Hello All
I've been a lurker here for a month or two and have finally decided to take the leap and sign up. Actually I have enjoyed the info I've found here but missed having no search function so a sign up was the only option:redface-50:.
I have never had a van or even an interest in vans until a few months ago when she who must be obeyed started dropping hints about how much happier she would be with one:hug:. Actually her hints were pointed and she had, unbeknownst to me, been conniving with her mother and was about to buy one on the sly when I found out
. Well it was an interesting day or two to say the least but I finally managed to convince them that buying a van on a spur of the moment feeling wasn't overly wise and they seemed happy once I agreed that I would consider it seriously.
So since then (must have been November last year) we have been looking and thinking it over and I have gradually come around to the idea. My wife and I have two kiddies one is nearly 5 (girl) and the other is 3 (boy) so I started out looking at standard vans but never did find one I was totally happy with, it was a juggle between what we need now and what we will need in say ten years time. For us a van would only be a benefit if we can free camp and as such a toilet and shower would be nice, of course there are out of van options for that but we I mean I am lazy and for a quick weekend away I don't want to have to be setting too much stuff up before I can put my feet up. So that limited us to looking at bunk vans with a toilet and shower, now while I found a lot of lovely examples I was still having reservations and didn't feel 100% comfortable with any of them.
Then I happened across a toyhauler, and that was the moment I lost all reservations and new that one of those would be perfect. I am a farmer and my wife comes from a family of graziers and we often visit them (700ish Ks away) to help out with mustering and other stock work so we are allways carting bikes too and fro and on top of that I'm also a keen fisherman so even though I can't tow our boat with the van a toyhauler gives us the option of canoes surfboards etc (not to mention a JetSki
)
So it was only a matter of time before I started to look at the basestations and I was totally sold, wifey was very happy with the way I was thinking and even started getting excited about all the extra things we could do with a basestation compared to a "normal" bunk van. We looked at adds for secondhand basestations but wifey wanted an oven and finding secondhand ones with an oven was hard. So after a month or so we happened to be driving past jayco Newcastle so called in to see if they had one there we could look at. Well that was a bit of a mistake, up till then we had been looking at 21footers but as they had a 21 and a 23 there wifey put her foot down (again
and said she loved the slide out and didn't think she would be happy climbing over a table to get to the bed:doh:.
So we got a couple of quotes to bring home and think over and after a couple of weeks we finally put down our order for a 23.73-6 OB
which is due sometime in April.
It is a big jump from not being interested in vans to jumping straight into a basestation but we are fairly excited and hope to get a lot of years out of it (actually according to my calculations it will pay itself off after the first 125 years!).
Anyway this has turned out to be a relatively long post from a shy lurker so I should stop rambling and get back to work, actually I mean get back to lunch, it is hard eating and typing at the same time.
Looking forward to learning a lot more from all of you!
Cheers Sam
I've been a lurker here for a month or two and have finally decided to take the leap and sign up. Actually I have enjoyed the info I've found here but missed having no search function so a sign up was the only option:redface-50:.
I have never had a van or even an interest in vans until a few months ago when she who must be obeyed started dropping hints about how much happier she would be with one:hug:. Actually her hints were pointed and she had, unbeknownst to me, been conniving with her mother and was about to buy one on the sly when I found out
. Well it was an interesting day or two to say the least but I finally managed to convince them that buying a van on a spur of the moment feeling wasn't overly wise and they seemed happy once I agreed that I would consider it seriously.So since then (must have been November last year) we have been looking and thinking it over and I have gradually come around to the idea. My wife and I have two kiddies one is nearly 5 (girl) and the other is 3 (boy) so I started out looking at standard vans but never did find one I was totally happy with, it was a juggle between what we need now and what we will need in say ten years time. For us a van would only be a benefit if we can free camp and as such a toilet and shower would be nice, of course there are out of van options for that but we I mean I am lazy and for a quick weekend away I don't want to have to be setting too much stuff up before I can put my feet up. So that limited us to looking at bunk vans with a toilet and shower, now while I found a lot of lovely examples I was still having reservations and didn't feel 100% comfortable with any of them.
Then I happened across a toyhauler, and that was the moment I lost all reservations and new that one of those would be perfect. I am a farmer and my wife comes from a family of graziers and we often visit them (700ish Ks away) to help out with mustering and other stock work so we are allways carting bikes too and fro and on top of that I'm also a keen fisherman so even though I can't tow our boat with the van a toyhauler gives us the option of canoes surfboards etc (not to mention a JetSki
)So it was only a matter of time before I started to look at the basestations and I was totally sold, wifey was very happy with the way I was thinking and even started getting excited about all the extra things we could do with a basestation compared to a "normal" bunk van. We looked at adds for secondhand basestations but wifey wanted an oven and finding secondhand ones with an oven was hard. So after a month or so we happened to be driving past jayco Newcastle so called in to see if they had one there we could look at. Well that was a bit of a mistake, up till then we had been looking at 21footers but as they had a 21 and a 23 there wifey put her foot down (again
and said she loved the slide out and didn't think she would be happy climbing over a table to get to the bed:doh:.So we got a couple of quotes to bring home and think over and after a couple of weeks we finally put down our order for a 23.73-6 OB
which is due sometime in April.It is a big jump from not being interested in vans to jumping straight into a basestation but we are fairly excited and hope to get a lot of years out of it (actually according to my calculations it will pay itself off after the first 125 years!).
Anyway this has turned out to be a relatively long post from a shy lurker so I should stop rambling and get back to work, actually I mean get back to lunch, it is hard eating and typing at the same time.
Looking forward to learning a lot more from all of you!
Cheers Sam
