New Member, New Van On Order
- Thread starter Joves
- Start date
Not really practical for continuous use. 1tr per hour running an aircon is more than a jerry can per day. We use ours sparingly, the odd battery top up, microwave, and once in 5 year for the aircon for about 3 hours. If its so hot you need the aircon continuously theres a fair argument its probably not comfortable being there at all, and a caravan park would be a better option to ride it out.
Dust storms, bushfire smoke or bluddy hot days we make a bee line for a showground and plug in to the big power station, run AC for van and fridge then ajourn to local bottle shop cold room...............
Running the gennie for hours would drive me nuts better to play tourist and go for a nice drive, visit the scenic spots and take pics from inside the car with AC on full noise..........
B&S P3000 38kgs dry, add 5lts fuel, 44 kgs it's a heavy bustard, my Honda 2kva is 20kg usually fill the tank so add 5kg and I usually only carry 10lt of extra fuel if I think I need it..........Since we free camp it comes along for the ride and has been a god send some times but would have been just as easy to pack up and move to a little park that doesn't charge squillions........
Only fill the water tanks when needed no sense dragging 240kgs around for nothing in fact full tanks and gear you would be bulging the tyres anyway...
How many days to go ????????
Running the gennie for hours would drive me nuts better to play tourist and go for a nice drive, visit the scenic spots and take pics from inside the car with AC on full noise..........
B&S P3000 38kgs dry, add 5lts fuel, 44 kgs it's a heavy bustard, my Honda 2kva is 20kg usually fill the tank so add 5kg and I usually only carry 10lt of extra fuel if I think I need it..........Since we free camp it comes along for the ride and has been a god send some times but would have been just as easy to pack up and move to a little park that doesn't charge squillions........
Only fill the water tanks when needed no sense dragging 240kgs around for nothing in fact full tanks and gear you would be bulging the tyres anyway...
How many days to go ????????
Makes sense, Drover. I probably could have gone for a smaller generator. Ah well, even if it become an “in case of emergencies” item, I’d rather have it and not need it than need it at some point and not have it.
The water tanks will only be filled when we know we are freecamping. I’ve read many posts about the mains water inlet regulator supplied with these vans being rubbish and often not supplying any water pressure, so that will be one of the first things I’ll be checking after delivery.
We won’t receive the van until around mid-August, so a few months to wait. Will have it for September school holidays though, which is good, as we will be able to give it a half decent run then.
In the meantime, we are heading down to Kiama for the June long-weekend and have hired an Expanda pop-top for a few nights. Sure do hope we like it!!
The water tanks will only be filled when we know we are freecamping. I’ve read many posts about the mains water inlet regulator supplied with these vans being rubbish and often not supplying any water pressure, so that will be one of the first things I’ll be checking after delivery.
We won’t receive the van until around mid-August, so a few months to wait. Will have it for September school holidays though, which is good, as we will be able to give it a half decent run then.
In the meantime, we are heading down to Kiama for the June long-weekend and have hired an Expanda pop-top for a few nights. Sure do hope we like it!!
A few Kgs which you would have used on something else I'm sure, I know I do. I'm the same rather have it when I want it than cursing that its at home, have dragged the Kayaks on 8,000km roof rack tours and never used as either no water or blowing a gale, yet leave them in the shed come across plenty of nice water, leave em home when we go to Victoria, weather is always crap.
Kiama, great place though has changed big time since we would ride our pushies there from Oak Flats and hope to catch a train back home..........now a freeway amid the Colorbond Jungle.
Kiama, great place though has changed big time since we would ride our pushies there from Oak Flats and hope to catch a train back home..........now a freeway amid the Colorbond Jungle.
I carted my fishing Kayak 40k km around Oz which added 2 to 3ltr/100km to our fuel consumption ... avg $1.50 pr litre you can do the math on that one. I did use it thoWe took our folding bikes to WA for three months, I hope they enjoyed the ride because they never left the back of the truck.
