17' Series And Finally....our new 17.56-1

Doogle

Member
Mar 18, 2011
76
14
8
Melbourne, Victoria
Well, what a day.
The heavens gave us a glorious sunny day of 20 degrees with a slight breeze and the traffic on our way to Jayco (Geelong) was minimal.
We arrived right on time and they had our new van under their carport, all ready for us to inspect and get shown all the ins-and-outs.

We were under a tight time frame to return home as we needed to pick the kids up from school, so we were given the "quick explanation" on the things that were relatively simple (mainly the microwave, aircon, oven, fridge etc.), but we went through all the safety aspects and external operational things in a bit more detail.
During inspection, when the roof was lowered the metal handle used to raise/lower the roof was just hitting the safety rail of the top bunk, so whilst we were in the accessories shop a tech came in and moved the safety rail across which solved the issue - and is a more practical place for the safety rail anyway IMO.

Once we'd finished going over the van we went into the accessories shop as we had a Hayman Reese WDH on order, which needed fitting. Whilst we were there we also purchased several other items (all of which we'd planned on purchasing before arriving):
- WDH
- Ora Rossa mirrors (which seemed to work quite nicely on the drive home, even when several large, long trucks passed us on the highway)
- Prestige Can Cover
- CGear Multimat (For base of annex - 4.3m x 2.4m)
- Hose pack (fresh & sullage + all relevant connections)
- 15amp power cord (free)
- wheel chocs

The guys then came out and fit both the WDH and the mirrors for us and made sure everything was setup correctly.
Then we went to the office and gave them a small piece of paper with a large amount of money written on it and a handshake later, we were back in our car and heading off - proud owners of our new Expanda!

Driving home was very enjoyable and our Toyota Kluger pulled the Expanda without any worries at all. Didn't really get a sense of the fuel consumption but I am expecting quite some difference between normal driving and towing.

Now we're looking forward to mid September when we take our Expanda away for a long weekend (on my birthday) for it's first outing.

For all who are currently waiting on their van to be ready, I can tell you that all the waiting is most certainly worth it....and all the wonderful advice, tips and bits of information you are picking up during your wait will help you when you collect your van and you will already have a headstart on what you will need to get, what customisations you can make when you take ownership and most of all, a place where you can talk about how you love this large rolling box without someone looking back at you like you're strange! LOL

A big thank you to Bill & Damian from Jayco (Geelong) for your wonderful customer service, tips and advice!

Photos will follow soon...

Dave
 
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Are We There Yet?

New Member
Jun 24, 2011
123
12
0
Vic
Sounds like it all went to plan, do you have a late model Kluger? I recently had to sell my beloved 2005 kluger because it wouldn't tow our new van :(

Looking forward to seeing pics :)
 

Matty4

Well-Known Member
Mar 18, 2011
1,160
1,111
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Wandin North, Vic
Congrats.
I take it that yours isn't doesn't have the outback pack optioned?
What's the ATM on the compliance plate of the non-OB version?
 

Doogle

Member
Mar 18, 2011
76
14
8
Melbourne, Victoria
Thanks everyone.

As promised, I have uploaded a few photos (thought it best to create an album)
http://www.expandasdownunder.com/album.php?albumid=19

We're off on our first trip in a couple of weeks so I will be sure to post up more pics (showing the add-a-room etc.) in due course.

Matty4:
No, it's not the OB version. It's not likely we'll go off-road so the standard road-version suited us fine.
The weights on the compliance plate are:
Tare: 1707kg
GVM: 2033kg
ATM: 2182kg

Dave
 

Matty4

Well-Known Member
Mar 18, 2011
1,160
1,111
113
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Wandin North, Vic
Well done Dave, congrats.
Don't want to sound like a stick in the mud, but just be aware that the braked towing limit for a Kluger is 2000kg's (as I'm sure you are).
If (and here's hoping it never does) something ever happened whilst towing, there is an automatic "out" for your insurance company as the weight of the van exceeded to rated towing capacity of the car.
Tow vehicles must have a rated towing capacity that exceeds the ATM of that being towed.

Cheers,
Matty
 

richard

New Member
Jun 9, 2011
65
8
0
Enjoy the first run with it, I can't wait to get our out rather than having it sit in our driveway.
 

Sinko

Member
Mar 21, 2011
53
4
8
Victoria
Picked up the van today. A couple of issues though! At this stage the dealer and their employees (sales and support staff) have been fantastic and provided a lot of support (at least verbally anyway). The plan is to give it a run for the weekend and then send it back to the factory.

I won't go in to details as yet, except to say I am confident Jayco will rectify our concerns.

Overall the van and it's layout / features are exactly what we want and we are looking forward to the next few days. The only down side is we can't fill / fit the van out as we like as it has to be empty to go back.

Sinko