Caravan show in bris

[scootman]

Hey all. Well I still lurk here on a daily basis, and decided it was time for some input.
I flew down to brissie on the weekend to go and have a squiz at the caravan and camping show. Yes I know they were all new vans but I wanted to look anyway. (delete away moderators if ya dont like it)
The cost of these vans is incredible. I think the best value was a basic van 23000. I wandered around for 7 hours checking everything out and all the time asking myself the question. What happened to caravaning.? Of the thousands of vans and campers etc I looked at there was only a handful that were designed for, what I beleive caravans were originally designed for and that is the family holiday. Very few vans regardless of size had sleeping arrangements for more than two people. So to me it says that the whole caravanning industry is now aimed at the grey nomad. That to me is a huge shame. How many of you remember the fun family holiday at the beach? playing with the other kids in the park. Smoking behind the toilet block or down behind the sand dunes etc etc etc. but anyway .....
I wasnt the only one who thought this way. I was overheard making a comment to a friend of mine about this and a lady and her husband piped up and said. "Well we're here looking for a van for that exact reason, but we're not having much luck,
At the end of it I sat down with my drink and hotdog for a rest and surmised that all of these amazing vans with the fabulous paintwork toilets showers washine machines and bidets all were missing the one thing they needed. A family having a holiday.
Then I took stock of what PH had. She has two beds. She has two windows. she has a sink, she has a stove she has cupboards and she has me! isnt that all I need? Perhaps the caravan parks and makers should be pushing the family idea again instead of just the grey cromags.
The comment of the day would have had to have been the lady who was out with her husband looking for a new van because the old one that they have had for nearly two years now has the shower and toilet in the same room !
Scoot

[fbmad]

G'day Scoots,

Back in 1996 we were looking for a new or newish family van as we had our first edition to our family.We went to the Caravan and Camping Supershow in Sydney looking for a new/newish van to suit a family and found that no one was making them for families anymore and was only catering for the retired generation.

They could be made to order however we decided against a new van as the prices for new vans were way out of our budget at the time.

So we ended up buying a 1982 18 ft Millard from Windsor Caravans in as new condition with triple bunks for kids for less than a third of the price of a new one.

We still have the van but it is now onsite at our family holiday destination in the Upper Yarra Valley in Victoria.

So the family van appears to have disappeared from factory production around or before 1996 or so.Very much a pity but I suppose if the only people who were buying new vans were retired people then the manufacturers would cater to that buyer market when building new vans hence the lack of family vans.

I have pleasant memories of family vanning in the '70's and am reliving those days now again with my own family.

You meet the nicest people from staying in van parks on holidays and we certainly love the vanning lifestyle.

My thoughts,

Terry.

[Don Ricardo]

G'day Scootman,

I share your sentiments. Last summer when we were caravanning on the Sapphire Coast of NSW (Kingy's territory!) we travelled 100 kms or so north to visit my sister and brother in law and check out their new Jayco 16 footer. It was very impressive in its own way - built-in oven, microwave, hi-fi system, flat screen telly, automatic electronic system to tell you when your water tank is getting low, automatically switches from tank water to town water, built-in reverse parking sensors, etc, etc, etc.

Really lovely...but very definitely built for two with just an island double bed. And the thing I noticed was that with four of us in it, it felt quite overcrowded. We ate inside and I sat on the bed because there wasn't room around the table for four.

We drove back to our old '49 Don and I actually felt that we had the better deal. Only 14 feet long but on occasions we've fed up to 9 people in it. Five sitting at the table and four sitting on the divan. You'd only do it in wet weather, but there's no way you could do that in the rels Jayco, wet or dry. Sure our bed's just a slide down divan with rubber cushions and not an inner spring but it's comfortable enough, and you can get rid of it in the day time. Not only that but I reckon we have more storage and a full length not 3/4 length wardrobe.

For us a holiday is the chance to lead a simpler life without all the mod cons and the telly. (I know a lot of V V'ers take their telly, and that's fine, but we like to give ours a rest!) We enjoy reading and chatting to the folk on the next site or down in the laundry while we wait for the coin in the slot washing machine to do its thing.

I guess it all comes down to what sort of holiday you enjoy. We really like having our kids and their friends visit and have slept 9 or 10, including in the annexe. On the other hand, if I was driving around Australia for 6 months, a van with all mod cons that only sleeps 2 might have its attractions... It would be a bit like towing a portable motel room around with you, but then you could stay in a lot of motel rooms for $20, $30 or $40,000 and the bed gets made for you

You sometimes also wonder about the quality and craftsmanship in some of the modern vans. I wonder how many will still be around in 60 or 70 years like some of our V V's?

In the end it's each to their own, but make mine a V V ;D ;D

Don Ricardo