We are thinking of heading over to WA next year with our camper trailer and need places to stay that have powered sites as we have an engel fridge and no on board power source. Are there powered sites across the nullabor?

Hi Pam and welcome to the nomads, there are powered sites available through various roadhouses, a quick enquiry will reveal them, but if you are only staying the one night then your engel will be fine without power for that length of time, if you are going to do more of this, have a look at getting a second battery installed in the trailer with an anderson plug from the vehicle to recharge it whilst driving, it will not necesarily cost all that much and will give you lighting as well, it is easily done by most handymen

Thanks for the welcome Dave06 and for the info. Hubby and I hope to travel more but work still gets in the way. Could you please explain to me what an Anderson plug is. Batteries etc are a new language for me.

very simply put an "anderson plug" is a heavy duty connection between two 12volt heavy power cables. if you take a power source and an earth from your vehicle, preferably direct from your battery (positive and negative) with a 15 amp fuse installed as close as possible to the battery on the positive side, run the two wires through protection to the rear of the vehicle next to the towbar, here it must terminate with some kind of connection so as to enable you to disconnect the trailer so one side of the anderson plug goes there, it continues via the other half of the anderson plug along the drawbar of your camper trailer to where you have a power outlet, maybe a cigarette lighter socket and a couple of small lights. think of the anderson plug as an extension lead socket on your 240 volt power cord, they just plug together, the dual battery setup is the one that I would go for, more complex but far better, if you have the same aforementioned setup, but terminate the camper trailer end to an on board 12v deep cycle battery then as you drive the main vehicle the "second battery" would charge up, when you disconnect the trailer you will have a secondary power source for the fridge and basic lighting. to achieve this is as I said is a bit more complex, but not beyond the means of a competent handy man with very basic knowledge, it certainly is not rocket science, you will need a battery isolater, (preferably redarc) this is placed under the bonnet of the tow vehicle and as close as possible to and connected to the main battery, the power lead is taken via the isolater and then a 15 amp fuse through to the anderson plug to recharge the "second" or "house" battery which sits in the camper trailer, whilst driving to the next piece of paradise the "second" battery is recharged. when you stop and disconnect the tow vehicle you will have an independant power source. if you have a look at ebay and poke in anderson plug you will see one there, any good vehicle electrician, or repco will sell you one. the redarc website has an excellent detailed wiring diagram as to how one wires these isolaters up, take a look and you will feel confident to do it yourself, I did mine in an easy and enjoyable afternoon, easy as falling over a dead dog, once you start in to the world of power self susstination (if there is such a word) you will be hooked and start to wander in to the realm of solar panels and inverters and watts per hour usage and holding capacities of various batteries and discharge availablity, it is a complex world that you are dabbling in but it doesnt have to be, K.I.S.S. stands for Keep It Simple Stupid, follow that law and you will enjoy, make it enjoyable grab a bit of knowledge it's not that hard to be independent, I've done it for 25- 30 years now and still going, whats more I'm loving every minute of it

Thanks for the explaination. I will show it to hubby.

no problem pam, if you need further assistance, email me anytime, my address can be found by clicking on my name. tell hubby to give it a go, it's dead simple and a very good hobby and self rewarding

Hi Pam You will have no problem with powered sites they are at every roadhouse across the nullabor as long as you are off the road before it gets too late in the day as they do get busy depending what time of year it is. We only came across a couple that were full but it was after 5 when that happened. Cheryl

Weird isn't it, the Nullabor so significant to the indigenous people has a latin name Null = No, Abor = Trees....

Hi Chezgo,
Thanks for your info. We hope to head off after Easter 2009 for up to 2 months( Depending on what holidays our bosses will let us take ). We would cross the nullabor and then head down to Esperance and then see what happens after that.

Still debating the dual battery system Dave06. I like my hot showers and hubby likes his Tv. We love the friends you meet in Caravan Parks so wonder if we really need our own power source.Would the convenience out way the cost if it would only be used rarely.
Is there another option for occasional use that you don't need to wire in? Perhaps something you can use for a couple of nights and then recharge while in Caravan Parks using 240 volts?

I wonder what the indigenous people call the Nullabor.

it's a question of how much comfort you want and how often you want to use it, the dragon and I rarely watch t.v. and we use a portable unit to shower, if you only wish to watch a "little" bit of t.v. then all you need is a 300 watt inverter that plugs in to your cars cigarette lighter (ignition to accessories) this will power your t.v. for a couple of hours and your vehicle will recharge the battery while you drive the next day, you could use a solar shower bag its a plastic black bag that you place in the sun for a couple of hours, it heats up, you hang it from a tree and it has a shower nozzle on the bottom, and you simply shower with it. the inverter is only about $80 have seen them cheaper and the shower bag about $20. the first aborigine that seen the nullarbour was heard to say I aint never never goin there so they called it never never land. cost of a dual battery system (from memory) is (1) deep cycle battery, start at about $300 (2) battery isolater about $125 (3) battery box and wiring about $130 (4) 1500 watt inverter, about $600 - $1200 depends on quality, so I guess it is relatively expensive but we use our vehicle all the time and with this system can stay away from power (with an 80 watt solar panel that you wouldnt need) for a week running lights and an engel fridge, as I say internet gives me the shytes when I am out there beginning to give me the shytes here lately, and telly well we dont take it anymore, same old crap as when you left home six months ago. give me a gum tree and a babbling brook anytime, if you wish to stay in parks add up the cost and compare that and add the comfort level, you decide what you want, but for me the types that hang out at caravan parks can have it

Hi Pam, the aboriginals call the nullabor "oondiri" which means waterless. which is probably more acurate than nullabor (tree less) because last time i crossed it there were trees out there which shocked me because the first time 30years ago there were none that i can remember anyway. Back to the camping we took a 5 plug power board ran the tv, 2 lights, plugged in the waeco fridge and a fan. no problems. Used roadhouses powered sites and caravan parks cause i really like hot showers too and they all have them its a little hard to get a lather going with the water  though (on the nullabor i mean). They charge anything from 20-35 a night for sites. Cheryl