Considering a Caravan?
Project Brief
“I have a pretty rough article that is far from finished. This is an article I wrote for a mate who asked me before Xmas for some advice on getting a caravan… It is a messy combination of shorthand, dot points and conversational writing. It could also use better structure. And an intro. And a summary.”
Considering a Caravan?
Written by Bernie Dufield
Edited by Emily Duff
Is a Campervan / Caravan Right For You?
Thinking of taking a road-trip? Want to see all the great sights of Australia from a tiny portable house but intimidated by the cost? Too overwhelmed and confused by the information overload that is the world-wide web? From choices of new or old and campervan or caravan, to comparisons and compromises, to matching van weight and towing capacity, there is a lot to consider when thinking about buying a van.
To ease this process, I’ve collated the most important things you need to know and consider when buying a van. Including the pros and cons of campervans and caravans; ways to try before you buy; common pitfalls to be aware of; advice on towing a caravan; how to make the most out of your space; what add-ons you need, and which ones will be more trouble than they’re worth; and most importantly, how to best care for your car and van while on the road.
Investigate before you Disintegrate (your savings that is)
Heard of try before you buy? This is the same principle but involves doing your due diligence and research beforehand. While that’s an intimidating prospect in the world of Campervans and Caravans, here are some ideas to get you started.
Firstly, ask yourself some questions: are you travelling solo, or with a partner? What are your motivations for travelling? What are your dealbreakers? If there is a medical episode can someone else drive your van? Is this investment something you will use longterm or only once? The answers to these will dictate your compatibility with different holiday and van types. For example, long road-trips are best done in duos or groups as you can swap drivers to make the long distances safer to drive. If you’re travelling for relaxation or replicating home, you might not like the reality of having to set up your van each time you arrive in a new place and you might be better suited to a motel, or an airbnb. If you have financial dealbreakers that would not make it feasible to invest in a caravan or campervan, or if someone has a dealbreaker of not wanting to travel long distances by road, then other options might be more applicable to you. Chances are if you’re already considering buying a van, that you’ve asked yourself these questions, but if you haven’t now is a good a time as any.
Secondly, spend a couple of hours on a hotel booking site to see how much motel rooms cost for the period you are away, including the long weekends and holidays. You could also investigate the options of Airbnbs, farm-stays, house minding for pets or a house-swap depending upon where you are looking at travelling. It is important to have your research done before you spend all your superannuation on something many people only use once or twice. This research can also help to rationalise the expense when fighting about the family bank balance.
Then, if you can rule all of them out, it’s time to start thinking seriously about a van. To try before you buy, you can check out what rental companies have Winnebago and Hiace vans for relocation. With this option, you pay one to five dollars to rent the van and you have a fixed pick up and drop off location within a tight timeframe. If you are flexible you could fly somewhere and relocate a van to get a feel for that form of travel. This can help you rule something out in three days without the hefty price tag. One such site is Imoova.com and their common requests are trips between Brisbane and Sydney, and from city to city in Queensland, but they have many other options as well.
Depending upon your research and your wants and needs, you might find another option that suits you better, or you might even find that buying and then selling a van is more effective than motel rooms. Or not. I am not a financial guru and it is important that you make and assess your own inquires.
AdVANtages
While there are many advantages to owning a Camper or Caravan, the main two boil down to space, and flexibility.
Firstly, with a Camper or Caravan, you aren’t living out of a suitcase. You have your own space, your own mattress and pillow. This is a comfort opposed to having to cram too many clothes and bedding into your car each morning, only to have to unpack and then repeat the process within 24 or 48 hours.
Secondly, a van or caravan means you don't have to book weeks ahead (although this is wise to do for popular locations in peak season). Book at least a couple of days to a week out, if you have firm plans. Want the option to see everything on your list in a previously never heard of town that you connected with? Tired, or just living the vibe? Stay another couple of days rather than miss out on exploring. Rocked up to a town but don't like the vibe? If you feel fresh, just drive to the next town. The biggest regret I have noticed is people who would have liked to have seen more of an interesting location, but who needed to keep moving for a booking that they needed to keep. Often, for somewhere they didn't even enjoy.
