Taking your caravan around Australia or doing the âbig lapâ, is a dream many people harbour, but itâs a trip that requires careful planning, a lot of time and a good bit of money. Naturally, central to getting around the place is your accommodation â your caravan or camper trailer. Itâs your place of residence for weeks or months on end, so getting it right is crucial.
There are some obvious features that caravans and camper trailers should have: a sensible layout, good appliances and reliable running gear. But we wanted to speak to people whoâve done the big lap to find out what mattered to them.
Equipment
Jill Malcolm is a New Zealand-based travel writer who has made the trip to Oz a couple of times. Jill and her husband spent four-and-a-half-months touring the country in an 18-foot tandem axle. One of Jillâs recommendations was an outdoor barbecue and kitchen. In addition to enjoying the outdoors as you cook, âit meant the cooking smells were kept outside â thatâs important in the small confines of a caravanâ.
Air conditioning was âabsolutely essentialâ for the Malcolms as they toured the Top End. It meant they couldnât free-camp as much as they needed powered sites for the AC, but the payoff was comfort. Unfortunately, as their AC was rather noisy, they couldnât hear the tropical rains destroying their awning. Some caravans now come with split systems, so the compressor is out of earshot, just like in a home system.
Karin Monk took her husband and two young children on the road in a camper trailer for two months. They relied heavily on their fuel cell to keep their batteries charged when free camping as they sometimes found there wasnât enough sun hitting their solar panels. A 10-litre methanol cassette can last from one to three months under normal conditions.
Andrew Gallop, managing director of Hardings Swift Caravan Services in Kilsyth, Victoria, has taken his family on the big trip. With his expertise in caravan maintenance and servicing, Andrew recommended Independent Rubber Suspension (IRS), which uses the torsional resistance of rubber instead of springs and, with fewer moving parts is, âbetter and far more reliableâ than common types of suspension. Andrew recommended IRS, âespecially for off-roadâ.
For those running leaf springs, Andrew even suggested taking a spare spring in your inventory. Theyâre cheap and donât take up too much space. If you break one on the road you wonât need to wait for a shop to order the part in.
Organisation
For Karin and her family, adequate storage was a big issue. âEveryone got a box each for the clothes and toys.â When looking at new caravans, itâs good to have an idea of how much gear youâll be taking on the road.
Maintenance issues
The folks we talked to didnât have too many major maintenance issues on the road, but they did offer some nice tips. Jill flat-out recommends a tandem axle caravan, not just for its load-carrying capabilities, but when changing a flat she and her husband were able to rely on the tandemâs three good wheels to assist with lifting the flat off the ground and keeping the caravan steady. âIt was so much easier to change the tyre.â
Andrew notes that rot is an issue â even in new caravans â and recommends running silicone along the joins in the wall-cladding even before you detect rot. âItâs always cheaper to seal first than deal with rot later!â Dust ingress through the wall was an issue for the Malcolms â they used duct tape to cover-up gaps, but applying silicone before they noticed the rot, as Andrew recommended, would probably have fixed this issue, too.
Taking a partner or a whole family around the worldâs largest island (all right, technically weâre a continent) is no small feat. Caravanning around Australia requires preparation, the right frame of mind and, most importantly, a caravan or camper trailer that will serve as a solid base for your adventure.
Nowâs probably a good time to look at the best car to tow it with.