Thorn Tree travel forum

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check out www.gumtree.com.au for cars for sale from other travellers to see what you might be looking at paying. Also look at www.autotrader.com.au for cars for sale. Check www.redbook.com.au to see the value of a car before you buy it. Campervans tend to be overpriced and overworked on the gumtree, but you might get a bargain. YOu could also try ebay.
Old campers tend to be overpriced IMO. A 25-30 year old hiace van is worth less than $1000, but as a camper they sell for $3000-6000. That a lot of money for an old van with OLD camping gear! I'd reccomend buying a regular van or 4x4 and putting a bit of effort into it and setting it up yourself.
I reckon in 2 days you could kit it out.
-Take out seats if they are in the way and give to a wreckers. (or even better, if they lay flat you can set up a bed on them!)
-Go to Kmart and buy and airmattress, $5 pillows, an esky (ice box/cool box/ chilly bin - whatever you call it) and a butane stove.
-Got to an Op shop (charity shop) and buy pots and pans, cups, plates, cutlery, sheets, tea towels etc.
That should be enough to get you going. You can buy anything else you want/need as you go. You will proberbly come across a proper mattress for cheap somewhere eventually, maybe even for free, but incase that takes a while, and airbed is cheap and easy in the meantime. You could try looking for freebies on www.gumtree.com.
You could put the matress on the floor, or on the seats if they lay flat, or if you have a friend with tools and the inclination, built a platform so you can keep stuff under the bed.
Some people will say im mad, but thats what i'd do. I have friends i met recently who bought a late 1970's hiace camper with late 1970's fridge, stove, furnature and lighting. They paid $3,500 for it. I had a 1981 hiace (not a camper) that was worth about $800-1800. Their camping equipment only worked when plugged in to 240v power, and since they free camp they have never used it in 3 months since they bought it! They cook on a trangier. They would be better off with a $1000 van with a matress in the back! Or spending that $3,500 on a much better van or a 4x4 van and putting a matress in the back.

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Hi guys!

I totally agree with Tessha that the best way to discover Oz is by van! A van isn’t only more comfortable than a fully packed bus, but it also gives you the freedom to see certain spots where no bus can take you. The outback is all yours then!

You’ve got different possibilities of buying a van, that’s for sure. The prices can vary from $1000 to $9000, depending where you buy from.

Whatever van you would decide to buy, you can easily equip it yourself with camping gear (K-mart indeed has the good stuff for a reasonable price).

One thing that you didn’t mention Tessha, are the problems that can occur with registration.

Me and my friend bought a van from another backpacker for about $2500, looked like the best van ever to us (Toyota Hiace)! We bought our mattress and other camping gear with it and were ready to hit to road…when we went to do our rego though we had major problems. It was something to do with a blue slip because the van was not in Sydney registration and, even though we had enough registration for our trip they said we had to change the number plate to a Sydney plate, and to do this we needed a blue slip. We took it to a mechanic who said because of oil leaks and other things it would cost more than the van was worth to fix it and that was before the $800 we had to pay for new numberplates and registration.

The rules of registration are pretty complicated in Oz, as we noticed, so we ended up having to trade the van at a dealer for $1000 losing $1500 of our holiday money before we even started. We paid $5000 for the new van with rego and it was fine for the whole trip and most importantly they sorted out the nightmare that is registration and insurance.

Just be careful when buying a van from a backpacker, the rules are complicated and time wasting and it doesn’t matter if the car has registration when you buy it you still have to go through the process of putting the insurance and registration in your name. I wouldn’t want you to get the same nasty surprise we got, and I hate to say it but it really is better to go to a dealer if you don’t understand the rules as they have to do the paperwork for you. Also if you worry about the mechanical parts of the car you can get an inspection from the NRMA for about $100, we did and they found some small bits wrong that the dealer fixed for us before we went.

I hope someone benefits from us learning the hard way and losing our money.

Anyway after that we had a great time and went everywhere, it was the best trip we have ever done with so many memories. I hope you have as good a time as we did.

Jenny83

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Try the trading post as well, each State has a printed version as well as tradingpost.com.au. There is also a Trader magasine for motorhomes that often have ads for ex rental Landcruiser HJ75 hi tops in the $20k range. Mitsubishi produced an L300 4x4 which have been converted to campers. There are quite a few Landrovers (SII & III) lurking around setup for travel - but reliability is always a bit sus.

A reliable and SAFE 4x4 is more important if you are visiting the NT. It costs an arm and a leg to get towed in from some remote spots.

Buying a low value vehicle is really hit and miss, $3k can be a bargain and run forever or limp out of town and die on the side of the road.

Until 4x4 became the norm for outback travel, we used to drive Holden Kingswoods and Premier station wagons with limited slip diffs and got most places with some careful driving - even beach driving and bull dust along the Birdsville Track and Flinders Ranges.

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