Challenging times for a new van owner

Curryhouse

Active Member
Apr 8, 2012
179
195
43
Newcastle
During our recent trip to Seal Rocks, I watched with interest an admitted newcomer to the caravaning world get himself into a real pickle. The couple arrived with a bright and shiny new Lotus van. It was dual axle and I'm guessing about 20ft. Tow vehicle was a new twin cab ute (not sure the make). On arrival adjacent to his site, he did a recce of the area and how best to locate his van. Couldn't drive through, had a van on either side and on the road there were two large marker posts (diameter of a power pole). Being late afternoon on a dreary overcast day and close enough to happy hour, myself and several others pulled up a comfortable chair, grabbed a cold beverage and sat back to watch the action. As you may expect there was plenty of advice from the peanut gallery, some constructive, majority though was typical Aussie humour. Not what you need when you are attempting your first back-in of a van. Things took an interesting turn when the newbie unhooked his tug and pulled out a remote control from the boot of the van - the van was fitted with a motorised self mover on the dual wheels. Hadn't seen one close up before so was very interested. He started moving the van backwards along the dirt road opposite his site, stopped, then started moving the van, drawer bar first, into the site. Seemed odd especially when there was a van on the site in front. With plenty of encouragement and a few questioning looks, the van was parked on the site. Next he parked his tug beside the van but space was so tight that they could not roll out there awning. Overnight, there was fairly constant rain. You can probably guess the sites were a bit soft in the morning. Check out time is 10am. Around 9am, the guy was trying to reverse his van out using the mover. When I left, his jockey wheel was not visible above the mud. And there wasn't enough room for him to get his tug in front of the van to hook up. I expect he finally got it sorted but somehow I don't think he made the 10am checkout.

Maybe a moral or two in the above story about the size of your van and site selection for your first caravan trip. Makes me really appreciate having the small 'Panda......
 
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LUK77Y

Active Member
Dec 22, 2012
125
40
28
Central Coast - NSW
How did you rate Seal Rocks? We've been thinking about a stay at Seal for a while. But having kids, we keep ending up in the Big4s for the facilities.
 

Curryhouse

Active Member
Apr 8, 2012
179
195
43
Newcastle
Probably a bit dependent on the age of your kids and their interests. There is no playground or pool in the park which was a real plus for us being empty nesters wanting to get away from the Big4 type parks. The roads in the park are not sealed so bike riding or skate boarding is not really an option. If your kids enjoy the beach which is only a very short walk from the park, fishing, poking around rock pools or learning to surf or body boarding (small waves all the time while I was there) then I'd recommend a stay. Foster/Tuncurry is 30 mins away and provides plenty of options for entertaining the kids if the weather is poor or they get bored.
 

Bushman

Forum Moderator
Staff member
Nov 9, 2010
3,060
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Wollondilly Shire NSW
During our recent trip to Seal Rocks, I watched with interest an admitted newcomer to the caravaning world get himself into a real pickle. The couple arrived with a bright and shiny new Lotus van. It was dual axle and I'm guessing about 20ft. Tow vehicle was a new twin cab ute (not sure the make). On arrival adjacent to his site, he did a recce of the area and how best to locate his van. Couldn't drive through, had a van on either side and on the road there were two large marker posts (diameter of a power pole). Being late afternoon on a dreary overcast day and close enough to happy hour, myself and several others pulled up a comfortable chair, grabbed a cold beverage and sat back to watch the action. As you may expect there was plenty of advice from the peanut gallery, some constructive, majority though was typical Aussie humour. Not what you need when you are attempting your first back-in of a van. Things took an interesting turn when the newbie unhooked his tug and pulled out a remote control from the boot of the van - the van was fitted with a motorised self mover on the dual wheels. Hadn't seen one close up before so was very interested. He started moving the van backwards along the dirt road opposite his site, stopped, then started moving the van, drawer bar first, into the site. Seemed odd especially when there was a van on the site in front. With plenty of encouragement and a few questioning looks, the van was parked on the site. Next he parked his tug beside the van but space was so tight that they could not roll out there awning. Overnight, there was fairly constant rain. You can probably guess the sites were a bit soft in the morning. Check out time is 10am. Around 9am, the guy was trying to reverse his van out using the mover. When I left, his jockey wheel was not visible above the mud. And there wasn't enough room for him to get his tug in front of the van to hook up. I expect he finally got it sorted but somehow I don't think he made the 10am checkout.

Maybe a moral or two in the above story about the size of your van and site selection for your first caravan trip. Makes me really appreciate having the small 'Panda......

There comes back to the old saying "Arrive early and watch the entertainment NOT be the entertainment.:D

Why would you want to put the van in the wrong way round when there's no access from the other side, a lot of parks don't allow it due to council regs/emergency evacuations etc.
 
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macca

(aka maccayak)
Mar 20, 2012
1,660
832
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Victoria
Well I felt sorry for this guy yesterday. For anyone who has not been to the Caulfield racecourse caravan show, you drive through quite a long tunnel under the track to get to the centre of the track for parking. Those things hanging from the roof of the tunnel are massive extraction fans. I said to my wife driving in, "remember last year a motor home got jammed under one!" Anyway driving out this afternoon we saw this unfortunate guy, he had cleaned the top off his motorhome. My wife took the photo as I was driving as Police were in attendance. I suppose lesson is make sure you know the height of your van and look up.
IMG_3337.JPG
 

gwadir

Well-Known Member
Feb 2, 2013
626
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Albion Park, NSW
Don't they have advisory signs at the entrances, in saying that there's none at the Daintree River Ferry ticket office, so many vans have hit the protective pole there it's not funny.

Dave