We’ve had our Jayco Sterling caravan now for three years having bought it second hand. The prices and choices were better in the eastern states than in South Australia so my husband and daughter went on a quick road trip to the Gold Coast hinterland to see, buy and bring back this van.

It is an eight year old van so in its life before we took ownership it had done a lot of travelling already. The first owners had taken it all along the east coast of Australia, the second owners had used it as on site accommodation whilst building a house and then we took ownership and it’s been mostly on the move ever since.

We’ve had lots of weekends and weeks away in South Australia, free camping and in caravan parks and even as overnight accommodation for parties.

We then tried a long haul holiday to the east coast, taking in Tweed Heads, the Gold Coast and the heavenly Byron Bay. All of those trips were in preparation for the big one!

At the beginning of this year we took off west across the Nullarbor and into Western Australia. In around four months we went from the bottom to as far north as Derby, mainly hugging the coast, then across to Kununurra, into the Territory and up to Darwin then back down the centre of Australia. A fantastic holiday and discovery of Australia, having never been to the west before.

In all of the time the van was faultless and was extremely comfortable for the whole trip. We did start to notice though that in some places we stopped we had to prop up the passenger side of the van, putting down blocks to drive onto.  At first we put it down to uneven ground but when we still had to do that on concrete slabs in caravan parks we knew something wasn’t quite right.  After blaming too much weight perhaps, (the van, not us!) or too much wine on board (impossible!) we realised that the springs were the problem.  It wasn’t too much of an issue that we couldn’t live with it until we were home, but now it was time to put her in the shop for a fix.  Neo our kelpie is always hovering when there is any movement around the van, but this had him perplexed.

Using a local to do the work, the springs have been replaced and will see many more holidays to come. The photos of the work in progress are thanks to Master Tech, the company we choose to do any work on our van. I would highly recommend them.

So now the van is back where it belongs for now, Neo is happy and soon it will be time to test them out on the road and on with the show!

Cheers

Glenys