. This one takes footage from the original video, and re-edits it like a video I’d make now.
The major annoyance here was that the Kogan 1080p camera was filming in 1080p30, and the Sony camera was filming in 1080i50. The Sony footage was de-interlaced to produce 1080p25 for the Final Cut timeline, but then the Kogan cam’s footage was converted from 30 to 25fps, making it a bit janky.
Fortunately, I still had the original footage from that camera on an old backup drive, so using Topaz to convert the final export from 25 to 60fps, we could use both together.
This one was not a straight reconstruction of the original video, instead I edited it to be like a video I’d make now, with just the Mt Fuji climb in it.
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Back in 2010, my dad and I travelled to Japan to climb Mt Fuji. We stayed in Fujinomiya, and climbed via the Fujinomiya trail. The Fujinomiya trail is the shortest but by far the steepest, the Gotemba trail the longest, but most authentic experience. The Subashiri trail is the most picturesque and the Yoshida trail is the most popular and well serviced.
I dug this one out of the archives, gave it an upscaling and replaced the copyrighted music on it with something royalty-free. But this isn’t the original - while doing so I thought I should make a video just on the Mt. Fuji climb.
The reconstruction of the original video, featuring baseball, sumo wrestling, trains, timelapse footage and the Gion Matsuri festival will be coming soon. Subscribe so you don’t miss it!
00:00 Intro
00:23 Preparation
00:43 Well it should be here…
01:06 The Bus Ride
01:11 The Shrine
02:31 Station 5
03:18 Station 5.5
04:10 Station 6
05:02 Station 7
06:07 Station 8
06:29 Station 9
07:20 Station 9.5
08:00 The Summit… kinda
09:32 The Summit… again
10:25 Breakfast
10:48 There’s more…
10:57 Kengamine 3776!
11:24 Heading back down…
11:47 Outro
In the last part of our little adventure, we head north from Lake Albacutya, through Wyperfeld National Park and head across the Wirrengren plain, visiting O’Sullivan’s Lookout on the way.
From there, we head up to somewhere near Lock 9 on the Murray River, and camp besides the river for a night.
At the end of this video, we saw All Terrain Action (another YouTube channel) parked on the side of the road, later making contact with them online.
We were very pressed for time - so didn’t stop to say hi. Later made contact with them online, heard they thought we were the park rangers, due to all the antennas on the vehicle, and not having roof racks.
MaxTrax were actually used by us for the first time.
After travelling through Murray Sunset, we cross the road to enter Hattah-Kulkyne National Park. This, despite being only on the other side of the highway, is worlds apart.
We camp at Hattah Lake, check out Mournpall Lake, then head south through Big Desert State Forest and drive up an incredibly steep sand track.
After that we then cross Wyperfield National Park to Western Beach Campground on Lake Albacutya.
This was kind-of a practice trip for outback adventuring, kind-of looking for a place inside Victoria we hadn’t been that any random travel restrictions that might pop up wouldn’t cause issues with.
A few pieces of equipment make their first appearance - the frillneck hat (the Kathmandu one didn’t have a long enough back), the Garmin Fenix 6X watch, and the MSR Guardian water filter.
Also, the 3m 6800 full-face respirator made an appearance, but I’ve owned that since early 2020 - due to bushfires, not COVID - you couldn’t get masks at all. Activated carbon filters actually work pretty well for dealing with “nuisance gases” emitted by pit toilets on a hot day.
This is the start of my arbitrarily declared Season 4 as Season 3 was getting a bit long.
There’s really nowhere in Victoria remote enough to be considered truly Outback. But Murray Sunset National Park, Victoria’s second biggest national park, located in the north-west corner of the state, is certainly close in terms of weather, geography and appearance. If Victoria did have an outback, this would be it.
We visit the pink lakes - Lake Becking and Lake Crosbie, Mt Crozier, the Underbool Track camping area, the Border Camping Area, the Shearers Quarters, Rocket Lake, Mopoke Hut, the Raak Plain and the Nowingi Line.
