Speaking of Insurance, this is complicated. We needed cover for our vehicle which is being used for Business purposes, our caravan, tools of trade – computers, printer, cameras, phones, WiFi etc, all at no fixed address, and then additional contents cover for personal and camping items at any location in Australia.  Use a broker who actually understands what you are really doing!
 
We also made sure we had a visit with our family GP prior to leaving, ensuring we have the maximum scripts available and had our medical records uploaded to EHealth so that our records could be accessed by other GP’s on our travels. Same with dental. But, hardly anyone uses the system and to us it has been a waste of time.  We have since had to obtain a letter from our GP stating our Medication requirements and past history to physically show a GP in order to obtain scrips renewals.
 
We are travelling in our 21 foot Blue Sky caravan with queen bed and full ensuite, 2kg washing machine, a standard 120kw solar panel, one x 100ah house battery and 2 x 95 litre water tanks. We have had this van now for 3 years, purchased as a holiday van, it is now serving us well as a home and office base. We have since installed a Dometic Truma E2400 LPG heater and have found it a godsend in the cold Victorian and Southern NSW winters. We sometimes use a small thermostatically controlled fan heater with a trip switch in case it is tipped. 
 
We are towing with a 4x2 2014 Ford Ranger XLT Hi Rider Super Cab with 3.2lt diesel motor and six-speed automatic. It has sufficient load capacity for our possessions and is a capable towing vehicle with a ball weight of 350 kgs. The Super Cab was chosen because it allowed an extra 298 mm of load space length along with 71kg extra load carrying capacity to a maximum payload of 1,176 kgs.  The small Super Cab seats in the rear offer a secure and alarmed storage facility whilst the colour coded lockable Carryboy Canopy provides a dry and dust free facility for other items.  
 
In the rear tub we installed a 1.2m lockable cargo drawer upon which we fitted our 40lt Engel fridge on our existing roller slide from our past vehicle.  The fridge is powered by a stand-alone Arkpak AP370 Portable Power Battery Box with a 100ah deep cycle battery.  It can be charged by 240v power, 12v DC power or solar panels and can generally last around 3 days depending on the weather conditions.  We purchased this particular item 6 years ago for a 2 month trip including the Canning Stock Route WA.
 
Choosing the 4x2 rear-wheel drive Ranger, brought a significant cost saving of some $8,000 over the 4x4 version and after careful consideration we decided we used 4x4 infrequently in past vehicles and this model currently fitted our needs.  Ford fit a Diff Lock as standard equipment which we have used in a couple of tricky situations in wet caravan parks.  The Super Cab does not feature the 4x4’s low range gears.
 
Working on the road requires good, dependable phone coverage and Internet service.  There is only one option here -  Telstra.  We use a mobile WiFi 4G Broadband device with an 8gb data plan for all our computing needs.  Now, charging 2 laptops, the WiFi, 2 x mobile phones and camera is not an issue when staying on a powered site, it has proved to be difficult if free camping and relying on one 120w solar panel in winter.  At last year’s Melbourne Leisurefest at the Showgrounds, we purchased a 2x50w portable solar panel with regulator.  With this, we can top up the house battery in the caravan, but to further improve our winter solar power requirements  our friends at Jayco Albury suggested running a second 100 ah house battery connected in parallel to ensure the vans solar controller, monitor and regulator continued to work as they were intended. 
 
Stay tuned for our next story.  Till then, don't leave it too late before you make the big decision to hit the road and GoMakeSomeMemories.