Hi All, Happy New Year to everyone. We are looking at buying a caravan to travell around Australia. We will have no time frame and want to see as much as we can. We are tending to go towards a semi off road van to enable us easier access to National Parks etc. we have looked at several brands and some, that appear to be of a good standard are Traveller, Lotus and Majestic. Can anyone please give us a few pointers. We know it comes down to personal choice but some feedback would be great. Thanks

g'day Russ and welcome to the forum, first just how much off roading are you going to do, this will determine the undercarriage (independent suspension, coil or leaf) if only light duty then the above mentioned vans would be fine, the most important is the internal layout, it must be "livable" for an extended period of time I have seen a lot of jayco's out there coping just fine as well as on road vans coping perfectly with being off road up to a point, on the same stretch of "road" I have seen off road vans broken down and on road vans coping very nicely, the driver has a hell of a lot to do with the van or vehicle "making" it through ground clearance and wheel travel are the main killers when venturing off road, next is water and food storage capabilities, then comes the decision of whether you are comfortable in it, the "ultimate" off road trailer is very good and can go absolutely anywhere the tow vehicle can, but then the occupants sleep outside???? any van will go around Australia, big and shiny dont mean a thing when its covered in bull dust and mud, the makers claims and the braggers soon come to grief when the tough stuff shows, I've seen it time and time again

Hi Dave, thanks for the reply. We are planning to spend about 2/3 of our travels in "free camping" areas, national parks and the likes. We do not want a full "off road" van as you have said they will go anywhere but most are lacking in room and comfort inside, esspecially for long term touring. We have heard good and bad reports on most vans and believe that it will come down to personal choice. Hopefully we will get some feedback both positive and negative on the vans mentioned just to give us something to think about. We are looking around 20' with extra ground clearance. Happy travels Dave.

yep no worries Russ, if you have read any of my posts (and its hard not too, I'm such a blabbermouth) then you will see that I am a great advocate of free camping, I achieve this goal very regularly in "little blue" now by no stretch of the imagination is she "off road", and yet 98% of our camping is free, I know you will have limitations as far as manoevering goes but the actual achievement of getting in to commonly known free camps would be achieved by a "slightly" off road van of the size you are looking at but with vans my knowledge is limited, I gave them up years ago, but no doubt a far more knowledgeble person than I will come later tonight

Hi there Russ and welcome from us too..

Our goals are pretty similiar and after much thinking and brain power we opted for the Kedron - they have anumber of options available and realise that they are bit more expensive than most, but after seeing the way they were built at their factory - it was a really easy decision for us.

We have ended up with the serious off road van called the "topender" top of the range but they have so many other options available and the thing that really sold us was there service and customer relations - just wonderful! Can't recommend them highly enough - a few vans come up second hand but are getting scarcer by the day.

Greendale wrote:

---

Hi All,
Happy New Year to everyone.

We are looking at buying a caravan to travell around Australia. We will have no time frame and want to see as much as we can.
We are tending to go towards a semi off road van to enable us easier access to National Parks etc. we have looked at several brands and some, that appear to be of a good standard are Traveller, Lotus and Majestic.

Can anyone please give us a few pointers. We know it comes down to personal choice but some feedback would be great.

Thanks

---

Hello Russ

I have owned a variety of offroad trailers, some that open that way, others open this way, and then there's the windup Jayco Outback and now a full, semi-offroad caravan.  It's a matter of personal choice.  How much you are willing to spend?  What will you be towing it with?  Do you want it to be really seriously offroad or do you want the capability to check out a waterfall which is 30 kms down a dirt track?

If you look after your vehicle as I do, and be selective where you take it, then it will naturally follow that you will be looking after your van too.

Because you will be living in it for an extended period, you want it to be comfortable and you don't want to be messing around too much in the heat or bad weather setting it up or packing it up.  The whole experience must be enjoyable, not a chore and that's what it's all about.

There are so many van manufacturers in Australia, it would take you more than 6 months to get around and check them all out.  Sooner or later, you must take the bit between the teeth and make a decision.  Just remember, you don't have to take everything that is offered as most van manufacturers will build you a van to your specs.  I recently purchased a new van to my specifications and got exactly what I wanted.

Firstly, because I am more of an off-roader and seldom plug into 240v, I could not see the sense in dragging an air/con around on the roof of my van.  That was the first thing to go and with the $2,000 saved there, I put that money into my modifications.  I am thrilled with what I ended up with.

Firstly, I had the choice of about 6 floorplans.  I ordered a 6" gal chassis instead of the usual 4", 16" light truck tyres, and 4" risers to give me all the extra ground clearance that I would need.  I also had two 9kg gas bottles fitted instead of the usual one, an Anderson plug, and extra checker-plate on the sides.  I also took an extended 4 yr warranty on the body componets.  Admittedly, I had to wait 3 months for it to be built but the wait was well worth it.  That cost me around $45K but I'm really well set up now.  Just remember, you will only get what you pay for and I went a bit middle of the road.  One must draw the line somewhere.

