Expanding BushtrackerOwnersGroup

Last time that I spoke with Tracey I suggested that BT Intl. place a notice in the owners manual for new deliveries.
Just an intro to the group, copy of the charter with the url may be sufficient.
Response was "reasonably warm" but maybe a few more members suggesting same may help.
We may have to produce our own slip of paper and supply to BT (printers please note)
Same printed page could be carried by members as a hand out when meeting other BT owners on the track.
Turist

This message has been deleted by the author.

G'Day Adam,
Whilst I sure enjoy your enthusiasm just hold off sending anything to anyone.
I've mulled it over a bit and I agree with Bob .... maybe we get BTi to help first before we place anything in a mag saying "Bushtracker". We also need a consensus on anything affecting the group. I'll ring BTi after the Melb. show to add some weight to Bob's idea.

Slowly, slowly catches the worm !! <Smile>

Motley might be at Melb. show ... he might have a word to Tracy J.

Regards
Anthony

I will be at Bushtracker in the next couple of days, so I will put out some feelers with them. It would be good if we could get B/T to put the URL with their sticker on the rear of the vans, along with their URL.

Am seeing Tracey again on Wednesday when he is coming over to assess hail damage to our 'van. Will have a chat re the ideaof BT handing out a leaflet we provide. PS Am happy to co-ordinate artwork through contacts if this idea gets up

No probs, thats why I posted it here first. Didnt want to go off without the support of members. I think the URL on the back of new BTs is wishful thinking, I say we go for the group charter and the URL in a leaflet you get on deliverly. Motley, Sorry I missed out on seeing your new rig when you rolled through Sydney. It looks like a beuty! I think the idea of a BOG logo is great. Sticker for the car and BT, T-shirts, buisness cards, fully sponsered V8 Supercar (Ford of course!) The possibilitys are endless.....

Anthony In reply to yr post of the 11/4/03 re expanding the BOG group may I suggest that the discussion encompasses other brands of which there are many ,some such as Phoenix ,All Terrain, Trackmaster are top line o/r units many others Supreme,Roadstar etc. are on the lower level but are still suitable for o/r work and present as a less expensive option to wannabe o/r's I think that if the discussion was broadended more peoples would take part in discussion particularily those who are wannabees o/r owners one person who takes part in this forum is Collyn our own prominent wannabee o/r owner. I am concerned that a narrow discussion subject will limit the volume and importantly the quality of discussion I would suggest that we stay with o/r type vans,and am sure there is plenty to be discussed re that type of van. U will notice that other groups allow a variety of discussion namely the campertrailer group. I think that discussion re the various suspensions and methods of construction,options re suspensions air bag or not and why is air bag susp. so expensive and in one case the option of a heavier chassis are all subject which are relevant to our decision making. A manufr. is currently working on an all aluminium interior,i.e. cupboards shelves and all,,all made from alumimium what a wt. saving that is,,, another is all fibreglass and is perhaps as suitable for o/r work as the top line o/r vans. Such broadened discussion will assist prospective o/r buyers to make informed decisions and hopefully will keep the mfrs. honest. and I feel sure will benefit this forum Peter

G'Day Peter,

You wrote:
start
In reply to yr post of the 11/4/03 re expanding the BOG group may I suggest that the
discussion encompasses other brands of which there are many ,some such as Phoenix ,All Terrain,Trackmaster are top line o/r units many others Supreme,Roadstar etc. are on the lower level but are still suitable for o/r work and present as a less expensive option to wannabe o/r's
finish

In my opinion promoting this would change the dynamic of the group turning it into a off-road van forum. As members of the group we are bound by the charter and the underlying vibe I get from the charter is .... all things Bushtracker. All other vanners are quite welcome to join ....

You wrote:
I am concerned that a narrow discussion subject will limit the volume and importantly the quality of discussion
finish

MMMmmm !! Possibly after 6 months or so but I doubt it. It the short time it has been running and with only 25 odd members 600 posts is firing !! Dont worry if the groups gets a bit stayed I reckon that a few in here will spark it up !!!! <smile>

You wrote:
I would suggest that we stay with o/r type vans,and am sure there is plenty to be discussed re that type of van.U will notice that other groups allow a variety of discussion namely the campertrailer group.I think that discussion re the various suspensions and methods of construction,options re suspensions air bag or not and why is air bag susp. so expensive and in one case the option of a heavier chassis are all subject which are relevant to our decision making. A manufr. is currently working on an all aluminium interior,i.e. cupboards shelves and all,,all made from alumimium what a wt. saving that is,,, another is all fibreglass and is perhaps as suitable for o/r work as the top lineo/r vans.
finish

I think that this is such a varied and diverse subject it would warrant its own forum maybe called "off-road van forum" of which individuals in our forum could join. A few of us post in the vanners forum now.

You wrote:
Such broadened discussion will assist prospective o/r buyers to make informed decisions and hopefully will keep the mfrs. honest. and I feel sure will benefit this forum
finish

As far as manufacturers go I have not seen any join in any forum. I think they are too busy to be concerned with past customers at the cost of new ones. Although I bet they read the forums !!!!! <smile>
I am only one member of this group and certainly not one of the originators maybe they might like to comment .... new ideas and discussion is one of the advantages of being a varied group of people in this forum. I would really like to see more BT owners in here first ... there must be 500 + on the road !!! ???

