Size of caravan for permanent living??

Hello John and Anne,
Welcome to the BOG, the only BOG it is worth getting Mired in!!

When in doubt you could always ask the Lone Ranger, who has owned more and seen more than just about anybody. Worth getting a view of how the thousand or so are going... Now, your answer:

We have built now, 43 second vans for people, since we started counting about three years ago; and have one or two more on the Schedule. The predominant reason is SIZE MATTERS... 42 of 43 went larger. The happiness quotient of what was enough, used to be 18'. It is now more of an average of 19-20' as the minimum. For those with larger tow vehicles that can handle a large van easily due to the longer wheelbase leverage on the van and power, the minimum happy size is about 20'-21'. Let your layout needs, be the deciding factor, in relation to your tow vehicle, but Japanese tow vehicle probably about 19'-20' average. Ford, Chev, Dodge, or Isuzu type trucks maybe 21' or even 22' depending on your needs...

Awning? See them here at Bushtracker, but only one stands up to storms and wind when you are away, and while it is fiddily and a curse the first ten times you put it up, you will get the hang of it and love it longterm... The other types you will put up and put away everytime you come and go or go to bed, and still likely to have it blow to pieces some day. Ours is also the only one ready made to take high wind and easily accept walls... Comes stock with zippers and velcro closing flaps and storm rafters.

Bicycles? In a bag out of the bulldust, better yet on a rack on the roof of the tow vehicle totally out of the bulldust in gears, chains, cables, derailers....

These are the things that work best, and I am sure other Owners will chime in and tell you there views on them... If you could get 100 to answer, I think the overall weighted average would be the above...

Regards from the lone Ranger... Doin' it with real horse power... Ha!

Greetings John and Anne again,
My wife and I take our bikes everywhere also. We carry them inside a Carryboy canopy of the F250. The front wheels are off, with the forks attached to mounts that are bolted to the floor. These are readily availble from all bike shops. They look like a front axle with a mounting plate and a locking lever. These mounting plates take up virtually no floor room. The bikes stand against one side wall of the canopy with the front wheels between. They do not get shaken about or dusty, and take up minimum room. So far, this has been by far the best way we have used to carry our bikes, which we use and value. Kindest Regards, Warwick

To John and Ann,
We have our 20ft bushtracker on order and hoping to recive at the end of the year.
We are thinking of taking bikes with us as we will be living in our van full time. So far this is the best heavy duty bike rack we can find. Web site www.bernsbeaks.com.au.
Looking at mounting on the back of van with a custom made bag to go around bikes.

regards
Mark and Jackie

When we travelled around Australia for 14 months in 2004, we took our three bikes mounted on a bike rack welded to A frame just behind the jerry can holders. Steve warned us about the bull dust getting into the chains, derailers and whatnot, wish we followed that advice. Also, we very rarely used the bikes as we mostly hiked on foot - slower lifestyle pace, take in the sights, smell the flowers so to speak, couldn't do that with bikes - they were a hassle to disassemble and reassemble. Now that we are ordering a 2nd BT, we won't be taking the bikes this time.

John and Anne we lived in our van for 12 months before coming back to London. We will be returning soon to take up full time travel again and looking forward to it. We miss the lifestyle and so can't wait. In our van we have a washing machine which made it easier for us when hubby was working at an abalone farm. Everything else was pretty much the same as in a house but smaller and with less housework.

We could not have survived without our annexe. It was a craft room, music practice room, reading room, second kitchen, party room and a multitude of other uses.

Hope this helps.

Angie

18' is great if you leave the junk at home
Have 2 8 speed fold up light weight bikes with great balloon tyres that have rolling resistance of racing tyres and act like suspension Schwalbe Big Apple tyres. Use the bikes 5 days out of 7 as need to keep fit and healthy so can travel longer. You cannot hold off the ageing process, but does not take much to make it much more enjoyable health and mobility wise. There are so many good country bike tracks and generally good free camp sites with water. North East Victoria bike tracks are amazing.

We have a 21 ft van and have spent the last 6.5 months in it and it actually feels like home and we have been very comfortable.

We were travelling with Conrad with his Tri axle 27 foot BT and we noticed that our van was far more manouverable than the larger one in tight places.

Big is nice, but too big can be a real problem with the excessive weight and limited places that it can be taken. Most of the really good places are in the harder to get to places, so my advice is not to go too big.