Getting recreational

A while back I did a post around a little trip and mentioned my caravan which I tow behind my Landcruiser (pictured above); I said I'd do a follow up post with a few images so here it is. It'll be short, just a few detail sand some images.

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They say the kitchen is the hub of every home, even mobile homes, but I don't use the kitchen much, I do pretty much all of the cooking outside using the kitchen for making coffee and occasionally heating up something in the oven or microwave. It's well-appointed though with a cooktop, grill and oven, microwave, sink with hot and cold running water, 188 litre fridge/freezer and ample cupboard storage.

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Below is the club lounge seating which easily seats five adults, not that I ever have more than two in it, and the table swivels around for ease of use and even drops down to create a bed once the table-infill cushion is placed on the table top should one need to sleep an extra person...(or I get banished from the main bed).

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Speaking of main beds, here's a shot of the bedroom and the Queen-sized bed, 2,000mm long and 1,500mm wide. There's storage either side and the bed lifts up on gas struts to provide more storage as well; under the bed is the battery management unit and breakaway towing battery as well.

The skylight includes additional LED lighting and there's a block-out screen to block out the sun; in fact, all the windows have block-out screens, good to make the interior dark when needed and of course to maintain privacy if there's others around.

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Here's a shot taken from the lounge area looking down through the kitchen and into the bedroom. The interior of the caravan itself is 22 feet long (6.7 metres) so there's ample room for two people. In between the kitchen and the lounge is the washroom area, with a door of course, and there's another door separating it and the bedroom. You can also see the head unit from of the roof-mounted reverse cycle air conditioner in this shot.

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Water is fed from two 95 litre water tanks, or mains water if at a caravan park, to the entire caravan including the kitchen and shower/bathroom areas and the caravan has an instant (continuous) hot water system powered by gas or mains power depending on where one is.

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In the collage below you can see the washroom area which includes a 4kg front loading washing machine (that I never use) and some more storage plus a toilet. The image also shows the battery management and radio head unit, hot water temperature controls and some other switches that turn things on or off as needed.

You can also see the water tank gauges, three of them, which includes the two fresh water tanks and grey water tank which collects water from the sink and shower rather than dump it out to the environment. When staying at a caravan park this would drain directly into a sullage tank in the ground but when off-grid it needs to be collected then dumped appropriately later.

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The batteries are 300 amp-hour lithium units fed by two 210w solar panels and battery managed by a REDARC management system. It chooses the appropriate charging method based on the situation such as my vehicle (or solar) when moving, solar when stationary in the day time, or 240v (mains power) when plugged in at a caravan park. The batteries power the caravan (all electrical needs except the microwave and air conditioner) for about 6-8 days depending on available sunlight.

The reverse cycle air conditioner will only work on 240v (so when plugged in to mains power) although I run a Honda 2.2kVA genset when in remote areas which runs the air conditioner and all the power outlets, pumps, lights, stereo system and TV (if I was to turn it on...which I rarely do).

Outside there's a drop down picnic table, external speakers (three inside as well) which can operate separately, an external TV box, mains power inlet and outlet, and 12v outlets, an external shower, a roll out awning, 360° TV antenna called a Cowfish Vantenna (for some odd reason) and...well, you get the idea I think.

Finally some weights...

• TARE: 2732kg/2.73 tons (TARE is the weight without any load, just the caravan itself)
• ATM: 3412kg/3.41 tons (ATM is aggregate trailer mass - the maximum the trailer can weigh fully loaded)
• Payload: 680kg/0.68 tons (The maximum I can load into the van - the difference between the ATM and TARE weights)
• Ball weight: 219kg (The weight of the tow coupling on the tow ball of my vehicle at TARE weight)

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That's about it really; I mean, I could talk some more about it but I don't want to get too boring for you, most of y'all have probably tuned out already.