OFF ROAD CARAVANS

E and G,

I am already ducking for cover with the reply but here we go. I have just returned from completing 20,000 km with a 04 OB Jayco Eagle. Completing about 6,000kms on the dirt including the Meernie Loop, Oonadatta track, the west Macs, all of Kakadu and the back road into Litchfield, the Bungles and all of the GRR including up to King Edward River and Cape Leveque, the Pilbara etc.

The Jayco handled it without any problems, yes I have some minor repairs but just the same as I heard many other top price campers did as well and witnessed. Value for money they are terrific and will get you most places you want to go with a top price camper/caravan. Whether you spend 20k or 100k its how you drive and treat it.

My thoughts only and I had a lot of people laughing at me with my Jayco but it got through and I had a comfy bed to sleep on at night too!

Pheonix.

P.S A couple of pre trip pre cautions helped too with the dust.

Have a look at the Royal Flair -Discovery range. They will build to your specs.
Sofar, have not met a disapointed person.

Do you have a tow vehicle or will you purchase one to suit the van

The most common true off sealed road vans on the market are Bushtracker,Trackmaster,Kedron,Phonenix,Sunland but none of these are cheap

How far off the sealed road are you intending to go as there are cheaper vans that might suit your intended use

Evernew have a good reputation as a all road van at a reasonable price as well as others

If you can give some more information the forum members might be able to point you in the right direction

Regards Don

E@G,
We my wife and I have a Kedron TopEnder, it has been fantastic, around the block, up all the tip"s, Ya gotta empty the Dunny .
in all of the place's we went, there were all of the different type's of caravan's.
the moral of this story is to drive to the road condition's,
what brand of van? read the Forum's [re Off Road Van's] then decide what suit's you, ie Our's is 16-6ft internal with shower and toilet, and a 240ltr fridge/freezer, suit's us,

There are really three types of vans. Sealed Road/Off Sealed Road and Off Road. Not many of the full vans are actually Off Road but then again how many want to take their van Off road.
We have been almost two years running around south western Queensland and going from station to station in our Off sealed Roads 18ft unit and believe me we have been on some very very ordinary tracks. We are thrilled with our choice for both livability and performance
Everyone has their own ideas about this subject and I will not confuse the issue by giving you another name/brand.

Things you need to consider:

Tow vehicle capacity. Weight of van - loaded.
Clearance under centre.
Suspension. Type of chassis
Entry/exit clearances. Front and rear.
Where do you expect to be going.

We also looked at the 'nominated' Off road units but budget costraints put them all out of our reach. Look and compare. Talk to as many people as possible. Even visit caravan parks around happy hour and be prepared to listen. Above all make sure you are satisfied prior to putting your money on the table.

If you want more details contact OF by email.

Kevin J.

Gday E and G,
The big four are overpriced and full of all the bling bling most dont need. There is also Baroma and Golf still very pricy

For half the price and still get you anywhere a tracker will go are: Evernew-Top of the list. very well built. No1 IMO.

Roadstar- daintree only. still quality built. higher range models have gone european styling and poor quality.

Supreme territory- equal to above

Traveller- well built and factory very flexible.

Also Regal, Regent, Paramount and sunland.

these vans, driven to the conditions will get you anywhere the big four go. Dont know first hand but believe the big four vans will fall apart if mistreated also. Read this as they break too.

Jayco, coromal, windsor and millard are all mass produced and luck of the draw whether you get a good one or not.

Hope this helps
cheetah

Look at Supreme Teritory--good value for money and togh as nails and without the high price of extreme "off-road" vans
Goodluck.

E & G

what is your budget and what State are you in?

Are there just 2 of you or kids too?

Whatever brand, suggest you get a tandum axle. We rolled a single axle (indep suspension) on the Roper Highway. Now have a Tandum, and it is much more stable on rough roads.

The weight of the van is a major factor - Your tow vehicle specs will determine what Van you can buy.
You will be surprised how heavy a fully laden van is.
Expect 2.5 ton up to 3 ton. Is your vehicle rated to two this weight?

Best of luck with your research.......................Keith

Hi E & G

1. Buy pre-loved not new - not so much to lose if you don't like it, and if there were any problems, they should have been fixed.

2. Read the fine print. How manufacturers can get away with calling a van an off-road model, then have in the fine print somewhere something like 'suitable only for short trips off bitumen' or 'driving on rough, stony or potholed road will invalidate warranty' i can't understand.

3. Vans built to take the rough stuff (within reason - it isn't a licence to drive like a maniac on rough roads) are heavy and expensive. Tow vehicle is a issue.

4. If you are not used to towing - don't start off too big. Driving a big rig can be tiring and spoil the enjoyment of your touring. You have coped with camping before - and you really don't need to take much more with you than when camping. It is after all just a bed on wheels.

Motherhen

HI,E&G,
Check out my add in trader section for sunland longreach dirt road van. selling way under new price.

Regards Norm H.

Hi E & G,
WE bought our first van in 2006 after a lifetime of camping. We needed a van which will go off road, still look like a caravan and be self sufficient in power for a week. Our choice was a Royal Flair Discovery. The interior was pretty much built to our design. Underneath there is a very solid chassis, independent suspension, enormous brakes and hubs the same as the tow vehicle. On the roof are 2 solar panels and inside are 2 deep cycle batteries. Up front is a Hyland hitch. We have towed this the Old Strzelecki Track, the Adventure Way to Innamincka, Noccundra to Cameron Corner then on to Merty Merty, the Darling River run and also many of the corrugated roads in the Flinders. After initial issues with dust proofing and also learning how to pack the thing for rough roads, it has performed faultlessly. This range of vans come with either single or tandem wheels, full height or pop top in a range of layouts and can also be customised as we did.

