We had waited a long time for this day to arrive. We placed an order for an Adria caravan after returning from Western Australia in June and at that time, the expected delivery date was either late August or early September. As the days went by, the delivery time started to blow out with Sydney RV eventually giving us a landed date in Australia of 28 October. That date never happened with the caravan arriving on or about 5thNovember. When that date was advised to us, we immediately booked the delivery for 20 November which gave the dealer time to have the caravan ready for us.
The caravan was built in Europe in the small country of Slovenia. The manufacturer, Adria, is one of the larger manufacturers of RV’s in the world. Our caravan was shipped to Australia in a container with small wheels. Once the caravan arrived at the dealer, the wheels were replaced with 16” rims and tyres, the awning was added as was the television antenna. Two gas bottles and the AGM battery were also added after the caravan arrived. We asked for a solar panel to be added as well as a reversing camera. The model that we purchased is supposed to have been fine tuned for the Australian conditions (16” wheels and some other mods).
We arrived at Penrith for the delivery just after 9:00am and after a couple of hours being shown the various aspects of the caravan, we were hitched and ready to leave. Unfortunately there was an issue with the reversing camera (it didn’t work and the dealer told us it was an issue with the car) but we decided that we needed to head home as we planned to stop and practice reversing and we had to be home before the after peak hour and the time when our street becomes busy with parents heading to a nearby school to collect children. Our street is not overly wide as well.
Having never towed a single axle caravan before, we headed towards the M4 not knowing what to expect. Fortunately, the speed limit from Penrith to Parramatta was 80kph due to road work so we were able to get a feel for the caravan whilst travelling at a moderate speed.
The caravan towed well and did not appear to be affected in any way when we were passed by larger vehicles. We were impressed with the override braking system and the sway control appeared to be sound.
We stopped at a large parking area about 2k’s from our home with the intention of using witch hats to simulate the street measurements close to our home. The sheet with the measurements was inside the caravan and that posed a major problem as we could not unlock the main door. The key would not work in the door and we were concerned that excessive force could result in the key being broken in the lock. We phoned the dealer who eventually explained how to open the door. The arrival of a Government bus driven by a learner driver stopped us from mapping out the area, but we did manage to simulate one reverse and more importantly, we were able to determine the point where the rear of the caravan would miss our front fence when leaving the property.
Arriving home just before the latest arrival time we were comfortable with, we managed to reverse the caravan into our drive without any problems. The process was far simpler that what we have experienced with the Nova. Now all we have to do now is to learn who extract the caravan when we leave for a short break in a week’s time.
The issue with the reversing camera was at the connection point on the caravan, not the car. One of the pins was not making a connection and a screwdriver to spread the pin fixed the problem.