Purchasing The Tug

What to buy first, the Van or the Tug? Its a bit like the Horse and the Cart which one comes first do you choose a van with what you want then buy the vehicle that will pull it or do you choose the Vehicle first then buy a van to suit. The decision isn't always easy and sometimes it can even be made for you. 

After the 2008 trip we realised if we wanted travel for long term we were going to need a bigger van with a few more amenities. While the majority of parks are equiped with adequate facilities sometimes, they weren't always up to scratch especially after a busy period. We also enjoyed the option of off grid camping, especially between destinations.

One instance comes to mind when we stopped at Hayes Creek between Kathrine and Darwin. After parking we started talking to another person who had been there for a couple of days. Now the facilities in the park are quite clean and in good working order but the lady said to Anne, if your going to the toilet make sure you bang on the door just to knock off any lizards, Gekkos or other creepy crawlies that maybe on there. Well that was it although she enjoys a shower, decided a towel bath and porta pot would do for the one night we were staying.

We had no idea what size van we wanted or what exactly would be in it but it was decreed, it will have a shower, toilet and washing machine. Now in my mind that puts a van somewhere between 2.5 to  3 tonnes for the biggest I wanted to tow which was about 23 feet.

Up untill this point we had been using a Falcon to tow our 16'.9" Freedom which coped quite well. We looked at keeping the same car as its towing capacity is rated at a Max for 2.3 tonnes. Unfortunately we would have to upgrade the tow hitch as this was only rated for 1.6 Tonnes. Even then the max towing capacity would limit the size van we could go up to to proberbly  around 18 ft. Addtionally we were having some cooling problems which seem to be inherent in this model not to mention it was getting quite old and would be 17 years old by the time we got underway.

After deciding we would replace the car we started to think about type and how we would pay for it. Initially we decided we would like to buy without taking a loan out. We had just about finish paying off the mortgage so we though if we continue to pay the same amount into a savings account by the end of 12 months we should have enough to pay cash for a budget I had in mind.

I'm not the kind of guy that goes into reliability history or inherent problems when looking at buying something. I look at more if it will do the job as a whole in fact most of my research happens after I buy it. Listening to others though  the common choices for towing seem to be the Toyota Landcruisers, Nissan Patrols and Mitsubishi Pajeros. Now my preference would have been a Toyota Landcruiser 200 series as my perception of these are the're tough and have the needed capacity to tow big vans but with starting prices of around $80,000 at the time we were looking, this was a little, actually a lot outside my price bracket. We also looked at the Prado which impressed me especially since it had a six speed box giving more gears to select from when towing but at $65,000 this was also outside the budget.

Having only been looking at new cars, we then started thinking second hand cars, but to get something around our budget we would have to choose a vehicles 4 or 5 years old. Anne wasn't keen on second hand as you are not sure what life it might of had, was it use to launch and retrieve boats off a beach?

The other thing we had to consider was although this would be towing a car it would also be used to drive around town. While it would be great to have a Mack truck to pull the van around getting into those parking spaces located in multi storey parking lots would not be so good. At this point we started looking at utes like the Navara or Hilux we could almost buy one of these brand new.

As I said in the begining sometimes this decison is made for you. I happen to be driving home from work one evening when passing our local Nissan dealer there was a big banner put up "Brand New Nissan Patrol $43,990." I had liked the Patrol but had put it in the realms of the Landcruiser outside the budget but at this price we could almost afford it.

I went home to discuss it with my Wife she hadn't been happy with the idea of a ute and wanted a wagon but she was sceptical of the price why so cheap whats wrong with it? Although we wern't ready to buy she said lets check it out.

Firstly we found they were DX's, well thats okay, no rear seats, carpets or electric windows we can live with that. Only came in Manual! Wife not happy alert but after I explained if we went for a Auto Patrol we could only tow up to 2.5 tonnes and you might have to give up the washing machine and vans longer than 19" she begrudgingly accepted. It's White!!! Well that will be good for keeping cooler in warmer climates. We then talked about how will we pay for it? Lets borrow back against the house the interest we would pay would be more than offset from the savings we then just pay the mortgage off again as quickly as we can.

Now it may sound like this all happened in a short period of time but it actually took two and a half years, after visiting many Caravan, Camping and four wheel drive shows, Car dealers, looking through the papers and much discussion, to finally in March 2011 take ownership of a 2011 DX Nissan Patrol.