Just noticed the 2019 Land Rover. Paired with the 2019 Expanda, we'll have to wear glasses when you arrive in town. Cant speak on behalf of your shower floor, but we store our generator in the shower. Had the bejesus thumped out of it on 1000's of km of goat tracks and both shower and generator survived. Over nighters we put the genny on the floor outside the bathroom (in your van under the read bed access), and for longer stays under the dinning table where the smaller legs poke out over it at dinner time
Jayco pressure limiting valves cause no end of issue, its not a bad idea to swap it out for a branded one because you can be guaranteed it will stop working at the most inconvenient time. I ditched the factory pressure limiting valve all together and I use limiter attacked inline on the mains hose. The limiter just sits on one of the vans tyres under a rag away from roving eyes.
I don't get my new car until Aug, so likely wont have it set up for towing before the Sept school holidays otherwise we'd be heading to around Narooma'ish
Haha.. I’m sure both the Land Rover and Expanda will look pretty worn in, in no time!
Thanks for the advice on where to put the generator when it isn’t in use. I’d love to have a box fitted to the front hitch to house it and the Baby Q and a few other items. I need to see what the ball weight is before jumping ahead and having one fitted. I could foresee, in a perfect world, the box housing the generator, BBQ, empty car fridge and extra battery box/battery. I’m sure this will likely be too heavy on the towball, but that would be the ideal, if possible.
I’m going to switch the limiting valve, irrespective of whether it appears to work or not. Thanks for confirming that the ones supplied are useless.
Narooma is supposedly a great spot. What new car are you waiting on? If you get it in time and we find ourselves down that way also, I’ll shout you a drink or three for all your great advice!
Thanks for the advice on where to put the generator when it isn’t in use. I’d love to have a box fitted to the front hitch to house it and the Baby Q and a few other items. I need to see what the ball weight is before jumping ahead and having one fitted. I could foresee, in a perfect world, the box housing the generator, BBQ, empty car fridge and extra battery box/battery. I’m sure this will likely be too heavy on the towball, but that would be the ideal, if possible.
I’m going to switch the limiting valve, irrespective of whether it appears to work or not. Thanks for confirming that the ones supplied are useless.
Narooma is supposedly a great spot. What new car are you waiting on? If you get it in time and we find ourselves down that way also, I’ll shout you a drink or three for all your great advice!
On our 20ft Expanda I had the slide out deleted to reduce weight, and Jayco being Jayco they didn't make a single adjustments for the reduction. Our 3t van was delivered with a 145kg ball weight, which after relocating the gas bottles allowed for the original smaller drawer bar box to double in size. The south coast of NSW is a great place, so many gems its a fav of ours and only a couple of freecamps away, with a good selection.
I have a Troopcarrier on order, and it has an expected 3 month delivery. Ill then only have a month to do some basic setup and run all the electrics on the Troopy and also run it in to tow, so not sure I have enough time.
That’s interesting that you optioned the slide out of the 20fter. So it has the same layout, with dinette instead of club lounge, as the 18fter?
I’m looking forward to exploring some of the south coast. We drive from Sydney to Melbourne a couple of times a year to see my family, but there is certainly no exploring going on there. It’s always a straight run down the Hume, which is as exciting as watching paint dry. Will be nice to actually make our way down gradually via a different route and see some of the places we typically cruise on past.
My old man has had a Troopy for years and absolutely loves and swears by the thing. Not many places you won’t be able to get to in one of those!
I’m looking forward to exploring some of the south coast. We drive from Sydney to Melbourne a couple of times a year to see my family, but there is certainly no exploring going on there. It’s always a straight run down the Hume, which is as exciting as watching paint dry. Will be nice to actually make our way down gradually via a different route and see some of the places we typically cruise on past.
My old man has had a Troopy for years and absolutely loves and swears by the thing. Not many places you won’t be able to get to in one of those!
