The Big Green Lizard - Halfway Review

So as the sun sets on the halfway mark of our trip, and with a review of the truck mods done, and as the van celebrates its first birthday, it comes time to review the biggest investment, other than perhaps time, of the whole trip.

There is no way to say this other than The Big Green Lizard, our New Age 19ft Gecko, has been nothing short of perfect for us this trip. It has been everything we'd hoped and then, perhaps just a little bit more. If you read no further, then the take away is that the Gecko is a brilliant family van, and I can't see how it wouldn't be on everyone's consideration when comparing options in value for money caravans.

Now, before people think I'm on the New Age payroll, and that our Gecko experience has been all sunshine, lollipops and rainbows, I can assure you it hasn't. The van, like our previous van before it (a Jayco Expanda) has had it's faults and issues. And I'm sure, going forward, they might continue as the van ages and we put even more kilometres on it.

So in the interest of fair play and balanced reviewing, let's start with the negatives and the things that are frustrating with the van.

Electrics
Over the past 12months, we've had issues with the 12V circuit and the 240V circuit on the van. On both occasions it has been sourced to issues with the awning and screwing through or pinching wires. On both occasions, the issues were sorted out, either directly or indirectly (through agreed repairers) without issue and at no cost to ourselves. The issues weren't showstoppers and on all occasions we could still use 90% of the vans functions.

Plumbing
Those that perhaps read earlier posts from this blog might recall my issues with the toilet cassette and a leak. It was a PITA and essentially put the crapper out of action until I was able to get a repairman at Pt Lincoln to find a work around using garden plumbing. A simple faulty fitting was to blame and when I followed up at the next service was unable to get a replacement part in time to continue with our journey. However, the work around done for me by the excellent repairman is still holding strong many kilometres and vibrations on. I suppose I could try and wangle the $75 out of New Age as a refund, but often, I find these arguements aren't worth the trouble.

How can one simple fitting cause so much aggravation and frustration??

Bathroom Door
The bathroom (or ensuite if you want to sound wanky) door has historically vibrated itself out of the roof. One occasion was definitely our fault by not securing the door properly, however the follow two times were through simple road vibration I think. My DIY solution of slightly larger screws, and then additional screws seems to be holding court at the moment, but I watch it carefully. B and I are currently in negotiations to actually ditching the door altogether and replacing with a curtain but that's the back up. It has one more chance.

Layout - Bathroom
It pains me to write this bit as I feel I am almost nit picking. The bathroom itself is brilliant and we love it and the convenience it brings. I personally love a shower I fit in! However... the gymnastics I have to do to get out of the shower without banging into either the shower door, the sink or the bathroom door is akin to Cathrine Zeta Jones in Entrapment. With less body hugging lycra however... A bi-folding door or accordion door might be a better solution to this I would think and would reduce the chance of injury through bathroom yoga.

Layout - Bedroom
The shining light of our van, and the feature we are most proud of, are our custom bunks. They are brilliant and I will wax lyrically about them shortly when talking about the positives. However, the proximity of the bunks to the main bed is, how do we say annoying. At any given time we have all five of us sleeping within 2m of each other. That brings numerous snores, sneezes, snuffles, shuffles and kerfuffles. It can also bring peering eyes or listening ears which, as you can imagine makes certain, umm, 'activities' a little more difficult. The 18ft version of our van which has the bunks down the rear wasn't available when we bought ours. I'm nearly certain we still wouldn't have bought it in substitute for our storage and bigger bunks solution, but it would certainly remove the feel of sleeping on top of each other. Well for the adults at least.

Fridge Vents

This one was one of the bigger oversights from New Age perhaps. Early uses of the van had us finding the bench top over the fridge getting extremely hot at times, particularly as we went into our first summer. When we had our Big Trip service I pointed this out to the service team at New Age Melbourne who, after inspection, realised that the top fridge vent was installed in the wrong location and was actually located below the condenser. As a result, the heat wasn't escaping the fridge void and building up below the bench top. Their solution was to cut another hole in the side of the van at the correct location to allow proper airflow. Instantly the heat issue vanished and, unsurprisngly, we seemed to get better 'economy' out of gas bottles when running the fridge on gas. So now we have another unique feature in that we have 3 fridge vents, but I've since covered the middle one with 'race tape' to ensure air flow is improved further.

