Thankfully this saga is behind us now but damn, it's an experience we never want to have again (the write off and the battle that followed) but at least now we are much more aware of what to do and what to look out for. In the end it's never nice to have to fight for your rights so hopefully our experience can save someone else the grief.

5. Check your insurance is accurate and covers travelling for extended times --- we were lucky that our insurance company actually honoured the amount we had insured the caravan for, which had included upgrades and modifications, because the assessor had based his recommendation off the market value and wouldn't listen to us when we said the policy stated otherwise. We would have been much worse off if they didn’t!

   Double check your policy and exactly what is covered and the amount insured. Some companies need every modification and upgrade listed otherwise they won't cover it. Others, like ours, had an overall figure that we insured it for.

   We also changed our insurances just before we left on our trip because we found a lot had rules that you couldn't live in the caravan or be away travelling for more than 4 weeks without voiding your cover. Not sure what they think caravans are most used for …. 🤷‍♀️ But double check your own policy exclusions if you are like us and on the road full-time or for longer than a few weeks

4. Know your towing weights --- it is easy to get weights from the salesman but they are only going off what the plates state - I don't really understand it all but you can't just go off the plates - applies to both the caravan and the tow rig.

   You need to factor in what you will have in both the vehicle and caravan including your own body weight and things like fuel, water, clothes, food, tools, recovery gear, etc. It all adds up and is in addition of what the plates state. If you are borderline towing by what the plates state - there's a good chance you will be over once you are packed for a trip!

   If you purchase (or pay a deposit) and then discover the weights aren't right, it's your issue - even if you were given incorrect information - they will not refund you and you can't just return the caravan. We've heard so many stories of people getting caught out by this and not factoring in the combined weights + the extra weight of all the gear they have. We are lucky now that weight shouldn't be a catch for us but we've spoken to many that are borderline each time they hit the road and it's just another stress no one needs

3. Know the warranty rules and your consumer rights --- make sure you get your services done in the required time or warranty can be voided… this includes taking over someone else's warranty (if they haven't done the services within the required time all warranty can be declined!). We made the decision to buy new to avoid any issues (😂 ) thinking warranty would be a simple process - from the little we dealt with the warranty team, it's not straightforward and there are many hoops to jump through

   And a huge one for us is to know your consumer rights (ACCC have easy to understand info on their website) - we didn't fully know our rights until weeks into our saga when we were at our wits end and began researching and reaching out to others in similar situations. We had trusted the company to be honest in what was and wasn't possible in relation to our consumer rights which was a big mistake. In the end we had to battle every step of the way to have the consumer rights laws followed and some of the things said to us and the manner in which we were spoken was shocking - and a breach in and of itself. It was beyond stressful and exhausting and we both wish we had known the actual facts sooner.

2. Take the time to inspect every single aspect of the caravan --- seriously test every possible thing no matter how much it annoys the seller… pull the awning out - make them move the caravan if need be to do so, turn on fans, plug something into power points, lift bed up, check under the van especially the wheel arches for unsealed areas… if we had of done this we never would have agreed to the sale because we would have found multiple issues just from doing this.

   Things should work as they are meant to - especially from new - but from our experience (and so many others we've spoken to since) it's best to lose the time checking than to find out once you have paid and towed it away because most companies then consider it warranty (which is bullshit) and it's get in line for a place! It doesn't matter the cost, extent of issues or even if you have owned the van less than a day - you just go to the end of the queue, which funnily enough - or not - is commonly months, just for simple repairs let alone a whole list of them

1. Don't pay a cent until you've done the checks etc --- we personally found that once we had paid, the dynamic shifted and we were no longer a priority, we had to keep contacting the company to try and get answers and a resolution. The after sales service was next to none in our experience and we were told to work with them, that some things were a simple fix and we should do them ourselves and other than that we would have to wait months to get repairs under warranty - even though technically it isn't even warranty if the faults existed on purchase - we had called and emailed about the first several issues within hours of collecting the van… once they have your money it's a battle to get a refund or as we found, any resolution at all - we've heard of some people fighting for months or years to get things fixed or having to go back for repairs time and time again. From our experience, don't pay until you've done 👇

6 weeks after heading off on our big adventure of travelling Aus we got hit by one of the scariest storms I've ever been in --- on Christmas Day of all days 🤯

It caught us off guard - we had been watching the radar all afternoon and it looked like it would go around us - suddenly we were in the thick of it

In torrential rain, insane winds and flying hail a tree landed on our caravan roof near the rear of the van - it was so scary being inside! - water started pouring in above the toilet and the rear of the van had taken the direct hit as it fell

Thankfully we were able to patch up the van so we could still live in it and travel until insurance came to the party

…that turned into a slight battle itself - chasing them up, trying to get quote repairs and plan where we could possibly get them done to fit in with already booked in plans moving across NSW and not quite knowing what was happening in our life in general because we were stalled waiting on what we thought would be repairs

In the end, due to what we believe was an assessor error they deemed the caravan to be a total loss, a repairable write-off that had to be cleared by QLD transport once repaired

We nearly did the repairs and backtracked to QLD but after researching and discussing we made the decision to not - mostly due to the uncertainty of what further damage might be found once repairs started and hard it might be to get the 'wovi' tag cleared

With the amount paid out from insurance it was impossible to get the same level of van as what we had as Dan had spent so much time, effort and money upgrading and improving ours

So we bought new - funnily enough - after looking at a few 2nd hand ones we decided to go new so we wouldn't have any troubles

…and that's when the real trouble began...

The van we bought had multiple issues from the moment we pulled up from collecting it and over the next few days we just kept discovering more… and more… and still more

We battled and fought tooth n nail to be listened to, taken seriously and to get any resolution. After just over a month, countless calls and emails, we finally moved 'house' again into a replacement - apparently, we are one of the luckier people out there that have succeeded in actually getting any resolution within the caravan industry

We've spoken to so many other caravanners over the past few months and unfortunately our case isn't even an exception - and not just one company or brand or price range is to blame - it seems to be common across the board to receive vans with existing faults or sub-standard builds and to then have zero or appalling after sales service and to have wait months for repairs or battle every step of the way to even get to that point! I try not to think about it all because I just get stroppy again but we've done a list of the top 5 things we wish we had of known or done differently before buying again and what covers most of the issues we've heard of

Hopefully it just might help someone else out there - the caravan industry definitely needs a shake up!