Our Rig & Equipment

Caravan and Tow Vehicle

The Caravan is a Adria Altea 402 PH Sport. 

Standard features include:

• Permanent double bed - not used as seating - has the width of a double bed and the length of a queen
• 190 litre fridge - 240v, 12v, gas
• Combined toilet, shower and vanity basin
• Four seat café table (a bit squeezy for four)
• Three burner gas stove, work bench, wash-up sink
• Microwave oven
• Reverse cycle air-conditioning (under bed)
• 12 volt television and wind-up antenna
• Car radio
• 130 litre water tank
• Omnistor wind-out awning
• AL-KO AKS3004 Stabiliser Coupling

We have added:

• 350 watt inverter (12 volt to 240 volt) for camera battery charging and laptop usage
• 150 watt solar mat (controller wired in with Anderson plug for external mat connection)

The caravan tare mass is 1280kgs. The aggregate trailer mass is 1600kgs.

Our initial tow vehicle was our 2002 Jaguar S Type SE 3 litre.

We are now towing with a 2018 Land Rover Discovery Sport.

Key Add-On Equipment

Cooking

As the caravan does not have a conventional oven, we wanted something that would provide that function and would fit in the caravan external access storage without being dismantled.

The Weber Q series barbeques were too high to fit through the external storage door.

We bought a "Grillz" barbeque / with lid. This fits through the storage door (legs folded) with about 1 cm to spare.

It's first usage was to cook a pizza, shown below:

On our first trip using our new caravan, we were invited to join a couple to share their fire pit. This was a great ice-breaker and the result was that we purchased our own.

It has provided many enjoyable fire-side evenings; and we can cook a meal using the add-on stainless steel hot plate:

The fire pit is a 5mm thick steel unit that stores completely flat when dismantled.

We bought it from a company named EZY Q.

Solar Power

We have added a HardKorr 150 watt solar mat and solar controller.

The controller has been installed in the van, connected directly to the battery via a 30 amp circuit breaker.

The portable solar panels connect to the solar controller via an Anderson plug near the front of the van and a 10 metre fused connection cable.

This allows us to park the van in a shaded location and place the solar mat where it can receive good sunlight.

This installation seems to be working well, recharging after evening power used despite significant cloudy weather.

An added benefit is that the solar controller provides a accurate reading of the battery voltage. The volt meter fitted to the van under reads, and caused us some concern until we installed the solar system.

12 to 240 Volt Inverter

We have installed a Dometic 350 watt inverter, connected directly to the battery via a 40 amp circuit breaker. This is installed under the caravan café seat and is activated by a switch installed in the seat support.

We use this to run a notebook computer and our camera battery chargers that require a 240 volt connection.