Tvan Value For Money

[Kimcam]

My Prado was not quite ready from its service today, so I went for a wander to kill some time. Came across these just down the road:

www.marketdirect.com.au

Took a look around their showroom at the 'extreme offroad' caravans and camper trailers, and was surprised at how affordable they seem to be. Turns out that $26k gets you their top of the range camper trailer, while $36k gets you into a 12ft offroad caravan.

These all look very nice in the showroom, and appear to have all of the fruit. For that price, though,  I am assuming that they are manufactured overseas....

I know that a Tvan is a thing of joy and beauty, and I'm not suggesting that any of these are an equivalent or as good, but it did cause to to wonder what is it that makes it soooo expensive? The same amount of money that will buy you a brand new offroad caravan might get you an 8 year old Tvan.

I still think that I want to buy a Tvan, but I do wish they were a little bit more affordable - are they good 'value for money' (I know this will be very subjective)?

Would be great to hear some others thoughts

Cam

[tastrax]

Do a bit of google research and you will find a few folks have had issues

https://www.exploroz.com/forum/104916/market-direct-campers-mdc---bad-service

Like all purchases a bit of due diligence goes a long way.

[Pete930]

You are right there Kimcam, Tvan's you do leave a kidney at the door when you pay for it however our MKIII purchased new in 2014 has been great, a few issues with the roof hatches leaking and that's it. A friend of mine spent some $33,000 on a camper trailer locally made here in Adelaide and used to send me the weekend fix up pics of what went wrong that weekend. That went on for quite a while and it wasn't small stuff either, he completed rewired it correctly as it should have been done, broken welds, stuff falling off etc.
So unless we have been very very lucky with ours I reckon it's worth every cent and I still reckon the MKIII personally was/is the best model.

Pete

[gentoopeng]

Hi Cam,

Value for money is a hard thing to define but for us we were willing to pay for a camper made to survive what the Australian bush could throw at it.  Since we bought our Mark III we have done 45000 km including the Cape, the Gibb River Road, the Strezlecki Track and lots in-between.  In that time I have had to replace one bearing on the road and do a regular service every 10K.  That's quality, ruggedness and VALUE FOR MONEY. . Not sure a flat pack caravan imported would match that.  In the end you get what you pay for.  Planning our next trip to WA  in 2019.  Retirement in a Tvan is the way to go.

Rob

[Kimcam]

Thanks for the replies.

Interesting (but not completely surprising) to read about the issues with the MDC campers, although I suspect it could well apply to any of the imported types. You would be less than impressed if you forked out almost $30k, only to have bits fall off every time you took it out.

Obviously reliability is a key issue - but difficult to assess when you are looking at something new and shiny. With the recent demise of Kimberly Kampers, I'm guessing that there aren't too many Australian made campers on the market any more.

I am yet to read of a single incident where they have had a significant reliable issue with their Tvan, across any of the years / models, so I guess that says a lot.

Cam

[Cruiser 105Tvan]

Ultimate Camper trailers have bitten the dust too.

[dave]

Seeing as the subject has already been broached, here are two pics of a fully Chinese-built unit that my son and his wife picked up last weekend after ordering it six weeks earlier.
I had a quick look at this model recently at a show and was quite impressed by all that was included as standard. Things like gas line and reg hard plumbed (with compliance plate) two mag spares, strut-controlled boat rake, all canvas etc for a family room (looks to be of pretty good quality, but who knows?) two electric water pumps, independent coil suspension etc, etc.

Brand spanker top of the range for under $20k drive away. [emoji848]

Would I buy one? No, but for him with a young family (kids 1 & 2 years old) and mortgage it was either this or nothing (or maybe a 14 year old fogged-out Tvan with no fruit) so I fully understand why at this stage of his life the reason for going down this path. With the amount of fruit on this unit a new Tvan would be pushing mid $80k.

They have no intention of doing the Simpson or the like in it and will probably only see rural dirt roads at most, probably minimum two-day stops, weekend trips every month or so, but in the end it will get him and his family out there camping to dams etc and there's absolutely no substitute for a young kid's growing up development.

Over the years, unfortunately I've set my standards much higher than my pay grade resulting in completely missing out on many of life pleasures while mates enjoyed experiences on a tight budget. [emoji30][emoji41]

[Kevin]

It does depend on where you are going to take it doesn't it. We had (sadly don't anymore) a MkII and for it it just meant that it didn't matter what the road was like we knew the TVan would follow us without fuss. I used to think "the Tvan can go further than the car and the car can go further than the driver was willing to take it" so I was happy.

[Pebble]

We had a TVan Canning with some upgrades it was in the 50k range.
As we got older and our ideas changed we looked at other options, going up a step to something like a Topaz etc. In the end we foiund a Trakmaster Gibson pop top caravan (60-70k depending on options and it is a proper offroad capable van) was in the same ballpark....yeah it was a "caravan" and Hubby swore we'd never buy one...but we did because it seemed to meet all our requirements and was very similar to the Topaz.

I do still kind of miss the TVan, but it's really nice being able to cook and sit inside.... although unlike the TVan there's definitely no space for the kids to put their swags inside..... which is ok because they will probably leave home soon enough (hence the change).

I know the new TVan model prices are even more than what we paid for ours and I do agree they are at the point where they may be competing with caravans. Mind you I think the TVan definitely still has a unique place in the market.

[Wildmax]

We did the same as you Kristina and Terry - went over to the dark side and bought an AOR Eclipse for the same reasons you did, and we're extremely pleased with it.
But like you, we also miss the TVan, which I still firmly believe is the very best offroad camper available. Would love to have afforded to keep both!!

[robstevens]

Re: Elite camper trailers... well they are at least 1480kg in weight, and that's before you fill them up. So not light weight.

Also - I'd perfer to spend my money with an Australian company any day over a foreign one... even if it costs more. - we have so little manufacturing left in OZ - happy to help what's left...

[Shaker]

That seems to be one big drawback with Chinese campers/caravans, they are too heavy.
I kept my Tvan but also purchased an Australian Off Road Quantum. I would have bought a Topaz but my wife was keen for the bigger camper to have an internal shower/toilet & I wanted to retain the outside kitchen.

[Pebble]

Shaker I really do like the look of those Quantums....well the AOR range in general I guess. Not really for us at this stage anyway as we didn't we didn't want all the luxuries like inside shower / toilet... or an outside kitchen, we do have a gas port so that we can use the little Ziggy bbq outside though.

[boyce]

I guess we have gone to a slightly darker side too. We were finding the Tvan setup a bit hard with the canvas and arthritic hands not quite being what they used to be. We felt that we weren't quite ready for a caravan because we don't want limitations on where we can travel.  We bought a Vista XL. To return to the theme of the thread, our experience with the Tvan over 4 years showed us that if you buy smart you stand a good chance of getting your money back when you sell. We bought the Tvan when it was 2 years old and have looked after it and used it a fair bit with not too much rough stuff unfortunately! We thought it was expensive when we bought it (and it was)  and we got our money back, so apart from upkeep and maintenance, it was an excellent value for money proposition.

[Shaker]

I had a Vista Crossover & without doubt it was best built camper that I have ever had, including the Tvan & the AOR Quantum!