fosseboy Posted October 29, 2012 Author Share Posted October 29, 2012 Hi in the end we decided not to ship our 4 year old Adria as we had a quote of $10000 dollars from a caravan centre in Perth to comply and were concerned that some things like a fridge would not be up to dealing with Oz temperatures. We were also concerned about quarantine charges for cleaning which can be high, particularly if a stray spider is seen! The manufacturer also would not support spares (and silly things start to break or go wrong - like door catches, plastic trim) and listed some major differences with vans made for the Australian market, some of which like chassis construction, hitch head are not easy or cheap to convert. Our UK dealer will ship a new van at UK prices if we find that some of this was scare mongering and that would still have plastic covers on carpets and be road clean. Shipping charges were about £4000 in a container. Bailey listed lots of differences between their UK and Oz vans. One of their dealers who promised to give me contact details of satisfied customers in Oz went quiet on me and could only suggest NZ ones - and the NZ rules are less stringent as there is no indigenous caravan maker to protect. A caravan can go into a forty foot high cube container as long as it is narrower than 89 inches and no taller than 99 inches this would fit with around 800 ft of personal and household effects walled up at the front of the container. I have done this many times for all the major shippers and with regard to compilance you would need to apply for vehicle approval same as a car. Cost for the whole job should be around 6 k door to door for the effects and collect the caravan at depot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sarahmichelle Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 I recently purchased a fifth wheeler from US and a bloke at the caravan park I was staying at told me it wasn't compliant with the Australian design rules because it doesn't have a door on the left side or rear - does anyone know if this is actually a problem? Will there be any issues trying to sell this in Australia? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caravanImportexperts Posted December 9, 2013 Share Posted December 9, 2013 I recently purchased a fifth wheeler from US and a bloke at the caravan park I was staying at told me it wasn't compliant with the Australian design rules because it doesn't have a door on the left side or rear - does anyone know if this is actually a problem? Will there be any issues trying to sell this in Australia? This is correct, you will not be able to register the caravan if there is no door on the rear or left hand side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
troycar75 Posted December 9, 2013 Share Posted December 9, 2013 yes this is correct ,it has to be on the left , you can import it, but before it is used or made availible to the public for use it would have to comply to australian standards , you can have someone change the door to the other side but american vans have different wireing and voltage you will need to change all electrical wires and appliances as well as the gas pipes and connections ,gas will be around $3000 fully complied aus i dont know about electrical UK van only need the gas changed as they run the same voltage as us here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austraveller Posted June 30, 2017 Share Posted June 30, 2017 No need to use a container when shipping a caravan. It's so much cheaper to use the roll on roll off method. This article is pretty helpful for anyone looking to ship a caravan/motorhome - http://www.willship.com.au/prepare-shipping-caravan-abroad/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fosseboy Posted June 30, 2017 Author Share Posted June 30, 2017 I posted on this topic before and having lived here for 4 years I would not bring a caravan from the UK. You can buy compliant Adria and Bailey here now for about $65000 as well as Australian makes. The specs are higher to cope with climate and roads. You need a larger fridge that will cope with the temperatures, air con, fly screen door, Australian wiring and gas, on board water tanks to name a few. Compliance is not easy and can be expensive. So we did not go back to our UK dealer and buy a new one to import. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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