Off Road Pop Top Caravan

Australian Off Road Quantum would be a good start.

Bushtracker have a single axil poptop in their lineup. Not cheep but probably find it hard to beat.
Rob

Hi Sheza.
Had an interesting conversation with the boss of coromal caravans the other day. We have one of there offroad compacs a very well put together rear door van that retails for low $30s new. Ours is set up for remote travel and been on roads like cape leveque, murchison mullewa through to kennedy ranges etc. I have no trouble recommending them to others. We would like to upgrade to a 14ft x 6ft 6" poptop but these range in the high $70s plus from manafacturers like trackmaster, pheonix, etc up to $100g from bushmaster. The coromal boss only answered the phone because most of his staff were off with flu but he told me there was no market for this sized van. He is wrong of course but like most big companies they are unlikely to listen to joe public. He told me that if they did build a van this size with shower toilet it would retail at less than $40g. Id buy one tomorrow.
Cheers Graeme

Check out the Trakmaster, we have a 13'6" Sturt single axle pop top , 6"6" wide so narrower than most pop tops. We are travelling full time with it and I'm impressed, a very good off road van, but you pay a premium for it.

So far the only things to fail are the things common to all vans like a dometic awning slider and a Shurflo water inlet/regulator, small things like that.

Build quality and suspension is brilliant. Mostrly pretty well thought out, but after 12 months in it there are things that could be improved upon.

www.goingbush.com/defender.html

Regal make the Desert Series.

I had one and did the same roads you have traversed except Cape Leveque without any problems clocking up nearly 100k with it.
Now went to Jayco for a shower toilet van, getting sooky I suppose.

You don't give any indication of new/used or any budget limitations but I'd agree a Trakmaster new or used are good quality and not ridiculously expensive. Some of the recent "crossover" types come into this category and can be pretty heavy too. The Vista being an exception weight-wise but will set you back around $60,000 but well worth a look at. When we were last looking we noted there weren't many of the smaller used Trakmasters available and those that were went quickly. There are vans just a few years old like Regent, Goldstream, Majestic and the Supreme Getaway etc all occasionally on the used market for a reasonable price and all well capable of the rugged stuff. Some of those even look pretty much the same van. Look at their suspension systems as in the above mentioned and they are usually Control Rider, Cruisemaster or similar with piano hinged cupboards, good clearance and offer a bit more than just chequerplate and 15" rims. A bit of a minefield particularly with so many now on the market with new vans coming out all the time. All good fun though.