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And that's about it. Sure they're are other minor things I don't like but they are more a model and cost decision than anything wrong with the van themselves. For example, I'd like to think New Age could come up with a better covering for the front bed end (i.e. checker-plate) to stop it becoming like a acne riddled face once you go through some road works. Or perhaps a cover to protect the stove and sink glass tops. And what's with the wine bottle holders above the microwave? Not much chop for storing wine during travel.

But really, everything we've had issues with has been minor or followed up without hassle by New Age. Sometimes it takes a little longer than we hoped to sort it out but really, I've no major gripes. 4 months on the road talking to a lot of caravanners, and I am yet to find one that hasn't had an issue or problem with theirs, regardless of make or model. So given that, I now put an even higher value on after sales service than I had done previously. When, not if, something goes wrong, it's nice to know that you have the backing of your manufacturer and sales team to help you resolve the issue.

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So, what of the positives? Let me take a few minutes to go through some of the best bits and options we put on the van.

Layout - Bedroom
As mentioned before, without a shadow of doubt, the best thing about our van was our decision to split our bunks up into double bunk/loft bed combination. What we initially have found to be great, has continued to be brilliant for life permanently on the road. The storage under the loft bed has been everything we need it to be and more than sufficient for our family of five. To give you an idea, the storage houses (easily): all the clothes in the van, all the spare linen, a portable 2kg washing machine, all coats, bathers and wetsuits, the two tubs of school books and activity projects, our large 12v fan, all 5 sleeping bags, an airbed, the kids backpacks, collapsable laundry baskets, a currently usused metal detector and the middle portal of Sam's ladder acts as a perfect dirty laundry "pigeonhole".

Due to the double bunk option, the bottom bed was lifted off the floor and as such created further storage, accessible from the outside through a large hatch. In triple bunk combination, this storage simply does not exist. In this storage we house the 'dirtier' items such as: the large Weber Q, all shade clothes for the awning, a tub of beach toys, all the kids helmets, the levelling ramps, fishing rods, wheel chocks, large outdoor mats and two large Bunnings 'Swedish Candles'.

Taken on the first night we got the van home, still remains to this day, my favourite shot of the kids in the van, and perfectly highlights why we love this layout.

The double bunks have more head space. Good luck trying to get the kids to sit up in the triple bunk layout! 

Having all the beds at one end of the van allows us, when required to partition the van with a curtain B cleverly made up. This provides a simple physical barrier that allows the rear part of the van to be used without distracting those minions trying to sleep at the front. We've also added a matching curtain to the bottom bunk to create a 'cave' for James to go to bed earlier if required (doubles as a privacy blind if windows are down on his bed and you need to get changed...)

The Magical Screen of Division.... Simple, yet effective.

Installation was pretty intensive too. Best part about this is that the cool air from the aircon still passes over the top of the curtain.

The Cave... Currently closed.

This layout has worked so well for us living in the van I simply don't know why it isn't 'standard' in the triple bed format.

Foldout Bed

It's not for everyone, but coming from the Expanda, clambering over each other (and not in the good way) to get in and out bed is not a foreign concept, nor something that we find too much of an issue. Well, at this point in time. I do dream of an island bed van at times.... But really, the space that having a fold out bed creates is just too valuable than to otherwise have wasted on a permanently set up bed. And if I do say so, with the addition of an old doona as a topper, the bed is surprisingly comfortable. At 6ft 2", I sleep far better in that than I ever did the Jayco, and if I'm honest, better than when we had an actual bed for a couple of nights at Lombadina in Northern WA.

I'm concerned that when we return to a house I might need to stuff a mattress into a cupboard to feel like I'm sleeping properly.

But it's a great bedding solution and I think the folding mechanism is superior to that of similar styles offered by Jayco and Windsor which we trialled at caravan shows.

The bed doubling as a kid's den whilst hiding out from the bugs...

