So close to a 17.56-1, but so far away...

[Tayla]

After years of looking at caravans, i finally convinced my husband that we should just bite the bullet and buy an expanda. I really like the 18.57 caravans but we decided that we cannot afford to upgrade our car so we are stuck with the 2100 towing limit. The 17.56-1 looked perfect (17.56-2 was just a bit too heavy) for us and the 3 kids. We prepared our list of extras (thanks to this forum I think it was a pretty comprehensive list) and started getting prices from dealers today. We were also planning on going back to the show at Caulfield on Monday morning and seeing what price we could get.

We asked for the following:
extended drawbar
external shower & LED light above it & HWS
extra 9kg gas cylinder
extra double power point under each table
2 lights under the bunk to light up the lower bunk/table area
front gas bayonet
drop jacks
Wiring for Solar
battery
2 x External table
AL-KO
150L fridge
jockey wheel to centre of the a frame
3 shelves to each robe

BUT after spending 2 hours with the dealer today and getting what we thought was a pretty good price, we discovered that even this will be too heavy for our car :-( He couldn't tell us exactly how heavy so we are not even sure what extra's to take off to bring the weight down enough :-(((

 

[Burnsy]

Welcome Tayla, sounds like a 16 might be the go for you. Thare is a bunk model in the series....fully optioned you will be under the 2100kg mark! Good luck with your choice guys and let us know how you go.

Cheers.

 

[Lara]

Hi Tayla and Welcome!
We too were restricted by towing limits, only our is max 2000kgs.
I agree with Burnsy above, have a look at the 16.49-4. Enough beds for your family of 5 and will keep your within your weight limits.
This way you can get all your extras factory fitted and included in your tare weight and still have your 300kg payload without worrying that you've gone over.
The floor plan is almost identical to the 17.56-1 you've been looking at.
We ended up with the 16.49-1 (only 2 kids for us) and are currently on our very first weekend away and loving every minute.
Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[expanda]

Ahhh the dreaded tow capacity !!!!

I would go with Burnsy' + Lara's advice a 16.49.4 would probably fit the bill nicely.

Little bit smaller obviously but should just fit in terms of towing capacity!

Probably not what you wanted to hear, the alternative is a Discovery yes I am bias but it has a very special thing called "No Canvas" and would fit the weight bill nicely!!!

http://www.expandasdownunder.com/threads/the-disco-is-here.1449/#post-15270

 

[macca]

Tayla, have you thought about a 16-49-4 bunk model. I might know of a late 2012 model coming on the market after going to the show today. Has quite a few of the extras you need, but no shower.

Guys posting above beat me by a couple of minutes. 16-49-4 is ideal for a family of 5.

Geoff

 

[expanda]

Tayla, have you thought about a 16-49-4 bunk model. I might know of a late 2012 model coming on the market after going to the show today. Has quite a few of the extras you need, but no shower.

Guys posting above beat me by a couple of minutes. 16-49-4 is ideal for a family of 5.

Geoff

Yes and we want more details in another thread about your cryptic details

 

[macca]

Wife fell inlove with a starcraft, but I will post more in a couple of new threads tomorrow, one of which will be in the for sale section.

 

[Lara]

Yes and we want more details in another thread about your cryptic details

Was just thinking the same thing! What is Macayak up to.......
Those caravan shows are dangerous. Just when you thought you had want you wanted, something new gets launched!

 

[Lara]

Wife fell inlove with a starcraft, but I will post more in a couple of new threads tomorrow, one of which will be in the for sale section.

Jeez, you're not just thinking about it, but doing it! I've never stepped foot in a Starcraft, but there's a few members lately raving about them!
Good luck with the sale Macayak.

 

[cruza driver]

Wecome to the forum Tayla, it looks like your question has been answered already and let us know what you decide.

 

[ROnEM]

Tayla,

Welcome to the Forum and I trust you will find what you are looking for.

Tow weight limits are such a pain. We went through the same thing with a limit of 2250, but thought long and hard about what we want to do with, places to go and we ended up going the 17.56-2 Outback and new tug for it.

Reason/justification - Kids are only young once! Way more than we wanted to spend (van & car together) but we kept coming back to the primary driver/reason - Kids are only young once.

Perhaps you can look through some of the dealer or forum for sale ads and find a 17.56-1 with similar config s and enquire about the weights of the van. This might help you get to your desired options and weight.

Welcome & good luck

Cheers,
Rohan

 

[Capt. Gadget]

Was just thinking the same thing! What is Macayak up to.......
Those caravan shows are dangerous. Just when you thought you had want you wanted, something new gets launched!

