Bugger me, we were looking at the Regent and Snowy River vans as well, the Regent vans we found were too heavy for our vehicle and the Snowy did no come in a 18 footer with duel axles that we wanted. We bought an Essential van today instead, we put down a deposit the day before we were to view the caravan to lock in the price as it was a lost leader van reduced from $88,140 to $69,990 so as to draw people in to the sale yard, there was a mix up with serial numbers so the salesman sold us the wrong van. We got a brand spanka 2023 model instead of a 2022, up over 18K in our favor, happy days😁
Your going to LOVE your new Essential van. Cannot fault ours in any way. I reckon you dodged a bullet with the Regent anyway, the amount of faults I have heard has been unbelievable. My friend ordered hers about 3 weeks before we had ordered ours, she received hers and it has been back in the shop for warranty claims from a flooded tunnel boot causing excessive damage. I believe the cabinetry has to be redone and it has been in the workshop for a good 3 months now. We did consider accepting the swap to the Snowy River but it made no difference to our car not being able to tow due to the weight. All in all it was a blessing in disguise I suppose as this Essential is perfect. Congratulations on your super dooper purchase, winner winner lol. Enjoy your van and thanks for watching
Wow .. OMG !! Im so sorry you folks had to go through that You should name and shame these people You work bloody hard to save up for a big trip with the best vans and you get these bastards selling crap !! Wishing you all the best and a great journey 😊 ❤️
Thank you for watching. We didn't want to name and shame in case this got us into trouble legally, not fair I know but have to protect ourselves. Mind you there is a previous video about selling our last van and it may just have info on the van we had a deposit on lol
@@onlyleavingfootprints how about give us the name in a anagram and we'll decipher it😁 That's trash what happened to you! We're in the researching stages of making our first purchase.
Loved the Pajero so much. Was really hard letting it go. We have purchased a new vehicle (check out our video). We drove so many cars I thought my head would explode lol
You guys should be well and truly on your trip by now, hope all is going well. With those photos of that damage van, my guess by looking at the photos, would it be a Blackseries HQ19, if not, did you have a look at this brand.
Hi Truth, yes we are 6 weeks into our trip now with our brand new Essentials Caravan which we love. Check out our weekly videos of our travels and the new van. No the faulty brand we showed was not a Blackseries and we looked at these years ago when we were considering a camper trailer but changed our minds to caravans. Thanks for watching
@@onlyleavingfootprints thanks for the reply. I nearly brought a Blackseries camper, they looked well built, but finished buying a MDC Highside which we have been very happy with. They are very well built and very happy with it. We are thinking of upgrading to a caravan, but not keen of putting money down and waiting over 12 months for a van. I'm looking at the Blackseries HQ 19, they do look great and great value. People say, don't buy these Chinese vans/campers, but our MDC camper is very well built, but we will look at the Essential vans for sure. Will keep watching for sure, hope you are enjoying your trip and hope you are dropping into the best location in Australia, Exmouth/Ningaloo my home town.
Hi buys I brought a New Age caravan Big Red 22 foot in 2018. It’s was stated that my Ford Ranger 2017 model I could pull 3.5 tons we paid $80.000 we went to the Caravan and camping show and brought the caravan from the show. We had to wait 8 weeks for the delivery in that time I got electric breaks fitted to my Ute ready to go. While the van was being fitted out with everything we asked to be done to it. At the show they said they would put another spare wheel on the back they sprayed it with a protective film to stop the bats pooing on the van. We feel like we were pushing into buying this caravan and we found out down the track that the tear weight ended up 3.80 tons
@@onlyleavingfootprints New age brought the van back from me for only $50.000 after all the extra items we put on the caravan nothing extra and they offered me a smaller van but but they wanted us to pay more money on top of what we already paid out for the bigger caravan. The way we were treated and we were told we had to pay more money and because we went to a different area and not where we got the big van they would not work together to find a resolution into this situation we had found ourselves having lost so much money. I have no good words to say about New Age Caravans
Self-education and awareness is definitely the key when intending to tow (heavy) caravans. I recommend checking out Auto Expert (John Cadogan) and L2FSBC (Robert Pepper) on the subject. They both do a stellar job on describing the topic of towing weight limitations including load effects on vehicle stability and most importantly, conservative towing. If you’re still in the market for a (new) vehicle as mentioned in your video, I highly recommend you go through the trouble of installing a federally approved pre-rego GVM upgrade. That way, the new GVM will be recognised nationally if you or a future purchaser of the vehicle happens to re-register it in another state.
