BT Vans

Hello “fence sitter”
I don't know who you are, but I will try and give our perspective...

First of all we are no heavier than any other Off-road van. That one is a myth. We do offer more gear and equipment, amounting to about 300-400 kg. With that equipment on board an 18' can weigh 2300 kg, 19' 2400-2450 kg, 20' 2500 kg, in that range. So toss out that idea spread by others, all of the so called off road vans are about the same weight. Actually, we have a lower centre of gravity than some due to heavy timber wall construction and timber rafters across the ceiling to support air units, where our aircraft style alloy frames makes us lighter than some from the body armour up. Our heavier suspension and chassis makes us heavier than some from the body armour down, but it averages out to the same overall weight just a lower centre of gravity.. With a lot of gear on board even some of the road running vans weigh in that much... It is more about gear than van.

We build 120 to 140 vans a year. The second hand ones come on for a number of reasons like the following:

We have built now the 33rd on order that is a Second van for Customers. Some people just want the newest style, equipment, and technology ideas..

Right now we have people that are in fuel shock. I have seen this before. This has happened each time fuel spiked higher since 1974 in the U.S. ... Everyone went off the road for four or five months until they realized that hey it is only about $200 difference clear across America, or hey it is only about $500 more clear around Australia... They get used to the higher number and get going again... It comes down to them realizing "so what, it costs a little more... What else are we going to do?"

And then people want to upgrade to larger vans, or into the alloy body armour from the steel higher maintenance body armour vans... Reasons like that...

And then, some just have finished their year or two year travel with their kids or such, and the van is for sale...

Unfortunately we get a death or serious illness once or twice a year that changes plans...

There are a number of reasons like this, but right now I would suggest that there are a high number of all kinds of vans, motor homes, even power boats for sale. A typical "fuel shock" reaction. It will blow over, it always has. After all, what else are you going to do.... Is the final analysis...

Regards, Bushtracker

Hello fence sitter
I agree with Bushtrackers comments and my reason for selling is to buy a new 18ft van.My van is listed in the latest Caravan trader, 2001 16ft travelled approx 20,000klm.
If we do not have any luck in selling we will be quite happy to continue travelling in
our 16ft van.
Bushtrackers are the ultimate in off road vans

Cya Keith

picked up our 20 ft van on 14/6/05 it tare is 2660 kg which we were pleased with it has queen island bed 4 water tanks 3 solar panels 3 batteries extra cupboards extended draw bar 3 jerry can holders stabiliser legs at the rear roll out awning & would be typical in most other respects on our way back to sydney i did a little comparison of weights of 19 & 20 foot van of recent vintage they ranged from 2100 to 2400 kg but non had the number of tanks panels batteries tough suspension ( the closest we got was 10inch simplicity ) before we ordered or bt we also had quotes from pheonix & trackmaster & their weight estimates were very much the same as bt so for the toughest van around in my opinion there is no great weight disadvantage
cheers

We have a 21ft van that had a tare of 2500kg, and I just looked up the weight of a similar sized Coromal van that has a write up in a recent caravan mag at 1993 kgs.

On first glance those figures make the Bushtracker look heavy, but when you add the weight of the following items that our van has and the Coromal doesn't the 2 vans would be about the same weight.
ie; 3 extra batteries
3 solar panels
50amp battery charger
3000 watt inverter
5 by 80 litre water tanks in place of the 2 by 60 litre tanks in the Coromal.
6 4WD wheels and tyres in place of 5 smaller wheels and tyres.
Heavy duty suspension compared to a much lighter suspension.

Gday 10 Parra,
We have the simplicty suspension in our current van and are very happy with it.
Unless some one can convince us that the air bag suspension is superior we will stick with simplicity.
Having owned and operated a fleet of Kenworth trucks and trailors with a mixture of air bag suspensions and spring type suspensions we believe that the simplicity suspension is very strong and requires little maintenance if operated within the manufactures weight carrying capacities.
Cya Keith.

