Off Road Caravans Feedback

It all depends on where you want to take your van. How far off road will you really go? If you are new to the whole van experience, you are maybe like I was at the start. I bought a heavily modified Jayco Camper that could go just about anywhere. It was a great van and seeing I had a 4WD and used it to go off road I thought I would obviously take it off road too. Problem was I didn't. So this van had a lot of features I did not need which equalled a lot more weight than I needed to tow each time also.

So I ended up selling it and buying a non Outback 1995 Swan, but it is very similar to an Outback due to its construction and looks. This is a great van in perfect condition which we could take off road if need be, but not into the very heavy stuff where vans like the Bushtracker etc are suited. You can easily modify a van like ours but you need to check the basics like size of frame etc.

So if you are not going too far off road this type of van could suit you. You then gradually add the features to suit the travels that you do and then end up with the van that is exactly what you want. It costs you less up front and you spend on the upgrades as and when you want. And if its your first van don't start by trying to get the works. Start off simple and work your way up with the mods.

We have loved ours from the start and had no problems at all. It unfortunately has not had much use over the past 18 months due to my back injury and so now I am trying to avoid selling it. It is too good a lifestyle in the right van. Do your homework - good luck Mick

I recently did a suspension upgrade on our Jayco Freedom caravan to a setup with the same specs as the Outback, less the shocks.

A little bit over $2000 including new 15 x 7 stud wheels, new 235/70R15 tyres.

I was lucky the place I went to made their own axles which kept the price down little.

There were some clearance problems with the length of the wheel arches due to the frame height. A spacer piece could fix that or as we did relocate the rear wheel arch cross member and jacking point.

?Name? the Jaco outback in the scale of things is a light off-road van. Really they are sticking a normal van on heavy suspension so although it may have the clearance they don't have the strength in the body/fittings for true off-road work. Converting a normal road going unit would have even less strength to handle the bumps. It's not just a matter of fitting big wheels, higher suspension, chequer plate stones guards & a Treg coupling. Draw bars are normally thicker steel, heavier bearings, shocks, off-road electric brakes etc.............
If you just want a little extra clearance to get into rough camps then modifying a standard van would be fine. If you want to do occasional treks like the Birdsville track then an outback version would be recommended. If you want to get into more remote locations get a different brand.
Cheers Craig..............

From memory, the upgrade to the outback model of our 2005 Eagle was about $2000. I felt this was good value for money, while you could maybe do most of the upgrades yourself, is it worth the extra hassle? Also the outback chassis has larger chassis rails compared to the standard model, which is something which would be difficult to do yourself.

In hindsight, the only other upgrade option I would have liked would be to go for the 16" wheels (normal outback has 15"), to match my Prado.

Grinner.

PS, talking to one of the sales reps at the Sandown show the other weekend, they do offer the option of underslinging the axel of the standard model, which would give more ground clearance, and allow bigger tyres to be fitted.