Great service and support from your Caravan provider during a time of stress and disappointment. Great to see. Where did you buy your map from? We are kiwis coming to Australia in December to pick up our caravan and L300 from Melbourne. Start a 2 year lap if Australia with our wee Shih Tzu dog so appreciate you identifying when a camp is dog friendly. Enjoying your episodes.😁🌺

@Vantastic_Aus

10 күн бұрын

Hi Catherine, glad you are enjoying our videos. We do try to cover everything in our campsite reviews, also some additional stuff will be in the community page. The map is from Daves Decals, great for marking off where you have been. Yes we are very happy with the support and service from Bushtracker, it does make a great difference in a stressful time. Enjoy your trip and we might see you out on the road some where in Oz.

@user-bf1wb9jg1w

10 күн бұрын

Thank you for your speedy reply - really appreciate. Yes - hope to see you out on the lap somewhere.😁🌺

Oh my gosh , my heart goes out to you guys. Thank goodness for warranty but rather it never happened at all. I hope all works out and no lasting damage. I have a Hiace van, no list for checks.....but I will now. Take care guys.

@Vantastic_Aus

21 күн бұрын

Thanks Sharon, yes a check list is important, even if it is just a mental one, as it does help keep things on track and make sure nothing is forgotten, in pack up or set up.

Thanks for sharing. What a drama! Great to see the support from Bushtracker. Stay safe😎

@Vantastic_Aus

20 күн бұрын

Thanks Keith, we are happy to share our experiences, both good and bad, and hopefully others can learn from them.

We’ve purchased our first van, had an issue with red hot brake drum on our first trip. Went in for warranty, second trip same problem… it’s booked in again. Doesn’t seem to matter what brand van you have, they all seem to have a problem or two. Sad when you spend all your money on something, and the industry isn’t really regulated very well. It’s like all company’s just rush them out the door and worry about “quality control” if it comes back for something.

@Vantastic_Aus

18 күн бұрын

@@BordertotheShore sorry to hear about your brake issues, as they are important. Our issue was not related to the manufacturing of the caravan, but a part used in it, which we are happy to say Bushtracker have sent us the replacement part and assured us if any issues from it crop up in the future will be looked after, so we can't fault their service or back up. But yes some manufacturers try and wash their hands of any issues once you have paid for your van, which is not good.

We had a bad experience in our van too so know how you feel. Thanks for sharing yours.

@Vantastic_Aus

22 күн бұрын

yes it is not a great experience, but it is a learning one and we have learned from it and are hopefully more prepared if it happens again. We are happy to share as hopefully it will help others learn form our experiences

Good episode. We've seen a few mentions of water incidents in the Flinders where the pumps were left on causing a flood. Good thing it's nice clean water. On one of our early trips, we left one of the flaps of the 4 seasons hatch open. It broke the hinge of the flap as we were driving down the highway. A friendly trucker alerted us on the CB because he could see the flap flapping around on the roof. We closed the other flaps before moving off but must have missed one because of where we were standing when closing it up. We now have an inside and outside printed checklist. It's in about revision 3 maining editted to get the sequence right.

@Vantastic_Aus

21 күн бұрын

Thanks, glad you liked it. Yes we usually double check each thing but we were out of sequence that morning as we were only an hour from home and weren't on our game😲 But yes it was good it was clean water, the other option would have been horrible 😮 Water leaks in bans seems to be more common than is reported based on the comments we got here and across our social media.

Definitely going to check out the stay Warren Gorge. Hopefully all is ok with the van after it’s leak 😉

@Vantastic_Aus

21 күн бұрын

Thanks Rob, yes everything appears to be good, at present. Warren Gorge is definitely worth checking out.

Sorry this happened , glad for the great service

@Vantastic_Aus

19 күн бұрын

Thanks Louise, yes it isn't a nice thing to find, but thankfully it is all looking good for now. And yes the response from BT has been great.

