jayco campers

Do a search in the archives for Jayco
Lots of posts there

Cheers Cruisin

I was looking at a new Coromal Pioneer Silhouette (excellent choice) but stumbled across a 2nd hand Jayco Dove that was in reasonable nick so have bought that instead.
3 grand against 24 makes the Fun Nazi happy and we've not stretched the budget. Of course it's not perfect but I reckon we'll get ten years out of it before looking at a trade up.

If you want something that is really "off road", not just "occassionally on non-bitumen road" - get a Bushtracker!

Search the archives - I got quite a few replies about the different off road campers Forumites have been using when I asked about off roaders. PS I LOVE our Bushtracker.

Jayco themselves will tell you that you should not expect your camper trailer to do any extreme off road work. They seem to be able to survive the Gibb River Rd. You will have to take easy and check all your nuts afterwards, (screws too) to ensure that everything stays secure. There are better off-road campers that you could abuse too a greater extent but you are going to pay thousands more for the privlege.
Its up to you to decide just what you expect your camper to do. There are two jayco specific sites http://au.groups.yahoo.com/group/JUGA/ and the company site http://www.jayco.com.au/ (go to the travel diary via owners info )

We have a 1997 15'6" Evernew Escape which we bought 2nd hand for about $20k. It has a full checker plate base with pop-top caravan on top, sugar glider suspension, koni shocks, 16" wheels and treg hitch. We just come back from over 3000kms of dirt roads through Bourke-Tibooburra, the Corner, Strezlecki, Birdsville and North Flinders without any problem at all not even any dust getting in and no screws loose (at least not on the van).

It would pay you to keep an eye on the second hand ads in the caravan magazines.

We certainly would trade ours for many others we saw on route - its great.

Hope you find what you want.

cheers

For what it's worth, this is from the Bushtracker Owners Forum, posted on 11/6/04:

An article of interest in the S.M. Herald this morning.
Customer, after accepting the advertising blurb by Jayco that the Jayco Outback model was suitable for travel on outback dirt roads, purchased one.
Then he did what he thought would be OK, he used it in conditions promoted by the manufacturer as being suitable for the model.
He travelled, he said, on the roads the recent 4wd test used, the Plenty, the Donahugh etc.
These are roads that many BT owners have travelled on, including myself several times and I do not consider them to be examples of “Australias worst.” Even tourist coaches travel on them.

Well all sorts of problems eventuated, a door fell off, the brakes failed a couple of times, the water tank was punctured, the shock mounts broke etc etc.
He returned the van to the dealer for a refund but was refused so he took the case to Department of Fair Trading who found in favour of the customer.
Fair Trading ruled that the van was “not fit for the purpose for which it was sold.”
The customer was refunded the purchase price less $2,490.00 because he had derived some benifit from the van.