We had a Trakmaster Nulabor for 12yrs(2003 model), my brother had 2 before ordering a new one, we cannot speak highly enough of the brand and the service Trakmaster offer, and NO we have no association at all with the company.
In our travels over the years, on and offroad, we have spoken to dozen of owners and I can honestly say any negative comments are few and far between.
I am in the process of selecting a new van, unfortunetly a new Trakmaster is out of our price range, they are expensive, this is probably the only negative side, but they are a quality offroad van.
TRakmasters are regarded as the cream of the off road crop of RVs and build like the legendary out-house. As Wendy said above they do hold their re-sale, but can be hard to actually find a buyer for as so many van buyers can pick up a brand new 'van with lots of fizzy features (but nowhere near the quality) features.
You do need to watch rust on the metal parts (including the galv'd frame) if you will spend a lot of time near the sea. I looked at buying one about two years ago and all the exposed metal had surface rust which needed work on. That's no different to any other vehicle near the sea - if you don't wash them off properly on a regular basis (including the chassis and all the hard to get at areas), rust will penetrate - even through galv
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Cheers Bruce
The amazing things you see when nomading Australia
Trackmaster and Phoenix. (The top of the pile). are near on a par.
Only problem I found with mate's Trackie was the low sloping roof down to bed. You can't stand up at that end of van. Phoenix, not so much.
Second hand though, they are affordable. Phoenix more than Trackie's as Barry built more.
Bruce. 85% of our roads and viewable spots are on the coast. All normal chassis go rusty. Only aluminium ones are immune to that.
I went the double rail 4in for that reason. Strength. flexibility and rust resistance more than single rail. double 6in were too stiff.
Best thing to do with your vans is paint the complete underneath. Timber flooring and chassis rails. with either Mastic tar paint they put under wheel arches. or Vinyl Tar paint we but on underwater parts of steel boats.
Caravan. both boat trlrs, even the galv 6x4. (We live on coast in sub tropics). Even the tools IN garage IN house go rusty round here. I pressure blast my Tandem Simplicity Susp on all the vans EVERY 3rd yr and resprayed them with mastic, time came round again. They needed doing again.
-- Edited by macka17 on Monday 4th of July 2016 09:44:39 PM
The Driver painted one of those tar paints (not sure which one) all over the underneath of the van - floor etc - and did the A frame etc as well. He did it for prevention of rust within a couple of years of buying the van - before there was any rust. Every few years he would re-do it. Gave us peace of mind.
Don't want to rain on yer parades but DO NOT paint galvanised steel.
The galvanised coating needs to react with the conditions of it's surrounds to remain protective. Sure after many years it will eventually break down, but painting it will rapidly erode the process.
Our frame was not galvanized. If you do decide to go the Trakmaster route, would be worth contacting the company and discussing galvanized with them - are some good reasons not to go with that.
