We booked into an Airbnb located in Tanawa, a short ten-minute drive from the Bushtracker Factory at Kunda Park.
Our visit was to have our plans for our new 18' mid width van drawn up and let them know what extra additions we wanted above and beyond the standard inclusions.
It's our third new Bushtracker, so the whole process took a little less than two hours to have the plan drawn up, additions added, and interior colours sorted. Mind you, we had already downloaded copies of plans available from the Bushtracker website, where you can cut and paste templates to suit your needs.
This van will be different in so many ways from our previous Bushtrackers. There will be interior and exterior changes that will ensure we can spend even more time off the grid.
Instead of the standard Simplicity Suspension, we have opted to have the Load Sharing Coil Suspension that gives an even smoother ride.
Cladding will now be fibreglass, and instead of having the checker plate, we are going with the Dominator coat on a flat surface under the vans rub line that Bushtracker is known to have.
The 600 a/h lithium batteries and 1000 watts of solar allow us to do away with gas cooking. Instead, we will have a Panasonic 31L 1000W Inverter microwave with a flatbed design that steams, bakes, grills and microwaves. The bake and grill function is like a traditional oven with a 30c to 230c temperature range. Hotplates will be dual induction, and the E-pro 3000W inverter will be more than capable of powering these devices.
On our first van we installed a combined shower/toilet and have elected to have the same in this van. We find having the whole back of the van taken up with the separate facilities is just a waste of space, and let's face it, how long do you spend in there anyway.
We are also doing away with the traditional Thetford toilet. A Natures Head composting toilet will be installed instead. We have several friends who have these installed in their vans, and they rave about how wonderful they are. Solids and liquids are separated, with the solids having to be changed about every four weeks or longer, and the fluids can be easily changed whenever you wish with the container holding 10 litres.
The Carefree awning is the current electric awning being fitted. We weren't overly impressed with this and have decided to install a Thule electric one instead. This particular awning reminded us our oue A & E awning on our first van with its protective cover when not been used. The Thule goes a step further having the awning fully enclosed in its own canister.
So its now just a tad over three months before pickup which will pass by quickly considering its been seven months since we paid our deposit.
