Hi all,
We picked up our new 16.49.3 touring Expanda from Caravanland in Perth last week and had our first test run down to Koombana Bay Holiday Park in Bunbury over last weekend.
The options we included was
- external shower
- bed converter
- shelves for robe
- 100 ah battery
- control panel
- privacy screens
- annexe
The handover went smoothly except for installing the electronic brakes into our Jeep JC. Ours is the MY2014 model and i don't think they had done any before because the controller had trouble talking to the car and after about 3 hours they gave up and I had to come back the next day to take the car to the auto electricians across the road to get sorted. No big deal as all is working well now, but was a bit disappointing to have to leave empty handed the first day.
Anyway we got the van home on Tuesday morning and I had to go back to work for the rest of the day as well as all day Wednesday, so we didn't get much of a chance for a practice before leaving Thursday for the test run.
We didn't use a WDH, just the standard Jeep hitch and when we hooked the van up the car barely moved so it was recommended to go without the WDH and see how the van tows and put one on later if needed. The Van towed beautifully, hardly noticed it there. As it was the first run towing in the car I kept the speed to between 80 and 85 km/h as recommended by Jeep (for the first 800kms) and returned 10.2 litres/100km on the way down and 9.8 on the way back (according to the trip meter). Used less than half the tank for about 330kms towing and 130kms unhitched highway driving.
This is our first van (although I had caravan holidays as a kid and we have stayed at caravan parks in cabins before) and we (wife & 2 kids boy 10 and girl 7) loved it. For the 4 days we were out there seemed to be heaps of room, we even had a few cupboards empty and the shower and toilet were great for the night time visits. I was pleasantly surprised how good the water pressure and temperature of the hot water was.
Only a couple of things didn't go as well. The awning was quite noisy in the wind the first night, but for the remainder of the trip I put it down before going to bed and this made a big difference. I didn't realise you needed an adapter for the waste pipes, until I tried to attach the hose and it didn't fit. Have since spoken to the dealer and he will give me one, but mean't I had to make frequent trips with the bucket. The final one was the reversing into the site. Due to work commitments I couldn't get the van until a couple of days before going on the test run, so didn't have any chance to practice before hand. One of the guys at a nearby site helped me out and we got the expanda in the right place. I guess I'll be down the shopping centre car park next weekend practicing.
All in all has been great fun and an excellent experience. Can't wait until the next trip.
Here are some pics.
Cheers
Patto.
We picked up our new 16.49.3 touring Expanda from Caravanland in Perth last week and had our first test run down to Koombana Bay Holiday Park in Bunbury over last weekend.
The options we included was
- external shower
- bed converter
- shelves for robe
- 100 ah battery
- control panel
- privacy screens
- annexe
The handover went smoothly except for installing the electronic brakes into our Jeep JC. Ours is the MY2014 model and i don't think they had done any before because the controller had trouble talking to the car and after about 3 hours they gave up and I had to come back the next day to take the car to the auto electricians across the road to get sorted. No big deal as all is working well now, but was a bit disappointing to have to leave empty handed the first day.
Anyway we got the van home on Tuesday morning and I had to go back to work for the rest of the day as well as all day Wednesday, so we didn't get much of a chance for a practice before leaving Thursday for the test run.
We didn't use a WDH, just the standard Jeep hitch and when we hooked the van up the car barely moved so it was recommended to go without the WDH and see how the van tows and put one on later if needed. The Van towed beautifully, hardly noticed it there. As it was the first run towing in the car I kept the speed to between 80 and 85 km/h as recommended by Jeep (for the first 800kms) and returned 10.2 litres/100km on the way down and 9.8 on the way back (according to the trip meter). Used less than half the tank for about 330kms towing and 130kms unhitched highway driving.
This is our first van (although I had caravan holidays as a kid and we have stayed at caravan parks in cabins before) and we (wife & 2 kids boy 10 and girl 7) loved it. For the 4 days we were out there seemed to be heaps of room, we even had a few cupboards empty and the shower and toilet were great for the night time visits. I was pleasantly surprised how good the water pressure and temperature of the hot water was.
Only a couple of things didn't go as well. The awning was quite noisy in the wind the first night, but for the remainder of the trip I put it down before going to bed and this made a big difference. I didn't realise you needed an adapter for the waste pipes, until I tried to attach the hose and it didn't fit. Have since spoken to the dealer and he will give me one, but mean't I had to make frequent trips with the bucket. The final one was the reversing into the site. Due to work commitments I couldn't get the van until a couple of days before going on the test run, so didn't have any chance to practice before hand. One of the guys at a nearby site helped me out and we got the expanda in the right place. I guess I'll be down the shopping centre car park next weekend practicing.
All in all has been great fun and an excellent experience. Can't wait until the next trip.
Here are some pics.
Cheers
Patto.
