Late in 2021, we hit the road after what felt like an eternity of stay-at-home orders, shaking off the cobwebs with a 3000km trip from Victoria to the Queensland-NSW border via the best pubs along the way. The scenery was an eye-opener, as were the vans along for the ride — including Bushtracker’s latest and greatest show van, its 19ft Compact family van.
I’ve been fortunate enough to have been through Bushtracker’s factory a couple of times and to have spent multiple nights away with a van of theirs, so I expected a lot from the build and quality. What I didn’t expect was a van so far advanced in its quest for truly comfortable self-sufficiency.
“This van can accommodate my favourite hedonistic luxury — it can run the AC while driving without affecting battery reserve”
THE TRIP
Our sister publication, , put the call out to CW for any vans that might want to partake in The Outback Pub Experience, a guided tour of some of the best pubs and farm stays in the north-east reaches of NSW. The trip was intended to go into SA and Queensland but at the time of the trip, the bulk of the crew was based in Victoria and were locked out so with some quick changes we had a plan to start in Bourke, head to Broken Hill, Silverton, Tibooburra, Mount Wood, and Trilby Station. For those of you familiar with the region, you’ll know it’s not all blacktop and because the trip was led by , there was, wrote a feature article on the trip as a whole for CW issue #620. You’ll find it online if you missed it but suffice to say, it was gruelling, but we all survived without incident. Of course, the build of the 19 has something to do with that, so let’s start there.
