Light caravan road and camping test

Just wanted to update you all on our first caravan trip away. Nug Nug is a small park 15km south of Myrtleford Victoria. 5kms further on is Lake Buffalo and a great place to visit for a picnic a swim or boating activities.

The van had a friction sway bar fitted ($40 on Gumtree + post) and following it passing the registration inspection (no issues) we towed it to Nug Nug passing many log trucks and B doubles without issue. At one point I went a little closer to the passing truck and the rear of the van moved about 25mm, a minor fishtail then straightened immediately. It wasn't long before we had complete confidence in the tow.

We had weighed every item prior to departure. We installed one 120W solar panel and a 100A/H dry battery. This proved to be fine for our purposes. Major items running were- CPAP, Waeco CF18 fridge, TV/DVD and a retro fan. 2 water pumps and 6 LED downlights.

Now that we've experienced a toilet/shoer set up in our van we wouldn't do without it. In fact we would build exactly the same van if we had our time over which conforms our choices made. The system of using a solar camping hot water bag to fill up a bucket then add cold water and using a camping shower 12V handheld unit has been our routine for many years and this works well for us. Place the bucket on the portapotti and away you go. If needed boil a jug of water.

Gross weight ended up 605kg (tare 450kg). This is twice the weight we could tow with our trike. The trike is now for sale and another interesting vehicle with enough towing capacity will be purchased.

Until then its our Hyundai i30 diesel to do the honours. This small to medium car has the low revving grunt to tow this van with ease. But unless we have tail wind or downhill we leave it in 4th gear. At 90kph it is revving at 2500rpm half way into its torque curve. Economy not towing is 5.5 L/100km, towing is 8.5-9.5 L/100km.