We were green behind the ears and thought going to a reputable caravan company they would advise us correctly, but they didn't. Telling us our car would be fine towing that caravan. We now have done all our own research and spoken to towing experts and understand weights better. We have purchased a new car but did not get a GVM upgrade as $$$$ was an issue, buying a different car was not in our original budget. We are completely in legal limits and very happy with our choice. Alot of car manufacturers will not stand by their warranties if a GVM upgrade is done on the vehicle even if its pre registration (we went right into this issue with different companies )
Sounds like it’s been a real baptism of fire for you guys. It’s great that you’re full bottle on the issue now but even so, towing to the maximum limitations of your vehicle are things John Cadogan and Robert Pepper advise against on their channels - in the interest of safety and unnecessary wear and tear/strain on the vehicle, especially if it’s a small 4cylinder. Recommend you check out their videos for your own added interest. As someone that’s currently in the market for either a camper trailer or a Hybrid caravan, I’m looking forward to what you ended getting as your vehicle and caravan 👍
@@rich9903 yes please do. With new car and van we are not anywhere near towing to full capacity. We are definitely all good, within limits with alot of room to move.
The caravan thing is doing my head in tbh. I’m looking for a second hand one sadly my budget is very small. And the rubbish they want 20k for is insane. Looks like swags and tents for us for a little longer lol. Thanks for sharing the negative aspect of buying a van
We have had 2 older Jaycos both in the $20k price bracket. The first one had 2 x single beds and was a pop top and we completely hated it, however the caravan lifestyle we loved. Our 2nd one we loved and did a smaller trip which made us decide that it was time to bite the bullet and get a new van to enjoy. Absolutely agree with you that the garbage out there now in that price bracket is insane. My suggestion is to just get the best you can in the price range you can and test out the lifestlye then build from there. Good luck
They were a bit to much out of our price range. We have a video up on the caravan we ended up getting, absolutely love it. Been on the road for nearly 4 weeks now and just want to keep going
the van we had a deposit on was 3 tonne. The problem though was the tow ball down weight on the Pajero being only 180kg. Our new ranger however 350kg much better
Thanks for sharing this information, what caravan brand were you looking at ? the wife and i are looking at buying a new van also and would like to avoid buying a cheap china van Cheers
G'day mate What you buy just don't get it of china mate If not in Australia it's not made for us Sales people the do anything to sale something . Cheers Asha 👍
Thanks Asha, yes we have learnt our lesson that's fir sure. Keep looking at our vids we show our new Aussie built caravan. We have been on the road for 6 weeks in it now and love it . Thanks for watching 👀
You guys have made me very happy I just looked at that van at the Melbourne caravan show yesterday so please could you give us feedback on towing,litres per 100 km’s figment/finish because a van at 87,000 is far better than the 105,000-130,000 all the others are.
@@bobdown6055 do you mean with our Essentials van ? If so we are getting 14L to 17L /100km towing the Essentials van with the Ford Ranger. We are so impressed with the finish of the van. Some minor things like one cupboard slightly bowed and the water filter should have had an extra bracket to hold the base steady going over rough roads but could not recommend an Essentials caravan enough. We have now travelled over 5000kms with it on this trip and love it.
Thanks for that I’ve got a grand Cherokee so the litres per 100 is fantastic great too see it has only minor silly fix’s for me it’s about semi off vers touring re chassis 4”/6” and the axil’s on the 4” are hollow tube vers solid tube…….ride height of van. I really like your down to earth Aussie style guys keep safe……and thank you 🙏.
@@bobdown6055 thank you for the feedback. We are trying really hard to put out good content and just be us, nothing more nothing less. This semi off road has been good so far, we have been along some very bumpy pot hole dirt roads and the van has handled it fine. We have 4wheel independent suspension with 4 springs and 4 shocks. Jon's not here at the moment for me to answer if 4 or 6"
Hi Kerry, I have mentioned it in the comments. You can email us at onlyleavingfootprints@hotmail.com and we will tell you the brand if you cant find it. Dont want to continually mention the brand, need to protect ourselves legally
@@kerrymathers7439 thats what they told us. They said the chassis only is built in China but everything else is built and put together in Australia. This is so far from the truth its ridiculous. Snowy River is the same
If you haven't bought a car yet then stay away from anything Ford (especially the 2L bi turbo 10 speed) The new Isuzu and BT50s are good. The old 3.2L rangers and BT50s are okay but the more you research the more you find on those that can and will go wrong. Really sad news about your van also but hoping you are happy with the new one 👍
@@jamiesutton5429 that comment was not by us. But yes it would be interesting why the author of the comment does not like the 2L. We are very happy with our 3.2L though
Snowy River ???? Lucky you didn’t go to Caravan World over the road, biggest bunch of lying c#&*s around. Promised me everything with an Eden Caravan, had nothing but trouble with the useless salesman for 8 months then just cancelled the contract once every other brand I was looking at now had massive lead times and price rises. Sorry but I have no issue in shaming these 2 companies.
