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
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