Campervan vs Caravan
Campervan
Now that you’ve explored what is desirable about campervans and caravans, we need to look at how they weigh up next to each other.
Which is better at finding accomodation on late notice in a town where all the motel rooms are booked out by fly-in, fly-out workers? A campervan. Last minute accomodation in Van Parks can be tricky or unreliable as the check-in at many has a hard close by 5pm. If you can’t make it by that time, you find yourself in a carpark somewhere without power, water, a toilet, or a shower… Ask me how I know… In this situation, you want a campervan. A Kombi, or Hiace can park on the street or a supermarket carpark easily, and are less likely to draw attention to themselves unlike a caravan. Campervans are also better in cities and for people who are less comfortable reversing or towing a trailer. An added bonus is that they generally have a lower fuel consumption.
Caravans
Caravans have plenty of advantages too. They tend to have more space for the night; in all but the smallest, the bed stays set up, so you can read or nap without having to convert the seats and table into a bed. They can stay setup at a campsite, while you take your car to explore the nearby area for dinner or groceries without packing everything up and risking the loss of your spot. The ability to separate your home from your car also allows you more options for adventure and exploration as you can go off-road or down 4WD tracks without being limited by your van.
Overwhelming Options
There are plenty of things to consider when buying a caravan, and they can seem daunting. Style: retro 50s or ultramodern? Aircon? Toilet and/or shower? New or second-hand? Pop-outs or extensions? The list goes on. So I put together a list of my own to break them down into the important bits.
New caravans are frighteningly expensive (the starting price of an ensuite caravan is $25,000) and many have lots of warranty issues. However, with second-hand caravans, you can see everything work and they often come with good inclusions. Second-hand caravans will usually need some initial TLC, but this may still be a desirable offset compared to the expense of a brand new van. For example, my partner and I purchased a 2003 Jayco Freedom Pop Top for $15,000. It has a 1,300kg tare / 1,500kg gross weight, no toilet or bathroom, but with air-conditioning. It also allowed us to keep our current vehicle, only requiring a few adjustments to it to prepare it for towing. In total, the upgrades of both the car and van cost about $4,000, bringing the total cost to just under $20,000 which is much cheaper than buying a new van.
Extensions
If extra space is important for you, you may consider buying a caravan with expansions, but then comes more decisions: pop-tops or extensions?
Pop-tops are lighter, quick to “pop-up” (hence the name), and can double as extra space for things while in storage. The potential downside is that pop-top caravans tend to be a bit cooler in the cold and less weather tight than alternatives, though neither of these bothered us. Canvas-expansions are also very common, particularly in smaller vans, however, when putting them away wet, you also end up with wet bedding and mould issues, which as you’ll see in the next section is already a foe for caravans. Another option for high-end caravans is that of slide-out extensions, however, you will pay significantly for this extra space in weight and price— something to consider when thinking about vehicle tow capacity later on.
People also get very passionate about defending both twin axle and single axle. They each have their pros and cons: twin adds weight which adds more drag for fuel consumption, but is safer in case of a blowout. This shouldn’t be a dealbreaker for your caravan.
BUYER BEWARE
“All Caravans leak,” per a mate who owns a caravan repair business, “sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.”
Leakage is a common problem in caravans, but it’s not the only one to be on the lookout for— it’s important to know them all.
Timber-framed caravans can leak if they lose their structural integrity due to wood rot. To prevent this you might think of buying a cover, but these can trap humidity and lead to mould. This happened to my mate that repairs caravans and now he doesn’t use a cover because of it. Your best option is to store your caravan under a carport or in a shed.
Rubber seals in the roofs of caravans need to be re-applied, usually every five to six years; and should be checked for damage at least once a year and after exposure to extreme weather conditions.
If the tyres are over 10 years old, they should be replaced, but you need not fork out all your savings on high-end van tyres— cheap truck tyres do the job just as well. You will also want to check the wheel bearings while you’re at it because they are cheap to repair, but an expensive inconvenience if they fail.
