Caravan review: Bushtracker 20ft Family offroad van

Built for one of the brand’s part-owners, this 20ft gasless van is ready to head on an off-grid adventure with the whole family.

Gas-free caravans are starting to make their presence felt in the Australian caravan market. Long-established offroad caravan manufacturer Bushtracker has joined that elite group, and one of the recent builds is a 20ft (6.1m) tandem axle van designed for a family. Of course, all electric vans have minimum battery requirements, but a family van adds to the challenge, by its very nature, with extra electrical load.

This particular 20ft caravan has been purpose-built for Bushtracker part-owner Matthew Kurvink and, as you might expect, comes with many extra bells and whistles. Kurvink was kind enough to hand over the keys for a short while so that I could check the van out. It was a short while because the Kurvink family soon headed out on an outback trip to South Australia for a family holiday and a little product testing along the way. Something done regularly by the Bushtracker team.

The Bushtracker 20ft Family van on its shakedown trip in the South Australia outback

Identifiable branding

A feature of Bushtracker vans is that they have quite a practical and brand-identifiable shape. At the front of the van, the top half overhangs the lower half. It’s a great storage area for the spare wheels and where the gas cylinders are usually mounted, except for this van, where there is just extra storage. For rough offroad tracks, the lower rear of the van is chamfered at 45 degrees to minimise scraping through undulating dips. Still on branding, Bushtracker’s external colour scheme is easy to recognise. It doesn’t have flashy decals or big spare wheels and jerry cans on the rear bumper bar, but it has a purposeful air.

Built for the long haul

Bushtracker’s construction technique is well established. The hot-dipped galvanised chassis is built-in-house — a product of plenty of experience — and finished with a protective coating. The Cruisemaster ATX airbag suspension system offers a smooth ride, fitted with M60 adjustable 60mm monotube piggyback shock absorbers. The overall fit out under the chassis, including the five (four fresh, one grey) roto-moulded water tanks, is neatly done.

Cruisemaster’s ATX air bag suspension

The 20ft family van is built the same way as the rest of the Bushtracker range. Some high-end caravan manufacturers use frameless composite wall construction, but Bushtracker has stuck with its box section aluminium wall frame. Aircraft grade and welded, it’s very strong, something Bushtracker likes to boast about — there are plenty of Bushtracker vans rolling around the country to back that up.

For the external cladding, there is the option of the older style ribbed aluminium sheeting, but this van had the more contemporary flat fibreglass sheeting. The composite roof panel covers the van from the front seam to the rear wall base. Across the roof, the insulation is 75mm thick. Very useful under the hot Australian sun. The wall voids are filled with 25mm fire retardant insulating form. Underneath, the floor is a honeycomb composite, designed to be stone-proof.

This van has contemporary flat fibreglass sheeting, but the old-style ribbed aluminium is an option

The drawbar on the 20ft is a very busy place. Starting with the towing items, there’s a Cruisemaster DO45 hitch, the handbrake and a Black Jack trailer jack. No winding the jockey wheel up and down!

There are two front-mounted storage boxes, the nearside one containing a slide-out fitted Z Grills Mini portable barbecue. It operates off 240V. Both the spare wheel holders have an inbuilt ramp, making it easier to get the wheel in and out. Topping off the drawbar fittings is GripSport bike rack. It’s just the thing for a family van.

At the front of the van is a larger-than-usual cargo tunnel storage. Apart from anything else, it can be used for a slide-mounted 95L Dometic CFX3 fridge/freezer unit. This is very handy when the family is on board, particularly for cold drinks and other alfresco items.

Family-friendly

The 6.1m (20ft) length is excellent for a family caravan, and the Bushtracker team has made the most of the available space with a fairly standard layout but with more than a few Bushtracker touches. A good example is the drawers under the island bed, which are much more practical than an open storage area. Likewise, for the drawers under the lower bunk bed. Or the raised platforms on either side of the bed that have under-floor storage compartmenkits — a great use of otherwise unusable space. Or the waterproof storage that is built into the shower cubicle. All very practical touches.

The dinette will be a bit tight for a family

The brass tapware and kitchen sink, the leather-upholstered L-shaped lounge, and the very well-appointed, semi-concealed strip lighting add to the appeal of the interior living space.

Internal comforts

Anyone who likes catering on the road will appreciate the well-equipped kitchen set-up. Dometic’s 224L compressor fridge will handle all the essentials for family meals, which can be cooked by either the Westinghouse dual induction hob or the Panasonic convection microwave oven. Like the rest of the van, the kitchen bench has a good storage capacity with an array of drawers, overhead lockers and a couple of cupboards, one with a slide-out pantry — a timber one, not a wire basket. Also, on a slide-out under the pantry, is a coffee machine.

