3rd October 2019
View from Public Entrance 3
In the past, travelling to Sandown Racecourse I've found it easier to approach from the Springvale Road end, but this time approached from the Corrigan Road side of the racecourse, which was a lot easier than negotiating Springvale Road.
Parking at the Leisurefest is free. Which is better than the 4x4 Expo at the Showgrounds where you were charged for parking at Flemington.
I am, in general interested in this sort of outdoors. off roading sort of stuff. While I am more of the road tripping sort, than getting really off road and into the wilderness, I have on occasion gotten out there, and on those occasions a swag has done for me.
I am not all that interested in caravans from a purchasing point of view. I still find it all interesting from just seeing and learning.
The off road caravans more so than the traditional white box-style caravans.
Road leading to the general caravan area, this is about as far as I walked.
With this in mind I did not explore much of the Winnebago / Jayco area of the Leisurefest, I looked in its general direct, got as far as the ARB pavilion and then went to get something to eat. It was quite a sea of white-topped caravans with air-con units and nothing really exciting.
If you want a go most places off-road caravan, and have somewhere around the $55,000-$90,000 to spend there's plenty.
Families wise at around $90,000 you can fit three kids and two adults into a relatively well-sized caravan. It's actually kinda impressive that you can fit that much into the space, along with toilet, shower and a relatively well sized kitchen, plus a washing machine. Often the washing machine is hidden in the bathroom but I saw one or two where it's hidden in the kitchen.
Differences in price between these caravans seems to trade quality of materials for price, and some size of appliances.
For example in the Lagoon Caravans - Pasadena at the show for sale at $55,990, running my hand along the bench where the sink was, I could feel a little bit of unevenness on the bench top.
Looking at others it seemed some plumb for a full sized oven, while others have a half to a quarter sized oven, so you might not be roasting a whole chicken in them, or if you are it's only the chicken and nothing else.
The Royal Flair caravans certainly had a more luxury feel to the inside of their bathrooms, a slightly nicer laminex than other caravans, wood-effect flooring, and in one of the caravans I looked in, which at first I thought didn't have a bed, the bed is actually raised above the dining area and then is raised/lowered on rails down. It's a nice way of cramming more in, but I'm not sure of its day-to-day practicality. I guess it depends what you want from the sleeping/living arrangements.
With most others which might be smaller, your partner could stay in bed while you get up, start on breakfast etc.
Inside the Melbourne Crusader Lifechanger "Connection" 19 Series
Inside most of the caravans I saw had bench seating mostly around a centre table that could be removed/lowered to make more bedding, but one the Melbourne Crusader Lifechanger "Connection" 19 Series had two swivel chairs, which was a refreshing change from all of the bench seating. I'm not sure how they cope with rough roads, but it's certainly a nicer piece of luxury than a bench seat.
What might be a new category in recent years I saw was the 'WRAP' caravan or the 'Toy Hauler'. This in some styles a compromised design and in others considerately thought out. These are caravans which have space inside to park your dirt bike, in the case of the Elite Caravans WRAP (Work Rest And Play) it's in a separated off part of the caravan, while in the Toy Hauler it is stored within the caravan. The trailblazers rv Toy Hauler however has two bunk beds in the space as well, so presumedly you store the dirt bike outside when you're sleeping, while with the WRAP it can be stored inside.
If I was going to buy something to tow it would be a camper trailer, as I think that offers the best compromise between having somewhere secure to sleep and being able to go anywhere.
I quite like the Tvan camper trailers, the one I had a good look around at the Track Trailer area at the Leisurefest is not cheap at $79,680. Based on some of the other caravans I saw wandering around that seems like a lot of money for a very small amount of camper trailer.
It is very solidly built, and looks like it would go absolutely anywhere and survive getting there. I feel like this is the sort of camper trailer you buy when you've lifted your 4x4 and upgraded the suspension and things like that.
Track Trailer Mate
Also for sale from Track Trailer was the Mate, a trailer with an interesting and compact design. It's a pretty low trailer with a pop-up tent on top. But the benefits are that it's significantly lighter than the Tvan about 500kg lighter.
There was one teardrop caravan on show. It's a very cute, cool design. I think this would be great as a classic car / small car road tripping caravan. It's 550kg, so most small vehicles that can tow should be able to tow this, it's very cool looking. But you'll be making a few (okay a lot) of compromises. There's no where to sit, no where to shower and no toilet, so look forward to caravan parks, and no going anywhere beyond a dirt road as this doesn't have the ground clearance.
Another interesting design was Aussie Campers Simpson X at $17,990. Interesting as like the Track Trailer Mate the sleeping area as above the camper trailer, reached by a ladder. Looking around this one, there was something I didn't really like about it. It's a very functional design, very practical, but all of that caged area was a little...I dunno. It's a very practically designed trailer, but not much on the aesthetics.
The Lumberjack Camper Trailers area I sort of came across by accident.
It has a certainly intriguing camper trailer in the Sheoak.
This camper trailer is about the closest I've seen to something I would actually consider buying.
It's got a fully enclosed queen-sized mattress and a small kitchen at the back of the camper trailer.
It's also not incredibly expensive coming in at $21,999.
It doesn't have the big slide out kitchen of the Tvan, nor the fridge or any of the other fancy bits and pieces which that has. In fact in comparison to the Tvan trailers it's quite sparse.
Lumberjack Sheoak
But the sleeping area is completely contained, which unlike the Tvan which is open at the end is a positive.
It's a positive in my eyes at least, as sleeping out in the great outdoors, especially off the beaten track, having a solid something in between me and said outdoors would be a great thing.
Like all these sorts of shows there's an inside area with people from various tourism groups along with tat merchants that seem to flock to these sorts of shows to flog whatever it is that might be vaguely related to the subject of outdoors. Some things like one flogging double glazing I'm not sure how they're related to caravanning and the outdoors.
Finally I also noticed a lot of tags hanging around in the inside of caravans, often the more expensive ones for financing your caravan. A lot of them seemed to be 30%-40% deposit and then a pay offs on a per-week statement of around $150-$250. The ones from Stratton Finance and NLF were at 6.99% p.a. over 84 months (7 years). I don't know why they listed it in months instead of years, maybe 84 months doesn't sound as intimidating a figure as 7 years.