Towing Capacity, Tare & Gross Weights
Towing the Caravan
One costly consideration that needs to be made when purchasing a caravan (that doesn’t with a campervan) is the towing capacity of your tow vehicle and the tare and gross weights of the caravan. The towing capacity of your tow vehicle will impact the types of caravans available to you. If your tow capacity is on the lower-end and can only manage under 1,500kg, caravans with slide-out extensions may not be an option for you due to their extra-weight. If you have a 3,500kg tow capacity, however, you might have more options available to you, but this doesn’t mean that you can buy a 3,500kg caravan. Once you pack the caravan, your gross capacity could have gone up buy 100-200kg putting your caravan over your tow capacity! So ensure you allow for a difference between the tare weight and the gross weight when you purchase your caravan.
Necessities… or not?
Towing any van over 750kg mandates electric brakes. We went with ElecBrakes, an Australian firm, stocked by my mate in Moruya. It uses a bluetooth controller that connected perfectly every time, and I installed it myself in five minutes. You can also save some money by using an app on your phone, but I do not recommend this. The one time I needed to add brakes when I got a sway up, I didn't have time to grab the phone, put in a passcode, navigate from Spotify to open the app and then find the brake button. A lot of people also like RedArc, but it takes longer to be installed which must be done by an auto electrician, and cannot readily swap to a different vehicle.
Now, I just hit the red button on the controller I have velcroed on the dash next to the stereo and bring the increasing sway behind me under control before it gets away from me. With ElecBrakes, I can also swap the to a different vehicle in less than a minute by just plugging the controller into a cigarette lighter or 12 volt power supply.
While electric brakes are mandated, weight distribution bars generally are not if the tow vehicle and caravan have been matched correctly. If they’re not necessary for you setup, they can be more trouble than they’re worth. No-one tells you that they cannot do tight turns and have to be taken off for reversing. They have also been known to snap the tow attachment on the car if used incorrectly, or when driving over a dip between a driveway and the road. Which is more common than you think as even many fuel stations have these.
The Towing Car
Can you use the car you already have? Is it more worthwhile to buy a smaller caravan than to upgrade your tow vehicle? What considerations need to be made for the fuel type?
If possible, using the car you already have is a more economical option. Upgrading to a vehicle with a 2,500-3,500kg tow capacity can easily cost $70,000 only to spend half that again on a new mid-range caravan. As I mentioned earlier, my partner and I made the choice to keep our current 2009 Toyota Kluger with a 2,000kg tow capacity and buy a 1,500kg caravan. The slight downside to this was that when towing, our Kluger averaged 22 litres per 100km. That isn’t a pretty number, but it was only for 10,000km, and, more importantly, it let us keep the vehicle that we were perfectly happy with. Diesel would’ve been more efficient for the fuel consumption, but that’s not what we had.
Besides, diesels don’t like short trips. They oil up and DPFs (Diesel Particulate Filters) are $3,000 to $8,000 to replace— sometimes this is by 100,000km, usually by 200,000km, and sometimes earlier if doing city runs. Further, diesel injectors are more prone to failure with poor quality fuel and they require a specialist to fix them— a problem in remote areas. The best case towing a caravan with an efficient diesel is 13 litres per 100km, but this can easily hit 20 litres per 100km. Also be aware that people quote their best fuel consumption as a form of ownership bias. Someone might quote their great performance on the highway, but never mention their commuting consumption. I’ll also warn that CVT (continuously variable transmission) gearboxes are not recommended for towing. They aren’t built to handle the stress of towing heavy loads and doing so, especially when close to their maximum towing capacity, can shorten their lifespans substantially. Your gearbox is not something you want breaking down on you while you’re on the road.
In summary, consider your wants, your needs, your budget, and what you can do with what you have when investigating what van options are best for you.
