Bushtracker covers all off-grid bases

After dabbling in all-electric caravanning last year, Queensland off-road caravan manufacturing heavyweight Bushtracker has gone back to basics with its latest show van that covers all off-grid camping bases, with high-capacity battery power backed up by gas, diesel and petrol powered appliances to deal with almost any off-road adventure.

Featuring a new 'mid-width' 2.3m wide body, Bushtracker's latest 19ft show-van boasts a familiar look with its weight-saving ribbed aluminium cladding, proven tandem load sharing suspension and foolproof, five tonne Hitch-Ezy off-road coupling.

The three main sources of onboard 'power' include twin drawbar-mounted 4.5kg gas bottles, that part run the gas/induction internal cooktop and a portable BBQ via a gas bayonet, and the underbed-mounted Enerdrive 300Ah lithium battery system with 3000W inverter, 120amp charger and four 185W rooftop solar panels that powers electrical appliances including the Panasonic convection/steam oven, 188 litre Dometic compressor fridge, Breville coffee pod machine, Fusion stereo and 32in Smart TV; not to mention the powered entry steps, awning and jockey wheel.

There's also a fibreglass lined offside external locker for a slide-out petrol generator, to run a load or two in the Camec 2.5kg wall-mounted washing machine and keep the Truma rooftop air conditioner running all night.

Also on the drawbar is a 10 litre fuel container feeding the diesel space heater and, if that's not enough, there's space on the A-frame to carry firewood for old-fashioned heating and cooking!

The show van also boasts three switchable 90 litre water tanks (one potable, two non-potable), along with a three-in-one inline water purifying system.

"With this particular set-up you're still off-grid (with the battery system) but you're also relying on some sort of fossil fuel," explained Bushtracker part owner, Matthew Kurvink.

"Many of our customers are still happy to carry a generator to run the air-con, like on this van, or you could choose to double up the lithium battery and solar panels and run the air-conditioning off your battery system for a much longer period, so not having to rely on the generator."

As displayed with close to $40,000 worth of options, including a side-loading spare tyre carrier, outside shower and 'baby buzzard' front spotlights, the 19ft Mid-Width Bushtracker has a retail price of $198,185 and tips the scales with a Tare of 2720kg and 3850kg ATM, to deliver an impressive payload of 1130kg.

Kurvink said around 50 per cent of Bushtracker buyers are now opting for a 3500kg-plus ATM caravan, typically towed by an American pick-up or uprated LandCruiser 200 Series.

"Some people are more than happy to carry gas bottles, others are reticent, while others want generators and others don't. We're seeing less people want generators though; most customers want big battery systems," he said.

"We've got one customer that went to a 900Ah lithium battery system with 10 rooftop solar panels and he literally runs his air-conditioner 24/7 off-grid."

Concerns over 48V power efficiency

However, Kurvink said Bushtracker is in no rush to install one of the increasingly popular 48V lithium power systems, mainly due to space issues and concerns over efficiency.

"I don't think our customers are going to demand 48 volts because there's really no lifestyle gain. As a manufacturer we would save money on cabling, but the downside is your solar panel system is no where near as efficient," he explained.

"To give you an idea, when a solar system charges a battery, its voltage needs to be significantly higher than the battery, so in this 'van the panels are 20 volts, even though the batteries are at 12-13 volts... For a 24 volt system to be affective the solar array has to be higher and for 48 volts, the voltages have to be higher again, somewhere up around 100 volts.

"Now, 100 volts is mains voltage in America; that's a problem if some-one touches the wrong wire, but to achieve that you can't build 100 volt panels, they're still 20 volts. So what they do is wire them in series," he said.

"So, for example on a 'van with eight panels, you have two arrays of four wired up in series, and that's still only 80 volts. The issue with that is if one of those panels gets partly shaded you lose that whole array, so that's the big disadvantage. Whereas in a 12 volt system, if one of those eight panels is partly shaded, the other seven panels are still working."

He also said there are fewer potential cost savings with the reduction in 48V wiring on a Bushtracker van, as most of the electricals including the inverter and batteries are mounted together; in a compartment under the raised bed, in the display van's case.

It's also unlikely you'll see the increasingly popular 7.1 or 14.3kW/h, OzXCorp 48-volt lithium-ion battery bank that mounts within the chassis rails, in a Bushtracker van due to space limitations.

"We don't really have the room (within the chassis rails) because most of our customers want to carry so much water," he said. "Most of our customers want a minimum of 300 litre (freshwater) plus grey tanks, and family vans will have a lot more, up to 700 litres in some cases."

Bushtracker would also need to conduct independent testing to ensure the low-slung batteries are fully sealed during creek crossings, to uphold Bushtracker's 1.2m water wading depth 'guarantee'.

"We like to test out all the products we use on our 'vans first. So for example, when getting a new air conditioner we like to put a few miles on it first and see how it performs," he said.