Written deep in the bush in east Gippsland whilst camped at a forest location, no power, water or people but a lot of kangaroos and quite a few wombats plus, at least, one Alpine Copperhead snake who I am now on a nodding acquaintance with.
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I took delivery of my caravan from Springvale Caravans (Melbourne) in late 2018, since then I have towed it around 2500km of eastern Victoria including many kilometres on difficult forest dirt roads and tracks up to elevations of 1350m. I have spent approximately 50 nights in the van.
My van is a basic SR-19 with no options, no stability control, no weight distribution hitch - straight out of the box and on to the towball for the price of $53,000 from Springvale Caravans at the above date.
My experience with caravans is limited; I owned a 25' van in Europe 27 years ago which I towed over the Alps and through France, Italy, Spain and the UK a couple of times. I am divorced so I am on my own with the SR-19. However I have a lot of 4WD bush travel experience in swag and tent, gold prospecting and shooting feral animals and know how to live rough in the bush.
Let me make clear that I do not suffer from "Confirmation Bias" - no matter how much I paid for a product if it's substandard in any way I will point that out, I have no desire to mislead people or encourage manufacturers of poor quality products to remain at their low standards. Regular readers will note I gave Honda a hammering last year for their failure to properly deal with a production fault with the EU20i generator, which I own. Criticism of poor quality should never be off limits and especially so in order to preserve one's ego.
So... I am a little embarrassed to say I have almost nothing about which to complain regarding the SR-19... sorry.... :)
Despite the lack of ESC and WDH and fully loaded at 2.7T it tows well behind my aged 3.5L petrol Jackaroo up to 100kph (haven't been faster, and won't, and usually travel at around 90kph). It *feels* solid and stable behind the 4WD. The ground clearance sits midway between an on-road and off-road van and has been adequate for my forest trips.
The interior of the van is light and airy, my van's grey/white colour scheme provides an uplifting feel without being garish or overly bright in high sun. In short; it's a nice and positive place to reside.
Build quality seems high; doors, walls, cupboards and the like all fit well, despite bumping it over many kilometres of corrugated and rutted tracks everything is still solid and no cracking has appeared.
26/2/19 - Just did 32km of low range second and third serious forest track and the SR-19 didn't mind a bit - virtually no upheaval of the interior except the toilet roll now isn't :) Lots of ruts, gullies and rocks and I cannot see any issues with the van.
All windows and roof vents have both blinds and fly screens which are constructed in an ingenious fashion with magnetic strips which ensure they can be deployed either as screen or blind and in any proportion of both/either. A couple of the smaller fly screens do not fold away quite as they should but are not something I would consider a warranty issue.
The van insulation is excellent: in this hot summer (42C) in Victoria the inside of the van is commonly 6C or more cooler than the ambient for most of the day - no AC and with the door open. I'll be interested to see how it performs in the cold but suspect it will do well.
Turning to the detail - the van contains the following features: Shower Wash basin/mirror Toilet Washing machine - 2.5kg Fridge/freezer Reverse cycle air conditioner Microwave Cooking hob and grill Cooker hood Sink/draining-board Queen sized (not quite) bed Double glazed windows Insulated walls, floor and ceiling. Water heater - gas and electric Two gas bottles Television and antenna Reversing camera Two x 95L water tanks 120W solar panel and one 100Ah battery (two battery boxes available) Full length awning "Car" style radio combined CD/DVD player Two x 9kg gas bottles
Let's run through the features listed above: Shower - excellent, a good size, good water flow and control and places for soap and shampoo. Roof vent and two way fan.
Wash basin/mirror - poor. The mirror has inadequate lighting (for women and makeup) and the wash basin is much too small, hardly big enough to wash hands in and the high tap splatters water everywhere. Cleaning teeth in it is impossible. Move the tap to a corner and make its spout able to rotate and that will improve things no end.
Toilet - the toilet is fine. All caravan toilets are a compromise and this Thetford cassette is no better or worse than others. Roof vent and two way fan.
Washing machine - I thought the washing machine would be rubbish, but it's not! Its spin cycle does an excellent job if hand washing and its wash cycle is pretty good if water is available. It needs 240V.
The fridge/freezer is excellent! Evaporative fridges are always a compromise and *should not* be expected to work as well as compressor units which use much more energy. The SR-19 Thetford 184L fridge/freezer is a 'T' or tropical rated unit and performs well up to around 35C ambient, after that its performance falls off. It doesn't fail to cool but it doesn't cool as well or as quickly. It has an external temperature controlled fan which, in my opinion, should be set to permanently on. As far as evaporative fridges go this is one of the best I have used. It is also fully automatic making a choice between - 240V, gas, 12V (12V only if engine is running). A point to note: either turn the gas supply off or force the fridge to 12V when travelling. Having it switch to gas when filling with petrol is not good - it has a 15 minute delay to avoid this possibility... but still....
