Camping With Kidz

Which caravan are you?

With the expense and possible danger of travelling overseas, and the ever increasing appeal of the caravan and camping market, caravans are not only for the Grey Nomads these days. The increasing number of family friendly vans out there means you are spoilt for choice. Coupled with the resort style caravan parks popping up everywhere, why wouldn’t a caravanning holiday be high on the agenda.

We have owned a couple of different vans over the years, with our first caravan being a Jayco Dove, as previously mentioned in the Camper Trailer section. This style of caravan is what I would describe as a cross over between a camper trailer and a caravan, there not really either, but are a great compromise and something I would highly recommend. Click here to see the advantages and disadvantages.

Our second van saw us purchasing a new Jayco Expanda. A very comfortable van with everything that opened and shut. After months of looking, many months, we finally decided on this van for one main reason, the living space. So many of the vans out there on the market pay too much attention to the main bed and not enough to the living/family room needed for a family to move about in comfortably. We liked the concept of the expanding end, effectively meaning that our bed was not taking up any of the vans footprint. When travelling it was folded up, out of the way, if we wanted to stop for lunch along the way the bed folded up didn’t restrict movement inside like a camper. To have a caravan for a family that has half the floor area taken up by the master bed is just not practical. The expanda style caravans allow for greater practicality for a travelling family with kids, but allow the slightly smaller, shorter, tow length for an equivalent size caravan.

The Expanda van we had, had one expanding end over the front drawbar, and bunks at the rear, with a small combined shower and toilet. There was a great amount of kitchen space, especially workbench space, something that my wife loved, being an avid cook. The fridge was also much larger than you may expect. Being a full height van also allowed for much more overhead cupboard space.

One thing that really hit me from early on was the creature comforts; it was too much like home. When we bought this van we only had two children, but I very quickly realised that they treated it like home. I still vividly remember the first trip away we did in it. We were all very excited to hit the road in our new caravan we had been looking forward to picking for 6 months. We packed up, and hit the road, for a weekend away at a local National Park a couple of hours from home. The National Park was one that we had been too a couple of times before in a tent and in the camper trailer, and had always had a good time. But then reality hit, and I thought what have we done. No sooner had I stopped and pulled the park brake on a voice from the back says, “can we put the DVD on now”……I took a deep breath, and my wife said, “there just excited to be able to watch TV in the van.” Yes I’m sure they were, however I also remembered that being on battery power thankfully would prevent the weekend spent watching TV.

It wasn’t just the TV that slightly took the edge of the whole camping in the great outdoors, it was the air conditioner. From then on (at powered sites) if the weather was a little hot, or cold, I would hear, “oh can we go in and put the air conditioner on, and oh, can we watch a DVD while we’re in there.” So my point is, if this is what you like to do, great, don’t change a thing and enjoy going away and having your creature comforts. If on the other hand you like to pack up hit the road and get away from those things, then watch what you pack.

I have often been asked, “Why take a TV anyway?” well for one reason, and that is I never get to watch it at home, so it is something that I like to do (albeit short) what I don’t get to do normally.

Why did we sell it?

Now I hear you ask, “why did you sell it?” well for a couple of reasons. It was a large van, 18 foot in the old money. It was far too big to have at home, so we were paying for storage at a caravan park. This made going away for the weekend all too hard. By the time we went to collect it, packed it up, etc etc, it just wasn’t worth it. The van was heavy, as heavy as lead. This then restricts the type of car you can own, which leads me to my next point the cost of fuel to tow it. The last trip we did in it from Melbourne to Adelaide and return via the Great Ocean Road cost us about $600 in fuel, it was at the time the fuel prices went through the roof.

This van laden was approx. 2500 kg’s, now something that I hadn’t thought much about at the time of buying it was that around this weight is the difference from being able to get away with owning a large family car to having to have a Toyota Landcruiser or similar in the driveway. Once your van goes over the gross vehicle mass of 2.5 tonne you start to very much restrict the type of car you can tow it with.

Lastly, we were expecting another child, and thought that the van would be all too cramped with a baby inside as well. So what did we do, we bought a large camper trailer instead. Well we all make mistakes.

Why did we get another Caravan?

Well I’m glad you ask. As I have mentioned, over the years I have had the advantage of owning many different types of camping equipment and accommodation. This time I feel I have got it right….. Well for now anyway, and I’m not saying that what we have would suit every family travelling with kids, but it suits us, at this stage in life. My aim is to at least give you some ideas, and give you something to think about. Hopefully if you only get a couple of good thoughts from reading this then I’ve done my job. Because until you do it for yourself you’ll never really know, and life and circumstances change, however with some informed option you hopefully will get it right or at least close to the mark.

What we wanted in this Caravan

Firstly, light weight. Having a light weight van means towing it was not only going to be cheaper and easier, it wasn’t going to restrict what car we bought (within reason anyway) now or in the future. The van we ended up buying has an ALKO override braking hitch which not only works amazingly well, it also means that you don’t have to have an electronic brake controller fitted to your vehicle. Again saving money, and allowing you to easily use different vehicles to tow it with. We had no intension of going off road, we have been there done that, and unless you are going to spend tens of thousands of dollars more on a van, and be happy fixing the odd damage along the way I would stick with a tent.

It had to be easy. I know that sounds obvious, but after numerous motorhome holidays that’s what we wanted, something that was as simple and easy as a motorhome but much less expensive, and practical considering we were a long way from retirement, and simply couldn’t justify the expense sitting in the driveway for much of the year.

With the two older children in swags, the caravan only had to accommodate one child and us, so a small van was all we needed. This would mean that storage at home wouldn’t be a problem, and cost could be lower.

After having a van with all the creature comforts, it would be hard to not have them in this one, and let’s face it, they all have everything anyway, have you tried to buy a new car lately without an air conditioner, they simply don’t exist.

We wanted a shower and toilet, a luxury I know, but as I have already said, it would be hard to go back to not having a van without one. Luckily the van that we liked had both.

It had to be self-sufficient, battery power, solar, water tanks, etc.

What we ended up buying was a van from the UK, 16 foot long, double bed in the back corner, combined shower and toilet in the other back corner, a central kitchen area, with a large (for the size of the van) lounge area at the front, surrounded by large panoramic windows. The lounge converts into a double bed as well, so it comfortably sleeps 4.

At the moment we tow the van with either a Hyundai SantaFe 2.2 litre turbo diesel, or a Nissan Navara 2.5 litre turbo diesel, and get a remarkable 11-12 litre per hundred kilometres towing with the Hyundai. Now that is good compared to in excess of 30 litres per hundred kilometres with our previous van towed by a petrol Jeep.

It is simple, if we were to pull up for a night in the bush, and assuming we didn’t need to unhook it is no different to pulling up in a motorhome, simply open the door and walk in. Makes me want to go away right now just thinking about it.

Caravans aren’t for everyone, and although we enjoy ours, I see the benefits of tents, camper trailers, and swags. If you were the type of family that just went away for one week of the year then you couldn’t go past a tent. If you were into 4WD weekends and wanted some of the creature comforts of home a camper trailer might be the right choice for you. Only you can make that decision.