Overland with Kids

We’ve set up a new page dedicated to the Jurgens and Off Road Caravan (see page on left hand side).  As we build experience /find out more information, it’ll be easier to keep this up-to-date, rather than having to keep digging through old posts for reminders.

Canvas Roof Surround

Latest news is that we are waiting for a canvas roof to arrive via Trek Overland - ordered and paid for last August !! and still isn’t here. Has to come from South Africa and we are getting very frustrated with only 4+ weeks to go for our shakedown. Let alone it’s arrival, there is the matter of fitting it which is not that straight forward. The canvas is made by Howling Moon and Trek Overland are the only distributors here in the UK. To say we are getting a bit annoyed is an understatement. We had similar issues regarding a 2.4 x 2.4 Howling Moon roof tent we initially considered but never materialised, again via Trek Overland and again following huge delays and poor communication (subsequently cancelled). We find ourselves chasing all the time and get’s a bit exhausting.

Off Road Caravan Maintenance

We are trying to source a service engineer for our caravan in the UK but keep hitting brick walls as none have ever heard of. Unless the chassis is something standard they’ve heard of, engineers are not keen to touch with a barge pole. We’ll keep perservering however and hope that we’ll find someone as we desparately need before our trip!

We found an interesting exert via newsletter from Loftus at Ngonyama Rentals (see page for more info about Loftus) re: maintenance…….

“Going through sand, dust, mud and water place immense strain on your 4×4 or caravan of trailer and we suggest that after cleaning it thoroughly to check the under carriage for damage. Jack up the wheels and turn it to see if there is any damage to the braking system or drums or bearings. Clean and re-grease it. It is always good to service your off-road trailer/caravan after a trip (esp.) into the bush. Off-road caravans and off-road trailers do take a huge amount of hammering, shocks and vibrations causing pop rivets, bolts and nuts etc. to come loose. Wheel bearings, shock absorbers and braking systems need to be checked, serviced and replaced where necessary - we replace dampers [on the coupler] at least once a year and shock absorbers at least every 18 months. Wheel bearing replacement depends on the terrain travelled, but you need to have them checked on every major service.”

Australian Market for Jurgens

Paul Maisey based in Perth, Australia is interested in obtaining a second-hand Jurgens and very kindly provided us an update regarding the market there:

“The Jurgens has been around for a while over here - since about 2000 I think, but the 2nd hand market is quite small. I live in Perth (Western Australia) and have only seen a couple advertised on this side of Oz since I started looking mid last year, and not many more in the east. Unfortunately, I just missed out on a 2004 Xplorer today - I was about 3 hours too late and the guy had sold it to a South African living locally. It sold for about $22,500, about 11,000 pounds on current exchange rates. New, the latest model, which the call the Stargazer over here, sells for $48,000, which is a premium over the cost in South Africa. A company in Melbourne is importing them in component form and assembling and selling them to the local market. I’ll just have to keep an eye out and see what comes up”.

That’s all for now. We’re off to go away and try and get our caravan sorted.

Diary (Blog)
Sleeping Arrangements