Very roughly, with the temperature set to its coldest, one 9kg gas bottle lasts for around two weeks during the Victorian summer.
Reverse cycle air conditioner - great! It will run from a Honda EU20i generator but don't expect to run much else at the same time. I used the AC a few times but notably across two day in the Victorian summer; the first day was 42C and at 2pm I headed into the van and switched the EU20i and AC on, it worked well. The following day was 14C (it's a Victorian summer) with rain and at 2pm I headed into the van and switched the AC on to heat - it worked well.
Microwave - good, it microwaves things and has a turntable. It is small but large enough for a standard dinner plate, no complaints. It needs 240V.
Cooking hob and grill - good. Three gas rings and one electric, they do as you would expect. The stainless steel surface is not as easy to clean as enamel but it's OK. The grill works well if the few pieces of toast I have done are a guide.
Talking of toast: *please* change the smoke alarm from an ionisation unit to a photocell device. It is impossible to make toast without triggering the smoke alarm. This is not simply an annoyance because it causes people to disable the alarm and, probably, forget to re-enable it.
Cooker hood - great. The LED light is excellent and the three speed extraction fan does a good job. I imagine there is a filter somewhere? Where do I buy new filters?
Sink/draining-board - they do as expected, the high and movable tap and competent hot/cold mixer work well.
Queen sized (not quite) bed - Try buying sheets for a, not quite, queen bed! Its width is queen but its length is double. Making the bed is a challenge and an trial but this is a caravan rather than a SR-19 problem. Buy a fitted *double* sheet for the bottom and a flat queen or just a quilt for the top. Would be nice if Snowy River offered sheet packs for the bed at a sensible price. Getting a thousand special size made in China should not be too expensive.
Television and antenna - I don't watch TV and mine is still in its box but I believe it and antenna work OK. An antenna amplifier is provided which will also work with an external antenna.
Reversing camera - haven't used it.
120W solar panel and 100Ah battery - works better than I expected. The LED lighting (brilliant in all senses) doesn't use much power and the water pump and other 12V stuff is only occasional use so, in a Victorian summer, all is good so far, it will be interesting to see how it goes in a Vic winter but I suspect it will be OK, just. Although two battery boxes are provided only one battery is supplied a second may be easily fitted but, I suspect, most people won't need it and if you do you'll probably need additional solar too.
Full width awning - good. Although I don't like its mechanism for locking the arms when open. Said locking mechanism is simply a hand turned screw pressure point which is incapable of preventing wind stress to the awning and also incapable of letting it go once it's happened. In other words; if the wind blows the awning into a balloon it stays like that until you release it. This is bad because it will flap around and probably damage itself. I release the tension on the hand screws and use two "ocky" straps to guy mine. This means the awning flaps a bit (not much) in wind but it will return to a taut position. Don't try to defeat the wind (you'll lose) but rather ride with it and if it's too strong then take down the awning.
"Car" style radio combined CD/DVD player - It receives AM and FM radio and plays both normal and MP3 CDs and is Bluetooth capable. It's also specified for DVDs but I haven't tested it with those. It has two internal and two external speakers (please think of others when using the external ones) which may be selected via the "fader" control from the menus. This is a competent unit but is a little let down by a poor antenna, I shall endeavour to create a better antenna in due course.
Manuals: Manuals for each of the individual appliances are supplied but there is no overall caravan manual. What are the tyre pressures? How do the stabilising legs work and what tension should they be? How should the jockey wheel be used/stored? These sorts of question may seem blindingly obvious to people familiar with caravans but for those who are not they are mysteries and should be documented.
The awning manual: Dear Mr Awning Designer, please, never, ever, write another manual. I can clearly see you understand awning design but you fail to appreciate other people do not. I'm an engineer - I don't write manuals because I am too close to the stuff I design and I assume my users know most of the stuff I know - they don't. The awning manual should be totally rewritten by a professional technical author. The awning is actually quite simple to use but the manual makes it complicated.
The other manuals are written by major manufacturers of the various products and are generally OK, more or less.
Storage - Lots of it! I still have three cupboards with nothing in them and the rest are only half full. The front "tunnel" is only about one third full and, believe you me, I do not travel lightly.
My opinion: I *like* this caravan. It's homely, clean, spacious (as caravans go), uplifting on both a dark wet night and a baking summer afternoon.
I think we're going to be friends :)
Mike Harding 26 Feb 2019 - east Gippsland.
Please note - I'll be out of internet range, again, in 24 hours but will respond to queries when I return
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"I beseech you in the bowels of Christ think it possible you may be mistaken"
Oliver Cromwell, 3rd August 1650 - in a letter to the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland
Leaving aside the review of the caravan (which looks like it's going well), the first bit - about having the place effectively to yourself, aside from the wild life - sounded pretty appealing. Enjoy yourself out there!
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It is better to have and not need, than to need and not have...
