a van campers

Thanks Mal and Di

I don't think we will be doing much heavy stuff.
When we bought the Forester it was for it's light off road capabi;lities.

Hi Bronwyn

I think we will be looking at the Sportliner, we should be going to Perth in a few weeks to have a closer look.
I have been told that my " standard tow hitch " (40 mm) should be upgraded to a 50 mm , which is no problem
My email is bearmich@westnet.com.au if you can can pass on the aliner group.
thanks
Bri

G'day Bri

A Sportliner will be no trouble, you won't even know it's there.

Will email you shortly.

;-)

Thanks Outa Bounds
Did you get the latest model???

I should imagine your camper could be fairly heavy, and you are finding a bit of a differance with the Subi. I used to have a Jackaroo a few years ago which I could take up most tracks in the area.
Bri

Yeah got the lastest model ('08).
The camper is probably considered heavy as far as on road models go, but I think it's pretty reasonable for an off road. I'm not sure of the exact weight but I imagine around 900kg unladen, so after we put all our gear in it certainly wouldn't weight more than 1200kg. Once again I'm not too sure without looking up the numbers but I think the Subi can tow 1500kg.
Weight isn't really the big issue, more the fact that the hitch / towball thingy would be pretty low to the ground, and the jockey would have to be taken off all the time to hook it up (off road hitch - so not as easy as putting it onto a tow ball).
So yeah the camper has to go, besides hopefully we can get at least $10k for it which will pay for the trade in shortfall that we had to put towards the Subi out of our "house building" funds.

Ah besides it's been quite some time (before kids) since we've done "real" fourwheel driving, and personally as a passenger in the car angles tend to make me pretty nervous! However I'd be more than happy to ride my mountain bike down a steep hill :D

Now before I keep rambling on, I'll say good luck, hope you find what you're looking for. After all the searching and researching is part of the fun!

Actually in buying the Forester (it's nearly 3 months old now) I must say it's probably the first big thing we've brought without actually doing much research. I'm the research nut in the family so normally would have compared all the specs and numbers against other cars like CRV, Rav4, etc. But really we only had 2 months rego left on the 80 and wanted to sell it before having to go through the rigmarole of changing plates from NSW to WA etc, and in reality I think we got the Subi because the dealer was willing to give us a reasonable trade in price.
We did test drive a WRX, but really the inside felt like any other car, not sporty like the outside, and well it was obvious the Forester would be more practical for us. At the time the Subi (XS model) was the same price as the Impreza WRX, gee I'm glad we didn't go for that one though - the insurance alone would have been through the roof, and of course premium petrol was the other big turn off!

In the end I couldn't be happier, the Subi is a great car, I don't think I would have picked anything else even if I had done all the research. Only gripe is the sides and boot area getting covered in mud all the time, I'll have to see about mud flaps or something!