Looking to buy new Jayco Starcraft Outback

[yabbietol]

Hello
We are about to buy a new caravan, we recently did a 6 week trip to South Western WA in our Avan Cruisliner. On our return from the trip we decided to sell our Avan and buy a bigger van. We really liked our Avan, which was our first van and we had for 3 years. We are sorry that we sold it and miss it, but we want to do more travel and longer trips. So hence the need for the new van.

We sold the Avan on the Avan Club Web site which was fantastic. Here are a couple of pics of our now sold van.
This is on our recent WA trip on the Nullarbor (NW Pajero)

This is on a trip to Kangaroo valley a couple of years ago (NP Pajero)

As you can see from the above pics our tow vehicle is a Pajero. We sold our NP Pajero last year and now have a 2013 NW Pajero. We really liked the old Pajero and just decided it was time to get get a new one and are very happy with the NW. We are looking for our new van to be about 2 ton unloaded and 2.5 ton loaded.

We are looking at the Jayco 18.55.3 Starcraft Outback we like the dual axel and toilet with separate shower. There is only two of us and the layout looks like it would suit. The Avan was a lot smaller and not having a toilet while crossing the Nullarbor was a real pain (even eye watering at time). We have looked at single axel 16.51.3 (Starcraft) and the 17.55.8 (Journey) pop top and like them both, but are leaning to the 18.55.3.

Looking forward to getting lots of good advice from this forum.

Regards
Yabbietol (Terry)

 

[relgate]

Welcome @yabbietol
Interesting story. I will be watching to see what you decide. They are all good vans.
Why the switch from Avan to Jayco? Do they not make a model that suits?

 

[Stan53]

G'day Terry and welcome. Yes, I also like yhe Avan when I saw it. Hope you find what you want. There are so many different Jayco vans to choose from.

 

[yabbietol]

Thanks for the welcome.

We really liked our Avan, but with a bit of looking around for what we want, the size and value for money seems to be in the Jayco Outback range. We want to travel a bit more and on our last trip to WA spoke to a lot of people about their vans. There are certainly other interesting vans, but many seem very large, very heavy and are too expensive for our budget. We have looked at a few including Avan, Evolution, Coromal, Royal Flair all who make interesting vans. However, we now seem to be focusing on the smaller dual axel Jayco outbacks.

Tomorrow we are off to the Caravan Show at Penrith and will be talking to Jayco at the show and having a good look around. We will see what sort of show specials are there.

 

[relgate]

Personally I have been very happy with Jayco and reckon they are great value for money.

 

[yabbietol]

Done it now, just got back from Penrith show and bought Jayco Starcraft Outback 18.55.3.
Expected delivery mid December one of the last of the 2014 Jaycos.
It is coming with
- Picnic Table
- Stone guard (dealer supplied)
- Washing Machine
- Door hatch - on bed
- Coast Control Panel
- Tri-Fold table
- Additional 100AH Battery (as it is outback that will give us 200AH of storage). I will later fit Anderson plug and use some portable folding solar panels for extra solar input ( I used folding panels on our Avan and liked the system)
Very happy with price - a bit less than quote from same dealer due to show special price.
I think it might be worth going to the show to get a better deal.
Now the wait starts.

 

[relgate]

You didnt muck around!

 

[DRW]

hahaha love an instand decision @yabbietol and personally I think you have made a good choice, we have been quietly sniffing around different vans also and I have decided we either keep our current van, build one ourselves or buy another Jayco product. Enjoy tioye christmas pressie when it arrives

 

[yabbietol]

Thanks, have been thinking for a while initially went to local Jayco dealer before we had sold our Avan. He lowballed us on the trade in he offered, after much haggling 19K, which was really low. We advertised it on the fantastic Avan Club website for 26K and sold it to a really nice couple for $25K. We were happy and so were they, the local dealer lost out, if he had made a better offer he may still have made a profit and a sale.
So now been cash buyers we rethought our search, based on what we saw and learnt on our WA trip.
People are great you just go up to them in a CP and even in roadside lunch stops and they will tell you all about their van.
We meet a really nice couple at Wave Rock (nice place, but not a great CP we wrote a review on Badgers web site, we rated it 1 out of 5). They had an Jayco Outback Journey pop top which they showed us all over told us about their van problems (very minor) and what they liked this was very typical of most van owners we spoke to, so Jayco climbed to the top of our list. We then looked at other makes and visited a couple of people we knew with other makes of vans.