Hello "fence sitter" 10 Para,

Steven Gibbs here, Director, Bushtracker,
If someone here told you that a 20' van would be around 3000 kg, you are mistaken or they would not be working here... Ha! They were talking about you having an allowance to put at least 500 kg of your own personal gear and water aboard. No one would tell you that it would weigh that much empty... Most 20' are running from about 2480 kg to 2550 kg.. The Industry allows 400 kg, we say most put on 500 to 600 kg minimum in water and food and toys and such... A 20' van would normally come out with a ATM (Aggragate Trailer Mass) that means fully loaded capable to 3500 kg...

Most 20' vans come out having picked most of our Optional Equipment, and that adds up to about 400kg of gear... For instance three batteries are 105 kilos... Four batteries would weigh 138 kilos! Most people want that optional equipment for self sufficiency, independence, and luxury, and a lot of people take nearly all we have to offer.... Our vans themselves, in 20' weigh only about the 2100 to 2200 kg mark, but add on that 300 or 400kg in Optional Equipment and you get a real Tare weight and as I said most run at or just over the 2500 kg mark...

Even quality road running vans weigh that much...

Now on your question of the air-bag suspension, no one that has it, does not like it... But I would suggest you read Tip # 43 on Suspension Choices, back on page two of these Postings... It gives a balanced view on the whole matter. That Tip will answer all angles on Air Bag Suspension for you....

For the rest, our suspension is not an "off the Shelf" type of Simplicity.. We order it built to our Standards.. It is ordered with larger bearings, axles stubs, bigger brake backing plates, and is over sized.. For instance, on the 20' van, it is actually a 4.4 tonne arms-bearings-axle stub set, with a reduced spring pack to suit the load. We do not want people to be able to break it easily, so we over-build to compensate for you running off the road into a ditch when a Bullock jumps out in front of you... You could break it, but we want to keep you on the road with a minimum of fuss, so we over-build the suspension to give you a margin of safety.....

Kind Regards, stg at Bushtracker....

Hi 10 Para

What type of vehicle are you intending to use as a towing vehicle?

If an Effie, those of us towing with a 7.3lt turbo charged towing machine will unanimously tell you that the weights you are concerned about are not even an issue.

We just towed our 21' fully loaded land yacht to the very top of Cape York and back to Cairns. We have the standard 4000kg suspension and after one year of towing not only had the bump stops not touched the chasis, the excess rubber from the mold was still on the bump stops.

Examination of the under side of our BT after the trip demonstrated that the 4000 suspension is more than sufficient even with 5 full tanks, 4 bats and 4 panels and lots of other toys.

Other than lots of dirt you would not know we had just travelled over some of the worst roads in Oz. Yes, we had some damage to some equipment I SUPPLIED - micorwave and fridge. There was no damage to anything supplied by BTi!

Underneath, we didi not even loose one cable tie, there was not one loose bolt, and although you could see a faint mark from when the bump stops did bottom out and do their job, it was not often enough to remove the mold excess rubber.

If you are sitting on the post then I suggest you fall on the side of purchasing a BT. If you want to do serious off road caravaning it is the only caravan that allows you to travel with peace of mind.

On the other hand, if you are considering towing with something other than an F250 which now comes standard with a 4500kg hitch receiver, that would be the discussion you should have with other BT owners. There are many that have switched from Patrols and Cruisers to Effies for the same towing peace of mind.

Hope this helps

Luvntravln

and when I examed the bump stops

Hi all
On reading the different posts, we have just completed a 2 year trip around and also travelled along the Gibb and quite a few other places. Had no troubles with the van whatsoever. However the microwave didn't like the Gibb River Road nor the road into the Keep River NP (which was horrendous at the time). We bought a new microwave but it now travels on the floor beside the bed and since then we have had no troubles. Ours was bolted to the top of the fridge compartment but of course most are now built in.

The fridge door fell off when we were in Karijini but once again the road was awful, but the pin on the door was just too short and it sort of dropped (I think). John just fixed it up and it has been fine ever since.

We tow with a Nissan and have a simplicity suspension. Our van was built in 2001 and we have loved every minute of our tripping around. I think it might have a bit to do with how you travel also. We have seen people travelling in ways that we would never travel so everyone is different I suppose.

Have fun, its marvellous.
Meg and J