Australia’s interest in offroad caravans has steadily grown in the last five years. There are many manufacturers who have produced an offroad caravan, but there are only a handful of specialists. One of these specialists is Bushtracker, a south-east Qld company which operates under the direction of Steven Gibbs and Tracy Brunes.

The necessary evil of the true offroad caravan built to handle any road in Australia is weight. Often something like a Toyota LandCruiser or Nissan Patrol is required. The demand for greater fuel efficiency in tow vehicles therefore presents a dilemma. Bushtracker was keen to rise to the challenge, with whispers that it was building a new lightweight offroad unit circulating as far back as June last year, at the Queensland Caravan and Camping show.

I was started to think it was all just a rumour, but very recently the 17ft (5.2m) Hybrid Lite offroad caravan emerged. There was a good reason for the delay; a new lightweight aluminium chassis was being developed. Not often seen in Australia, at least in caravans, the chassis underwent serious testing before Bushtracker was ready to release the new van.

“It is a new structural concept; a transport-grade, aluminium chassis that is manufactured to the highest standards,” Bushtracker’s Matthew Kurvink says.

“We spent some time in places like the Gibb River Road and the Tanami Track ensuring that our new lightweight van would stand up to anything our customers could throw at it!”

Indeed, when CW looked over the new Bushtracker van, the signs of serious outback travel were there.