Tvan

How do you go getting in and out of bed ? Tested one out at a show and hit my head.
How do you fined it when sleeping on a hot night
Lachie

G'day Lachie

We sleep with our heads at the tent end.

You are right - some flexibility is required and it helps if you have the last beer before the evening meal. It is achievable tho'. We are in our mid 60s and reckon we can cope for another few years before we will need to change to something different. It's not an issue that has ever lead us to think we made a dud choice.

Re hot nights. We travelled W Qld in March / April 2007 with temps up to 33 in the day and probably 20-25 at night on some nights. We sleep with the roof vents open and both tent doors and rear window open. We were also out and about on Eyre and Yorke Peninsulas during SA's hot spell in March this year, with one day at 42 at Coffin Bay NP and a 39 day at Marion Bay. It was fine for sleeping altho' Tvan was not in the direct sun all day. The fibre glass hull does not seem to retain the heat.

Cheers
John

Thank you for your reply.
I have been checking the Tvans out and also the Australian Off Road camper trailers.
We have had a Trak Shak for about 8 yrs and as the kids have gone are looking for something smaller and easier to set up.

G'day again Lachie

We've had out Tvan for four years and have not had any trouble other than having to replace the nylon toggles used to attach the annex to the roof. It's a great unit.

The only minor negative - our annex is a pain in the bum to erect if we are only staying one night somewhere, but is well worth the effort (only about 35mins anyway) for longer stays. The current annex is 100% improvement on our's.

We wished we had got the on-board battery charger but we subsequently bought a CTEK charger, and we put a 100A AGM battery on the front to replace the standard battery. We've also been in a couple of spots where the Maco Mule ratchet jockey wheel that is now available would have saved a lot of strain.

We took three years to make up our minds about what trailer we wanted, and have a friend in Qld who kept talking Trak Shak to us. They are good. Given the cost of the current Tvan, and assuming that your Trak Shak is in good nick, there's a lot you could do with the probable $25K plus changeover dollars, particularly with the increasing cost of fuel.

Good luck with the decision-making

Cheers
John