Coromal or Goldstream or ???

You are right about the warranty got a copy of it, and they can get out of it by putting exclusions in it such as and I quote 'travelling over pot holed surfaces may amount to misuse or driver neglect'

G'Day Andy,

Goldstream guys used to work for Jayco, left when they thought they could do it better...... they were right.

The extra $$$$ spent on a Goldstream will pay itself back many times over with the better quality. After this is a range of manufacturers, Jayco bottom of the list.

The one downside of course is that all that extra work adds up to extra weight. As an example, a 16'6" Coromal Pioneer has a tare around 1450kg. Put a similar Goldstream next to it and it weighs 1850kg

Regards

Rolande

Thanks for your advice, very comprehensive, we want make sure we research the market well before we make our final decision, this being our first van.

sorry forgot something,my corromal got hard to wind up the roof,found the steel cables that winch the roof up run over nylon pulleys the steel wire cuts the nylon to peicesreplaced the nylon pulleys with steel no further problems cost approx $500 to have someone do the work. dont know about other brands.

Brian,

What is the Goldstream model that you ended up buying? i.e. Storm, Sovereign, Star Wing??

Hi Amc,

We had a similar dilemma and spent a lot of time at the shows going thru sooo many manufactures vans until we worked out what we wanted. We were ready to buy, and almost bought a new Coromal PS391, but came across John's (Hi John!) that he was selling due to his injury, in a close to new condition.

We've now covered about 5000km with it and extremely happy. So far nothing too rough but the trick seems to be to just take the rougher stuff slowly and it will walk over it.

Nothing has broken except we had troubles with the water hand pump, and I decided it was time to upgrade to a 12v pump with a pressure switch, and a mains style tap. This makes the hassle of getting water out of the tank so much easier.

As far as towing, we tow with a 17 y/o Patrol which is a 4.2 TD. It handles the weight well and with polyairs in the back, the van sits well. As mentioned above, the ball weight is heavy. On mine it is 136kg when I've got a bit of gear in the large front boot. The van would be approx 1300kg with what we carry. Once you are moving its quite easy to forget the van is behind you because it tows like a dream. Braking feels good and we use a Tekonsha Prodogy, allowing us to stop and feel like 1 big unit, rather than the feel of one slowing down the other.

Setup time is pretty good and the more you do it, the quicker you become at it. John had all the good accessories already, so it had a roll out awning, and a full annex to suit. For a quick overnight stop we can be setup in 5 minutes. If the weather if foul, add about 10 minutes extra to setup the bag awnings above the beds and push out kitchen. The awning would be all of 1 minute and the full annex probably about 10 minutes extra.

Extra pieces I think are important are a good ratchet style pneumatic jockey wheel to move the van. As its fairly heavy, its hard to move unless you are on flat solid ground. Leveler ramps are almost always required when bush camping, and a combination of the ratchet wheel and the ramps and you're set anywhere.

Amc, I guess this would be our experience with the Coromals so far, but I would strongly suggest to really look hard at a camping show on exactly what you want, talk to the people there, crawl all over and under it, open everything that opens and shuts, and this will help you decide. Once you do, go for it :)

Regards,

Flux

Hi Flux!
I'm glad you're having a good time with it. I'm still off work with that injury (16 mths) but hope to be back in April/May if I can pass the medical....... :-)
Our van was supposed to be ready early Feb, but we're still waiting, waiting, waiting..

Regards.

John thats a lot of waiting on both accounts!

I hope all the waiting pays off for you soon and you get your new van and the pass to go back to work.

Regards,

We saw the slide out kitchen as a major disadvantage. Could see gaps therefore dust would have to be able to get thru... that's our un-tested view! Otherwise the Coromal looked great with similar interior finish to the Goldstream. Nice the way the travelling door doubles as a table. Have since read a couple stories of issues with the one-piece fiberglass roof, which I thought was a nice feature. We bought a Goldstream mostly due to our perception of the slide-out kitchen issue, and as a 'show special' it had battery pack, windout awning and bagged bed flys thrown in.