Storage

Some might not believe me, but we actually still have empty storage space in the van. We could easily consolidate some of the ones we use as well to further provide more space. Sure, we were strict on what we were bringing but I would think that if you used every inch of storage space in our van you'd run every chance of exceeding your payload limit. That is unless you have a secret love of sponges and foam.

If storage is a premium requirement in a van, and let's face it, it just about always is, then you'd be hard pressed to find better in a van under 20ft.

Solar

An option on the Gecko, we put the panel on the top and it's proved to be more than sufficient for our requirements. We've done 6 and 7 day stints off grid with no additional power inputs and I think the worst we got too was 70% of battery capacity, and that was on a cloudy day.

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Sure, we're not tech heads, we don't have inverters, 12V TVs or compressor fridges so our electrical needs are what most would call basic. We charge phones, tablets, run the lights and the water pump. So really, it probably isn't surprising given the amount of sunshine we've been experiencing that we haven't struggled.

The 2nd battery in the car probably helps as well with the ability to leave the Waeco Freezer independant of the van.

In a way we're glad now that we didn't bother with Lithium batteries or panels. We have a direct input for a panel at the front of the van should we want to plug in a solar panel which I suppose 'future proofs' ourselves a little. But ultimately the basic system we have is pretty solid and of good quality.  

Water

Ahh... precious water. Quite simply the thing that stops us staying even longer off grid. We upgraded and put a second tank in, taking our water capacity to 160L. For us it's been good, but about as low as I'd want to go. We're very frugal with it so probably make it last longer than it should. I also carry 20L in the car at all times so that helps out with drink bottles.

Still the water system in the van has been brilliant and perfect to what we need.

Raised Chassis and Bigger Wheels

When I declined the salesmans offer of upgrading the suspension (based on cost and additional weight) I wanted to ensure however the van didn't drag it's big green butt through drains and up steeper driveways and entrances. So I decided to option the van to include raising the van through spacers and upsizing the wheels to give the van a little more height. The end result has been exactly what we required. The extra height, and stronger tyres that came on the wheels, have given the confidence to take the van over some more aggressive terrain and corrugations. Don't get me wrong, it's no off-roader, but in my opinion any van this size shouldn't be. The dynamics haven't changed much and I think it tows better than the 'off-road' Expanda did. It's been a great addition, for nothing else than it makes inspecting under the van easier.

Extended Drawbar

Ahh... this one I knew I'd love. And I was right. Giving the Lizard a longer neck has made my life easier on a few fronts. Firstly, it's easier to park. Some might find it surprising, but once you get your head around it, I think it's easier parking a van like this than getting the box trailer at the tip into the right spot. Secondly, it gives a bit more room to move around when hooking up and setting down. A bit trivial, but I've learnt it's the small things in life that make living on the road easier. And lastly, it allowed us to put a toolbox on the front. This toolbox, an ordeal in itself getting made, has been great in providing a spot for the likes of the jerry cans and tents, scooters and tarps. It also provides a great platform for washing the front of the van.

Toolbox = Elevated Work Platform

Any future van or trailer I purchase will have the longest drawbar possible on it.

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So when I look back on our decision to buy a new van, to buy a van that was just being released (so no track record), with a custom interior that we had no others to compare to, I must admit, I applaud B and my courage. It's certainly not my style to take that kind of a punt, but geez.... it's paid off in spades.

Quite simply we love our van. We just love everything it does for us and,after 12 months of ownership including the past 4 months living in it full time, we are yet to get sick of it. It is the perfect compromise between space and not having an enormous behemoth to tow. The quality of the product, the New Age van, has been what, if not better, than we expected. The price we got was more than competitive with cheaper competitors but having said that, once again, having been on the road for an extended period of time, there's a benefit in going for better quality finishings. This is our home. Literally. We sold the other one! So this van needs to be well built, comfortable and fit for purpose.

It is that and everything more.

Here's to a great first year Big Green Lizard. It's great having you in the family!

Some of my favourite BGL Pics:

At Woroora Station... blending in with the surroundings.

At Heron Point, encapsulating the opportunities the van provides.

At Ayr Sailean, catching the sun perfectly

Overlooking Lucky Bay in Cape Le Grande National Park