Not a problem, its not Snowy River but the other brand the same supplier sells. We have revealed it in the comments below though. Its so heartbreaking what they put us through (yes first world problems) however very happy with our new van
Bugger me, we were looking at the Regent and Snowy River vans as well, the Regent vans we found were too heavy for our vehicle and the Snowy did no come in a 18 footer with duel axles that we wanted.
We bought an Essential van today instead, we put down a deposit the day before we were to view the caravan to lock in the price as it was a lost leader van reduced from $88,140 to $69,990 so as to draw people in to the sale yard, there was a mix up with serial numbers so the salesman sold us the wrong van.
We got a brand spanka 2023 model instead of a 2022, up over 18K in our favor, happy days😁
Your going to LOVE your new Essential van. Cannot fault ours in any way. I reckon you dodged a bullet with the Regent anyway, the amount of faults I have heard has been unbelievable. My friend ordered hers about 3 weeks before we had ordered ours, she received hers and it has been back in the shop for warranty claims from a flooded tunnel boot causing excessive damage. I believe the cabinetry has to be redone and it has been in the workshop for a good 3 months now. We did consider accepting the swap to the Snowy River but it made no difference to our car not being able to tow due to the weight. All in all it was a blessing in disguise I suppose as this Essential is perfect. Congratulations on your super dooper purchase, winner winner lol. Enjoy your van and thanks for watching
Thanks for this video and for naming the good companies.
Our pleasure!
We have a 22’ JB van and absolutely love it. Tow with a Ranger with GVM upgrade.
We looked at JB and were really impressed. Rangers are awesome
Yep the weights can be so confusing, think we've finally got our head around it. You were lucky to get your deposit back 🥰
We really were lucky but the company knew the salesman stuffed up big time.
Wow .. OMG !!
Im so sorry you folks had to go through that
You should name and shame these people
You work bloody hard to save up for a big trip with the best vans and you get these bastards selling crap !!
Wishing you all the best and a great journey 😊 ❤️
Thank you for watching. We didn't want to name and shame in case this got us into trouble legally, not fair I know but have to protect ourselves. Mind you there is a previous video about selling our last van and it may just have info on the van we had a deposit on lol
@@onlyleavingfootprints how about give us the name in a anagram and we'll decipher it😁
That's trash what happened to you! We're in the researching stages of making our first purchase.
@@rainneygirl starts with a R and ends with a T ... lol.. Thanks for watching
make sure you drive all those utes.I really liked my Pajero.Look at a fortuner too
Loved the Pajero so much. Was really hard letting it go. We have purchased a new vehicle (check out our video). We drove so many cars I thought my head would explode lol
You guys should be well and truly on your trip by now, hope all is going well. With those photos of that damage van, my guess by looking at the photos, would it be a Blackseries HQ19, if not, did you have a look at this brand.
Hi Truth, yes we are 6 weeks into our trip now with our brand new Essentials Caravan which we love. Check out our weekly videos of our travels and the new van. No the faulty brand we showed was not a Blackseries and we looked at these years ago when we were considering a camper trailer but changed our minds to caravans. Thanks for watching
@@onlyleavingfootprints thanks for the reply. I nearly brought a Blackseries camper, they looked well built, but finished buying a MDC Highside which we have been very happy with. They are very well built and very happy with it.
We are thinking of upgrading to a caravan, but not keen of putting money down and waiting over 12 months for a van. I'm looking at the Blackseries HQ 19, they do look great and great value. People say, don't buy these Chinese vans/campers, but our MDC camper is very well built, but we will look at the Essential vans for sure. Will keep watching for sure, hope you are enjoying your trip and hope you are dropping into the best location in Australia, Exmouth/Ningaloo my home town.
@@commonsense-grs WA is most definitely a bucket list destination. We will be there for sure as soon as possible
Looking for4ward to seeing the van!
Hopefully will get footage this weekend when we park on our daughters property.
Hi buys I brought a New Age caravan Big Red 22 foot in 2018. It’s was stated that my Ford Ranger 2017 model I could pull 3.5 tons we paid $80.000 we went to the Caravan and camping show and brought the caravan from the show. We had to wait 8 weeks for the delivery in that time I got electric breaks fitted to my Ute ready to go. While the van was being fitted out with everything we asked to be done to it. At the show they said they would put another spare wheel on the back they sprayed it with a protective film to stop the bats pooing on the van. We feel like we were pushing into buying this caravan and we found out down the track that the tear weight ended up 3.80 tons
What that's a huge tare weight. Quite a big van though. Did you go back to New Age and tell them it's to much ?
