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We’ve already announced we have ordered our caravan from Jayco, but now what about the two vehicle? What are we going to use to tow our family caravan around Australia.
We have literally put the cart before the horse, by selecting our dream caravan without the means to tow it. Attention now turns to the ins and outs of suitable tow cars or vehicles. Our originally plan was to purchase a dual cab, but after learning all about GCM & GVM we quickly realized the types of cars we could purchase were dwindling in number.
We could purchase an American Truck, literally a truck here in Australia or look at the Land Rover Discovery 4 or the Land Cruiser 200 Series in our budget range of $50K to 60K (second hand).
The big trucks were ruled out almost as quickly as they were raised, and after learning of the need to upgrade the GCM to get the job done, the Land Rover Discovery 4 ruled itself out without the ability to upgrade it’s capacity due to the suspension.
Even a stock Toyota Land Cruiser 200 would be restrictive, in that the expected tow ball weight of our van, plus all the things we want to add on and in the vehicle quickly chew into the available payload. We had to find a vehicle with an upgraded GVM and GCM, ready to go for our big trip. There were just 2 available that we could find in all of Australia! We went down and test drove the vehicle right away.
It turned out the car we needed was literally 5 minutes down the road from our home in the South Eastern Suburbs of Victoria. Buying privately meant we got a one on one lesson with the previous owner, briefing us on all the quirks and ins and outs of the vehicle. It was well looked after, and replaced with a brand spanking new one for this owner, becoming their 4th Land Cruiser in a row.
When we bought the car home the kids couldn’t believe it was ours:
The first thing we noticed about the Land Cruiser 200 Series was the comfort levels. We were fortunate in that this was a Sahara. It had all of the bells and whistles: leather, dvd, air con, cameras, headphones, Fridge box and a moon roof. It even had wireless headphones that blew the kids away!
More importantly, the car had a GVM upgrade to 3800kg, and a revised GCM of 7300kg. This will allow us to do everything we need to with the car and the van, but of course we will still need to show some restraint! It came with airbag suspension in the rear, UHF radio, a chip, video and Anderson plug connections and a number of smaller things meaning it was pretty much ready for our big lap of Australia right out of the gate. In fact it’s already done the Nullabor 3 times on it’s own with the previous owner, evidenced by the odd sprinkle of red dust in some of the cars nooks and crannys.
Speaking of weight, we wanted to make sure we were spot on with our weights with both the caravan and the car. We contacted Weigh Station and they came straight out to weight the car on site. We then had an exact printout on current weights Vs GVM, plus the individual wheel and axle loads.
To pay for vehicle extras we also had to say good bye to JD’s beloved Holden Crewman. It was sold to a local and we are sure once back we will still see it around. The car sale plus the furniture sale from our sold holiday house will go towards any extras we need in the car and caravan.
Now we have the finances sorted, the car, the caravan and the house emptied and car sold, we can start to turn to the fun bit of where to go, and the route for our trip. In next week’s episode we will look at where we will go and for how long, plus ask for some help from our followers and members of some of the larger Facebook groups.
See you next week for Episode 5: Planning a lap of Australia!