Thanks for joining us on this walkthrough of our new caravan, if you have any quesions about it fire away in the comments below. 🙂Also apologies for the less that perfect audio when it got a little windy!
Because I'm 75 years old, that light switch in the bedroom for the bathroom (for midnight pees) should be standard for every home, apartment, nursing home, etc. Best idea ever. Thanks for the tour. Loved it.
I love that caravan (I can't see how I missed this video). It's great that things are customisable; absolutely nothing is customisable in the UK (well, apart from adding WifI or air con etc) I'd call that colour green British Racing Green, it was very popular with older racing cars. In the UK, diesel heaters in caravans aren't really a thing. Great idea in the shower room having the lights around the skylight; genius! I'm shocked at the weight (not in a bad way). Wow, that would take some tow car. It's a completely different way of looking at caravans,
Yeh the Australian made caravans are pretty heavy alright! Big suspension and lots of steel in the chassis. I think you are right with that green, originally we had planned to have the whole caravan that green but then decided on the grey/green combination 👍
We loved your caravan when we went through it at the motorhome show (and enjoyed meeting you both as well!). I look forward to more adventures from you.
@@AdventuresWithRosy We actually on our big South Island trip but as fate would have it we fly back to Auckland for a few days so yes, we may go to the show!
Great video. I’m trying to work out how to mount 2 electric cargo bikes to our caravan and love your idea of the hitch on the bumper. Do you have a photo of your setup with the bike rack/bikes attached? Thanks so much
We actually never ended up getting a vertical rack for the bumper, tried a couple of different bike racks but had a bit of bouncing so we often put our bikes inside. I think we might look at getting a bike rack that mounts to the bumper rather than the hitch, one of those ones you often see on the caravan a frame. I think the vertical ones are fine as long as they anchor to the top of your caravan 👍
That's a great walkthrough of your totally cool van, thanks Bronson and Chelsea! I'm really curious about your solar/battery setup, as 180 AH battery and 280 W solar seemed to me a bit light to be running your fridge on 12v continuously. Then I realised that we have 2x100 AH lead acid cells, which really only have 40 AH of daily usable capacity without risking the battery, whereas I guess you have nearly 180 AH usable with your lithium batteries, more than 4x the capacity we have. Have you found that your solar is enough to keep your battery fully charged your battery in the NZ winter, or doesn't it matter? I've plastered my Jayco Journey roof with 640W of solar plus installed a decent Victron controller, problem solved, but I'm now wondering if just going Lithium is the better solution. Cheers from Seager.
Good question, we have not had any power issues, we have had it get low a few times (around 25%) but is seems to charge back up well. I think if we were living in it full time we would double the panels on the roof. When we were living in our Jayco we ran out of power a few times and had to go to campgrounds. I’m pretty impressed with the lithium batteries and being able to run them down more 👍 we also don’t have an inverter so our main power consumption is really just the fridge and lights during the day I guess
When I first started watching your channel one thing that surprised me was you have washing machines in your vans. We don’t here in England because they would make our vans too heavy to legally tow. I would imagine they are probably lighter than a domestic machine but would still weigh quite a bit. How much weight did you save by not having one. Love the van by the way so different from our vans but still with a lot of stuff similar to ours.
I didn’t even think about the weight saving, good point! Just had a Google and the washing machines seem to range from 18-25kg so certainly saves a bit of weight not having one. For us it’s the water, we have so much washing with 3 children we would have to have the machine running all the time haha
What I like about this particular caravan is there are literally over twenty different floor layout / designs - it is a very versatile caravan. What is the tow rating of the Isusu?
Only 3Ton on the model we have, later models are 3.5 ton capable. So yeh we can only load ours up a bit, might have to look at a new tow vehicle one day I reckon 🤔
Hi Bronson & Chelsea, now that you have had your caravan for some time we have a few questions for you ... we are looking at a similar van to live in for at least a few months with 3 young kids. Do you think a pull out kitchen would have been useful ie sink and a bit bigger cooker than your webber? Would you now go to a NS bed or still keep the EW to keep the length down? Do you use a full awning, would that be useful? Some I have talked to think they are great for wet weather in NZ? Does it have Aircon and would you get it as an extra if not? Cheers :-)
Hi Nikki great questions. Pull out kitchen might have been pretty useful, some outdoor bench space would be handy when using the bbq. The Webber is pretty great, we would do roast chooks etc in it fine. I think we would always go EW bed to keep the length down to be honest, a NS bed would be nicer I think but we like the 19ft. We never bothered with a full awning, I think it would have been great when we wintered over in Kaiteriteri, we were there for 2 months and the extra space would have been nice. The thing to consider is how long are you planning to be parked up at any one time I.e. is it worth setting up? And how big is it, do you have somewhere to store it when you are not using it? We didn’t really have anywhere to store it so never looked into getting one. AC might be nice with some of these summer days we have been having, but it usually means you need to be on power… or have an awesome lithium setup haha 👍
Hi Bronson and Chelsea, really great update. I’ve been hanging out for that! Just a couple of questions if ok, with the gas tanks being exposed like they are, do you cover them? How do they go in really cold temps. And just on the bathroom, what is leg room like using the toilet with door closed? I know you said you keep it open when showering, but just wondering about using toilet. In my last caravan leg room in toilet was a major hassle. One more, do you try and deliberately keep the length down for ease of manoeuvring and ground clearance? Just wondering as I am thinking going for shorter van for those exact reasons. Thanks guys, love following your adventures. All the best. Matt
Hey Matt! Great questions. We don’t cover the gas tanks but good point re the cold weather, we will have to give you an update in winter as to how they are going 😉 yup good leg room on the toilet and that toilet actually swivels so you can angle it a bit for even more feedback. As to the length we find it really nice deal with. The back doesn’t swing out like some longer vans so you don’t have to watch it to much, it’s also a bit easier in campgrounds that are tighter etc. we have thought an island bed would be nice but there is the extra length and extra weight to think about 🤔
Awesome, thanks for the response and good to know. I guess also with the gas tanks it’s not as critical with your setup as your heater runs off diesel and fridge off the lithium battery, so neither of those essential things depend on gas unlike vans that have gas heating and 3 way fridges. BTW it was good to get your views on that D035 hitch, I hear lots about that hitch on Aussie sites but good to hear a kiwi opinion. Did you guys ever come across Deffleths in your research? They are German made, very nice but I think generally too long and too low to the ground so not as suited to NZ style of camping. Just wondering. Thanks I won’t bug you any more with questions!
@@matthewnoy3418 all good 👍 ask as many questions as you like 😁 I’ve only see the Deffleths at the caravan shows but wasn’t sure if they made a bunk model!? You are right about the gas, we only use it for cooking and hot water now. We do have some winter trips planned so I’ll let you know how it goes!
Hi, we can place the gas bottles in a locker for more security and protection. Different layouts can achieve more space in certain areas, depending on your priorities. Give us a call if you wish to discuss
Hi guys just subscribed. Have spoken to sarah at inside out and am looking at a vacationer as a permanent live in. Question, how hard is it to make the bed with the EW configuration? The reason I ask is I am considering going the 226 model but the NS bed means you cannot sit up in bed while watching TV. Your opinion would be appreciated thankyou. Brett
Hi Brett, welcome to the channel 😊 good question, it can be a little annoying crawling on the bed to put fitted sheets on haha but in all honesty it’s not that bad! We love the EW config because it keeps the van length a bit shorter and you are right it’s really easy to sit up in and watch TV etc. what floor plans do you like?