Summary
Van Life: Travelling with a Caravan or Campervan
Before You Travel
Admin
There’s quite a few things in day-to-day life that you handle as regular chores so often that you forget about them. But there’s a few of them that you should consider completing before you leave to make sure your time away is as stress-free as possible.
Know when your bill payments are due and ensure they can get paid while you’re away. This is simpler if you get your statements emailed to you and have a direct deposit set up. However, if you rely on paper copy bills that don’t get automatically paid, you may need to find an alternate way to pay them while you’re on the road— you don’t want to come back to a house with no power because you forgot to pay your electricity bill. This also applies for Registration and License renewals which can be problematic to do when interstate. They’re best done beforehand, but researching what you need to do while away and having a plan will also work.
Get someone to house sit for you. While this is nice so that you can come back to bins that have been put down, and not a pile of mail in the letter box, it is also a good idea to have someone living there so it doesn’t get clocked as an empty house. Further, consider going private on your social media if you plan on posting while you are away, so that people don’t liberate your house of valuables while you’re on the other side of the country. This is also a great alternative for people with pets who can’t take them away, but don’t want to put them in kennels. Often it’s also cheaper.
Copy your important documents and email them to yourself and your family incase you lose them while you’re on the road. Having copies makes it easier to get replacements.
Consider purchasing a tracking device for your van or car incase they get stolen. Apple or android provide passive tracking options, however, you can also invest in GPS tracking devices as well.
Keep in contact with a trusted neighbour, they can collect your mail, or let you know of any bad weather events or power outages that occur while you’re away, or keep an eye out for anyone loitering around your property. Put a coin on top of frozen water in a plastic cup in your home freezer before you go away. If the coin is at the bottom of the cup when you get back, then you’ll know you had a blackout and your freezer defrosted while you were away.
WITHDRAW EMERGENCY CASH and always carry it. You should have a float with a minimum of $500, split across two wallets incase one goes missing or gets stolen. It’s enough for a few fuel purchases if you encounter remote areas with spotty reception, or a bad upgrade by your bank that’s made everything go haywire, where the internet is down, or to pay the mechanic that did a running repair on your van. Having a second card from a different bank is also recommended for a back up in case of losing one or the aforementioned bad bank upgrade.
Upgrade your roadside assistance. Top-cover roadside assistance includes the tow of your vehicle and caravan in the event of a car breakdown. Without this, they will turn up with a standard tow truck and leave your van by the side of the road. In their defence, the job was to pick up a broken down car. No one said anything about a three tonne van, and theirs simply cannot move it.
Get your car and van serviced before you leave. It’s best to get your car serviced before the long-haul of heavy towing leaves you broken down on the side of the road by something that could have been avoided with maintenance or replacement beforehand. It’s also really difficult to get into a caravan repair shop while on the road on short notice. So to mitigate the possibility of being stuck in a town for three weeks, waiting for an opening, get it checked before you leave.
Packing Your Van
When travelling with a van where you need to worry about your tow capacity— less is enough. Remember you only get 100-200kg of difference between van tare and gross weight. Consider the best use of space and what you need to bring compared to what can stay at home or you can get on the road if needed.
I loathe a dirty windscreen, so I ensure that there’s always lint free cloths and some window cleaner in the car. It also doesn’t hurt to pick up some pump spray car cleaner from the hardware store before you leave for spot cleaning.
A good place to start is packing your clothes and shoes. Take less than you think you will need. Anything you do discover you need along the way you can buy from a Salvos or Vinnies, and even the smallest of country towns has a camping store. Next is to weigh your plates; you want to opt for cheap and light, rather that heavy crockery. When we purchased our van it came with plates and cups which weighed 5kg. We swapped these for our unbreakable Correlle plates from the supermarket and this more than halved the weight to about 2kg.
Other than plates, bowls, glasses, and cutlery, you only need the essentials: a large frypan to fit kebabs, fish, and long steaks; a bottle opener; a waiter’s friend for any corks; and a champagne stopper. Get a long fold out table that can double as your kitchen and dining table, pair it with some simple fold up chairs and you have everything you need for a meal. You can also consider a small flick up table for drinks, snacks, or books.