Yeh I'm not allowed to go to any more!

 

[Tayla]

Thanks for the welcome and all the responses!!

We definitely looked at the 16.49-4 but liked the extra room in the 17.56. I will go back tomorrow and look at the 16.49 again tomorrow. I think we would prefer to get rid of the HWS and the solar if it keeps us in the weight limit for the 17.56.

Expanda, I had a look at the discovery but thought we would have the same weight issues and not enough beds??

 

[macca]

Tayla we had a similar issue when we bought our van, we thought our Toyota Kluger would be OK, just. I kept telling myself that, but when I thought about all the stuff you take away it just kept adding up. We ended up getting another vehicle, so know I tow with condfidence knowing that I can throw in the extra stuff like bikes and I am still Ok.

Do you need extended drawbar? You can still have external shower without HWS. Without hws you only need 1 gas bottle. Maybe someone here with a 17-56-1 with similar accessories could list their vans weight. Going 17 - 16 will only save you 200kg.

Other things that you dont think weigh much but do add up when you go away are; BBQ and plates/grilles, anti flap kit, outdoor matting, annexe, even a decent plastic table, 4-5 chairs. A weight distribution hitch is very heavy, what I am getting at is if you are close then then think about all the other stuff. What car do you have? Anyway you get to go to the show again so thats a bonus.

To give you an idea, my 16-49-4 Tare weight is 1533kg with ext drawbar and extra gas bottle, I think thats around 60kg above normal. Mine has not got solar/battery but someone could say what they weigh but batteries are heavy.

Good luck.

 

[Tayla]

We currently have 2 commodores, mine is an old one which we wouldn't tow with. My husband's is a new car through work which has the 2100 limit

How does this idea sound? We sell my commodore and buy a 2nd hand Nissan pathfinder and then buy the 18.57-9 instead???

 

[expanda]

We currently have 2 commodores, mine is an old one which we wouldn't tow with. My husband's is a new car through work which has the 2100 limit

How does this idea sound? We sell my commodore and buy a 2nd hand Nissan pathfinder and then buy the 18.57-9 instead???

Overall it sounds like a better option as you will have allot more room to tow and pack with the kids and gear and the car will not be struggling.

Its alot more $$$$ but overall you will be better off, more comfortable and be able to enjoy it all the more better.

That said there is a few commodores on here towing 16's and disco's comfortably !

One thing to consider when you add the extended drawbar they increase the size of the a frame to that of the outback this adds to the overall weight of things so if weight does become a deciding factor on any model just remember extended draw bar will mean extra weight as they increase the size of the a frame to that of the outback. Your ball weight also increases as part of this.

 

[Kenshi123]

We currently have 2 commodores, mine is an old one which we wouldn't tow with. My husband's is a new car through work which has the 2100 limit

How does this idea sound? We sell my commodore and buy a 2nd hand Nissan pathfinder and then buy the 18.57-9 instead???

G'day Tayla. I totally agree with what Expanda has said above.

I used to tow a jayco eagle with a commodore and was always scared of bottoming out. Much more relaxed ride now.

 

[macca]

Have a look at the 16's at the show, if your kids are young a 16 expanda could be OK, if they are teenagers then that may be different. The sleeping arrangements between a 16 and 17 are pretty similar, only cupboards are different. On the way home from the show yesterday, we passed a Commodore towing a 17ft discovery or similar with wdh and I pointed it out to my wife because it was really struggling in the rear end and that one was a V8.

 

[Tayla]

Our kids are 4yr, 2yr and 3wks

I'm asking the dealer that we saw yesterday for a quote on the 18ft. If the price is reasonable this option looks possible. I'm just worried that I haven't included all the extras that we would need, the dealer doesn't have one at the moment for us to check out properly so I am going by the info & pictures on the Jayco website...

 

[Pace]

We currently have 2 commodores, mine is an old one which we wouldn't tow with. My husband's is a new car through work which has the 2100 limit

How does this idea sound? We sell my commodore and buy a 2nd hand Nissan pathfinder and then buy the 18.57-9 instead???

Welcome to the Forum Tayla. I too went through the motions of car upgrade due to new van. We had a swan which we towed with Tarago, then we order the Expanda, which then meant the tarago wasnt going to go due family of 6, so there goes my much loved Forester. Now with the Pathy all is good towing and fitting everybody in too, though the minister for war and finance needs to learn stick shift. Oh, if it wasn't for room, we'd have the 18.57-9 in a heartbeat. Misses by just 250mm.

Cheers Pace.