Picking Up Our New Home And Shake Down Trip

Picking up our caravan

Our brand new Jayco Starcraft was ready a couple of months earlier then we anticipated. I guess most people would get excited about that (and we were happy it was ready) but we were not taking off for a few months yet. So we would have to work out where and how much it would be to store it.

We booked an appointment to pick up our new home (this is so they can properly show you everything and how it all works). I videoed everything as Jayco showed us around. It took about three hours. Jayco fitted our three solar panels and battery so we made sure they were in place before leaving.

We made sure we had everything we needed to connect the caravan to the Ute. A 7 pin plug, brake away wire, Towing mirrors etc.

After we got shown around and we were happy, it was time to pay and drive away :0)

Shakedown trip and how we chose to store our caravan

We had booked in to our first caravan park so we could hook on to power and water and get used to the van. Larry also wanted to install the new battery management system. Also he wanted to wire up the in car rear view mirror and electric brakes. ( Visit Redarc website for management system )

We spent four days checking the solar panels were in working order. We went back and forth to Jayco to buy wind shades , BBQ extension hose and ask questions before we moved on.

Jayco Mackay

Heading back towards Airlie Beach we stayed at our first Free Camp, The Leap Hotel. A 48 hrs free camp outside Mackay.

After moving on from there the next day we had a look on wiki camps and found Gunna-go caravan park. It’s about 30min out of Airlie, near Proserpine in Myrtlevale.

We initially decided to stay a couple of nights on power so Larry could still work on what he needed. We also needed to be in the Airlie beach area to get a hard cover put on the back of the Ute. Then we were going to move on for a few more days.

Storing our Caravan

We went to a couple of places that store caravans in Airlie Beach to get prices. After a few trips we asked at Gunna-Go if they would let us store the van at their park for a couple of months. That way we could come on the weekends and would already be set up. They agreed for a very minimal cost per week.

I had read on the Wiki-camps app all the great comments about the owners and they were right. We only had to pay $20 per night when we were home in our van as it was un-powered and we were there more than one night. We parked on a slab that had no power but did have water.

Our van has a 218 litre compressor fridge. The fridge operates from the batteries which are charged by the solar. We wanted to test if we could leave the essentials in it while on island for a fortnight and still stay cold. The essentials being, wine and coke for the Jim beam of course. It worked well. We could now stock it with extra essentials. Like chocolate and cheese for our weekends off island.