Hello to All from the Central Coast

[Sickgm]

Hey Guys and Gals,

Just wanted to say what a great forum this is. I have been lurking for a little while and the information on here is excellent.
We currently have a on-road Mario Camper and that has been good for us however we will shortly be on the market for a
Jayco Hawk/Eagle / Flamingo Outback....

Just wondering, our budget is around the 20k mark and I wanted to know if we should either:

1. Buy a 2002- 2005 model that has plenty of extras and is set up to free camp? and maybe save a few dollars

or

2. Buy the newest model van we can find for the price and add things as we? May be a while before we get to the stage of ready to free camp.

Your feedback would be much appreciated because I am torn....... though I do like the look of the newer models.

[BigJules]

G'day & Welcome.

If you've got a budget stick to it. Buy what you can afford, or change what you're looking for and see if, say, a better soft floor would offer better value. You could hang out and save up, but you;re just wasting good camping time. Best of luck in your search.

[Swannie]

Welcome aboard mate.. you missed the best one the SWAN 

Greg

[Sickgm]

Of course how could I forget the swan! I knew there was a bird missing!

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

[gunna]

welcome to myswag
sheeds

[sol]

Welcome mate.
Heaps of Jayco owners here to help you out

             

[Hairs]

G'Day Sickgm,

To MySwag.
I guess the size of camper depends on how many you have in your crew and if your family is going to get bigger or not.
Here are the Floor Plans for the camper.
We have an older Swan & we are a family of 5, so it is the Goldilocks size.
We are constantly modifying it as our needs change.  And that's were the fun is. 
To Free camp, it depends how long you plan to stay in the one spot for.
Things to get would be, Solar panels and a twin battery system, LED lights, Long Drop, Shower tent, Solar shower bags or the 12 v pumps that suck out of a buck, Enough water to last you, We carry 180lt in two tanks, so we can go a fair while, Carry enough beer is the problem, A second fridge/freezer would be a good idea for long stays of over a week. I sure there will be others with different ideas or more suggestions.
We've been camping for a few years now and we still don't have everything we need or want, but we have the basics.
You can only do what you can afford.
Hey at lest your out there having a go.
Hope you enjoy your time here.
Happy and safe travels.

[jgrant]

Welcome sickgm. As others have said, look around at what you like, what you can afford, and I also think, what you are prepared to pay for (which may be different to what you can afford). Some things have better value thanothers, depending on what the 'essentials' are for your setup.

We recently purchased a Hawk OB brand new. I keep saying it was by accident as we were determined to buy second hand to save a bit of $$. The reality for us was that there were limited second hand options available privately (less than 10 on the east coast when we were looking) and the prices for late model were just a fraction under price for brand new since that have reasonable resale value.

We would like to do a little free camping too, but haven't got solar or dual batteries. We just have the one battery supplied by Jayco, the standard 3way fridge, and we converted our lights to led. With our on board water we figure we can get 2-3 days which is enough for us at present.

I'm sure you will find lots of helpful information here. 
Cheers

[Heiny]

Hi Sickgm and welcome to My Swag

bubba

[Black Diamond]

Welcome to the forum

I think your better off spending a tad more and getting a late model with all the fruit like this one
http://myswag.org/forum/index.php?topic=23301.0