Hi all
After reading lots of helpful advice here and on other forums, I purchased a brand spanking new Jayco Hawk Outback. I took delivery 1 week ago and have so far spent a very comfortable night on the beachfront at South West Rocks.
It is a great piece of kit. Like many campers we started with the old 2 man tent, then as kids came along we upgraded to the 10man 'vacation home' style of tent. My hatred of tarps, ropes and poles led us to move to a camper trailer (tent on top of trailer) which I still love to the day! Our desire to do some road tripping where we would travel most of the day, pull up and set up for the night before taking off again made the camper trailer a difficult option, so we purchased a 1980 Viscount Grand Tourer 16" pop top. We refurbed the inside, but the old gal just had too much 'swagger' and became monotonous to tow. Sooooooooo, we began our search for a late model Jayco Hawk, having decided that this was the best layout for us. A chance trip to a dealer on the way home from a visit up the north coast resulted in us 'accidentally' purchasing our brand new van. We had gone in to look at a second hand model, and found that the price for the new model, as a stock clearance, was just too good to refuse! Hubby was shaking hands with the salesman before I could lift my jaw off the ground.
We have made a few simple mods based on the wisdom of members of this forum - I have insulated under the bed-ends as I found I was a little cold from underneath, reinforced the plated where the bed end poles slip in, and hubby had put some shelving in some cupboards and cut a door in the back of the sink cabinet to improve access. Oh, and we reversed the door on the fridge.
Thats probably it for now - we are taking her away on a powered site just up the coast again for the long weekend so we will iron out any bugs with our set up and packing then.
We plan to take a 3 week trip in Sept/Oct - possibly Cameron Corner then up the guts or Fraser Island/outback QLD. I will certainly be looking for more advice then!
Until then, can I just say
I'm ready to fly!!!