Off road campervans which is the best in your opinion and why!
Submitted: Tuesday, Oct 16, 2012 at 22:38
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Member -Toonfish
Finally upgrading from our camper trailer which i love as its tough as nails no bull but very practical with slide out kitchen and drawers plus a good solar & 12 volt system.
So we have pretty much given up on the more modern jayco outback swan eagle hawk and flamingo all have good layout and features but not very "outback rugged"
So under 25 grand we were looking at the coromal ones such as f400, magnum 0ff rd
and the goldstream goldwing and gold storm off rd and also some golf challenger off rd which seem sparse but cheaper and a lot like jayco
i like the advantage of the inbuilt oven on most of these and an added bonus would be outside tap ,r/c aircon gas hot
water outside power 12v and bbq
looking to be on the rd for quite a while with two adults and 3 kids 11 , 9 and 5
also a 16 inch rim would be handy as some are like this .
feel free to talk yours up or mention bad points .
thanks
Reply By: Member - Oldbaz. NSW. - Wednesday, Oct 17, 2012 at 11:41
Wednesday, Oct 17, 2012 at 11:41
G'day Toonfish, as no one is falling over themselves to tell you how good their campervan
is...I wont either...dont have one...but I will make the following observations..
Assuming we are talking about the windup/folddown type of rigs..if not..ignore me..
We didnt consider such things as an upgrade from our soft floor campertrailer..because..
..setup time was no better..proved when doing a month long trip with friends in a
Jayco Finch.
..storage space/carrying capacity is nowhere near as good as a C/t..limited to the
built in cupboards below fold down level...or the floor, or racks on top for light gear
which then has to be covered.
Our answer was a small dirtroad poptop, & we're more than happy with it.
Your choice ,of course, & good luck with your search. cheers....oldbaz.
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496849
Follow Up By: Dede1 - Wednesday, Oct 17, 2012 at 13:35
Wednesday, Oct 17, 2012 at 13:35
Hi Toonfish, I agree with Oldbaz on this one. We have just returned from 12 weeks travelling the East coast from
Geelong to
Cairns and return. We sold our "tent camper trailer" and purchased a second hand 1985 poptop caravan and enjoyed 4 years in the van. However for this trip we decided to purchase a 2nd hand Expanda as the van was too small for two growing kids. We are two adults and 2 kids. The expanda worked out a treat, heaps of room and storage inside and to put the bed ends out took us only 5 minutes (without bed flys) and 6 minutes with bedflys. We decided in the end the bedflys were good for privacy and keeping moisture/dirt off the bedends. However, we never put poles or pegs on the bedflys unless it was suppose to rain or get windy. The Expanda had a roll out awning with annex walls (this took us another 10 minutes to set up). Again, we never pegged out the annex unless it was going to be windy. So my suggestion is go the "caravan" route, much easier/quicker/more comfortable. Also don't forget, you can get in the van at lunch time for quick roadside lunches etc, great for if the weather is against you.
Regards
Dede1
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Reply By: Member - ROADKING - Wednesday, Oct 17, 2012 at 21:11
Wednesday, Oct 17, 2012 at 21:11
Hi Toonfish,
We had the same problem but without the kids, we had an Adventure
Pilbara camper and were really happy with it. We travelled extensively into remote areas and had no trouble but the wife wanted to upgrade.
Being a truckdriver in the outback of queensland for nearly 30 years I know that there is no substitute for Quality and unfortunately you usually have to pay for that.
I looked into most of the brands you describe and while good for their intended purpose I was not confident in their offroad ability to hold together, in saying that the way you drive offroad as you would be aware has a lot to do with the ability of any vehicle to handle it.
It all comes down to what you really want to do, if that involves a lot of offroad work I would look very carefully at the construction particulary the chassis, ensure the drawbar extends back to where the
suspension mounts, also the construction of the interior, anything that is just stapled together is only going to give you problems. We travelled across the Great Central Highway which was in quite good condition except for the docker river section, with a couple in a Jayco pop top and when we pulled up on the first night to
camp they opened the door and virtually the whole contents of the van including furniture landed at their feet, not a good start to their trip they went back to the Alice.
For around the 25 grand mark which I asume is around your budget I really dont know of any of that style of camper that would handle a lot of offroad work we ended up spending a lot more than I really wanted but am glad we did as I have no issues going anywhere with this one.
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Follow Up By: Member -Toonfish - Wednesday, Oct 17, 2012 at 22:01
Wednesday, Oct 17, 2012 at 22:01
thanks for the replies guys all food for thought but the wind drag and size of a bigger van isnt what im after .
ill possibly keep the camper trailer for
gibb river and similair tracks but use the campervan for more on road and lighter off rd use .
checking a few out this weekend hopefully
happy to pay for a older one of good quality or thats already been "outbacked !"
cheers
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