Buying a used pop top caravan

Hi Ranger57
Nothing beats having your own shower/ toilet in your van especially when some parks are not up to scratch. Not sure about the pop top think about outside noises and wind .
Grey Nomad 101 puts out a range of introductory DVDs which is very useful when starting out.
Good luck
Grant

Ranger when will you learn the boss is always right.! No extra weight in a bathroom mate, these are fibreglass jiggers, reckon re-sale value is always good with all the options. Great tow rig, have fun and send some photos when your done.

You wont be sorry, buying a van, it is a life worth doing.

Your budget would put you into a NEW Jayco camper trailer, I had the Swan model but there are some smaller ones. We had a portaloo & shower tent also.

We have eventually upgraded to a caravan, but they are quite spacious. The initial setting up is a bit long, but after a while we had it down to a reasonably quick time.

Certainly worth a look.

Jayco Campers

Cheers

For your first van I wouldn't worry too much about brand if you're staying in parks and on road. Chances are, you'll probably change it in a couple/few years for something else anyway and Jayco and Coromal make pretty decent vans regardless of what some would have you believe. What I would do, regarding toilet combo, is go to your local van sales yard and have a look in some. The staff usually leave you to look around and you can see if you feel it's a bit of a squeeze getting into a combo if you try it out (I don't mean actually leaving a "deposit" in there ;)) For what it's worth, we have traded a combo van and use a porta potty and shower tent where necessary, which works for us and we're glad we did....but that's us. We do a fair bit of offroad. If your Missus decides after a year that you should've got the combo model, you'll end up trading in for a combo model. If they're not happy, you won't be happy. As another suggested, there is the wind-up camper option but that's not what you asked about.....but.....great space inside and good for longer stays but a pain if you are travelling on the road with occasional overnight or even successive overnight stops. We got rid of ours after a year.

Gday Ranger. Mate I have a 2003 17'6 Galaxy poptop locked away in a shed on the Sunshine Coast that I need to let go as we are up living in Weipa and cant see us useing it again for a long time. Send me a PM if your interested mate.