After discovering our love for caravanning with our Jayco Flamingo, and setting our five year dream of saving for our Big Lap in 2025, we decided to upgrade the van to something off-road and more roomie for our growing boys. We spent a fair bit of time researching what van would suit our needs, what interiors would make our hearts sing and spent hours punching in numbers to see which vans gave us a bang for our buck!

After spending hours at caravan dealerships and caravan shows, it wasn't until we were leaving the show when we came across Great Aussie Caravans! It was everything we were looking for, and for the price we wanted to spend for everything that we needed! With the chaos that COVID created, it did mean there was going to be a 12 month wait. We were fine with that, we believe good things come to those who wait, and we couldn't be more stoked with our investment! She hasn't missed a beat since bringing her home!

So let us introduce to you our beast of a van! It is a 2022 Great Aussie 21'6 Tribal Xplora. She is fully off-road with an island queen bed and double bunks. We kept the oven, there's a 3.5kg wall-mounted washing machine in the ensuite and we have a Dometic 224L compressor fridge. You can find all the deets on their website but have listed below some customisation when we ordered our van:

• Dometic Dust Reduction System (DRS)
• Webasto diesel heater
• 3 x 170w solar panels (1 extra than provided)
• 3000w Projecta inverter, with the PMshunt and standard Projecta PM335 battery management system onboard
• Raptor slide-out outdoor kitchen
• Straight kitchen bench with sink / drainer (to create more floor space to move around the van)
• Pot drawers under bunks
• Shelving in back cupboard and cupboards next to queen bed
• Anderson plug in tool box (for Dometic portable fridge)
• Front window (no regrets)

Our inverter supplies 240v power to the entire van when off-grid through a transfer switch wired-in at the factory. We bought and installed 3x iTechworld 120X lithium batteries after handover (there were 2x 100ah AGM's supplied). On delivery the tare weight was 2880kg and we are towing it with a 2021 Volkswagen Amarok V6. At handover, the dealer fitted a Hayman-Reese weight distribution hitch which keeps the car and van level and as the name implies, evenly distributes the weight across the drawbar and rear end of the Amarok for a safe and comfortable ride.

Occasionally when off-grid, we use a Mobi 300w solar blanket to charge the batteries a little quicker, via an Anderson plug underneath the van. Sometime in future we may fit a separate DC-DC charger (with solar input) for more efficient battery charging than the PM335 presently does. Otherwise, we've been very happy with the Projecta components.

Interior design tickles our fancy so for this van we went with 70% monochrome, 20% coastal and 10% bohemian. With everything in the world of COVID, our original selections were becoming harder to order so we when the time came to sign off on our layout and design, we opted for stock-standard colours. 

INTERIOR:

• Timber look bench-top and tabletop: Classic Torreya
• Splashback: Arctic White
• Overheads: Lana Grey Matte
• Under bench: Charcoal Matte
• Lounge: Vegas Volcano
• Floor: Hatari Grey 796

EXTERIOR: 

• Cladding: Dark Grey Metallic
• Striping: Black
• Checkerplate: Black

We ordered a custom made 17 foot annex with a front porch from Express Annexes and we're pretty stoked! Our awning is the 17 foot Aussie Traveller so needed an annex to attach to it. We first met the team at the caravan and camping super show and fell in love with the brand for their design, materials, costings and turnaround for manufacturing. We chose colours to best match our van and it was also supplied with an Aussie Traveler anti-flap kit and two curved rafters. The team measured, manufactured and installed everything for us making the purchase seamless (yes, pun intended)!