End-of-Trip Notes from a Born-Again Caravan Nerd

Before this trip we had used the caravan exactly twice, for a total of four nights. You could say we were a tad underexperienced for a trip of this scope.
We learned lots during the 'adventcha' however and I'd like to pass a few thoughts on.

What I'd do differently

In fact, we were pretty well prepared.

After a near disaster on our second trip, I bought Level Rides to hold the back of the car and the front of the caravan level. This removed most of the sway that can occur when slowing down or running down hill.

I found the Level Rides I bought required that the car and van be jacked up about 200 mm. before inserting the Level Rides. I made up a tool to insert them into their brackets and that, I'm sure, saved my aging back.

Another good purchase was a hydraulic jockey wheel. It can double as a jack and makes lifing and lowering the van a breeeze. One one site with lots of side-to-side slope, I used the jack to level up the van. It worked well.

I'd call these two ' must haves.'

For a long trip I'd consider installing a couple of batteries and an inverter in the caravan boot and running everything on 240. Running the fridge always carries the risk of flattening the battery when the car's stopped.
One couple we met told a horror story of a flat battery on the Port Lincoln/ Adelaide ferry. They were supposed to first off and had an angry mob queued up behind them.

Running the fridge on gas works really well and uses bugger all gas. Petrol stations are (not surprisingly) funny about driving up to a petrol bowser with a gas fridge going, so turning it off before travelling is a necessity.

Cooking's no drama and most caravan parks have barbecues and camp kitchens. These are the most fun places in caravan parks (along with bars and swimming pools) and where we met many of the nice people we got to know.

We were lucky that our van has plenty of storage space, but found keeping things in boxes and plastic containers makes everything easier. Putting things back in the same place each time is another obvious but useful idea. Saves conversations that start with "Have you seen the ...?"

Personal van etiquette:. We rapidly learned that both of us could not do things in the van at the same time. Attempting this causes one person to stand, waiting for the other person to get out of the way. This is not good and can induce unneeded marital stress.

When setting up or packing up, we had our own jobs; mine mostly outside and Pam's mostly inside.

Prior to taking off, we walked around the van, checking everything together. We did this every time and we never took short cuts with the inspection. The result? We never drove off with a window or door open. The legs were always up. The jockey wheel was always put away. The chains were always on. Etc. etc. etc. This is, if I can say so, is a really good idea.

Driving with the van is different that driving without it. Duh.

Prior to leaving, I had a competent mechanic go over everything. I got an oil cooler installed on the transmission, some steering gear replaced, new tyres and everything else that was recommended.

The only additional thing I would recommend is an in-line fuel filter that can be inspected from under the bonnet. The Commodore's is underneath and is not transparent.
We had serious problems with dirty fuel and from conversation with other travellers this is not uncommon. The in-line filter might have saved us the drama at Exmouth.

Driving itself just requires being conscious that there's a heap of weight in the van.

Running down steep hills increases the risk that a serious wobble will develop. I found either applying the van's electric brakes manually or making a positive application of the brake pedal (enough to ensure the van's brakes came on) kept the van from trying to overtake the car. The electric brakes can be easily adjusted to ensure this happens.

Probably the most exciting driving involves roadtrains. They travel at 100 kph and can be up to five trailers long. They take a long time to get up to speed and also a long time to stop. We never overtook a roadtrain, but had lots of them overtake us.

The first thing I found was that it's sometimes possible to make it unnecessary for the roadtrain to overtake at all. When pulling onto the road, from a roadhouse say, I'd have a long look. If there was a roadtrain visible in the direction I was going, I'd just wait for him. The extra minute or two wait meant that he wouldn't have to overtake me at all. Roadtrain drivers would recognise this courtesy and reward me with a friendly flash of the lights.

When a roadtrain did find it necessaey to overtake, I found the following method worked well:

1. When I saw the RT close enough behind me to realise he was going to overtake, if it was clear ahead, I'd give him one flick of the right indicator. He can see much further than I can, but it lets the driver know that I know he's there and he's going to pull out.
2. As the objective of the maneuver is to get the thing over as quickly as possible, as soon as I saw the RT all the way out in the lane next to me, I'd give a positive application of the brakes and reduce my speed by around 10 kph. Then, I'd immediately start a very slow acceleration. These two actions kept the van from developing a sway from the buffetting and let the RT get by quickly.
3. When the RT was 300-400 ahead I'd resume my normal 90-93 kph.

I'd be interested to hear from others whether this is a reasonable method. It seemed to work well for us.

The only other driving practices I tried to adopt was a sort of Golden Rule of Driving. If being stuck behind a slow moving vehicle pisses me off, then I should try not to be that slow moving vehicle for others. Use the left lane in overtaking areas. Slow up additionally if there are lots of cars trying to get past. On slow, winding roads, pull over for a minute to let a stream of traffic pass.

The number one sin we saw committed was the car and caravan (or sometime just a single car) driving at 20 kph. under the posted speed limit and VARYING THEIR SPEED ALL OVER THE PLACE.

We've had people vary between 60 and 85 kph. on stretches where the posted limit is 110. The practice makes all other road users overtake, a necessarly dangerous thing to do.

We believe that other road users should be able to purchase surplus harpoons (from Albany) and fit them to their cars. We believe slow, varying speed drivers must be on the way to their parent's weddings. We believe they should be immediately sent to Fremantle prison (or Pentridge if in Victoria) and experience actual flogging followed by hanging. There's no excuse.

Most people are great; most roads are fine. It's not hard to drive safely with a caravan. Like anything else, it just takes a bit of thought.