A Bright Idea In Caravanning
Sun Herald
Sunday December 9, 1990
THERE is a great body of people who actively abhor caravans and simply detest caravan parks.
They see caravans as cumbersome, ponderous, lumbering monsters being dragged at frustrating speeds by Darbys and Joans to some asphalted destination or other where more Darbys and Joans foregather to go bird watching by day and play 500 in the evenings.
In part, of course, they are right.
Many, indeed most of the caravans designed and built in the 60s, 70s and 80s (dare I say, even today), have been put together with only the unadventurous in mind. And the caravan parks, in the main, have been designed for the same purpose.
But as far back as the middle 70s one caravan maker, Hugh Isermann of Golf Caravans in Brisbane, was building units for tougher stuff.
He was the first Australian maker to fit independent suspension to his products, to fit stone guards and water tank shields as standard equipment. He believed there were people around who would consider vanning on other than sealed surfaces if only they could put their hands on a purpose-built unit.
At a time when caravanning was losing its vogue, Isermann began making them, firm in the belief if he got it right he would open up a new market for the activity. Now, 15 years and 3,000 caravans later, in times when some other manufacturers have gone to the wall, Golf Caravans continues to flourish.
Not the least reason for this is that Isermann's products, while light, are built like the proverbial brick outhouse, use only the best materials and embrace the latest technology can offer.
Now Golf has come up with a unit that's already changing people's minds about the limitations of caravanning. It's a twin-berth 4.5m (15ft) by 2m (6ft 6in) vehicle, purpose-designed to cope with the worst of surfaces, but, most importantly, its internal electrical system is charged by the latest and most efficient in solar panels. Wow |
Golf calls this landmark in caravan design the High-Tec Bushman, and its owners never need to see the inside of a caravan park, a fact that won't please the owners of such establishments, but one which will appeal to all those who loathe such places.
Indeed the Bushman's electronics are so sophisticated the unit is capable of staying in the bush without any external electrical supply for as long as you wish.
The only limits it knows are those imposed by its need for LP gas and water.
It works like this: The Bushman is fitted with an 85 amp/hour battery that is charged by the solar cells, which, incidentally, are mounted on a panel on the roof. Simple |
While the towing vehicle and Bushman are in progress on the road, the deep cycle battery is topped up from the towing vehicle's altermeter. The battery may also be charged from your 240 volt system at home.
The top-of-the-range model comes with a shower and toilet unit, a 140 litre water tank and twin 10 kg LP gas bottles mounted, along with the big battery, in hatches beneath the caravan. The gas, with prudent usage, should keep a couple going with their hot water and cooking needs for at least a fortnight.
The complete unit, furnished in leather and colours to your taste, will set you back $28,294, but you will have a unit to last a lifetime.
Golf will also fit the solar-based electronics system to others of its fixed-top and pop-top range if specified.
Such is the build integrity of the entire Golf range it comes as no surprise to discover that while caravan sales across the board were down 41 per cent for the first six months of 1990, the people at Golf have never experienced stronger demand.
Golf is distributed in Sydney by Betta Caravans at Hurstville.
© 1990 Sun Herald
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