Be careful my mates parents had a 3 year old caravan bought from new its hot water system blew was fixed then blew again , too late the floor got warped and because its a composite wall sided van it was written off , way too hard to fix than a ally sided van , gee iv just stumbled across your channel and i recon back in the past ive been following your travels on face book you were working out bush and staying in ya swag every night living the dream , gee now you got a fella and travelling around cool 👍

@Vantastic_Aus

11 күн бұрын

Hi there David, yep, that's me! Van life to swag life, back to van life! 😆 As you can see, I'm still talking about Aus though. Thanks, yes, we will be keeping a close eye on the hws as we go!!! Bushtracker are also going to have a look at all when we can get back up that way. Welcome to our channel! 🤠

@davidmilledge221

10 күн бұрын

@@Vantastic_Aus great stuff I'm looking forward to ya future videos safe and happy travels

@Vantastic_Aus

10 күн бұрын

​@davidmilledge221 we hope they're slowly improving! It's a learning curve. 😂

Doh! I cant complain about a spilled bottle of cleaning fluid then. It was eucalyptus so at least it smelled ok. Good to hear about Bushtracker customer service, that's the proof of a great company!

@Vantastic_Aus

22 күн бұрын

We can't fault their service either, just wish we didn't have to test it. But yes the service was great from Bushtracker.

just as well you said you had good service because the builder is a mate of mine

@Vantastic_Aus

15 күн бұрын

@@johnpitt2742 yes John very happy with the service and the caravan. Can't blame bushtracker for a fitting breaking but can't fault their service when we contacted them, which is a big difference to some other caravan manufacturers.

@johnpitt2742

13 күн бұрын

@@Vantastic_Aus yes no bias i feel they are a good team and i have appreciated following your trip

@Vantastic_Aus

13 күн бұрын

@@johnpitt2742 thanks for the feedback John. We will be off on another trip in a few weeks time so keep an eye out for it 😉

sorry for your crap experience. Had the same thing happen to ours,actually in now for repair 40 g insurance job,6 week repair.

@Vantastic_Aus

20 күн бұрын

Yes Greg it's not a good experience. Fortunately ours seems to be ok, so far. Sorry to hear about yours, hopefully it will all be good when you get it back.

We didn’t turn off our water at home base and came home to a flooded house in February just moved back into last week still not finished .Do people turn there water off at there home before they travel???

@Vantastic_Aus

7 күн бұрын

Graham that's not a good thing to come home to. We have heard of people turning off the water at home but have not done it ourselves, but might have to think about it in the future 🤔 Glad you are back in even if it is still a work in progress.

Not a great thing to have happen! You've got me thinking about completely sealing my HWS, bay... there is a vent in the floor of it anyway, so leakage "should" go out of that... but doubling down and making the whole bay waterproof, so that NOTHING can leak out *into* the RV... just in case. At least in my case, having a motorhome, I would at least hear the water pump running, and could stop to find out why, but still... It only takes a slow leak to make stuff wet that maybe you wouldn't notice. Water could get into my tunnel boot and into anything that I had in there: as well as into the sleeping area where I have built in some wood .."cabinetry"...etc. I'm going to start looking for some "paint on" sealer/membrane that would leave no gaps... hmmm.

@Vantastic_Aus

21 күн бұрын

Hi Steve, probably a bit extreme sealing it all up, as it can happen anywhere in that there is piping running, as it wasn't the hot water that caused the issue it was the fitting that cracked was the root cause. And there is lot of joints in the pipes as it runs through and under the van so you would only be limiting the potential area of risk. Better to turn off the pumps 👍

Bugga … so sorry that happened to you .

@Vantastic_Aus

21 күн бұрын

Thanks Margaret. But it is a learning experience and thankfully it wasn't as bad as it first looked 🙂

no 1 rule before driving or storing--- turn all power off lol

@Vantastic_Aus

22 күн бұрын

Yes and if you watched the video we do cover that.

So was it the HWS that split/cracked/whatever, or was it the fittings that let go (i.e. external to the HWS)?

@Vantastic_Aus

19 күн бұрын

It was a John Guest fitting that broke, literally cracked in half. It joined the hose to the tank.

@spudboy1328

19 күн бұрын

@@Vantastic_Aus Thanks for that info. I've just bought one of those Duetto HWS and was worried I'd got myself a dud! John Guest fittings are normally bulletproof - that was bad luck to have one fail.

@Vantastic_Aus

19 күн бұрын

@@spudboy1328 yes we are happy with the hws, as long as you don't want a long shower 😜 But yes the fittings are usually good, but I have heard of a few failures lately.

Bugga!

@Vantastic_Aus

22 күн бұрын

Yes it was but thankfully an easy fix with the right part and so far no signs of long term damage.