2026-01-24
Lea and I both have Long Service Leave available (or available in the next couple of months anyway) and so we've decided to do The Lap. We considered hiring a caravan like we did in Tasmania but the hire prices for 3 months ranged from $10k to > $25k and that was before checking if any of the owners would be happy to hire it out for 3 months+ and for it to do > 14,000km around the country. So we had a think and decided that we could buy a van, then sell it when we get back. That would mean we'd not be just throwing money away, but also that we could make any modifications we felt necessary to make our trip easier.
The initial plan was to buy a used van, but Lea wasn't comfortable buying privately, so that meant a dealer. There aren't a lot of Used Caravan Dealers in Brisbane, but we checked out the closest one (not actually close) and well, I can't say we were that impressed by most of them. However on the way to that dealer, we stopped by a very local caravan dealer (of new vans) in Brendale. They had three used vans (trade-ins) in the yard, and we had a look at those, including a 2023 Avan which was in excellent condition, but had two single beds, and was a pop-top. Neither of those were deal breakers. The price was $58k, which I'd mentally tagged as out of our budget, but Lea seemed ok with that given we'd get most of it back when we sold.
Another couple of weeks went by and I'd done more research. I proposed we go look at an Avan lot, since we'd get an idea of what was out there in light-weight caravans and what to look for. So we drove all the way down to Loganholme to check out CruisOz. We spent a good hour or more wandering around the lot, looking inside caravans (all new), comparing features, layouts, weights, etc. The new prices ranged from $70k to almost $100k. These were DEFINITELY out of our budget.
However, the sales guy there was keen to move stock and showed us two perfectly good vans heavily reduced because there was a caravan show coming up and these were the show prices he intended to list them at. How heavily? $59k instead of $70k for one, $68k instead of $77k for the other. The 59k one was pretty much exactly what we were looking for, brand new, with a 2 year warranty. We decided to go with it, and despite not intending to buy that morning, we found ourselves buying a caravan.
So, what did we get?
It's an Avan Aspire 555-3. It has an island bed, three way fridge, a/c, and an ensuite. It is 5.3m long (17.5ft) (full length including the drawbar and bumper is 6.9m) has a Tare weight of 1,485kg and an ATM of 1,885kg. We can tow up to 2,500kg, so this should prove to be an easy, and relatively economical tow.
We are hoping to pick it up on Fri 13th of Feb, assuming the couple of extras we've ordered are fitted in time (a grey water tank and an AL-KO ESC).
What you really want to see by now are some pictures, so here she is:
