How much are we going to miss?

[Canaust Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Canaust]

Hi

As some of you know, my wife and I are planning to come back from Canada next year and do the loop. Originally were going to buy a Prado and stay in cheap accommodation, taking a tent for those times when acceptable accommodation just isn't available at reasonable rates.

My wife had a hip replacement a few years ago and we have decided we really need to travel in a 2wd camper so she has ready access to a bed, even in the middle of the day. None of the 4x4 campers have a suitable, easy access, bed.

We are looking at a Maui Ultima .

This isn't allowed off the bitumen, so will severely limit where we can go.

Will we be able to rent a 4x4 at most of the major towns and/or go on an organized tour to explore the major 'must do's' or will we miss just too much?

Any feedback would be appreciated

Cheers

Alan

PS I know AJ120 thinks bitumen is a blatant waste of taxpayers money

[Guest Close Guest]

Would a Britz Challenger be suitable?
http://www.britz.com.au/campervans-a...wd-camper.aspx

[Canaust Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Canaust]

Thanks AMTS

We looked at these and the others, but climbing even 4 ft / 1.3m to get to the Trak Shak bed was a challenge 10 years ago.

With the Challenger you sleep in the pop-top area.

One of her requirements is a "north / south" bed so no one had to climb over the other person during the night (we would love an Island Bed but they only come in big rigs)

[Scruffy Member Find all posts View Profile Close Scruffy]

Hire a camper trailer and still buy a Prado. Many of the 4x4 hire companies have a no off road clause! Or a ban on certain tracks.

[AussieAndy Find all posts View Profile Close AussieAndy]

Does anyone hire out caravans? Off road type ones like kedron or bushwacker?

[peter_mcc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close peter_mcc]

Does anyone hire out caravans? Off road type ones like kedron or bushwacker?

You can hire Tvan's - check the Track Trailer website for a list. They are a camper trailer rather than a caravan. And for you it looks like the closest is Townsville or Sydney (neither of which is all that close!). So that doesn't sound like much use! When we looked around there are also people who hire out Ultimate camper trailers but you have to contact Ultimate for a list.

There are things like Jayco Expander Outback ones for hire - but it doesn't look like much else. I guess they aren't popular enough!

(disclaimer - I'm one of the Sydney Tvan hire people)

[Canaust Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Canaust]

I am in discussion with a TVan owner but it rents for $110 per day= $13,000 for 4 months

To buy a well fitted out petrol Prado I am looking at $30k to $40k (especially if it needs some fit out, a fridge, etc)

I would have to allow 10c per km for maintenance (min) = $2,500, insurance and Rego = $2,500 plus an unknown hit on resale, minimum $5,000 because any buyer would know we have to sell as we have tickets to leave. So minimum cost to own would be $10,000 and possibly double that.

The unknown buy / sell spread is the biggest worry, followed by unknown maintenance cost .

If we rent a Prado I can get it down to $3,300 per month plus excess kms

On the other hand we can rent a normal car for the first 2 months (NSW & Vic) for $1,500 per month and then rent the Maui Ultima for $5,000 per month (unlimited kms). This includes a king sized bed, 110l fridge, air conditioning (if we are on 240v), etc.

I haven't ruled out the Prado & T-Van idea, but need to know what we will be missing if we go 2wd.

On the other hand, a lot of people go in a Commodore and have a great trip.

Are there tourist operators catering to the grey nomad market?

Cheers

Alan

[Canaust Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Canaust]

You can hire Tvan's - check the Track Trailer website for a list. They are a camper trailer rather than a caravan. And for you it looks like the closest is Townsville or Sydney (neither of which is all that close!).

Another problem with renting the t-van is we have to rent and take it the whole way (Sydney to Sydney).

We will be staying with friends for a month in Melbourne and it would sit unused, but being paid for.

[Canaust Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Canaust]

Does anyone hire out caravans? Off road type ones like kedron or bushwacker?

Unless it was the smallest of the Kedron's it needs more than a Prado by the time you have food and water on board.

I think our Trak Shak was over 3 tonne when fully loaded.

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

PS I know AJ120 thinks bitumen is a blatant waste of taxpayers money

Too right it is

So you have 4 months to do a half lap of Australia, correct?

Fact is in four months whether you go off road or not your going to miss a lot, there is an awful lot to se and like most of us you just have to work out what is the most important for you.

A lot of the stuff that we travel to visit in the off road world also requires a vast amount of Hiking to get to the really good stuff, given your wifes back not sure how you would go with that. I gather from your sig you are looking at the western half of the country and a bit across the south.

