Why a hybrid off-road caravan was right for me

Depending on which research you read, humans can easily decide between seven and four choices.

This makes choosing your travel trailer almost impossible. There’s far more than seven different types of trailer let alone all the different manufacturers! It’s a tough choice, and I’m not here to tell you what to do. But I do hope that describing the thinking that led to my choice of caravan will help you.

I’ve only owned a travel trailer for a couple of years. Prior to that time I was considering one, but could never work out the tradeoff I wanted. Should I go for a camper trailer that is relatively cheap, easy to tow off-road and convenient to store…but doesn’t offer much interior space or cold-climate liveability?  Or maybe if I’m going have the general inconvenience of towing, and let’s face it, it is a hassle, I may as well tow something bigger like a caravan. But then I can’t fit it down as many tracks, it’ll cost more, and so on.

In the end I wasn’t overly bothered and just kept tenting. But then two things changed my mind;  COVID and Starlink.

WFH is now mainstream

The advent of COVID meant that working from home was more accepted. And today every enterprise has hybrid working where you mix your time between home and office. The advent of Starlink meant that I could get Internet access anywhere in Australia and therefore work. To do what I do, I need Internet access.

Now if I’m going to work with my computers, that means I need a desk and fairly windproof walls so Zoom meetings aren’t interrupted by flapping canvas. We know how hot tents get in summer. So setting up a desk inside a tent is a bit of a no-go. So a mobile office became my base requirement, and that meant some form of caravan. Turns out that all such vans also have beds and en-suites, so that was a bonus. As was a diesel heater. I’m not a fan of winter camping; dark by 5pm, cold, wet…not fun. But with a caravan you can sit inside, warm, dry and comfortable, working, talking or watching something like Netflix or YouTube. So it opens up a new season of camping.

The next choice

So a small caravan it was. Then came the next choice: what sort of caravan? One choice is hybrid or fixed. A hybrid caravan is one that you build to live in. In the case of my MDC Forbes 12+ the roof pops up, and the back extends out to form half of the bed. This means that the van is lighter, shorter and less tall than it would be if all that were fixed in place. However, it means some effort to set up, and you lose a little storage space as the fixed units have extra drawers where the canvas part of the roof is.

Hybrid

I chose a hybrid, as I’ll often tow off-road where size is at a premium. And I don’t mind a few minutes of setup. I am a fit adult male so I’m lucky camping gear is designed for me. I can reach up to unlatch the roof, and am strong enough to lift it, tasks not easily achieved by my daughters for example. If I were shorter or weaker it’d be more of a hassle and I may not have chosen a hybrid but the easier-to-set-up fixed unit.

Now I’ve got the van I am simultaneously frustrated and delighted. Frustrated because I can’t just go anywhere now, and three-point-turns in the space of a road are a problem. Delighted as the level of camping comfort is incredible compared to a tent; warm, dry, comfortable seating, no wind dramas, showers, heat, desk, comfy bed…just fantastic. It’s also good to be able to host visitors; depending on size two or three can sit on the bench seat, and two more on the bed. It truly is a home and office on wheels.

Setting up

Setup time is interesting. I’d say my tent is quicker than the caravan, maybe. When I pull into a campsite I can have my canvas tourer tent off the car and set up ready to sleep inside, bedding out, inside ten minutes.

I can sort of beat that with the trailer. Assuming I don’t need to do any trick manoeuvring, and just pop the roof and the back out, it’s less than ten minutes but not but much. You can’t save half an hour of effort when the benchmark is ten minutes. However, in practice the van often takes a bit of manoeuvring. Often I’ve been with other people and had my tent set up before they’ve maneuvered their van into position and turned off the towcar’s engine.

Then there’s partial setup. With a tent, it’s either up or down and the bedding is either made or not.  With a van, you can set it up to sleep in which is partially set up, but liveable. Then you can go further. Unhitch, get the awning out, hot water, stabiliser legs down and so on. So the “how long does it take to set up a van” really depends on what your definition of ‘setup’ is. One thing I’ve done with my 12+ is set the bed and table up so I can jump inside and work without needing to pop the roof or extend the back.

Once fully set up, a caravan is a great place to be and come back to at the end of the day’s exploring. Cooking in the 12+ is exterior-only. That’s fine for me most of the time. But there’s occasions when I just want a quick coffee or something heated up. It’s effort to get the cooker going. Gas on, gas connected, fire up the stove and if it’s raining then it’s pretty awful. So I carry a tiny hiking gas stove which I can use inside the well-ventilated van. That’s thirty seconds to set up and will boil a cuppa quicker than the stove. So if the weather is terrible then I don’t need to cook in the rain. It’s also easy to use the hot water or stove to make a quick meal too. Not as convenient as the outside stove, but it works.

The best of both worlds

Now there is another way to maybe have the best of both worlds – manoeuvrability of a tent-carrying car and the comfort of a caravan – and that is to run a light-truck campertruck. But of course there’s yet more compromise. The truck can really only seat two people and I often take four. You can’t leave your accommodation behind and go explore. The caravan is more spacious than the campertruck, and the campertruck just does camping; it isn’t really a daily driver. But, you could tow a caravan or racecar with the campertruck and still have somewhere to live.

It’s clear to be me that I need a warehouse full of camper vehicles, probably about ten; camper trailer, hybrid van, full-sized van, camper truck and at least one 4×4. In lieu of that, I’ll have to stick with my setup of various tents and the hybrid van which seems to do me as well as any single combination could work. I hope you too find a suitable set of travel options that works for your travels.