Thinking about travelling Australia with a caravan, wondering what set up you should have? If you have ever been on any number of the caravan and camping Facebook pages, this question is asked weekly.
There are so many factors to consider when you are thinking about travelling around Australia. Firstly are you going to be travelling full time? What is your budget? How do you like to camp? How many people and fur kids will be on this journey with you?
The planning of travelling Australia with a caravan
Before we started this trip, we already had a Jayco caravan. It was the pop top journey in their range. We loved the van and it was great for short breaks away in WA. It was 17ft with a double bed, L- shaped seating area, kitchenette and still had the en-suite at the end. However the storage capacity wasn’t great for long term travel. Plus we only had a small fridge with tiny freezer compartment in the kitchen, and no oven.
With this in mind we went down to the Perth caravan and camping show. This is an annual show held at Claremont show grounds every year. With hundreds of stalls, it has everything you could ask for in relation to camping, caravanning and four wheel driving.
On going down to the show we had absolutely no intention of buying, it was a case of going and looking. No firm plans had been made on the trip, however it was very much on the to do list.
Buying the caravan
We looked in van after van, stall after stall and we eventually found the Jayco dealers. Already being Jayco owners, we knew we liked their range. We looked through all their levels of vans, some we could afford and some we couldn’t. Finally we stepped into the Jayco Starcraft. It’s a 19.6ft full size van, with heaps of overhead storage and a small washing machine. It was a case of sign me up now Mr Jayco. It had everything we had in our pop top, with the double bed, kitchen area, seating and en-suite but the layout was so much better. With all the additional overhead storage, added gas oven, more kitchen space, booth seating and washing machine in the en-suite, we were sold.
One good thing about Jayco is they have such a vast amount of vans to suit all budgets. Another big selling point for us was the fact they’re a National company. So if you ever have any issues you’re never far away from an accredited Jayco service agent. Whereas if we’d gone for say a WA based caravan manufacturer and had issues, we would’ve struggled to find someone to fix the problem under warranty.
After a bit of negotiation on what they were prepared to buy our van back for we signed on the dotted line. Our next problem was the bloody car. We had a Toyota FJ Cruiser which we loved but it didn’t have the towing capacity for the caravan. Travelling Australia with a caravan and the FJ would have meant that we were towing illegaly, so a trade up had to happen
Buying the car
Chris spent a good couple of months researching on what car we should have for this epic journey. We whittled our top 5 down to; the Toyota Land Cruiser, Mitsubishi Pajero sport, Toyota Fortuna, Ford Ranger and Isuzu MUX. The most important criteria for purchasing the vehicle were, price, reliability, comfort, towing capacity and fuel consumption. We decided on comfort and reliability being the most important when travelling these great distances. The Toyota Land Cruiser ticked all our boxes, so next stop was Galleria Toyota in Perth.
Chris did some hard negotiating on the car. As it was the end of year for regos, we managed to negotiate a discounted price. So the Cruiser came in under budget.
As the car came from new, it didn’t have a bull bar on. Once again we did heaps of research for and against installing a bull bar and which brand was the best.
In the end we went with the Ironman deluxe commercial bull bar, in a matte black finish. It was installed by 4×4 extras in Wangara in the northern suburbs of Perth. Bull bar and installation came to a total cost of $2000
The reason we went ahead and had one fitted, was after a comment on one of the caravan and camping pages on Facebook. Sally Anne who funnily enough also owns a German Shorthaired Pointer like Tilly said that the difference between having and not having a bull bar is massive. Having a bull bar means if you hit a stray animal full on, you can at least limber you way to a local town. Whereas if you don’t, potentially you could damage your radiator, bringing your journey to an abrupt halt.
Arrival of the caravan
At the end of August our caravan was finally delivered to Perth. Jayco build all their vans in Melbourne and had obviously had a good year with all the caravan and camping shows. We had to wait just over 4 months from ordering for our van to finally arrive into Perth. As soon as we got it we took it out on it’s first trip.
When buying a new van it’s always good to take it on a first outing before doing any big trips. Just like a weekend away, somewhere not to far from home. It gives you the opportunity to make sure everything is in good working order. A bit like a snag list when buying a newly built property.
Checklist
Internally
- make sure all appliances are working correctly
- cabinetry is open and closing smoothly
- all taps are flowing well
- windows and flyscreens
- lights and electrics
Externally
- check the legs extend correctly and smoothly
- Pull out the awning and extend it
- Check wheel nuts are tight
- check your rear lights work
- try out the external electric sockets and water points
- check the handbrake and breakaway system are working correctly
- gas bottles if applicable
- check all your outdoor storage locks
Top tip
Although some of these things can’t be checked until your first outing, this tip is a good one.
Before we picked our van up we let our dealer know that we wouldn’t be exchanging on funds if there were any issues. They say you can claim it under warranty but trying to get your van in for a warranty issue is a pain and sometimes you have to wait weeks.
A friend of ours went to pick up their new van and somewhere between it leaving the production line Melbourne and arriving in Perth there was a crack in one of their windows. They were told off their supplier not to worry it can be claimed under warranty. This would mean the dealer would make twice off it, one being the initial sale, the other being the work to carry out the repair the window. Our friend informed them they won’t be paying and signed ownership over until the window was repaired…. the window got quickly fixed.
The bottom line is, make sure everything works and then double check everything on your first trip out.
Then you will have a first month service, where any issues can be ironed out.
Modifications
We had decided on a few modifications once we’d the van a couple of weeks to make our trip work better for us.
We had heard that people struggle with catching their vans over speed bumps and inclines so we thought we would get the axels underslung. This gave us an extra 100mm of clearance and we are so glad we got this done. On more than one occasion we’ve had some close calls with the back of the van almost touching the ground. If we’d not had the axels done we’d have definitely caught the underneath of bumper and van.
We also got a fishing rod cylinder attached to the underneath of the van. Having this attached meant no smelly rods in the van or the car. It was easily enough to attach.
One final thing we did before left was to get a tray attached for the Foxtel box to sit on, so it wouldn’t move whilst we’re travelling. We had this secured to the cabinetry near the tv for ease of use.
Additional items
Satellite dish
Following on from the Foxtel box, we bought a satellite dish so we could watch Foxtel and free to air tv. After doing our research we went to access antennas in Perth and they advised us on the set up we needed for travelling around Australia. We bought a package which included a satellite dish, a vast box and something called a marriage saver. The marriage saver is a device which helps locate the signal of the satellite. It saves arguments when one of you are inside the van looking at the tv for a picture, whilst the other is outside wiggling the dish. On the marriage saver you have a miniature hand held tv device. As you point the satellite dish into the sky, when it locates a picture it will appear in the palm of your hand.
We highly recommend going to see the guys at Access Antennas for all your satellite tv needs.
http://www.accessantennas.com.au
Solar panEls
We also bought a solar system set up. It’s a handy 150 watt foldable panel, which is enough to trickle energy back to replenish the battery.
Generator
Another big ticket item we bought was the generator. Chris again a did a fair bit of research into which one would be best for us. Like anything prices go from extreme to the other. There are the Honda and Yamaha genes which a lot of people would go for, but they are also a lot more expensive. Then Chris came across a video on YouTube, Kurt from sparkys on the loose, recommending the adventure kings 2KVA generators. Chris was quite impressed with the video, and even better the price point. You can pick one of these generators up for under $400 and they even power your aircon unit.
Click here to watch Kurt’s video https://youtu.be/lNWqJ5BdPuY
Funny side note to this story; Chris went ahead and bought the generator. Whilst I was busy building our Instagram profile. I became insta friends with Kurt and Amz from Sparkys on the loose, who are also travelling Australia with their dog rusty. About 5 months after Chris watching the video, we were in Tasmania and so were Kurt and Amz. We were both in same area and I suggested we catch up for lunch. Now Chris doesn’t use Instagram, but somewhere over his fish tacos Chris realises it was Kurt from the YouTube video.
air compressor
We we also bought a thumper air compressor. In a previous life, we had an ARB compressor, which had unfortunately been stolen from our car one night. So we needed to replace it and after a bit of browsing online and instore, we bought one from the 4WD Supacentre. The price came in on point also, at $99 we couldn’t purchase it quick enough. It easily inflates the 4 tyres from flat on our Land Cruiser in no time, plus the caravan tyres. We are really happy with this product and it was a great price.
Added extras
Other things to bare in mind if you’re considering travelling Australia with a caravan full time, are items which will make life on the road more comfortable for you.
We purchased 3 side walls from Carmac. One for each end and a long side panel. They are used as needed, dependant on sun direction and or privacy. We thought long and hard about an annex, however we felt like an annex would enclose the outdoor seating area too much. We also prefer the open ventilation with the side walls. It also gives us the choice of how much we want to enclose ourselves.
A must is to buy yourselves super comfy outdoor seating, even Tilly has her own moon chair. You spend more time outside when travelling and it would be pretty average sitting on a Bunnings best $5 camp chair.
For our outside cooking we own a WeberQ, which we absolutely love. It can cook so many things including pizzas, roasts, an array of meats and fish and even desserts. Most definitely worth the outlay, we had a few bbqs before but Weber beat those hands down.
Getting ready to set off
So after months of planning and purchasing, we were almost ready to start travelling with a caravan and car.
In our next post we’ll cover what we brought with us inside the van. It’s so easy to overpack, so I’ll give you an insight into how we travel.