So a couple of spots in WA that might be high on your list, Karajini and the Gibb River Road. Dales Gorge in Karajini can be accessed via the Bitumen but unless you can hike into and along the gorge I am not sure its worth the effort to go, some of the other areas of Karajini require gravel road travel but once again serious effort in the hiking department. The Gibb is much the same, I know a guy who reckons the Gibb River Road is a waste of time, but he weigh close to 200kgs so never got out and walked to see the good stuff.

There are probably countless other places that would be similar, but on the other side of the coin I know a few people who travel in motor homes and never go on a dirt road and reckon there is heaps to see and do.

What particular major attractions did you have on your list to visit? We might be able to give some more specific advise then.

With the Tvan suggestion, they hold there value quite well so if you have the cash to buy one up front you could likely do your trip and recoup your money with little or no loss when you sell at the end, you don't measure kms on a trailer and time wise your only looking at a few months extra age.

Cheers Andrew

[r4ndll Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close r4ndll]

Ok - going to play devil's advocate here and lets approach this another way. How long have you got and where do you want to go? That should define your choice. IF you are time poor then its going to be major sites only. Most of those are accessible from the bitumen or fairly ok National Park gravel roads. What specifically do you need the 4B for?

We did the lap in 2006 in 3 months in an 1983 60 Series Landcruiser and only used Low Range on Fraser. Yes we missed a bit but we had a time limit. We only really needed a 4WD drive for parts of the Gibb (late dry season and from Drysdale up to Mitchell Falls, crossing the Pentecost, Bungle Bungles and some parts of Karijini NP. Mostly for the corrugations and ground clearance. The rest of it was on Biutmen (Didn't do NE QLD as we'd been before). There's very few hard core major tracks left in Australia unless you get off the beaten track.

I've also been round Kakadu in a 6 person Apollo motorhome with all the mod-cons and just joined tours to the bits we couldn't get to.

How about some other options?

There's cheaper Campervans than the Maui to hire but less spacious

You could hire/buy a car and stay in in Caravan Park cabins. Cabins will cost you $70-$100 per night which isn't much more different to hiring the TVan. A 2wd car would be cheaper than hiring - and you'd get the resale. We met a 60+ couple travelling and sleeping on a mattress in the back of a Ford Falcon.

Do you have to buy a prado? There's cheaper 4WD's out there that could tow a van. - Older Prado's, Mitsubishi Challengers, Nissan Pathfinder, *cough*Patrols*cough* etc. You are only going to be putting 10,000-20,000 km's on it so high mileage isn't that much of an issue. Our land-cruiser had 350,000 on it when we started. Once you move away from spending $30k on a car you could get something for $20k and then use the spare cash to hire or buy a Walk-up soft floor camper trailer like a Johnnos off road tourer. With these you don't need to climb over each other. http://www.campertrailer.com.au/off-road-tourer.html. . Though set up might be an issue single handed.

Means you don't have to climb over each other to get in and out of bed? Appreciate that I don't understand how much of an imposition the hip operation has put on your wife's mobility. You could buy an ex hire Johnnos for less than $10K. The same as hiring the T-Van (and you get the resale but granted that could be a headache unless you have someone who would do it for you)...

If you are not planning doing hardcore off roading - you could get a AWD like an Nissan Xtrail. Will get you most NP's in my opinion - and it could tow a small camper.

If you are not Hardcore off roading and want to tow then an older 2 person Jayco Pop Top or Goldstream would work as well as a camper trailer.

And just for $h1t% and giggles - there's things like this around too. Have to fly to Broome though... http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/broom...van/1061888655

Sorry haven't really helped answer but I think there are other ways you could approach this, that would give you the freedom you want from a 4WD. But is there anything that you really want to see or do that necessitates a real 4WD?

[404pug Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 404pug]

Back in the old days [ recently as the early 90's] normal cars went just about everywhere..... just check out where in Central Aust you come across old Falcons and Commodores. The point is you can go just about anywhere in a $5000- $10000 Commodore or Falcon wagon, especially if you fit it with offroad tyres and a factory optional sump guard and drive carefully on the dirt. Buy a 2nd hand pop top van around the 15-16 ft mark with the desired north south bed. The reality is most of the roads are tar or good dirt. If you want to go remote in a few places then hire a 4x4 in Alice Springs or Broome to do local rough stuff or take a local tour.. Whole set up could come in under $15-20K. Good tough tyres and sensible driving will get you a long way if it is dry. If it is wet then in a lot of
places even a 4x4 wont get you far. eg all of Central Aust; most of Pillbara and Kimberleys including Gibb River Road; all of Kakadu. Good luck.