@@onlyleavingfootprints New age brought the van back from me for only $50.000 after all the extra items we put on the caravan nothing extra and they offered me a smaller van but but they wanted us to pay more money on top of what we already paid out for the bigger caravan. The way we were treated and we were told we had to pay more money and because we went to a different area and not where we got the big van they would not work together to find a resolution into this situation we had found ourselves having lost so much money. I have no good words to say about New Age Caravans
Sorry I did not see that reply. What poor customer service that was. Hopefully your caravanning is a much better experience now. Happy New Year
SRC I bet thanks for the heads up
Close
What about an Amarok?. They have the most power - 165KW in the base model.
Not particularly fussed on VWs. We have actually already purchased a new vehicle. Check out our new car video
Self-education and awareness is definitely the key when intending to tow (heavy) caravans. I recommend checking out Auto Expert (John Cadogan) and L2FSBC (Robert Pepper) on the subject. They both do a stellar job on describing the topic of towing weight limitations including load effects on vehicle stability and most importantly, conservative towing.
If you’re still in the market for a (new) vehicle as mentioned in your video, I highly recommend you go through the trouble of installing a federally approved pre-rego GVM upgrade. That way, the new GVM will be recognised nationally if you or a future purchaser of the vehicle happens to re-register it in another state.
We were green behind the ears and thought going to a reputable caravan company they would advise us correctly, but they didn't. Telling us our car would be fine towing that caravan. We now have done all our own research and spoken to towing experts and understand weights better. We have purchased a new car but did not get a GVM upgrade as $$$$ was an issue, buying a different car was not in our original budget. We are completely in legal limits and very happy with our choice. Alot of car manufacturers will not stand by their warranties if a GVM upgrade is done on the vehicle even if its pre registration (we went right into this issue with different companies )
Sounds like it’s been a real baptism of fire for you guys. It’s great that you’re full bottle on the issue now but even so, towing to the maximum limitations of your vehicle are things John Cadogan and Robert Pepper advise against on their channels - in the interest of safety and unnecessary wear and tear/strain on the vehicle, especially if it’s a small 4cylinder.
Recommend you check out their videos for your own added interest.
As someone that’s currently in the market for either a camper trailer or a Hybrid caravan, I’m looking forward to what you ended getting as your vehicle and caravan 👍
I think I just saw your post of your new rig and van. Will check those vids out soon.
@@rich9903 yes please do. With new car and van we are not anywhere near towing to full capacity. We are definitely all good, within limits with alot of room to move.
Quality: something my g/dad told me about.
True... got a bit to excited and didn't open our eyes enough. We hope our experience helps others be more aware
Wouldn’t happen to be Green RV you were dealing with?
That didn't come out of our mouth lol
the one in the video they must of tested it in the Snowy mountains and took into some Rivers
Hahahaha
The caravan thing is doing my head in tbh. I’m looking for a second hand one sadly my budget is very small. And the rubbish they want 20k for is insane. Looks like swags and tents for us for a little longer lol. Thanks for sharing the negative aspect of buying a van
We have had 2 older Jaycos both in the $20k price bracket. The first one had 2 x single beds and was a pop top and we completely hated it, however the caravan lifestyle we loved. Our 2nd one we loved and did a smaller trip which made us decide that it was time to bite the bullet and get a new van to enjoy. Absolutely agree with you that the garbage out there now in that price bracket is insane. My suggestion is to just get the best you can in the price range you can and test out the lifestlye then build from there. Good luck
@@onlyleavingfootprints thankyou for your encouragement that means a lot. It can get very disheartening I’m not going to lie
@@Wildernessadventuresoz your very welcome and we definitely understand
Tents are much easier and fun, think of the fuel you are saving
@@mvnorsel6354 haha yes can agree to an extent. We do have our swag to take on our beach weekends 😎
Have you looked into Kakadu caravans they are very nice vans
They were a bit to much out of our price range. We have a video up on the caravan we ended up getting, absolutely love it.
Been on the road for nearly 4 weeks now and just want to keep going
What brand was it so I dont end up with one im looking to buy soon
Regent Discoverer
@@onlyleavingfootprints ok thank you .will make sure I avoid them .love your clips
@@grantsaywell2132 thank you
Sunland make pretty nice off road vans.
Absolutely agree and we nearly purchased one, we were so close then found the one we have purchased on the same day
@@onlyleavingfootprints
I work there on the floor as part of the team.
