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G'day All

We commenced our travels with a number of Fly-Drive trips to the top end some years ago and then progressed to a second hand Avan Cruiseliner in 2012 to get a feel for the lifestyle. We have recently retired, and, like most people who joint these forums, we wish to travel extensively around our great country. We have come to appreciate that a fully off road van is more desirable, so here we are…

We have narrowed our search down to Bushtracker, Trakmaster and Kedron. We are looking for a smaller (16-18ft) tandem axle, fully self-contained van. We currently own a Colorado with a towing capacity of 3500 kg, however this figure appears to be unrealistically high in our opinion. We have come across many horror stories towing in heavy corrugated outback roads with these type of vehicles (utes on general). It appears that a LC200 would be a better option, apart from the expense.  The cost of both a van and Cruiser is a substantial investment and we want to ensure we get it right the first time. We have joined the forum to glean knowledge from current Kedron owners.

Cargo05

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Welcome Cargo5 to the Kedron forum.

all the brands you mention are good and capable units, but obviously we love the Kedron brand.  In our case we are onto our second van from the Kedron factory.  The vans are not only well made but dealing with the factory is a major plus.

 

go and do a tour of the factory and see what is on offer.  They also have a used van sales yard on Gympie Rd so you can get a good idea of the appearance and set ups.

good luck with the research- it is an exciting journey!  Feel free to,ask specific questions here.

chris

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Hi Cargo5,

Welcome to the forum, ask as many questions as you can.......hopefully we can answer them & your choice (eventually) will be a Kedron!

With your 'tug' being a Colorado..... a great little truck ......one of the smaller vans will be more than suitable to being towed behind such a vehicle.

What geographic area are you from/reside? 

I can see you only posted this thread only a few hours ago..... I would like to think that given a day or two more you will have feedback from members with similar vans to which you are enquiring/interested about.

Please, when you have time.....have a look through this site and possibly a lot of your questions will be answered.

 

Looking forward to cing you down the road one day.

Safe travels.

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Hello Cargo5

 

I agree with Tony one of the smaller Kedrons may suit, we picked up our 16' XC3 single axel last September and really are enjoying it. It has a full ensuite, double bed and cafe seating, it is really comfortable and your ute would easily tow it. For more info have a look at our postings in the layout thread of this forum.

 

Our van has an ATM of 2500Kg, payload just under 400Kg and a tow ball weight of <230K. I just measured the tow ball weight of the fully loaded van and got 210Kg yesterday. The single axel tows really well behind our 2013 NW Pajero and the auto McHitch makes life easy. We also fitted the and Sansa brand inside rim tyre pressure monitoring system (From Hannibal Safari in Brisbane) Dexter Sway Control (DSC - from Vehicle Components). I can recommend both these aftermarket options for peace of mind when towing.

 

Make sure you do the factory tour, it is what sold us on Kedron.

 

Regards

Terry

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G’day Chris, TonyH, and Yabbietol

Thank you all for your welcome and prompt replies. Initially we had intended visiting the Gold Coast Caravan show next month, and call into both the Kedron and Bushtracker factories whilst we were in the area. Due to unforeseen events we may not now be able to do so. Having spent a lot of time on the internet, and attending caravan shows over several years, we have a good idea of the layout, and size, we are most comfortable with. The Bushtracker appears to be a very well build van, but the purchase price is a bit daunting. The Kedron seems to be almost as well built, and the price is a little bit easier to live with. I guess you get what you pay for.

Chris, thanks for the tip of visiting the used van sales centre on Gympie Road, we will check it out. At this time we will probably go for a late model van (assuming we can find one that meets our requirements). This is because of the cost of new vans and also to hedge our bets because of our lack of experience with the vanning lifestyle.

TonyH, we moved to the NSW coastal district near Forster about 12 months ago so we are still finding our way around.

Yabbietol, what sold you on your 16' XC3?

A question for you all: at this stage we have only joined as a member of the public forum, which, if my understanding is correct, will allow us to post in the Public Access Areas only. Is there much of an advantage in becoming a Financial Member? Again, thank you to you all for you welcome and comments.

We would be very interested in hearing from owners of vans in the 16-18 ft. range, particularly those with XC3’s. Are these vans suitable for outback travel on the extremely corrugated roads, or are there better options that we should consider?

Regards and thanks

Cargo05

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To answer your above question. We moved from an Avan Cruiseliner (1.2t) which is a small A frame pop top with no shower and toilet. After we did a 6 week trip in our Avan to WA a couple of years ago we liked it a lot and decided we would now really like a bed that had good access, on board shower and toilet. The 16'XC met all these criteria, plus was well made and Kedron allow you to option the van the way you like it. Compressor fridge , auto McHitch Lithium Battery, Inverter, etc. and very solid build quality.

 

We looked at some other brands single axel vans and did not like how marginal the tyres and suspension were for the weight they had to carry; when you do the sums Kedron seem  to have very good margins for the load required in a single axel. Dual axel vans were more expensive and heavier than what we bought, although I believe with the our expensive options our comfortable single axel is now more expensive than the base model dual axel XC3, but it is still lighter.  XC3's are lighter and cheaper than other models of Kedron, but seem to have the same build quality.

 

We also wanted a van to last for 10 years plus without too many worries and comfortably go off road into Nat Parks etc, it appears Kedron's do this quite well and less weight means less fuel and easier towing. We moved from 1.2t ATM to 2.5t ATM and so far are very happy with the move to Kedron. I think single axel vs dual is a very personal choice and we were very use to towing a small single axel van. Single axel met our needs and less weight, tyre pressure monitoring and Dexter Sway Control make single axel vans safe and easy to tow. I should add Kedron vans tow well without DSC, we fitted ours after the first service, not to correct any towing issues, but just to improve our safety.

 

Good van hunting, it can take a while, but when you find the right van it is worth it.

Regards

Terry

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G'day Cargo05

I'll leave all the technical van stuff to other members, but as Webmaster, I do want to advise you on Membership matters.  If you click on the following link

http://www.kedronownersgroup.com/forum/index.php?/welcome.html/membership/membershippayments/&d=1&sortby=field_1&sortdirection=desc&page=1&_fromLogout=1

a series of articles will be displayed for you.  The three most important from your point of view are flagged at the top of the page.  If you read them from 01 to 03, you will be given a clear idea of both the benefits of Financial Membership and (when you order your new Kedron :D) how to join the Group.

Looking forward to seeing your contributions on the forum and meeting you on the road somewhere.

Rick and I have been travelling in our Mar 2008 ATV (BigBird) since new.  The van is home and we love her.  We have had occasional problems (who doesn't), but we also completely trust the guys at the Kedron factory to do what is necessary.  From a personal perspective, I can't recommend Kedron highly enough - both van and support-wise.

Cheers

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