We have just sold our Windsor Rapid and are looking to purchase something a bit bigger to travel around Australia. We have been told that anything above 22ft is too big as most caravan sites wont have big enough sites. Can any one advice me otherwise? We have seen a 25ft Caravan that we really like but are wondering if it will be too big. Would be grateful of any advise. TIA
We settled on a 20' van with ensuite, certainly big enough for a couple and we went with recliners which adds a fair bit of versatility to the available area.
A big van has its challenges to tow around so I reckon the smallest van to suit your needs comfortably.
Cheers Vince
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"life is too short to spend it with people who suck the happiness out of you"
There are so many faults in new caravans these days. If we were planning to do a full lap we'd be doing it in our tried & proven caravan that has had all its faults ironed out over time.
Better ''the devil you know than the devil you don't''. As far as size is concerned 20ft is quite adequate & would be a more fuel efficient proposition than a monolith.
We've seen so many instances of people with huge vans that can't manoeuvre them in tight CP's. Pretty entertaining to watch.
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Cheers Keith & Judy
Don't take life too seriously, it never ends well.
Trip Reports posted on feathersandphotos.com.au Go to Forums then Trip Reports.
We have a 23'6" inside measured van , we love the space and storage . Reason we went that size as we were going to live and work in it . Didn't want to come home at end of days work to a small box. Having said that we have worked last six years managing parks and most of the time have lived in a house anyway . We decided to go to a bit smaller van for weight reasons . Went to all the shows and the minimum size "we " could come at was 21'6" outside . We have recliner chairs ( good ones not just office chairs) and for us cant come at sitting bolt upright in a dinette watching telly. We decided to stick with the bigger van as it afforded the room for them . Its all personal choice , do what rocks your boat and if you cant fit in anywhere then move on . I back heaps of peoples vans for them big and small it makes no diff to me , some folk cant back a small van let alone a bigger one.
Welcome to the gang Cooly, enjoy here and out in the playground.
I travel around and live in a 20ft aluminium teepee and find it plenty big enough for me. I am Solo but even it there was another person with me there is plenty of room. I went with single beds as they give a little extra room as well. I also have a separate shower and toot and wouldn't be without it. I started with a continuous flow hot water heater but it didn't know what hot water was so bit the bullet last September and fitted a Suburban hot water heater and that is much betterer.
If you choose to go down the single bed road see if you can get ane full single bed and one smaller as I didn't know I could go that way. All good though.
Whatever you go with make sure the weights are right and you don't go over the max allowed. Easy to sort out up front than later.
Keep Safe on the roads and out there.
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Live Life On Your Terms
DOUGChief One Feather (Losing feathers with age)
TUG.......2014 Holden LT Colorado Twin Cab Ute with Canopy
DEN....... 2014 "Chief" Arrow CV (with some changes)
Two years ago, we were traveling through the centre and rolled into Alice Springs on the June long weekend. I knew about the Finke Desert race, but wasn't interested in seeing it. I tried one caravan park, but full up. I tried a second one , and they asked what size van we had - 16.5 ft. We got the last site, and only because we had a smaller van. They told us that if we had a bigger van it wouldn't fit, and by golly they were right. We only just fitted on this particular site.... Interesting week spent there - all the buggies, bikes etc, and interesting people - mad as a cut snake. After the event, we went out to Chambers Pillar, and part of the way out followed the Finke race route. The fastest guy was averaging nearly 140 km/h. What we saw, I wouldn't travel at more than 50. I digress - large caravans are the norm out there these days and I truly believe that smaller vans may now have an advantage, not only to get into Alice on the week of the Finke race, but also from general handling and fuel consumption.
Love our 23' van and haven't had issues with caravan parks (travelled full time for 5 yrs) but found we do have to pick fuel stops especially in country towns as some servos exiting is a bit tight. In saying that we also free camp a lot where in most cases size is not an issue. Its a great size for permanent living but now that we are back to holidaying rather than living we are looking at down sizing to 21'. Fuel consumption hardly changed when we went from 21' to 23'.
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Jenny and Barry
2009 Roma Elegance / 2013 Colorado. Permanent travellers 2011-2015 now just travel for 4-6 mths
Hello cooly, welcome to the forum. We have a 25 foot van and have lived in it for 3 years. We mainly stay in showgrounds which is easy and plenty of room And cheaper. We now only stay in caravan parks when we have family with us and now ask before arrival "can u tell me the measurements of the site". And a park map. If we were to change caravans we would go for a 23foot van. Our 25 foot has a big back overhang. Look up issue 167 on grey nomads newsletter. Good luck.
Its a personal thing. Like cars etc .. we often go big sell . Go too small then buy something in the middle .. Depends on your experience and back ground ? If youve driven trucks all your life is different to a person taking public transport to work in most cases . Why I bought motorhome. As Ive been around 6 to 15 ton vehicles all my life . Our motorhome is 8m / 25 ft gets us in most camping grounds . Never actually had a problem ..Its more an anxiety thing as. Parking etc is a thing to practice with your navigator/ Mrs with Walky talky . We have found setting up now is almost seconds rather than minutes when we first traveled ..
Hi, I guess most people on Grey Nomads are around my age (69), give or take 10 years or so. So why are we all stuck in the last century still using british measurements like feet. inches and miles which australia did away with about 40 years ago. My kids and grandkids look at me and shake their heads. Maybe its time we used Australian metric measurements that 90%. of the world use.
Maybe we arent clever enough to count to 10 on multiply in 10"s. Dont know, Sad but.
Love GN though and keep up the great work, Think my van is 15 ft ? (or about 5 decent steps) or is that a cubit and has 2 water tanks of 80 ltrs and 1 of 60 ltrs. ( only yard is our backyard LOL ) Dont know what it weighs in pounds, hundredweights etc.
We travel for 3-4 months each year in our jayco 21 foot long van and I still work in imperal measurements cause thats what I like to, its like buying a caravan its a personal choice.
We have a full ensuite and east west bed but wish it had twin single beds, may have to do something about it one day soon.
To date with 25 years caravanning have never had trouble finding a site that will accommodate our van.
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Happily doing both to the Max.
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