The truth about off-road caravans
Some ‘off-road’ caravans are not really meant to leave the bitumen for longCOMMENT
It’s not one size fits all when you leave the bright lights and the black top behind.
Different travellers often describe the same road differently, depending on when they travel and what they tow.
Shire graders at the end of the ‘Wet’ iron out most corrugations that become suspension breakers later in the ‘Dry’, while high tyre pressures and badly-matched tow vehicles can give you the camper trailer or caravan behind you an easy or hard time.
‘Off-road’ is an increasingly popular industry nameplate that can be open to widely different interpretations.
At its entry level, it’s a checker-plate dress-up kit designed to impress your neighbour, but little more; at the other extreme, it describes something that is built to survive hundreds of kilometres of brutal corrugations.
The problem is that many travellers, some egged on by enthusiastic salespeople, believe it gives them the equipment and the freedom to leave the bitumen for as far and as long as they like.
Off-road, semi off-road, rough road...
We get feedback all the time from readers who take their caravans to places that their manufacturer has never even heard of, let alone visited or designed their products to survive getting there. Put it this way, a mainstream caravan isn’t designed to do what a specialist off-road Trakmaster, Track Trailer, Bushtracker or Kedron is built for. Or it would cost as much!
The problem here is that the industry isn’t usually up-front about its expectations of what you should and shouldn’t do with your caravan and doesn’t give buyers a simple guide to determine the levels of ‘off-road-ability’.
In most cases, the difference between Touring and Off-Road models is external: a larger diameter chassis and A-frame; larger wheels and knobbly ‘all-terrain' tyre; trailing arm independent suspension instead of beam axles, stone protection for A-frame water taps, under-body water tanks and their plumbing (if you’re lucky) and of course, lots of checker-plated cladding, even in places that stones rarely strike, like the caravan’s sides and rear.
Combined, they give buyers the impression that their camper or caravan is bullet-proof and is ready to go bush with the best of them.
However, few have interior cabinetry that is anchored more securely to withstand hundreds of kilometres of corrugations; steel draw runners and properly constructed drawers; fully-sealed-off, well secured and externally-vented fridges and proper dust sealing that will hold back the tsunami of dust and sand on any major outback road in the dry.
Read the fine print
The point here is that manufacturers don’t want you to take their dressed-up ‘off-roaders' there to start with, but you’ll only find out the limits of their enthusiasm in the fine-print.
To their credit, Jayco has always been up-front in its brochures and web site for those about to tick the ‘Outback’ option box on their campers, Expandas or caravans. And I quote:
‘Jayco’s Outback range of RVs have been designed and constructed to give added strength and ground clearance, for limited unsealed road usage. Gas venting regulations and other construction restraints limit the effectiveness of these RVs against dust and water penetration. Under no circumstances should these RVs be exposed to water crossings at, or above, body floor level.
"We strongly recommend towing at safe speed according to travel conditions with extra care and attention required on uneven surfaces.
"Our Outback RVs are not designed for hard impact, heavy landings, severely rutted roads, or tracks.
Jayco’s Outback RVs are not designed for use on 4WD-only tracks.’
And Jayco then goes on to list all the things its warranty will not cover if you willfully disregard this advice. Couldn’t be clearer.
Some mainstream manufacturers, but not all, have a similar policy, for their ‘off-roaders’.
Few build true ‘Off-Road’ caravans because the many modifications required add too much to the price. To their credit Jayco has made a serious effort with its Adventurer caravan and pop-top models, which incorporate unique furniture fixtures to ensure that everything stays in place.
Different levels of suspension
And a lot of other manufacturers make a clear distinction between their 'mock-roaders' and serious remote area products by the sort of suspension they put under them .
Both AL-KO and Cruisemaster offer different suspension grades for these different purposes, each successively heavier and more expensive.
Generally speaking, Jayco’s JTech, AL-KO’s Enduro Cross Country and Cruisemaster’s CRS (Country Road Suspension) are variations on the same theme – all relatively lightweight, compact trailing arm independent systems employing coil springs and shock absorbers (either one or two).
These systems essentially are designed to endow conventional touring caravans with a more compliant, longer-travel suspension than their leaf spring and beam axle counterparts for owners to travel limited distances off sealed surfaces to allow them to access popular tourist attractions, national parks and free-camp areas.
However they're definitely not designed for prolonged travel on major outback ‘highways’, such as the Oodnadatta and Tanami Tracks, the Great Central Road, or the Plenty Highway, for example.
The problem is that these caravans are usually built much the same as regular touring caravans and with their lighter-duty suspension, their shock absorbers can get hot and bothered if subjected to continual rough going and corrugations. Nevertheless, for less adventurous travelers, they can make a great alternative to leaf springs for a couple or family planning a 'lap' of Australia.
Getting really serious
Next up the tree you have systems like the twin shocker JTech that Jayco puts under its Adventurer models, the AL-KO Enduro Outback and Cruisemaster XT. These systems are the minimum you need on any caravan that you plan to take along one of the above-mentioned Outback ‘highways’.
Further up the scale and designed for even tougher work, you’ll find really hard-core systems like Cruisemaster ATX.
Finally, the most expensive suspension is airbag, which is employed on the premium systems offered by Jayco, AL-KO and Cruisemaster and smaller specialist manufacturers like Trakmaster, which is designed to iron out bumps even better and gives the caravan and everything in it an easier time.
The latter high-end systems are offered only on serious ‘Off-Road’ caravans, with other changes to their construction to ensure they will go the distanced – and back.
Further reading:
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