An induction cooktop and convection microwave oven are featured in the kitchen

Coffee machine slide-out

I suspect that mealtimes will be alfresco. Although comfortable, the dinette will require a couple of chairs for relaxed family dining. The Nuova Mapa mounted table has a nice, solid feel.

Bathrooms always take up plenty of room in a van and, as always, the challenge is to be space efficient. Bushtracker has managed that happy compromise, and rather than a full-width ensuite down the back it has a practical design opposite the bunks and features a shower cubicle large enough to turn around in. Above the vanity cabinet, there’s enough space to fit a Camec 2.5kg wall-mounted washing machine.

Each bunk has a light, fan and charger point

The bunk bed area in the rear of the van is very well-appointed. In addition to a window and privacy curtain, each bunk has a reading light, charger point and Sirocco fan. The cupboard and drawer storage are also exceptional.

Up front the island bed, with a pillow topped innerspring mattress, has Sirocco fans on either side and a generous window area. There are the usual bedside wardrobes with the contemporary pillow cubby, except that it’s behind the wardrobe, not underneath. The bedhead upholstery stylishly matches the dinette.

The north–south island bed up front has all the usual features

On the road

Don’t be under any illusions about the tow vehicle requirements for this van. Its tare mass of 3300kg is the first clue and the second is the potential tow ball mass when the van is fully loaded. So, a Chev Silverado, RAM or, in this case, a Ford F-250 is what you’re looking at — a vehicle with a 4500kg maximum towing weight and with an adequate GCM of around 9000kg.

Simple but effective bathroom

All that said, on the road, the van showed plenty of years of design experience and, when teamed up with the right tow vehicle, was a relatively easy towing proposition — a little something to keep in mind on bush tracks.

More power to the people

The electrical package in this gas-free van is exceptional. There’s 800Ah of lithium LiFePO4 battery capacity, 10 flexible solar panels (three on the front rated at 175W each and seven on the roof rated at 180W) and an Enerdrive ePRO 3000W inverter. In addition, a 100A solar regulator and an Anderson plug connect to a 40A DC to a DC charger. All those numbers mean there’s more enough capacity for the induction hob, compressor fridges, air-conditioner and coffee machine. Add to that the switchable 360L freshwater capacity and the OGO composting toilet, rather than a cassette toilet, and it’s a van ready for extended off-grid travel.

For water tank control, all the tanks are individually plumbed to water fillers and pump, so each tank can be isolated in case of an individual tank problem. The valves are located in the front cargo bin.

A large tow vehicle will be required to pull this van

The bottom line

As a company director’s van, this 20ft is bound to be something special. It’s built very much in the Bushtracker style and has an extensive list of options, including the gas-free feature. That affects the price, of course, but it’s not a van built for the budget traveller. There’s everything on board that you could possibly want for serious offroad travel, and it’s certainly a luxury way of doing that.

Measuring up

Pros

• Purpose-built, extremely well designed
• Water tank capacity
• Aluminium frame
• Internal storage
• External cooking and fridge facilities
  

Cons

• Extra heavy-duty tow vehicle required
• Small dinette for a family

BUSHTRACKER 20FT FAMILY RATINGS

VALUE FOR MONEY

Certainly, it’s a very expensive van and it’s not built to a price but rather a purpose — offroad travel in style

TOWABILITY

Well behaved on the road but a large tow vehicle is necessary

SUITABILITY FOR INTENDED TOURING

Built for offroad, off-grid touring 

BUILD QUALITY

Bushtracker does a great job on the fit and finish, using quality components

LIVEABILITY

Well set up inside and for alfresco living

SELF-SUFFICIENCY

Hight battery, solar panel capacity and a compositing toilet allow for extensive off-grid living

CUSTOMER CARE

Two-year warranty on construction and materials and a 10-year warranty on the chassis and frame

INNOVATION

Innovation is practically in the Bushtracker DNA, with all the company owners being regular caravan users

X-FACTOR

Being an offroad van built by Bushtracker

BUSHTRACKER 20FT FAMILY SPECS

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

EXTERNAL

INTERNAL

Bushtracker 20ft Family price from $195,000

OPTIONS FITTED

Too many to list here, please contact the manufacturer for a full breakdown.

Bushtracker 20ft Family price as shown $263,975

MORE INFORMATION

Bushtracker

85 Enterprise Street

Kunda Park, Qld 4556

P: 07 5476 5833 (Option 1)

E: info@bushtracker.com

THE NEXT STEP

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