solid wall expanda vans

Hi Denise.

The two I've looked at so far are Jayco Expanda and Windsor Rapid. My preference out of these is the Jayco "off road" version. Can get in a number of layouts, including onboard shower, toilet and air conditioned. From only a fairly brief look over of the two, the Jayco looks a bit more robust than the Windsor. Also, the Jayco has a step to get into it - the Windsors that I have looked at all required a plastic step to be placed on the ground outside the door.

I've recently had someone on another forum refer me to the Paramount Duet Expanda. Haven't seen one of these yet, but at least on their web site, they look good.

Cheers ............... BM

Remember? The more moving parts the more to go wrong

Having had the flip over hard floor campers since 1979 we made the mistake in the late 80's of buying a windsor pop up (jayco swan size).
We took it on one trip to Camerons Corner and back from Sydney.
By the end of the 3 week trip we couldn't sell it quick enough, the movement between the top and bottom on gravel roads was terrible so how do these vans with all the moving bits go on dirt roads or even for that matter the normal bitumen roads that are usually rougher? Too many moving bits for my liking, tend to think they would wear out pretty quickly unless travelling on expressways or parked most of the time.

I bought an Expanda in 2005. Been on many trips with it, bitumen, dirt roads and some tracks, and so far have broken one drawer slide. Looked at the Rapid and liked the solid roof but at the time the expanda floor plan suited my application. I threw the bag awnings over the bed ends away and went for the simpler standard flys but only use these if staying in the one spot for long or if it looks like serious rain.
Mine does not have a shower and toilet as I am not old enough for me to want these in the van yet. Set up time without vehicle disconnection (quick overnight stop) is about 90 seconds including rolling the awning out! Full on set up is about 4-5 minutes which includes wind down jacks, awning, flys etc. Roadside stops for lunch etc is about 5 seconds as you have access to everything in travelling mode and the five seconds involves unlocking the door!
Generally I am happy with it.
Caravaning/camping is a bit of a balancing act as everything has its advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes we don't take it (the expanda) at all and just take the touring tent. Sometimes we wish we had a van with the works but would need a truck to transport it.
Some vans break but a lot of the cause is towing technique (people do stupid things) and not so much the construction methods used by the manufacturers.