Just finishing a 24' Federation.
It looks a million bucks.
@@Andrewkafp I can imagine
Don't get a ranger the transmission will be lucky to last 100 thousand
Well I hope that's not the case because we did buy a new Ranger. Hopefully that won't happen yikes
What was the ATM of the caravan you were going to buy?
the van we had a deposit on was 3 tonne. The problem though was the tow ball down weight on the Pajero being only 180kg. Our new ranger however 350kg much better
@@onlyleavingfootprints thanks
Thanks for sharing this information, what caravan brand were you looking at ? the wife and i are looking at buying a new van also and would like to avoid buying a cheap china van
Cheers
Subscribed
No problem 👍It was a Regent that we got deposit back on. Have since purchased the Essentials van which is Australian made and love it
@@onlyleavingfootprints Thanks Guys much appreciated
G'day mate
What you buy just don't get it of china mate
If not in Australia it's not made for us
Sales people the do anything to sale something .
Cheers Asha 👍
Thanks Asha, yes we have learnt our lesson that's fir sure. Keep looking at our vids we show our new Aussie built caravan. We have been on the road for 6 weeks in it now and love it .
Thanks for watching 👀
Roma vans could you think how bad these vans would end up after a trip to the top end……….just like the false quality Jayco’s.
Very true
You guys have made me very happy I just looked at that van at the Melbourne caravan show yesterday so please could you give us feedback on towing,litres per 100 km’s figment/finish because a van at 87,000 is far better than the 105,000-130,000 all the others are.
@@bobdown6055 do you mean with our Essentials van ? If so we are getting 14L to 17L /100km towing the Essentials van with the Ford Ranger. We are so impressed with the finish of the van. Some minor things like one cupboard slightly bowed and the water filter should have had an extra bracket to hold the base steady going over rough roads but could not recommend an Essentials caravan enough. We have now travelled over 5000kms with it on this trip and love it.
Thanks for that I’ve got a grand Cherokee so the litres per 100 is fantastic great too see it has only minor silly fix’s for me it’s about semi off vers touring re chassis 4”/6” and the axil’s on the 4” are hollow tube vers solid tube…….ride height of van. I really like your down to earth Aussie style guys keep safe……and thank you 🙏.
@@bobdown6055 thank you for the feedback. We are trying really hard to put out good content and just be us, nothing more nothing less. This semi off road has been good so far, we have been along some very bumpy pot hole dirt roads and the van has handled it fine. We have 4wheel independent suspension with 4 springs and 4 shocks. Jon's not here at the moment for me to answer if 4 or 6"
Get a new v6 ranger
Check out our video - we got a Ranger
Hey Mate, could you please enlighten us to what brand of trailer that Chinese Junk was? I don't wan't to be caught out by bullshitters
Hi Kerry, I have mentioned it in the comments. You can email us at onlyleavingfootprints@hotmail.com and we will tell you the brand if you cant find it. Dont want to continually mention the brand, need to protect ourselves legally
@@onlyleavingfootprints Thanks for that , I found it. A seller in NZ claims they are made in Vic Australia.
@@kerrymathers7439 thats what they told us. They said the chassis only is built in China but everything else is built and put together in Australia. This is so far from the truth its ridiculous. Snowy River is the same
Roma vans
It was a Regent Discoverer
If you haven't bought a car yet then stay away from anything Ford (especially the 2L bi turbo 10 speed)
The new Isuzu and BT50s are good.
The old 3.2L rangers and BT50s are okay but the more you research the more you find on those that can and will go wrong.
Really sad news about your van also but hoping you are happy with the new one 👍
We have purchased a 3.2L ranger and very happy so far. Have down just shy of 3000kms in it pulling the new caravan and it hasn't missed a beat.
What’s wrong with the new Ford 2L bi turbo 10 speed??
How can you bag the Ford Ranger and not say why!!
@@jamiesutton5429 that comment was not by us. But yes it would be interesting why the author of the comment does not like the 2L. We are very happy with our 3.2L though
You guys need some help ,no idea
hahaha all good. We have a new van now
Snowy River ???? Lucky you didn’t go to Caravan World over the road, biggest bunch of lying c#&*s around. Promised me everything with an Eden Caravan, had nothing but trouble with the useless salesman for 8 months then just cancelled the contract once every other brand I was looking at now had massive lead times and price rises. Sorry but I have no issue in shaming these 2 companies.
Not a problem, its not Snowy River but the other brand the same supplier sells. We have revealed it in the comments below though. Its so heartbreaking what they put us through (yes first world problems) however very happy with our new van