In terms of cooking, even though our van has a gas top cooker and oven, we used them maybe once or twice. We preferred to cook outside using a $25 portable butane stove that was perfect, and even though we bought plenty of canisters, we only went through two in seven weeks. Another good option are communal barbeques in caravan park kitchens. They also double as a social avenue where you can talk to other campers. Or not. Whatever your preference.
Don’t worry about filling your water tanks. We carried ten litre casks of water for drinking, cooking, cleaning, and this saved us about 100kg of weight. Each cask easily lasted us about a few days, and it meant that we didn’t have to connect up to water and out flow at parks for just one or two nights. Don't worry about a TV either, just take your laptop, phone and iPad. The TV will need an arial facing exactly the right way and a channel scan at each new location. This can be worthwhile if you camp somewhere for a while, but the caravans with the sound of a TV inside contain the most boring people. Make some friends and read some books.
Highly Recommended Inclusions
Battery power
You really don't need much if you plan on staying at powered sites, but you should assume that the battery needs replacing when you purchase your van unless proven otherwise. Lead acid are cheap, but heavy, and they don’t like to be discharged below 50%. Which means they have less capacity than lithium for the same 100 amp hour capacity. Lithium LiPO4 is lighter and happy to go to 0-25% over and over and are not prone to fires (as long as you don’t buy cheap, no name ones from eBay). The update of lead acid to lithium will be expensive and require a lot of electronics being changed at the same time, but it may be worth it, and will save a lot of weight as well.
You should also invest in a trickle charger for the car when you manage to flatten the battery— it is better to be prepared that after weeks on the road you might slip up and leave a light on or forget to unplug something, than not prepare for it at all. If you spend a bit more, you can get one to charge your lithium battery as well. A jump pack is also a good investment for when you don’t have all day to let the trickle charger work its magic. Plus it can also charge your devices, which means you’ll know how much charge it has weekly and it will be ready to start the car if needed. Just don’t leave things on charge inside if you aren't around— whether at home or travelling. Nothing should be always on charge. Most things like being between 40-70% charged, unless for long storing, then 50% is recommended.
Electronics
Hard wired rear camera for the van, tyre pressure monitors for the car and van, a basic CB radio and short antenna, and a cordless drill— all incredibly handy pieces of equipment to consider for your trip.
The rear camera means that you can see anyone behind you while driving and makes parking less challenging. Tyre pressure monitors to ensure you know as soon as your tyre pressure gets low without having to manually check each day. A CB radio for talking to trucks when they’re overtaking you (a cheap version of a known brand will work fine). The cordless drill is to screw in tie down attachments as they’ve replaced tent pegs. Plus that same battery can be used to power a small stick vacuum cleaner and a portable air compressor for checking and rectifying your tyres each day— don’t forget the spares!
We were talked into buying a car fridge, and it has been useful, but the caravan fridge was good once you learned how to use it. The gas must be turned off when driving and once parked the fridge must be absolutely level for the gas cooling to work. Then you have to prime the gas through the oven first to make sure you aren't trying to start the fridge for minutes while the gas is taking a while to prime the pipes. However, our fridge is a three way: electricity, Anderson plug from vehicle when towing, and gas when independent, so we don’t always need to rely on the gas. If you are going to run it on electricity though, you should turn it at least one or two days before travelling, as it is least efficient getting cold on electricity, but the Anderson plug will keep it cold while travelling. It will drain the car battery if you leave it connected overnight— this is why I recommend a jump pack in the previous section.
On the Road
Pre-flight Check
Even if you’ve never flown on a plane before you’ve probably heard of the pre-flight safety checks that the flight crew have to make before they take-off. When you’re on the road with your van you have to develop a similar system. Think of it like a checklist. Commonly, the driver checks everything about the car and van, while the partner secures everything inside the van. Then you swap and check each other’s work.
