Newbie advice on vans and beach driving in Queensland

Hi Peter,
Taking a caravan onto the beach doesn't have alot to do with what make they are IMHO, but yes i can see the benifits of having offroad branded van over an onroad type. Time your run for 2 hours before lowtide to minumise the amount of soft sand you need to drive through, run the right tyre pressures on your vehicle and van and you'll be able to take most caravans (onroad included) to the places you've mentioned. We used to own a 13ft 1970's vintage Millard poptop onroad caravan, we had no issues towing it up Fraser Island and camping on the beach near Dundaburra on yearly holidays. The Sister Inlaw used to bring their 17ft onroad van up there at the same time also, we have both done the same on Teewah Beach aswell, but never tried taking them through inland tracks (like the Freshwater Track for instance) as we know what the result would have been...lol. The only thing we had done on both vans was a spring over conversion, this certainly helped with ground clearance on the vans, but a mate used to bring their 70's vintage onroad van along aswell that didn't have a spring over conversion done and was just standard height, and they managed fine also.

In this pic below is a mates camper trailer on the right, our old 13ft caravan 2nd from the right, the SIL's 17ft onroad caravan is beside us on the left, our friends 13ft van in the left foreground, and behind the blue marquees you can't see our other friends 17ft Jayco Expanda Offroad caravan.

FRAESR ISLAND NEAR DUNDABURRA

MAHENO WRECK FRASER ISLAND

Hi,

I used to have an Off Road (I use this term loosely) Coromal Magnum Camper similar to the Jayco Swan that I've took to Fraser and Cooloola Beach up near Double Island Point on occasion. I took this van across the Freshwater Track back when I didn't know better and traversed tracks across Fraser after catching the barge from Hervey Bay.

To say that there is huge difference between taking a van across an inland sand island track and driving up a beach at low tide is an under statement. Any of the vans you have mentioned can easily be dragged up a beach at low tide. The biggest issue is the soft sandy bit between the beach and your camping area! If you have luck and it rains then no problem. Or you can look for the permanently moist areas along the beach which seem to attract most vaners but for me are less attractive camp sites.

If you are driving on soft sand and towing, as in my case, about a 1 tonne then you must pay careful attention to your tyre pressures and be able to maintain momentum to get through.

As for whether you should have a high clearance van or not - well my off road van had a stronger chassis, larger tyres and higher clearance, but I'm not sure these benefits provided any obvious advantages on the beach. My experience was the extra weight associated with these so called advantages was a burden in soft sand.

Accordingly for the beach I'd be more concerned about weight and would probably be inclined to look at an Expander or something similar. If you can get a lighter van with a bit of extra clearance then I think that that is the sweet spot for driving on sand.

I personally never found towing a van on soft sand an enjoyable experience and have since given up on the idea and have gone back to a tent for beach camping. I'm guessing that I'm not a brilliant sand driver as I've seen much bigger rigs than mine camping on the beach.

Anyway I hope this helps with your decision making.

Regards,

Geoff

Has anyone previously owned any of these makes of vans before and if so are there any known defects or standard things I should be looking our for when buying one second hand?

Jayco Swan Outback (2004 to 2008)
Jayco Expanda Outback (2004 to 2005)
Coromal Silhouette 421, 422, 451 (2004 to 2008)
Windsor Rapid Off Road (2002 to 2004)

I had a Windsor Rapid Offroad van (~2002 model, sold in 2006) and it was a great van. It was used off-road quite a bit (to the point it had to be re-skinned on both sides!) and it held up well. Had it bogged a few times too as it was towed by a 1HZ 80 series (would have been a different story if I had my 200 back then!).

I choose the Windsor Rapid over the others and still feel it was the right choice at the time. The Swan & Silhouette are much more time consuming to set-up in comparison to the Rapid and Expanda. The Expanda of that vintage has a soft roof on the pullouts, unlike the Rapid that has hard roof & base.

IMHO, the Rapid of that era was a better design than its competitors. It had a good of-road chassis, independent suspension (a must IMHO) and a proper roll-out awning (not a bag awning type).

I have since moved on to the AOR Quantum, and while the Q is vastly superior again, its at a different price point in the market.

Cheers

Captain

Hi Jager, no wish to add to suggested vehicles, as there's a variety of off road capable on market... but talk about taking vans on beach. yes there are places you can if beach firm and wide enough and/or tracks well bedded- quite a few variables at play on wether beach is navigable to vans and track damage can occur towing to and from. some inland track trips dont advise towing for similar reasons. traffic, weather, tides, aspect ( decline angle of beach from dune to sea edge) existing usage/wear pattern ( may be cut up with 4wd tracks already) and turn around space are also factors . for me ,only 'vans' seen are the smaller off roader pop ups here in WA in my time, the most are camper trailers. if you get stuck, having a van will complicate recovery. anyhow ,all the best with plans,
MG.

A few tips for you, we tow a Kimberley Karavan to Fraser easily.
- The departure angle is great at the rear (some caravan get off the barge and rip the back off the van straight away due to the rear hitting the sand)
- The wheels tow in exactly the same ruts as the Landcruiser thus making towing under difficult conditions a lot easier.
- We have inflatable air bags in our springs at the rear of the Landcruiser (if the tow hitch isn't even with the car or high enough then getting bogged is common)
- Deflate the tyres on both the car and the trailer to about 18
Hope you have fun.
By the way there are millions of jayco's on Fraser. The outbacks are better as they have higher clearance.
Regards
Ros

Tyre choice is another thing to look at if your looking at doing a reasonable amount of beach camping how do they perform on the beach when your not towing because you don't want something that struggles in sand. Make sure you keep your cooling system in good order. I done a spring over conversion 10yrs ago on a 1986 Jayco 16.6" pop top you have to add the thickness of the axel and the spring pack together to get the height it will sit at after the lift. Mine sat level with the tow vehicle after I raised the van and it didn't affect the handling or stability it will definitely help the clearance especially when boarding & driving off a ferry. Another thing to do if you have enough clearance in the wheel arches is if possible change the hubs on the van to suit the car & run the same tyres on the car and van then you'll have more spares and you will be able to rotate your van tyres onto the rear of the car then onto the front so they all wear at the same rate. I would also look at getting 1 or 2 sets of maxtrax and a good air compressor so if you need to let the tyre right down to get into the camping site you can pump them back up when you go exploring.