Hi all, last year I had the pleasure of being helped by different members of this forum on our first van adventure. Long story short we ended up buying a Bailey Gemini Rangefinder van so that it could be towed legally by our BMW X5 - we did not wanted to get an extra tow vehicle - and this is our experience.
We had a ball ! We choose an easy route - Melbourne - Lakes Entrance - Cooma - Camberra - Sydney than back on the coast (Merimbula, Eden) to Melbourne. We stayed in caravan parks (powered sites), we spent around 14 days around.
Our X5 while just "fitting in" in the various axle weight, towball weight etc calculations still has only 250 HP. We could tow easily 90 kmh, when we had to go uphill I choose to slow down to 60 something so not to overload engine and trasmission, using the fuel consumption gauge as an indicator (if it was over 20lt/km I slowed down a bit). I found the van very easy to tow, we never had issues like swaying. The elecbrake thing took some time to really understand, it brakes very aggressively when not tuned, turned out only recent good phones work with it but ok. I think fuel consumption went up to 13l/100km compared to the usual 9l/100km.
Reversing went as you can imagine with me trying to reverse and 2 kids + 1 wife all giving different suggestions but it was ok we just could not shine with a perfect reverse first time. We also had to back off from some beach carpark where we should not have gone but you learn from it and we did not destroy anything.
Accomodation in the Gemini vastly exceeded our expectation for standard and comfort, the "kids" which are over 18 years found the sleeping bunks "a bit small" but its complaining at high level here. The van has a sliding door between the bunks/toilet area and the main area and this was great, they could keep watching videos and have the lights on while we where sleeping. The van is pretty well insulated, we used the aircon I think only once when it was boiling, just leaving the big window open would usually be enough to feel comfy.
Toilet - the trolley thing worked well, specially if you do it every 2nd day at most. When it was trolley time everyone bailed out so it was down on me... the shower was also a hit, I did not know that powered site included water and grey water discharge point, we could use the kitchen and shower like at home, the washing machine in the van turned out to be very useful (even if it uses a lot of water).
So all in all a fantastic experience, things I would do better is maybe a better sliding door for the toilet (one that does not look that flimsy) but that is just all. Next trip we will have more time (kids going to uni finally) and we want to go Melbourne - WA (Margaret River) and back - and take it more slowly.
Thank you all again for your help, we would be stuck with either a 3.5 ton van we could not tow or a purchase of another car just for towing. I also never saw another BMW towing, tons of Toyota, some Volkswagen and Nissan. We sticked a bit out of the crowd, some others camper commented "some people just like it stylish" - not sure if this was positive or negative but thats how it is !
Takes me back some 25 years to our first adventure.
BushLights said
03:10 PM Feb 24, 2025
Yes the brake controller does require some tunning - I turned it down a setting or two in town as it was too aggresive and then back to "normal" at open road speeds.
Radar said
08:59 PM Feb 24, 2025
What an interesting post. First caravan tour.
Very good read and also reminds us of our first late in life caravan tour.
Maybe I should divulge our first short tour and then the first 3 weekend trips. It would fill a book.
Hi all, last year I had the pleasure of being helped by different members of this forum on our first van adventure. Long story short we ended up buying a Bailey Gemini Rangefinder van so that it could be towed legally by our BMW X5 - we did not wanted to get an extra tow vehicle - and this is our experience.
We had a ball ! We choose an easy route - Melbourne - Lakes Entrance - Cooma - Camberra - Sydney than back on the coast (Merimbula, Eden) to Melbourne. We stayed in caravan parks (powered sites), we spent around 14 days around.
Our X5 while just "fitting in" in the various axle weight, towball weight etc calculations still has only 250 HP. We could tow easily 90 kmh, when we had to go uphill I choose to slow down to 60 something so not to overload engine and trasmission, using the fuel consumption gauge as an indicator (if it was over 20lt/km I slowed down a bit). I found the van very easy to tow, we never had issues like swaying. The elecbrake thing took some time to really understand, it brakes very aggressively when not tuned, turned out only recent good phones work with it but ok. I think fuel consumption went up to 13l/100km compared to the usual 9l/100km.
Reversing went as you can imagine with me trying to reverse and 2 kids + 1 wife all giving different suggestions but it was ok we just could not shine with a perfect reverse first time. We also had to back off from some beach carpark where we should not have gone but you learn from it and we did not destroy anything.
Accomodation in the Gemini vastly exceeded our expectation for standard and comfort, the "kids" which are over 18 years found the sleeping bunks "a bit small" but its complaining at high level here. The van has a sliding door between the bunks/toilet area and the main area and this was great, they could keep watching videos and have the lights on while we where sleeping. The van is pretty well insulated, we used the aircon I think only once when it was boiling, just leaving the big window open would usually be enough to feel comfy.
Toilet - the trolley thing worked well, specially if you do it every 2nd day at most. When it was trolley time everyone bailed out so it was down on me... the shower was also a hit, I did not know that powered site included water and grey water discharge point, we could use the kitchen and shower like at home, the washing machine in the van turned out to be very useful (even if it uses a lot of water).
So all in all a fantastic experience, things I would do better is maybe a better sliding door for the toilet (one that does not look that flimsy) but that is just all. Next trip we will have more time (kids going to uni finally) and we want to go Melbourne - WA (Margaret River) and back - and take it more slowly.
Thank you all again for your help, we would be stuck with either a 3.5 ton van we could not tow or a purchase of another car just for towing. I also never saw another BMW towing, tons of Toyota, some Volkswagen and Nissan. We sticked a bit out of the crowd, some others camper commented "some people just like it stylish" - not sure if this was positive or negative but thats how it is !
Bonus "on the road" pics attached !
Thanks for sharing.
Takes me back some 25 years to our first adventure.
Yes the brake controller does require some tunning - I turned it down a setting or two in town as it was too aggresive and then back to "normal" at open road speeds.
What an interesting post. First caravan tour.
Very good read and also reminds us of our first late in life caravan tour.
Maybe I should divulge our first short tour and then the first 3 weekend trips. It would fill a book.