New caravan!

A new caravan and car!   Plus a quick trip away to try the rig.   And plenty of challenges!

 My reply to Walter's 'I am getting too old for this' was 'problem solving keeps us young!'

That was at the end of three days at Port Elliot.   

We have now recovered, and ready for our next trip.

But back to the beginning.

In January, we decided, on the spur of the moment, to trade in our small pop top caravan for a larger caravan, with one crucial element, a bathroom with a toilet.    The living simply with a small caravan and a portaloo had lost its appeal.

We went to Noel's Caravans, a reliable local caravan dealer, and traded in our Island Star for a 2008 Roadstar, which had a bathroom, a lift out bed at the back, plenty of seating which was a definite plus, and luxuries such as an air conditioner, hot water system, battery, and pump.   

Of course, a larger and heavier van meant a more powerful vehicle with which to town it.   Always the way!    We now have a Korean vehicle, a 4 wheel drive, and many other features to keep our brains active.   It is a new SsangYong Rexton SUV.   It also has a body on frame chassis, so great for the rough roads. So far we are most impressed with it, very easy to drive, comfortable and tows our new caravan like a dream.

Interestingly we paid a lot more for this caravan than we paid for our 2008 English caravan, in the UK, way back in 2014.   But caravans hold their value here.  

Anyway our new Roadstar caravan has come with its challenges, no doubt about that, but  purchasing it from a reliable dealer, with a very good reputation certainly makes a difference.

First off, we found very quickly that we could not lift the pop top roof easily!  No muscle strength anymore? Also there was an air conditioner on the roof, and the struts were broken.   The struts were replaced but the roof was still too heavy for us.  

We now have air lifters, which are installed in the four corners of the roof, and are operated by a small compressor installed in the caravan.   A bit costly but so good.

And you might say, it would have been easier to buy a normal caravan, but the pop top is definitely easy to tow.   Lower profile.

As the caravan is fifteen years old, things have worn out, and Noel's Caravans did not pick them up before we collected the caravan.   Even though they assured us that all would be in good order!  However it is still under guarantee so they refunded the money we spent or organised new replacement parts.  

We have a new battery and battery charger, new struts on the roof, and a new hot water service on order, to be fitted when we return from our next trip.   

The bed extension at the back is fantastic, so easy to assemble, ie, raise the back, pull down the bed, pull out the window, and sides.   Takes only a few minutes to assemble. 

The back view.

Piper is allowed to sleep here during the day.   Lucky Piper.   

A view of the inside of the van, with the back up, and the sides and back window folded in. We chose the fold out bed, because it gave us a roomy lounge area.   A large proportion of caravans here have beds set up in the caravan and a small seating area, as people mostly sit outside I think.

The lounge at the front of the caravan with the bathroom beside it.

We had planned a short trip first, in order to sort out any more problems with the van, which was just as well.    When I attached the caravan hose to the tap and turned on the water it came out of the hot water system, in all directions.   The pipe work had rusted through and the strength of the water coming through finished it off.   The water went into the cupboard beside it, which was full of toilet paper and paper towels.  Luckily.  We ended up with massive rolls of tissue and paper towels, sodden, but it stopped the water from travelling through the van.

We had left our water container at home (not travelling outback) but luckily we had a watering can so could fill it with water to use in the van.

We were unused to the van, and the bed, and how everything worked, so the first night was uncomfortable.  And we did not sleep well. It rained, and we noticed there was a leak in one of the roof joins.   The caravan was on sand, which found itself inside the van despite two Muk Mats.   I guess we should have been thankful it was not red or white outback soil!   

We missed out simple old pop top caravan.

But we had an inside toilet.   

The sun came out, and we decided it was time to chill, and relax.    Piper loved the long walks.

We visited the Murray River mouth, which looked wonderful after the flood waters had flowed through and opened it up.

A quick call to Noel's Caravans on Monday morning, and Walter kept his cool.   They were very apologetic and insisted we drive to them on the way home, a round trip through the city, approximately 170 km.   

More apologies, plenty of silicone on the roof join, and the hot water system isolated until the replacement system is installed.

Then lunch at Hungry Jacks, which was quite delicious surprisingly.

Plus I need to mention the stop at a caravan shop on the way home, in order to purchase a new jockey wheel.   Not the caravan dealers' fault this time.   When we took the caravan out to have new tyres put on we forgot to take the jockey wheel off and the wheel scraped along the road and damaged the winding mechanism.   

So we are off to Burra, Broken Hill, perhaps north to Tibooburra, then south to Menindee Lakes and Mildura.   Not a long trip, I know, but it will be great to get away.

There will be more problem solving, but we think we are familiar enough with the new vehicle and van now, to give it a go.

Happy travels.