You might notice that I have not mentioned the brand name as I don't want to be seen to be pushing a particular make.  It's not one that you have already mentioned.   What suits me won't necessarily suit someone else.  I'd be quite happy though to give you the particulars if you emailed me privately.

Captain

Brian I can see that you have a pretty good van there and at $45k is not too bad, you could easily pay that for an off road camper trailer and I have seen some that are valued in excess of that I'm a bit of an advocate of if you have a good experience with a manufacturer then why not share it with the forum there will be some knockers in here but thats what we are all about "DISCUSSION" never shy away from an opinion, life is made up of conversations correct or incorrect you will notice that I have on many occasions sung the praises of various brands and manufacturers, I very quickly let the forum know of any bad manufacturers as well dont let the knockers stop you from posting in here, real or imagined, this is still a free forum and at no stage should anothers opinion influence your right of input

Hi dave06
I am more than happy to share my experiences with any MEMBER of the forum who can email me privately (email address supplied in member's profile) if they really want to know a brand.  I just didn't want to share it with all and sundry NON members who might want to surf around this forum.  If they're really interested, they can join up.
Russ has already contacted me and I have told him everything he wants to know.  The offer is there for any other MEMBER to contact me.  Happy to hep out.
Captain

yeah look I'm constantly annoyed, we have in excess of 870 members and out of them we are lucky to get half a dozen consistant posters, some just "poke" in now and again to sling off at others I was very disapointed at the record breaking attempt, and constantly amazed at the lack of posts, out of these sort of numbers the law of averages suggest we should get at least 400 posts per day, take my dribble out of the equasion and there would be many days when that would be none either we have a bunch of go nowhere dreamers in here or people who would rather just sling off at those who do travel and not talk of their experiences

dave06 wrote:

---

yeah look I'm constantly annoyed, we have in excess of 870 members and out of them we are lucky to get half a dozen consistant posters, some just "poke" in now and again to sling off at others

I was very disapointed at the record breaking attempt, and constantly amazed at the lack of posts, out of these sort of numbers the law of averages suggest we should get at least 400 posts per day, take my dribble out of the equasion and there would be many days when that would be none

either we have a bunch of go nowhere dreamers in here or people who would rather just sling off at those who do travel and not talk of their experiences

---

G'day Dave,

I see where you are coming from but there are a few other caravan forums on the net where people seem to be continually slinging off at others.  At least here I have noticed it is far more friendly and in my opinion is the best forum I have so far come across.  I wouldn't say your posts are dribble, at least you have something to say.

You will always get those who feel it is their duty or God given right to do nothing other than criticize those who do post and share their experiences, it seems to have something to do with the anonominity of the net, meet the same people face to face and they usally have very little or nothing to say and spend most of their time hidden in their van.

I was considering a wireless internet connection on my laptop so I could access the forum when we are travelling but quite frankly I cannot justify the expense for something that will only work part of the time, which makes me wonder how many others who are travelling this great country of ours do not have access to the net whilst on their travels.

Best Regards and Safe Travelling.

John

 

john I had a nose at some other forums, never posted but was sorely tempted by some of the absolute rubbish that was being posted, actually a few names that appear in here appear in other "talky" places, makes me wonder if they actually travel or do they just talk about it when we travel, and that is pretty regular, we cant be bothered with the net or TV or any other nonsense, but thats our choice, we have the Engel and lighting and sometimes the wireless and all of this can be run off a 100 amp hour car battery with an 80 watt solar panel to recharge, and when we take little blue everything is in there so we travel far and light most people whom we meet out there are the same, battery lighting and talking is the focal point and that is what surprises me in here, the lack of talking, when we setup camp and if any one else is there we are sitting and chatting up a storm within the hour, in here it is like pulling teeth to get people to talk

Dave,

I must admit I like to keep it as simple as possible when we travel. We have one 85 watt solar panel and one x 100 amp hour battery, runs lights and when I install it in the caravan a 12volt car radio/CD player, we have a couple of LED lanterns in case we ever need them and quite often will put citronella oil into the old Kero lantern to help dissuade the mozzies and keep them at bay.

So far I haven't given much thought to running a 12 volt Engel or similar, do they work well or do they draw a large amount from the battery? I would really appreciate some info if you have the time.

I reckon having a chat is great, apart from making new friends a lot of information is passed around and what better way to pass an hour or two than with a nice cold beer and a good chinwag.

Best Regards and Safe Travelling.