While it will change van-to-van and person-to-person, some general things to remember inside the van are to:
Lock the fridge door
Clear the benches
Open the blinds
Close and lock the windows
Things to remember with the van and car are to:
Check the van is locked onto the car securely (including the ball and overlapping chains)
Connect the van to power
Raise the jockey wheel
Turn off the gas
Disconnect the water
Check that the electric brakes are working
Check the mirrors
Raise all the van feet.
Check that all the lights on the car and van are working. If they aren’t, its often because the pins on the electrics have been pinched. You can VERY, VERY carefully put a razor blade down the middle of them and make sure that they are all the same width apart. But be careful because if you break them, you aren’t legally going anywhere and will cry for hours.
Once this is checked and double-checked by each other, have the companion stand behind the van and watch the driver drive the first fifteen meters for anything that was missed. When travelling day-after-day, mistakes are inevitable, so double-check every time and you’ll find something once a week.
Driving for Best Performance
For a better chance of not having issues in between services while travelling, there are some tips and tricks to prolong the health of your tow vehicle.
Firstly, drive auto like a manual, especially down hills. Going down winding hills in drive will overheat your brakes and cause them to lose effectiveness. Follow the truck signs, leave it in second gear, and do 40km/h down hills. Secondly, keep it out of drive. If you keep the engine spinning it will lessen the load of the gearbox of an automatic. You will use less fuel in 3rd or 4th gear at 2,500rpm than in drive at 1,500-2,000rpm, and it is easier on the gearbox.
Next, remember how I mentioned getting the car serviced before you leave? Depending upon how long you are away for and how far you are driving, you might need to consider getting your vehicle serviced while you are away as well. Our Kluger clicked over the 300,000km mark whilst we were away. We normally service our Kluger every 10,000km, but while travelling we did so every 5,000km due to the harder work of towing. In Perth, we got our car serviced and the gearbox oil replaced which was not too expensive. The team UltraTune Fremantle was excellent, and they even sent a video assessment to our phone during the service.
Caravan Parks
Staying in caravan parks while you’re on the road is a great option. You have access to toilets, showers, camp kitchens and power. Some even have washing machines available. Staying in ones which are in or close to towns is also a good way to make sure you have mobile reception (most of the time). This is useful not only for staying in contact with family, your house-sitter, or that trusted neighbour, but also for sharing the photos and videos you have taken on social media if you desire. Being near to town also means that you can explore by foot or push bike which is especially desirable if you are travelling with a campervan.
Not having basic amenities can be a deal-breaker for some, but even in van parks these are still not those of luxury hotels. Assume the bathroom floor, especially near the showers, will be wet and often dirty. Make sure you bring a pair of thongs so that you aren’t having to shower in bare feet. Also consider a device that hangs off the top of the door or wall that gives you multiple hooks to hang your clothes and toiletries from; most caravan park showers don't have enough hooks or bench space. On the Nullarbor you need coins for the shower. Sometimes $1 coins, sometimes $2 coins. Once it would take either! We took both in a tin so we didn’t have to return to the van for different coins.
Also be prepared that the amenities block might not be close to your site, or it might have a security code. In the night or rain, these seem like more obstacles than necessary, so if you or your travel companion are people who use the bathroom in the night— or if you are travelling with kids— you can also get a portable toilet for your van. We have one that fits underneath our bed that helps in these unkind situations.
Ultimately, there is a lot to consider when you are thinking about travel and / or buying a van to travel in. A good place to start is by discussing your dealbreakers, travel goals, and finances with your partner or travel companion, seeing what options are compatible, and whittling it down from there. Investigate what you can try before you buy to get a feel for what owning a van is like— you might love the idea of a campervan until you pull up into a van park and realise you can’t drive to get dinner without packing it all up again. Or if you were sceptical about buying a new caravan because of the cost, you’re now aware of the advantages of buying one second-hand.
I hope that this has equipped you with knowledge of what you need to prepare for when you go away whether there’s a caravan shaped whole in your life or not. If there isn’t, enjoy sipping your Mai Tai’s in a resort with your feet up by the pool, and if there is, enjoy the view of a clear milky way on the Nullabor. And either way, have fun travelling.