We have the club lounge. The layout is similar to yours minus the slide out. Our couch wings are 150mm smaller but the window seat is around 300mm longer. We ordered the Expanda with a very clear purpose which I suspected would test the van, and the slide out was seen as both weight we could do without (saved us $2000 as well) and a potential weak point in regards to where we planned to drag it. Both options, with and without, were available at the time so we could sit in, measure and physically compare both. The perception of space was certainly there with the slide out, but the available seating was in reality actually not so different. We would have also had to open the slide out at least a foot or so just to access the van on the side of the road. Our Navara was limited to 3t tow capacity so all things being equal it was the wisest choice for us.
The new model had the slideout as standard and the factory wouldn't entertain the deduction. We pulled out of the order, and discovered the factory had the last one, a tourer, on the line at the time. The fear of the dealer having lost the sale gave the dealer some leverage so Jayco agreed to produce a 2013 layout in 2014 with 2014 cabinetry, and colours so we got the only 2014 non slideout ever built. Unique collectable item we think, ha. The removal of the slideout reduced the ATM weight, so we had that added back on upto our cars 3t tow capacity so we have 600kg payload from factory as well
The odd thing about the newer 20ft'ers is the bathroom. You'll have the wheel arch protruding into the bathroom. Because of the that the shower is at the rear, vanity at the front and a boxed out wheel arch section coming out from under the vanity. Far from any criticism, only a curious observation because our bathroom is the reverse with the shower at the front and vanity to the rear. The axles must be further forward on ours because the wheel arch doesnt protrude into the bathroom at all, the difference being is the washing machine fits in the bathroom. It appears that Jayco have moved the axles back a little in the newer modals and with our van from the factory very light on the ball, I can only guess they've moved the axles back to throw some weight forward onto the ball.
We've stayed in many of the places on the south coast, and there are some truly awesome and under developed coastal havens to explore. The Hume also has some places worth turning off for as well.
Like your dad I have extraordinarily good taste in cars, and the obvious aversion to comfort and vehicle tech. The 70 series in general has a proven track record and there's precious little that can match its pedigree, track record, toughness, hauling capacity, off roading and carrying capabilities. Its just very backwards in every other aspect.
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Ahh, I see. I didn’t realise it was an option to do without the slide at the time. That would actually be a very nice slide, if 300mm wider with slightly Schoster wings. Would love to see a pic, if you have one.
Being a family of 5, we wanted at least the perception of as much space as possible. We would probably have gone for a completely different van altogether, like a standard fully enclosed with double bed and triple bunks, but they just felt too small in reality when walking through them. We foresee there will certainly be days when the weather forces us to spend more time indoors than we’d hope, so went for the Expanda, so the more internal space available, the better. This was also the reason we optioned the fully enclosed annexe.
There are certain things I’ve definitely been iffy about with the one we’ve ordered, one being the bathroom which is extremely small and the other being the colour of the cabinetry on this newer model. Mission Brown is about the best description I have for it, so I do kind of wonder what the designers were thinking in this day and age and in such a small space. These things had be to’ing and fro’ing for a little bit, so I had to give myself a reality check uppercut and tell myself “It’s a CARAVAN, for crying out loud!”
I’m actually really looking forward to exploring some of the towns off the Hume, whilst taking more time to travel down to Melbourne. The Hume Hwy, as boring as it can be, is a great road, however, a lot of the small towns along it must really struggle now that commuters don’t have to pass through them. Even Holbrook, the last of the must-stop’s, is bypassed now... makes for a great straigh-through run though, I must admit.
As for the Troopcarrier, I’ve heard that they are about the only vehicle you’lll see in the most remote parts of the country, as they are the only ones that can get there. Nice work on ordering one, you must be serious about your off-roading... us Sydney yuppies (well, our family, anyway) opt for the creature comforts, as can be seen in the needless additions we have added to our soon to be overweight van!
Being a family of 5, we wanted at least the perception of as much space as possible. We would probably have gone for a completely different van altogether, like a standard fully enclosed with double bed and triple bunks, but they just felt too small in reality when walking through them. We foresee there will certainly be days when the weather forces us to spend more time indoors than we’d hope, so went for the Expanda, so the more internal space available, the better. This was also the reason we optioned the fully enclosed annexe.