John

I also agree with John, I am new to forums of any kind and I was a little bewildered by some of the comments that were posted on other forums. All I set out to do was to get some opinions of a particular van and the amount of hear-say second and third hand stories that were posted were more frustrating than helpful to us. I do find that this forum appears to have genuine members with whom you can have a chat with and get honest feedback and experiences. We have travelled quite extensively both overseas and in Australia but it has been with tours and we are looking forward to getting a van that WE decide suits us and travelling around Australia with no fixed time frame. I do notice that a lot of travellers go away for a couple of months at a time and then head home. Is this because they are tired of travelling and need home comforts or is it a matter of budget or other restrictions? Thanks for helping us and sharing with us. Russ

john from memory the engel 40 litre, which is what we use, draws between 0.5 to 2.5 amps, I tested this for a week at a temperature of 32 degrees outside ambient, the fridge lives in our rear annexe on little blue, this test was not scientific and wrought with error but it worked for me it ran an average of 2 minutes every hour at a steady temperature of 2.5 deg., I have the insulated cover for it and was opening it to get the occasional drinkys out and food as normal, given 24 hours in a day that gives me a total average of 48 minutes running time in 24 hours, if you round it up to 1 hour in 24 the usage is bugger all, in fact on my battery moniter the drop in charge affected at the end of a week was negligible, when I placed the solar panel (85 watt projecta) out then it was no drop at all I had a consistant 13.5 volts peaking at 15 volts and full amperage at all times, mind you the panel was in full sun and we had perfectly clear weather, but even without it I dont think you would have a problem with a 100 amp battery we stay up to two days without the solar panel and without effect and no recharge, only the vehicle alternater when travelling, we have run this system now for a few years and have yet to uncover a flaw and never had a flat battery, all up the battery and isolater (self install) cost me under $300, now thats without the solar panel which is a projecta 85 watt self supporting job which cost me $900, mates rates from our caravan dealer, this I just plug in to a lighter socket which is run from the second battery, I also have an "onboard" charger so if we pull in to a power source it will automatically recharge I've read all the complex dribble sprouted by some in here and all I can say is they can keep it, a large ammount of power is not necesary for me, travel is K.I.S.S. keep it simple stupid is my motto

Greendale wrote:

---

I do notice that a lot of travellers go away for a couple of months at a time and then head home. Is this because they are tired of travelling and need home comforts or is it a matter of budget or other restrictions?
Thanks for helping us and sharing with us.

Russ

---

Hi Russ,
Some of us travel for a couple of months and then head home because we have'nt quite retired yet and  must go back home to work. Sob sob!!

G'day Russ,

Welcome to the forum, I'm sure that by now you have a fairly good idea what you are looking for and it will probably be a case of sorting the wood from the trees and as you say personal preference will play a major role in your final decision.

We have a 1983, 15 foot Jayco pop top that suits us quite well and a 1993 Falcon station wagon.  We travel whenever we can and this year we are planning to start our trip around the block, no fixed time frame.  We are set up to free camp so we can save a little money and make use of all that beautiful peace and quiet that one can only seem to find in some out of the way bush camp. We should be ready to leave early May so we will head north from Perth and travel wherever the road may lead and as I am so fond of saying "if we don't get there today we will get there tomorrow or the day after"

As for those who travel for a few months and then head home I would assume there are any number of reasons for doing so, maybe work commitments, financial restraints, some have already done the Big One and are now content to travel as and when they feel like doing so, some simply go back to the same place every year, that is what is so good about caravanning you go where and when you want to and if you don't like your neighbour you can simply pack up and move on

Best Regards and Safe Travelling.

John

well in our case we have our handicapped (cerebral palsy) son still under our care, we try to get 6 weeks clear holidays per year which we break in to 3 monthly blocks of 2 x 2weeks and 2 x 1 week (which we pay for at a current rate of $1,164 per week and rising) the dragon and I still work, a lot of our pay goes into paying the supporters who care for our son whilst we work, or go away, sometimes they earn more than I do, current care providers hourly rate is $18.50, but we really need to get away otherwise we will be in the funny farm ourselves so we save up when we can and go as far as we can for as long as we can afford to, but we must still return home, it works out that we nick off every three months

Pam, I can understand your problem. We too are workers but plan to semi retire in 2 years, then off we go all being well. Russ

Thanks a million for the info Dave, it is greatly appreciated.  After reading that I am pretty much convinced that buying one would be money well spent, so far in our travels we have relied on the caravan fridge but as it is not one of the tropical rated fridges, they are not available for our van, it does not work as well as a compressor fridge in the hot weather (over 32 degrees celsius) and I hate warm beer.

Once again many thanks.

Best Regards and Safe Travelling.

John

Hi all,
We have a Waeco fridge which we run off 12v - never had an issue and just run it off the auxillary battery.  It is necessary for us to have the 12v for Barry's CPAP machine  so we make use of it for the fridge as well.  We also sometimes charge the battery with a small 10W solar panel if we are out for any length of time.