Secondhand Caravans

Buy as late a model as you can get I preffer a tandem I was following a mate 8 weeks a go when his left tyre let go did not look good .At that size you could get shower and toilet we have a Regent 19 ft very happy with it

I don't think that you can buy a single axel caravan of that length. Tandem axel vans are more stable on the road and much easier to control in the event of a blowout or cross winds

Hi there. You are really asking to be spared the burden of two years of personal research, and to be given a ready-made answer!! First, try the articles on this site about this very topic, plus as many magazine articles as you can lay your hands on.
We did it all wrong, but came out OK: we bought a fairly old, fairly cheap Coromal Poptop because we liked the big front kitchen on that particular model, and because it had a round table and swivel chairs instead of the standard dinette. We really didn't know much about caravans.
So the first thing I would suggest is to visit a few second hand caravan dealers and see what they've got, not with a view to buying straight away, but to develop your own 'hit list' of good features and bad features.
Issues I suggest you consider are:
length: too short means storage space suffers; too long means too heavy
cooking: do you want a stove with an oven? or just a cook top and microwave?
awning/annex: do you want one? it will be MUCH cheaper to 'buy with' than to 'add later'.
How big a kitchen do you want?
How many people will you have sitting in the van on a cold wet night? or a hot, mossie-ridden night?
How much light do you want: you will be surprised at the range from bright and airy (which also means hotter in summer!) to dark and gloomy (cooler, perhaps?)
You have not said what you are towing with. But if, by 'moderate gravel roads' you mean you want to tow on slight to mild corrugations, occasional creek crossings and a bit of loose stone here and there, then a cheaper 'off roader' (high clearance and a bit of chequer plate here and there) may meet your needs, but many will say a lot of cheaper units are prone to falling apart internally on corrugations. But you probably do not want to spend $50k to $60k for a smaller, heavy, serious off roader second hand (if you can find one).
Finally, I agree, you will be lucky to find a single axle van over 16ft or so unless it is very old (like ours!). Old vans can be lighter than newer vans (first, the older vans may have fewer toys; second, they were often built lighter - and some would say weaker).
Do these thoughts help?
Happy hunting

My two bob's worth:

Forget about trying to buy the "ideal" caravan and beg, borrow or steal a rough approximation of what you *think* would be adequate, preferrably for as little cost as possible, and then get out there amongst the rest of the "vanners".

There is no substitute for experience.

There's a lot of experience out there that my save you the possibly devastating results of gaining it personally.

The less you spend initially means the more you have to spend on what you eventually decide to buy, and that final figure can often be considerably less than you originally thought.

Dreams are just that: Figments of the imagination.

It's reality that bites.

We did what Tenpounder suggested, visited the second hand yards & talked to the sales people & we were surprised that the more we looked & talked just how much our views changed.

We also used to take a walk around Caravan Parks & have a yarn to the people staying there. You will find that Caravanning people are friendly & will enjoy discussing the pros & cons of various types of vans & their features.

Before buying, be sure to check that your vehicle is legally able to tow the loaded weight & handle the ball weight of your intended purchase.

We still got it wrong ( for us) though! Our first Van was a 16 foot pop top single axle with island double bed but as time went by we wished we had one with a dunny & single bunks. We liked the idea of single bunks because there is ample room between the two bunks compared to the space between the double bed & van wall. Also, I am a bit over 6 foot tall & the double bed was a bit short for me.

So... traded it on a dual axle pop top with dunny & shower & single bunks & we are happy with it & it will see our travelling days out. Good luck & cheers

Gooday,
You do not say where you live but there are a lot of Caravans for Hire out there now, may not seem cheap but is sure cheaper than making a bad decision with your first purchase.
The only way is to try one before you buy, and remember whatever you end up with it will be a compromise, unless you get a custom build, however you will find one that you can be very happy with if you do the research and follow the good advice from others here.

Generally single axle later model builds are a Max of 17Ft , however there are number of European Imports over the last 5 years, ( Giest, Adria & Jurgens ), who use a much lighter chassis than our Aussie counterparts and have offered quite large lengths on a single axle set up legally.
We took 2 mass produced and a second Custom Build to get our Caravan just the way we feel deliriously happy with it.

Why so many layouts offered when you start looking, I wonder??, as ours is simple and practical, if you private message me I will happily share the details with you.
Cheers Boroma604.

we would like to thank everyone who replied to are request for help we will take all your good advice with us when we finally buy our van