Regards
Anthony

Hi Peter
I was waiting on Anthony to reply as your posting was addressed to him.
I believe that Anthony has answered the question in the best possible way.
As the originator of the group it was my aim to have a forum that addressed the (peculiar?) needs of Bushtracker owners, to help them solve any B/T related problems and to share all other B/T related subjects such as camping, (against van parks), tracks and dirt roads (as against blacktop touring) etc.

Anthony's suggestion of an "Off Roaders Site", All Members, ORSAM, sounds good and if you care to start it up I will certainly join in.
You would probably get a good starting membership by posting invites on the other forums.
Regards
Turist

Peter, I value the specific dialog about Bushtrackers which I find here. It has been invaluable to me in understanding about all things "Bushtracker". I can honestly say that it has saved me many dollars and hours because I have access to a group of people who have Bushtracker experience. I think it would detract from the value the group provides to BT owners and prospective owners to make the group more general. Having said that I think there is equal value in a more general forum related to off-road caravanning. This lifestyle has its own peculiarities and they are common to all off-road caravanners- places to go, equipment, ideas, track info etc. Like Turist, I would endorse and subscribe to a off-road caravanning forum. Not sure what that does to the day after I look at the Bushtracker forum, the caravanners forum, the Codan HF Radio forum, ExplorOz.com. My wife is already thinking of "deep sixing" my PC! Let me know if you wish to proceed with establishment of an off road forum. Happy to help Motley

Motley. I think an off road caravan forum for all makes would be a good idea. We would be able to expand our caravan friends and travel with groups of other types of vans to off the beaten track places. I think Robe has a good point of getting other off road van owners involved in a forum but it should be seperate to the Bushtracker Forum, and we can also join it. It would be just like the Jayco or A-Vanners joining the Caravan Forum.

thanks for the replies so far,,,i guess many members are still on easter break so would like to wait for a few days to hear from them. It seems that an o/r forum would be useful , it would be great to exchange ideas with bog members. In the meantime I will post on other forums and see what reaction I get Peter

Hi all, Firstly, I hope I'm not out of place commenting on the subject of widening the focus of the Bushtracker owners group, but I find the suggestion that Peter puts forward most interesting. I am grateful for having been invited to join the BOG forum, as I am not an owner and therefore have been fairly quiet, as I felt it wasn't my place to make many comments. I am the originator of the Campertrailers group on Yahoo. When I created that group, I had concerns that it might be somewhat restricted in it's topic due to the single-focus the name implies. Since the group has grown to over 600 members. We do allow discussions on all sorts of campertrailers, offroad vans, towing vehicles etc. I do believe, however that such groups with their diverse topic can only grow to a certain size and the various topics get exhausted. There are members of the campertrailers group that own offroad caravans, onroad caravans, offroad motorhomes, campertrailers or none at all. We also share a handful of members with the BOG and we do welcome anyone with a genuine interest in travelling offroad and camping. Three "spinoff" or "clone" groups have already been formed and none been particularly successful. Ultimate Campers have tried to fowm an online owners club, but due to the approach they took to it, that club has proved to be a bit of a failure. The flurry of activity in the camper / caravan / campertrailer scene is incredible and groups and online clubs popping up almost every week, however none seems to last very long. Coming back to the issue that Peter raised, I think establishing an "umbrella" group or online presence that were to draw together the major groups would probably be a good idea. After all, there is so much that people have in common, regardless of if they own a Bushtracker, Supreme, Ultimate or TrackShack. The CamperTrailers group owns a domain name, www.campertrailers.org which hosts a front end to the group. An internet search for "campertrailer" on popular search engines will bring up a number of hits to that site, most in the first lines of reply. A similar thing could be done here. A web based front end could bring together all the different interest groups that were a part of this "alliance". From there, people could look up and participate in the various specialty threads. A domain name such as www.ozcamping.org or www.offroadcamping.org or similar could be the main front end and be heavily promoted. If this was to be the case, I would be happy to join the campertrailers group into this. Obviously, this would have to be done over a period of a few months and be democratically brought to members and agreed upon. I apologize for the length of this, I must have gotten a bit carried away on the subject Best regards Ari Palsson

Like the idea of getting BT to promote BOG. Appart from the convergance of interests between BT & BOG (keeping the best the best), an appeal (subtle, keep it subtle) to BT's self-interest may help. The one thing from a manufacturer's point of view about the $ Options, Hints & tips, & Motley's excellent document that should be bleeding obvious is that there are many recommendations for the addition of more stuff. Which costs money. Which we have. And they want. As much of the stuff that is recommended they can supply during construction, they get higher turnover, we get a better, more user-amorous land-yacht, and the bank manager gets a more rapacious smile. Everyone wins!! just a thought. Regards Griffon

I think the most effective thing would be to ask BT to add a link to BOG from their current website . I think you will find Tracey helpful here - it was actually Tracey who gave me the URL for BOG in the first place when we met at the Sydney Show last week. Phil