Just Got Back

Hullo Barb, First a clarification: we got a Trakmaster, not a Bushtracker. We bought ours at the same time as some friends bought theirs. Our friends did all the research and as they are meticulous we just took it as a done deal that a Trakmaster was the best choice. Now after a month of towing it over places like the Cordillo Downs road (a shocker), the Bore Track (not as bad but not good either) and discusiing why he chose Trakmaster we can see that it was the best choice for us. We saw a few Bushtrackers, all were being towed by Ford F trucks which is an indication of their considerable weight. My Trakmaster Nullarbor (16'6" X 7'6") weighed 2170kg dry on handover. I believe that is much lighter than the average Bushtracker. Our friend spoke to Kedron and they would not fit 285/75 tyres to their vans (don't know why) but that's what our friends wanted so that eliminated Kedron.
Trakmaster were excellent in accommodating our design requirements and just a pleasure to deal with (without being too impolite, I have heard the opposite about Bushtracker).
On this return trip we went from Melbourne thru Gippsland, Eden, Bega, Cooma, Canberra, Dubbo, Parkes, Bourke, Hungerford (QLD), Thargomindah, Cameron's Corner, Innaminka, Birdsville, Andamooka, Kingoonya, south past Lake Gairdner to Eyre Peninsula, Lock, Elliston, Ceduna, west across the Nullarbor, Esperance and home to Perth.
We bush camped where possible. The van did not let us down in any way at all. The solar cells were very efficient, we had an inverter, two deep cycle batteries and a genny which we did not use at all. Nothing fell apart, nothing broke. There was a little dust entry which I will fix myself. That's 12,000kms of everything from smooth bitumen to gibber rock tracks to bulldust and red sand dunes. (Even the inside shower and toilet worked well).
It was sort of hard at first to justify $76,000 but I'm happy. Check www.trakmaster.com.au.

Will you take the genny on the next trip, or are you a Solar power devotee ?

Mainey I'll still take the genny. It's got its own little hatch. But, having said that, we didn't use it once on our trip, the solar panels were just excellent.

cheers

My fuel consumption towing the van seemed to be almost exactly the same as a 100 series cruiser would get (not surprising seeing the engine output is the same):

Under no adverse conditions: 15mpg
Headwind, hills or sand: 12mpg

I make no apologies for being an mpg person.

BTW, around town I get 24mpg, on the highway at 100kph (strangely enough I'm not an mpH person) without the van it dropped to 21mpg and I blame its complete lack of any positive aerodynamics for this.

cheers

Hi RnR
We are interested in a second Trakmaster (Sturt), and I have been trying (half-heartedly) to find where they are traded, where are you selling/trading yours
Ta

I remember that. The 80 was travelling with us. We were looking for a Lookout that we could stay overnight in and was really close to the cliffs. Down the road the only one that suited had the access road closed off.
You should have chucked your cuppa at us, we would have stopped then!!
Yep, sometimes we seem to be in a hurry for no good reason whatsoever. There should be "retirement" classes so we learn how to slow down.