Aussie retiree's $7,000 caravan debacle highlights major problem on our roads: 'Just ridiculous'

After forking out more than $63,000 for a new caravan Eric soon realised it wasn't even safe to take on the road.

Eric pictured alongside his truck and caravan as well as the online advertisement for the caravan in Queensland.
When the caravan turned up it looked 'fantastic'. But Eric soon realised he had a problem. Source: Supplied

Aussie retiree Eric Beckmann just wanted to do the right thing. But it cost him $7,000 and more than 18 months of pain and suffering.

His simple act of buying a caravan — joining more than 800,000 other registered caravans on Australia's roads — turned into a "nightmare" when he realised the manufacturer had sold the vehicle with what he believes was a major oversight. Despite being brand new, the weight the caravan could bear was completely unsuitable for it to be safe on the roads.

"It's been a heartache, I can tell you," he told Yahoo News Australia. "It's just ridiculous."

After buying the Avan Aspire 555 caravan from a dealership in Bundaberg, Queensland, in January, 2022, Eric filled up the water tanks on the vehicle and put it over a weigh bridge. To his surprise, he found out he could only put another 40kg over the axle to be compliant — leaving him with scarce ability to fill the trailer up for long trips.

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After he ordered the $63,000 single axle van, "it all looked fantastic".

"I looked at the [weight] plate and then I realised what they had done," he recalled.

The Avan caravans pictured in the Queensland lot.
Eric said it's been impossible to speak to representatives from the Avan manufacturer. Source: Supplied

"They've added all the extras, like there's a box on the front, a washing machine, an inner spring mattress and a few other bits and pieces, but they didn't take that into account when they did the tare [weight] of the van. They took the normal factory tare.

"When I put it on the weight bridge, it was nothing like what the plate said."

The tare weight, also known as dry weight, is the weight of an empty caravan without added equipment and water in the tanks. As a result, the basic caravan was near its weight limit without much room left for the user's possessions and gear.

To be safe, an axle's capacity should be greater than the anticipated maximum loaded weight of the caravan. But that was far from the case with this sale.

One industry insider who contacted Yahoo News but wished to remain anonymous said such issues are rife with caravan sales in the country. They run a caravan weighing company as well as teaching people how to safely tow their vehicles.

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"The caravan manufacturing and sales industry is extremely poorly regulated," they told Yahoo recently, pointing to a number of dodgy practices that make our roads less safe.

"Caravans are being supplied brand new with inadequate tyres. Weights specified are often incorrectly determined. Specified minimum towball weights are often too low.

"GTM [Gross Trailer Mass] limits are sometimes incorrectly determined and sales people give very poor, uninformed advice such as only considering caravan ATM [Aggregate Trailer Mass] and Vehicle towing capacity. They ignore tow ball limits, axle weights and much more.

The truck and caravan pictured, off road in the Australian bush.
The retiree has taken the van on the road. Source: Supplied

"I can only assume this is done in an effort to gain sales," they said, while adding customers like Eric can sometimes be left to discover the caravan needs serious work to make it properly safe.

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"Compliance plates provide inadequate information to owners. Caravans should be supplied with a comprehensive owner's manual outlining many important factors that are presented in abbreviated form only on the compliance plate, if at all," they said.

Before he could go about making the needed changes to the caravan, Eric set off on a trip to Western Australia, knowing it was far from ideal.

"I really was illegal the whole way over and the way back," he said. "I had no choice." The only way he could be under the weight specifications would be to travel without the water tanks filled up. "But when you're doing a lot of free camping, you want the water," he said.

Speaking to others on the road, he said it's a problem that is shockingly common. Eric, who is a former manager of a transport company, understands the importance of weights and measures — but that is far from the norm, which can prove problematic when people are adding solar panels and other heavy items to their van.

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"When you talk to people out there on the road, they haven't got a clue what they're towing," he told Yahoo. "It's happening all the time."

Eric pictured on a West Australian road trip.
The caravan is now in the workshop, getting fitted with a new axle and springs. Source: Supplied

As Yahoo recently reported, if you're pulled over and found to be over weight specifications, you can be fined and lose licence points, and your vehicle can be deemed unroadworthy and therefore uninsured.

"I want to be legal... it affects your insurance and if you kill someone, I’m going to be the one liable," Eric said.

In correspondence seen by Yahoo News, Eric reached out to the Queensland Department of Transport, Consumer Affairs and Infrastructure Australia. But ultimately found little support or recourse for his problem.

"The company Avan themselves, you can't get to them. You can't get to them directly," he complained.

When contacted by Yahoo News, a spokesperson from Avan said they had no record of Eric's purchase and declined to comment.

Yahoo also contacted Infrastructure Australia which highlighted how regulations have since tightened, but not in time to help Eric.

"Trailers with an Aggregate Trailer Mass (ATM) of 4.5 tonnes or less were previously self-certified," a department spokesperson told Yahoo News. "From 1 July 2023, every new vehicle provided for the first time in Australia must be entered on the Register of Approved Vehicles in accordance with the RVSA. Trailers with an ATM of 4.5 tonnes or less are required to comply with applicable Australian Design Rules."

The dealership where Eric purchased the caravan has since changed hands. The new owner declined to comment when approached by Yahoo News, but suggested modifications such as changing the battery and adding an inverter — standard modifications for caravans — were part of the problem.

Eric admitted he swapped out the acid battery for a lithium one of a similar weight and "added an inverter which is very little weight... that's about it."

He had sent a long list of problems with the van to the dealership but was denied any assistance.

"The van was built through Covid, that was probably half the problem. I don’t know who they had working on it but they weren't professionals – put it that way."

Eric's caravan is currently in the shop after he paid $7,000 for a new axle with brakes and a set of springs to boost the load bearing capacity.

"Maybe they should've realised they needed to put some heavier springs under it and a different axle, instead of me having to do it," he lamented. "I'll get the compliance plate done, and I'll be legal on the road."

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