There are certain things I’ve definitely been iffy about with the one we’ve ordered, one being the bathroom which is extremely small and the other being the colour of the cabinetry on this newer model. Mission Brown is about the best description I have for it, so I do kind of wonder what the designers were thinking in this day and age and in such a small space. These things had be to’ing and fro’ing for a little bit, so I had to give myself a reality check uppercut and tell myself “It’s a CARAVAN, for crying out loud!”
I’m actually really looking forward to exploring some of the towns off the Hume, whilst taking more time to travel down to Melbourne. The Hume Hwy, as boring as it can be, is a great road, however, a lot of the small towns along it must really struggle now that commuters don’t have to pass through them. Even Holbrook, the last of the must-stop’s, is bypassed now... makes for a great straigh-through run though, I must admit.
As for the Troopcarrier, I’ve heard that they are about the only vehicle you’lll see in the most remote parts of the country, as they are the only ones that can get there. Nice work on ordering one, you must be serious about your off-roading... us Sydney yuppies (well, our family, anyway) opt for the creature comforts, as can be seen in the needless additions we have added to our soon to be overweight van!
The bathroom probably feels a little cramped in a showroom tour, but we lived in the van for 14mths and never really found the bathroom too small; its functional without robbing the living space of more than what is minimally required. We ditched the glass shower doors and replaced it with your standard 1970s shower curtain which I find much better. The shower is a little small for me anyway, and the curtain allows for a little extra elbow movement. I also knew those glass doors wouldn't have tolerated too many corrugations either. We also ditched the concertina vinyl doors in favour of simple curtains, btw the shower and concertina doors we clawed back over 30kg of weight. All that stuff is stored in the factory, and can just go back in when we sell the van whenever that may happen
The airflow in the bed ends in summer is what the Expanda is all about. We very rarely use the aircon at night, youll catch every breath of breeze without it. The only drawback is the early morning light but you get used to that too. I own a cabinet making business .... so you think youll have issue with the colors!!!; it took me some time to come to terms with the design, the construction and the colors. But Im settle with it now, as you mentioned, its a caravan for goodness sake.
This pic was just after pick up in late 2014, and before its maiden voyage. The plastic is still on the mattress. Loading all the contents of the previous caravan, and about to jump straight into many many hours of modifications ... one important one was the replacement of those horrible couch cushions. Not opting for leather was possible the only decision I regret. Jayco used Blackmans for the leather work, and they are a highly regarded high end automotive industry supplier. Blackmans by coincidence is only 15min from me and I have spoken to them about upgrading .... jury is still out $$$$
Not too many superfluous additions in your options list either, Ive got most of them
The airflow in the bed ends in summer is what the Expanda is all about. We very rarely use the aircon at night, youll catch every breath of breeze without it. The only drawback is the early morning light but you get used to that too. I own a cabinet making business .... so you think youll have issue with the colors!!!; it took me some time to come to terms with the design, the construction and the colors. But Im settle with it now, as you mentioned, its a caravan for goodness sake.
This pic was just after pick up in late 2014, and before its maiden voyage. The plastic is still on the mattress. Loading all the contents of the previous caravan, and about to jump straight into many many hours of modifications ... one important one was the replacement of those horrible couch cushions. Not opting for leather was possible the only decision I regret. Jayco used Blackmans for the leather work, and they are a highly regarded high end automotive industry supplier. Blackmans by coincidence is only 15min from me and I have spoken to them about upgrading .... jury is still out $$$$
Not too many superfluous additions in your options list either, Ive got most of them
Good to hear that you haven’t found the bathroom to be too small in general day to day use. You’ve certainly gone to some pretty good lengths to cut back on your weights. Having those items stored at the factory for when you eventually decide to part with your van is a great idea!
The airflow through the bed ends in summer does sound great. I must admit though, I am wondering how cold the canvas ends get in the middle of Winter? We will have the storm covers fitted, which should add some insulation to the matter, but I imagine they’d get a lot colder than a standard solid van. I foresee us installing a Truma Eco Gas heater at some stage if winter travels are a bit uncomfortable.
