Thread: help needed in my purchase of a caravan

Originally Posted by ROVERNIT

My wife has decided that where buying a caravan I wanted a camper trailer

she wants those pop top type with the fold out sides, the thing is, I dont know jack crap about them what am I looking for there are so many brands which is the best

here is pics of what she was after however this one out of our price range

My parents have had vans and campers from when we were all little tykes. But every one has been a folding type of some sort.

1) Golf Foldaway: These are pretty rare. They look like a wind-up camper when on the road but have solid walls that fold down, so look like a caravan when in use. Ours was a 15 footer - slept 2 adults and 2 kids with comfort, three kids with the table folded. We used an annex (they weren't into moving around so much back then). They sold it when we hit teen years and didn't buy another until it was just the two of them when they got ...

2) Off-road box trailer camper - Double bed and tent plus annex. Dad had the trailer and tent separately made to his own specifications, which was cheaper than buying a ready-made unit. Tough, but they wanted everything under a solid roof so moved on to ...

3) A'van - the actual "A" type. These are too small for a family (unless you have only one kid and don't mind dropping the table, or have two and put the annexe up every stop). They've taken theirs across the Top End and beach camping - they do a lot of National Parks, but no heavy-duty off-road (only places you can get to in a LandCruiser )

I went with him and did a once-over of the Caravan and Camping show last year, and the accumulated experiences of these vans and what I've seen, I would say ...

buy an old cheapie!

If you need more serious off-road capabilities, get a new chassis made to go underneath (or make one yourself if you have the skills).

Family-friendly layouts are rare in new vans, good custom genuine off-road vans expensive and anything else is a tent in disguise.

The older styles, while daggy, are more space-efficient and your $5000-$10,000 van with new off-road chassis won't be afraid to go places you would otherwise need something 10 times as expensive to safely tackle.

If you must go new, A-van have an expanding range with solid walls, but my view is the expanding thingies are a bit of a gimick. For kids, a couple of bunk beds are more efficient than an extending double, and can be used as a chair in wet weather. For adults, having the bed all made and ready to go, and not having to worry about packing wet canvas, is worth the extra length, and the weight savings are minimal.

Yeah, I went to the Caravan/Camping show at Lismore a month ago and most of the vans were bs...

all that useless space, enormous weight and pointless krap for like... $50,000 +

in your dreams

i just dont see how an 18 foot van can weigh nearly 3 tonnes...why???

GQ

Originally Posted by Numpty's Missus

Well....I just watched Jeremy, Richard and James destroy the ideal of caravan holidays.

Don't buy one

LOL X2

Originally Posted by Quiggers

i just dont see how an 18 foot van can weigh nearly 3 tonnes...why???

GQ

Well if it's anything like my mum's, it'll be due to the Colour TV, Microwave, DVD player, Shower, Toilet, awnings, gas bottles, etc etc etc. She may have a dishwasher in there for all I know!

I reckon you can't go past something like HiLine's trailer. Looks great. As my kids have grown up, it's just me and SWMBO these days - we've got a home built version of something like Hi-line's. But the two ends are king size singles only - one end for me and the other for her - works a treat. The table / dining area will fold down into a double if we need it, but never used it. It was originally built by father in law on a mini minor rear suspension with 10" wheels and was towed behind a Torana. I've recently put a new and stronger chassis, solid axle with leafs, extended draw bar and 14" Ford rims with light truck tyres under it. Will now go anywhere we want to go.

Will probably keep this one for another year or so - it gets a lot of use, especially down around Esperance, and across to Tassie about once every two years. Will eventually move into something a bit more comfortable. Possibly something like Hi-Line's or more likely a Windsor Rapid like the first one shown in the post. Have had a look at theses and they're not bad - love the idea of a bed in each end ha ha. There's a few of these in not bad nick coming onto the second hand market these days as well. If it's not solid / high enough to go where I'm likely to want to take it - mods are not difficult and pretty cheap if you can do it yourself.

Hmmmmmm, did you watch Top Gear tonight???????

Originally Posted by cartm58

do some maths

caravan $12000 plus
registration & insurance
additional fuel to pull it along
caravan park site daily fees for any trip

divide by the number of days likely to have use of the caravan over the next 5 years

the resulting figure has to be more than booking in a motel hotel for 90% of any likely trip. Your wife will be lot happier in motel hotel style accomodation than any caravan.

For the remaining less than 10% of time she will swap for a canvas tent arrangement

spend the savings on upgranding the land rover experience

All these offroad campers come with 12v as well, so no need to go to a van park if you don't want.

Yeah $12,000 is the max and it must be a pop top with double beds on either side

trading post here I come

these thing way about 750kg- 1 tonne I wonder how it would go being towed with lifted spring