Our Eco Tourer & Toyota Prado

greynomad1953 · Member

Our Eco Tourer & Toyota Prado

slip sliding away · Veteran Member

Welcome from us Greynomad1953... hope you have many a safe travel... looks great!

Bryan · Guru

Nice rig. Very clever design.

neilnruth · Guru

I wonder if this is where AVans idea came from?

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

Should be very fuel efficient.. 1953 is a good year !! I feel the station wagon body is better than tray ?? More support.. ??

greynomad1953 · Member

Hi Graeme, we are averaging about 13.5 L/100 km. Our van weighs in at about 2 Ton when fully loaded.

-- Edited by greynomad1953 on Saturday 23rd of November 2013 08:14:27 PM

Vic41 · Guru

neilnruth wrote:

I wonder if this is where AVans idea came from?

No the Avans were around for a long time before these, and the Avans were made under licence from those in the USA.

-- Edited by Vic41 on Friday 13th of December 2013 12:10:17 AM

Vic41 · Guru

As per my other post on your first thread Greynomad 1953, what is the ball weight of you Eco Tourer please?

Cruising Cruze · Guru

Hi Vic

from 150 kg to 180 kg depending on model

www.ecotourer.com.au/Specs_Pricing.htm

Cheers John

Vic41 · Guru

Cruising Cruze wrote:

Hi Vic

from 150 kg to 180 kg depending on model

www.ecotourer.com.au/Specs_Pricing.htm

Cheers John

Thanks John, seems a very high ball weight, I wonder if that might be because of the location of the wheels.

Nice vans though.

greynomad1953 · Member

Sorry for not getting back to you all re the ball weight of the Eco, I have had a very busy couple of weeks. My thanks to the members who went to the trouble of checking the Eco Tourer Specs. Re the comment about if the A Van was thought of after this, I couldn't answer that. I do however believe that from what I have seen, the Eco is the best fully fiberglass "collapsible" caravan on the market at the moment. It tows like a dream behind our Prado and except for when we are going up steep hills or driving into a strong north wind, we hardly know that we have 2 ton of caravan hanging off the back of the car. Also thanks for the welcome into the group, I have read some of the posts and have found them most interesting.

Vic41 · Guru

This was an article about them in the age in 2003, I believe the early models were made in an Aussie garage.

http://www.ecotourer.com.au/The_Age_May_10_2003.htm (can't make this clickable).

Here is a 2005 article that says at that time they are now assembled in China;

http://www.ecotourer.com.au/Caravan_World_August_2005.pdf (again, lost the ability to make clickable, will need to copy and paste in your browser)

This 2006 article about the Eco Tourer refers to the Avan Aliner (folding caravan) and says they were first introduced to Australia in 1990 which is my understanding too having owned one at one time. The author of the article Tom Olthoff (spelling) is an engineer and guru who knows his stuff, I have met him on a couple of occasions

http://www.ecotourer.com.au/Eco-Tourer%20July%2006.pdf.

I saw in a group photo you posted GN53 that there were several vans there, are you in the Eco Tourer Group/Club? PS: Would I have one? You Bet, as well as the tri fold table like the viewing window at the front, among other things.....

-- Edited by Vic41 on Saturday 14th of December 2013 09:55:44 PM

greynomad1953 · Member

Hi Vic, yes we are part of the Eco Tourer group. They really are a fabulous van. The photos that I posted were taken at the Eco Tourer group get together that was held in Nundle NSW on the weekend of October 12 & 13 of this year. We had a great time and met some really nice people. We had 49 vans on site that weekend and they expect even more next year.

Vic41 · Guru

That's great GN53, some people don't like clubs, but the right club can be great.

The big advantage of belonging to a club with the same make of RV as you know is being able to swap tips and view what others have done to theirs.

Happy travels! smile