If you are looking at folding types such as Jayco, another one to look at is the Ecotourer. Ecotourer They have an off highway with shower. Review Here

Hi Check out the new Quantum from Australian Offroad Campers Caloundra QLD.
www.australianoffroadcampers.com.au checkout the Quantum.

I have checked them all out and ordered one for delivery next month.

The Sunland Longreach is my choice of dirt road van. It has a fully independent load sharing suspension which handles the rough very well while offereing a high level of comfort.

They have a strong referral from all the owners that I have met to date which means a lot to anyone looking for a strong van. It also has a 3 year off-road warranty so they support their product well.

I have one on order at the moment and cant wait to get out on the tracks and roads of our beautiful country.

It's my choice of off-road caravan.

Cheers, Patrick

From the responses above, others believe the same as me but have not clearly said it. The suspension takes the most batterring when offroad/dirt road touring. Make sure whatever van you buy, it is the best suspesion setup you can afford then drive that van to the conditions dependant on what your suspension can handle.

I have seen some peculiar vans in peculiar places but the fact they were there is testiment to what you can do, if you do it sensibly. If you will be living in it in out of the way places then internal shower/toilet would be a good idea IMO. We have showered outside in all sorts of places and have been caught out badly a few times. I won't divulge any more as member's on this forum will never let me live it down hehehe.

I love my Supreme Getaway out of interest.

Cheers, Trevor.

E and G, it appears everyone else is pitching for their own brand so I better do the same. The size you are talking about though is bigger than I would take off road too far. There is a limit unless you tow with a big truck.

Lots of caravans are costing a lot more to tow now with the fuel costs that will only ever rise in trend. There will be some downward prices from time to time along the way though. I do note that some are talking about 20 litres/100km which you may be happy with. It does depend on the going of course, but that is about 15-20% higher than I would prefer.

I tow a Kimberley Karavan which I find very manoerverable and as offroad as any camper trailer. I have been in the Simpson Desert with it and into some decent tracks in the Victorian High Country. The link above will take you to the Kimberley Karavan site.

One of the real advantages with the KK is that it will go where your 4by has gone or pretty well. You won't wipe out a white post or road hardware iff the 4by misses it. It isn't like the normal roadblock. I have a few photos with my profile. I should put some more ther I guess.

Give the tow driver in Oodnadatta a call and ask what he recovers most from the track. I was chatting with him a few years back and he was up and down the track almost daily recovering vans that had fallen apart.

Hi E & G,
you have really got the forum going!
You do have to start with 2 questions: 1. Where do you really want to take the van? 2. What towing capacity do you have? Guess a third question is how much you can afford to pay?
I would suggest that towing a 20foot van behind you is going to limit where you can go, for a start. A friend who is a manufacturer of offroad vans believes that anything over 16 foot is starting to restrict off-road-ed-ness. Yes, he makes them bigger - if that is what custiomers want, but that is his warning.
We have one of the "big 4" off road vans that someone else alluded to. It is only 14 foot long, inside, and 6foot6 wide. It was made for us - no "bling" - we do not even have a microwave. Bed, cupboards, fridge, stove; guess the bling is the solar panels that let us live unlimited time in bush, and a heron aircon built in. The only real limitations on where we take it are 1. depth of water crossings 2. whether our tug will manage the task and 3. whether it is environmentally ok to tow "there".

Hi, We have a 19ft Evernew van fitted with simplicity suspension, a great combination. When I originally spoke to Bruce Bailey at Evernew I told him I wanted a van I can tow on a dirt road without shaking itself to pieces. The reply was "you won't shake our vans to pieces". We tested this out last year when we went from Balranald around Lake Mungo via Menindee. around 300+ klms of unsealed road. The only damage was 2 broken eggs. I would recommend these vans to anyone.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to respond to our query. It seems that when it comes to off-road vans, the catch cry is 'suspension; suspension; suspension'. You have given us a great starting point and we will go away and do our research armed with what you have all mentioned. Thanks again and happy travels to you all.

E & G, people are taking all sorts of vans all sorts of places. We even saw two big Jaycos north of the Gibb River Road. Owners said they take them everywhere - just drive to the conditions. It may have taken them months to cross the GRR! There were two Coromal pop tops at Kalumburu.

However, bear in mind the cost of recovery of a caravan from somewhere like the Mitchell Plateau or other remote spot is really big $$s.

You seem to want big, as it is going to be your home for a couple of years, however we met more than one couple who work part of the time, or follow work seasonal work, and who live in a camper trailer as their only home. If unfolding lots of canvas is not what you want, as JohnR has already mentioned, the Kimberley Karavan is small to tow, but expands readily, and has a bathroom, but it is expensive (again - you pay for the quality you get), or the T-van - some canvas but fairly easy to unfold, and you can sleep in it without fully unfolding for one night stops. Both of the latter don't require a big powerful tow vehicle.

A lot of people think their cheaper caravan used on the rough roads is great - until something goes horribly wrong. We did hear some horror stories during our recent trip (which included us travelling along the Gibb River Road, Tanami Road and Great Central Road).

Don't let all the arguments on this thread put you off your dream. There are also websites devoted to specifics brands of caravans, and other touring and caravanning forums you could watch, as well as getting out there and accosting everyone with questions about what is good and bad about their rig, and where they have taken it. It took us years of research.

Motherhen

Dreaming of the the bush tracks