Hi all,
Absolutely new to caravanning here. My wife and I currently have a soft floor camper and 3 young kids (10, 8 and 5). We are hoping to get out more for short "weekenders" and one-day hope to take a few months off work and travel around AUS - probably heading to the big red rock in the middle.
To that end, it has been decided that we need a little more comfort and ease of use than the Soft floor camper can provide. An indoor loo was a must, along with Heating. A shower was a "I'd really like" and I figured if we are doing this, why not get Aircon while we are at it (didn’t know at that stage they are the same unit – but we may look at a diesel heater down the track if we do AUS off grid).
This got us looking around at 2nd hand vans and we found vans that met our needs to not as common as we hoped (Basically sleeps 5+ with a full ensuite, no converting of tables to get the beds, etc). But they are out there - and they hold their value.
To that end, we went to a Jayco display centre to look at new vans (with a thought of seeing what would be available in a few years "2nd hand" that would suit our needs when we would be ready to buy.)
So - the long and the short of it is I have just placed an order for a new Expanda 20.64.1 OB with a few extra's (I'll start a separate build thread for input). I'm hoping to get it before Christmas as a surprise for the whole family.
Looking forward to all the feedback as I'm guessing, as with any hobby, we have a lot to learn.
Any newbie tips would be most welcome
BTW - maiden trip is already booked for Jan - trying to organise all this is doing my head in ;-S Finding out all sorts of stuff we need such as power leads, hoses, chocks/levellers, etc. The list seems to keep going on……
Absolutely new to caravanning here. My wife and I currently have a soft floor camper and 3 young kids (10, 8 and 5). We are hoping to get out more for short "weekenders" and one-day hope to take a few months off work and travel around AUS - probably heading to the big red rock in the middle.
To that end, it has been decided that we need a little more comfort and ease of use than the Soft floor camper can provide. An indoor loo was a must, along with Heating. A shower was a "I'd really like" and I figured if we are doing this, why not get Aircon while we are at it (didn’t know at that stage they are the same unit – but we may look at a diesel heater down the track if we do AUS off grid).
This got us looking around at 2nd hand vans and we found vans that met our needs to not as common as we hoped (Basically sleeps 5+ with a full ensuite, no converting of tables to get the beds, etc). But they are out there - and they hold their value.
To that end, we went to a Jayco display centre to look at new vans (with a thought of seeing what would be available in a few years "2nd hand" that would suit our needs when we would be ready to buy.)
So - the long and the short of it is I have just placed an order for a new Expanda 20.64.1 OB with a few extra's (I'll start a separate build thread for input). I'm hoping to get it before Christmas as a surprise for the whole family.
Looking forward to all the feedback as I'm guessing, as with any hobby, we have a lot to learn.
Any newbie tips would be most welcome
BTW - maiden trip is already booked for Jan - trying to organise all this is doing my head in ;-S Finding out all sorts of stuff we need such as power leads, hoses, chocks/levellers, etc. The list seems to keep going on……