We went to Sydney Jayco in July, now down to dual axel with a couple of options Outback either pop top or Starcraft solid sided. The dealer was great gave us a good price on the Starcraft 18.55.3, but due to some other issues (medical and getting approval for garage to be built) it all went on hold for a couple of months. We were thinking of going back to dealer to negotiate some more and then realised the Penrith show was coming up so off we went, all cashed up and keen to get a new van.
So even if it looked like a quick decision, we were mucking around for some time getting our ducks (and money) in a row.
Planning a big trip Autumn next year probably Qld and a few shorter trips December to February to sort out the van and tow.

 

[17triton]

Welcome @yabbietol to the forum and remember to show us pics of the new baby when you get ithoto:!

 

[DRW]

fairly popular layout by all reports, I just don't know if I could do without the extra room we have in the expanda, guess time will tell as thats the layout that would best suit us as well.

 

[yabbietol]

I am sorry I just deleted my post of Jayco plan for 18.55.3 because I just realised it is copyrighted.

Sorry for any confusion.

 

[yabbietol]

fairly popular layout by all reports, I just don't know if I could do without the extra room we have in the expanda, guess time will tell as thats the layout that would best suit us as well.

Sorry I just deleted the plan as it is copyrighted.

 

[Griffo]

TOL
Heading North early Nov, Diamond Head, Trail Bay Iluka, Diamond Head might see you on the road.

 

[yabbietol]

TOL
Heading North early Nov, Diamond Head, Trail Bay Iluka, Diamond Head might see you on the road.

Have a good trip Brad.

How long will you be away, escaping the the fire season.

We plan to be going west from Sydney for a few days in December when get the new van and then back home for Xmas. Other trips are still in planning stage.

 

[Griffo]

Only 3 weeks but dependant upon whats happening around and about. Based on last nights info the season may be late around here and later on the coast.

 

[Bushman]

:welcome:

 

[Kiel]

Hi Terry
I see at the bottom of your post that you couldn't tow the Starcraft 18.55-3 with your Pajero. May i ask what the tare weight was going to come in at and what extras you ordered on it. Thinking of buying one of these this year but not sure if i will get it in under the 2.5 tonne for the Hilux. The Jayco website says it is 2043 Kg but i have my doubts.
Regards Kiel.

 

[yabbietol]

Hi Terry
I see at the bottom of your post that you couldn't tow the Starcraft 18.55-3 with your Pajero. May i ask what the tare weight was going to come in at and what extras you ordered on it. Thinking of buying one of these this year but not sure if i will get it in under the 2.5 tonne for the Hilux. The Jayco website says it is 2043 Kg but i have my doubts.
Regards Kiel.

The Starcraft Outback 18.55-3 is what we had ordered it came with a ball weight of 263Kg which means it cannot be towed with a Pajero (or Prado); Jayco advised us the ball weight would be 175kg. We ordered the van and waited 4 months and when it arrived on the 20th of December we fortunately checked the compliance plate before taking it.

So we then considered the single axel 16ft Starcraft Outback with the same layout, which also had so issues. We were concerned in particular with the load rating of the tyres and 15" wheels that Jayco fits on a single axel van. The tyres and wheels are Ok on a 4 wheel caravan like the 18.55-3, but are really at their load limits on the 16ft Outback Starcraft. Jayco also seemed to be reluctant to fit 16" wheels with higher load rated tyres.

Have a look at the compliance plate thread on this forum, where I posted a picture of the compliance plate form the 18.55-3. We did some research and it appears the touring version seems to comes out close to the figures on the Jayco web site and brochure, but the outback ball weight is way too high. One good theory is the the JTEC suspension changes the dynamics of the 18.55-3 in the Outback version and moves the centre of gravity compared to the touring version, which has standard suspension.

The only weight significant options we put in our 18.55-3 were an extra battery (30kg) in front of the axels and a washing machine (40kg) well rear of the axels. These two options should have balanced each other out when measuring ball weight. The 18.55-3 delivered ATM was over 2500kg so the ball weight became critical as the Pajero can tow up to 3t, but needs to have a ball weight of <180kgs.

So in summary, do not trust the advertised weights of Jayco caravans, we did consider buying a van off the lot so we could check the compliance plate, but finding the right van on the lot is very hard. Note, ball weight is also very important.

So we have moved on to the Kedron.

 

[Kiel]

Cheers for the quick response. I will be making sure jayco give me the right specs before i purchase, it's looking like the 18.55-3 is not going to be an option now.