Haha... I’m sure you must see some pretty weird and wonderful colour combinations, being a cabinet maker.
The leather club lounge (and matching leatherette trimming and bottom bunk/dinette addition) should hopefully look nice enough. We figured it would look good and also be easier to keep clean, so there you go... we are already starting to play by the rule of every item in the van needs at least two functions. Glad to hear that Jayco’s leather work is done by a reputable company known for good work, thanks for advising of this.
Also glad to hear that the majority of our options are justified and should hopefully be put to good use.
Cheers Crusty!
The airflow through the bed ends in summer does sound great. I must admit though, I am wondering how cold the canvas ends get in the middle of Winter? We will have the storm covers fitted, which should add some insulation to the matter, but I imagine they’d get a lot colder than a standard solid van. I foresee us installing a Truma Eco Gas heater at some stage if winter travels are a bit uncomfortable.
Haha... I’m sure you must see some pretty weird and wonderful colour combinations, being a cabinet maker.
The leather club lounge (and matching leatherette trimming and bottom bunk/dinette addition) should hopefully look nice enough. We figured it would look good and also be easier to keep clean, so there you go... we are already starting to play by the rule of every item in the van needs at least two functions. Glad to hear that Jayco’s leather work is done by a reputable company known for good work, thanks for advising of this.
Also glad to hear that the majority of our options are justified and should hopefully be put to good use.
Cheers Crusty!
The canvas bed end is certainly more susceptible to the outside temps, but we've really only found it a issue a handful of time over many years and only in extreme heat and extreme cold. On those occasions the storm cover makes a significant difference. For us its the zero temp freecamp overnighters where we wouldn't bother mucking about with the storm cover. That said we freecamp a lot often in winter and we very rarely use the storm cover, so that's an indication of how often the outside temps will have a significant effect on us.
We have a diesel heater in our van, and theres is many varied and occasionally humorous pros and cons that pop up in the debate between gas and diesel heaters. Gas is maintenance free and slightly more expensive to run, and diesel can be topped up easily and will at some point needs servicing which can be expensive; most of the rest is very holden v ford kinda stuff. Either way either type of ducted heating is a awesome addition; its our every day go to heating and we use it even in caravan parks. Very much set and forget.
We have a diesel heater in our van, and theres is many varied and occasionally humorous pros and cons that pop up in the debate between gas and diesel heaters. Gas is maintenance free and slightly more expensive to run, and diesel can be topped up easily and will at some point needs servicing which can be expensive; most of the rest is very holden v ford kinda stuff. Either way either type of ducted heating is a awesome addition; its our every day go to heating and we use it even in caravan parks. Very much set and forget.
Dare I say it but I don't believe its very backwards at all, just stopped at a given point, the rest just have bling and next to a Landrover 110 ( the original with Izuzu) are just the ducks for off roading.
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Could we even go so far as to say once they got it right, the otherwise relentless pursuit of change for the sake of change stopped. I just read on FB someone quoting avg towing fuel figures of 25+ ltrs/100km, I almost blew a valve .... I felt much better when he was repeatedly howled down by much more conservative figures from other owners towing large 3t plus vans
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Getting back to the topic of power (even if the fridge situation has been resolved... us having gone with the 3-way), I’m still really keen on optimising our power and weight in the van. So much so, that I’m seriously toying with the idea of switching out the two 100AH lead acid batteries with a 200 or 300AH Lithium battery. From what I can gather, this would drop the weight of batteries from about 70 odd kg’s to between 25-40kg’s, depending on whether I went for a 200 or 300AH. It would also increase actual usage from approximately 100AH (50% from the lead) from fully charged to 160-240AH (80+% from the Lithium), given the Lithium’s efficiency.
Aside from the obvious significant outlay in cost, am I missing something as to why this appears to be a no-brainer? I’m assuming it is the cost which, again, I realise is significant.
I would think that with a good solar/lithium setup, the only thing we’d really even have to be mindful of when freecamping would be water.