Where does weight and size of offroad caravan matter?

Submitted: Monday, Mar 07, 2005 at 16:45
ThreadID: 21024 Views:4239 Replies:7 FollowUps:5
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Hi guys,

I have a question for anyone who has towed a serious off road caravan in real off-made-road conditions.

We are just working through the "which offroad caravan?" decision process. We've focussed on Supreme Getaway, Kedron, Phoenix and Bushtracker to date. We are leaning towards a Bushtracker. Most folk (esp. competitors) when told this say "Ooohhh but they're heavy."

There's been lots of discussion on that but the bottom line, as far as I can make out, is that ALL serious off-road vans are heavy, some more than others. Maybe the BT is heavier than others by a few hundred kgs, maybe not. Depends on what is included and not included when they get Tare-d, and whose claims you believe.

Our tow vehicle will be a Toyota 100 series TD 2005 5sp auto. We're looking at maybe a 16' to 18' to fit in a family of 4 and a loo.

So my question to you off-road van owners is this: You have, whatever you are towing, a big, heavy van on the back. At what stage of the trip does this stop you? Is it the rocky ascent or descent up or down a scarp? Is it a sand dune or 500m of cut up sandy track on the way down to a beachside camping ground? Is it the one tight twisty patch of desert track twisting through the stand of mulga before the track resumes 20km of arrow-straight?

I realise that we won't get the van to places that our Kimberley Kamper used to go. I also realise that it's a personal choice how far to push it, how much you want to risk scraping or denting your rig, and how much effort you want to put into it recovering yourself after you get stuck, but I'm trying to get a feel from other van owners on where the weight or size has become an issue for them in practical off-road terms.

We live in Perth so do more desert and coastal travel than rainforest or mud.

Supplementary question: Has anyone with a van crossed the Gunbarrel (ie. Warburton to Wiluna)? How did it go? We did it 10 years ago (pre-Kamper) and it was insanely corrugated.

Cheers,

Matt and Lana (Perth WA)
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