Supreme getaway or Trakmaster Sturt.

I am very happy with my getaway but plan on building a 4wd RV soon.

The getaway tows well behind the 100 series and we have had no problems on the beach or off-road.

It is heavy but we have the works - shower, toilet, a/c, generator, 180L of water, jerry cans and gas bottles.

Regards

Derek

G'day Pa et al.
We have a 1997 15' side door Getaway which I can honestly say has been completely trouble free, even better totally, dust ingress free for many many thousand km. of rough and no road travel.
If it has a disadvantage, its weight at 1900kg. laden means that the old L/C trayback (1hz) knows its there. But that only means we sometimes take an extra hour or two to get there.
Ours is the original type with coil/shocks/independant trailing arem suspension. Have spoken to owners of the newer leaf spring IS setup which I believe is too rigid for severe off roading.
I do like the Trackmaster airbag suspension, but haviing had a good look at a similar size Trackmaster consider the Getaway to be the more practical van for our purpose.
I also understand Supreme have discontinued the Getaway due to costing maintaining quality.
If you would like more info from me please email:
bushyx2 at bigpond.com
mike

Hi Ma

I don't know about Trakmaster being lighter than Supreme. Comparing notes with the group of Trakmasters we met at Well 33 last year, they seemed the same weight for size as our Bushtracker.

Cheers

Motherhen

Took my getaway through hell and back and after 14 months travel only lost 2g great little van but was very heavy for a single axle right on gvm. mine was the steel framed model. cheers Balko

Hi Ma,

Another totally happy Getaway owner here. We've had our since new back in 2000 and I reckon it has had a pretty hard life but has stood up to it genuinely well. Weight is most definately the downside in my case (16'6 single axle) and beachwork is a no way although it has been through the dunes around Inskip Point but that was hard work on the GU. Any sort of distance through soft sand would be stressful if you ask me. I have not and would not in the future hesitate to take this van on any outback dirt track/hwy that the GU could possibly drag it along on. Dust ingress has been minimal in all circumstances and mostly the car lets in more than the van. Where the steel floor is it's downside as far as weight goes, I reckon it is also it's positive as far as durability goes....I jamed the step (to get into the van) up a steep driveway in Sydney once and lifted the wheel off the ground without ripping the underside of the van to pieces (I would love to see any other van do that...It just wouldn't happen).

My van has close on 300 000km on its axles and I have reset the coils once and replaced shocks a few times, replaced bushes and brakes but no major failures of any description of any component on the van, I reckon it is bullet proof.

Hope this helps in some way.
Trevor.

Hi Ma,
we bought our Trakmaster Kimberley poptop new in 1997. When we faced the inevitable of having to change from tent camping (the Driver's hip replacement), for our intended several-year trip, we intended to buy a Supreme Getaway, because they were the only "real" off road van we knew of then. But at the caravan show, came across Trakmaster, spent a lot of time comparing the two, and went for the Trakkie, because we felt it was more solid than the Getaway. Because we wanted to, as far as possible, go where we used to be able to, we kept the rig small and no frills. So it is 14 foot long inside, 6'6" wide. No bathroom -( we carry a porta-potti that has never actually been used). Have an oven, 4 burner stove, bar-sized fridge, sink,c two water tanks, Heron air-con built in. The storage was adequate for life full-time on the road. When built, it weighed in at 1.3tonnes unloaded. Would be a bit more now, because we put solar panels on the roof.
We have been totally happy with this choice. Lived in it for 3 years, initially, and since then anything from 3 to 9 months in most years. It has been towed over 100,000km - probably about 40,000km of that off the bitumen.We have not had any towing issues with it - we both share the tow driving. At that length, it is quite manoeverable in the bush, too.
They do hold their resale value well - which probably speaks for itself - but you would also get the benefit of that if you want to sell it on, later.
We generally take it back to the company for an annual service. Have had no significant issues - brake magnets, bearings etc get periodically replaced. Only real problem was that back in 1997, it was normal to use plastic cupboard and drawer handles. Over time, these began to wear out and replacements were no longer available - not the company's fault! We decided to do the job properly and replace the lot with the newer push button catches - but this meant that the doors and drawer fronts had to be re-made - luckily The Driver was able to do this himself after Trakmaster got him the materials needed - saved us money.
Happy to answer any questions you may have.