I visited the Adelaide Caravan show on the weekend and happened to have a good look over the Kimberly Karavan - very expensive..but.. it had all the tricks. Anyone out there in the forum got one of these?. How have you found it? Is it performing to what you first thought?. Any dramas? How have you found setting up for the one night stays. Do you find it short of storage space? They do look the goods for getting off road though. Ladies how have you found it ?

fair enough - no one's got one.

g'day i travelled to cape york with friends who had a KK, it performed well off road and i mean off road not just the development rd.
setting up seemed fairly easy for one night stays, packing up was the same.
the owners opinion was that the major things were done well but some of the finishes weren't so good.
this was there first big trip with it and afterwards it was returned to kimberly for a few repairs.
they got dust inside the van,air con played up (apparently a known problem but no recall),problems with door.
as i said nothing major but when you pay a premium for something you expect better.
they still have the van and like it but not being used much at the moment as there 100s landcruiser was stolen so now in between tow vehicles.
unfortunately i don't think you can access there forum until you have been given some sort code or serial number after purchase?.

A good mate told me that a group of them went up the Cape a couple of years back and at least two of them broke their suspension. The feedback I got was that the suspension is exactly the same as in their campers and couldn't handle the extra weight...?? Doesn't sound right to me though, as I would have thought a company like Kimberley would have sorted that sort of thing out.

Anyone else heard that??

Hi GQ and Deke. Thank you for the feedback. I have head that the Kimberly Karavan is now up to a series 3, so I would assume some issues have been fixed with each upgrade. What ones I am not sure. Intersting about the dust getting in as this is supposed to be one of their selling features, eg they don't use LPG for cooking, so no vents required, so no dust getting in (?). probably got in where the canopy collapses onto the bottom section. Definitely worth looking into.
Also surprised at suspension giving away, but lets face it there would be a lot of variables - road conditions, loads on the axel, tyre pressures etc.
Cheers again guys for response.

hello again this particular kk was bought mid 2008.
dust problem was with the seal between top and bottom section when down.
no problems with suspension and as i said before we did the telegraph track , frenchmans from chili beach side back to telegraph and then the corrugated development rd back south after seeing the top.
if you were going to have suspension problems the development rd is where you would have them,plenty of vehicles do.
my wife just reminded me that when we were going up there were 2 kk's waiting up there for suspension parts,i believe these were early ones though.

My Dad bought one, picked it up to drive back to WA. Can't remember the exact issue but something to do with the power. I think a few things got killed in the van and melted plugs etc. This is when hooked up to the tow vehicle. Turns out something was wired wrong in the van. He got it fixed in Perth but not sure if KK paid for it.
Also has had ongoing dust problems although I think they might be fixed now.

This is on a 2008 or maybe 2009.

I look at it and just think overpriced and over complicated. Lots of different systems and electric things all that can break and being someone who believes in Murphy's law it is not something I would be keen on. Especially in a van that you would buy to do some serious offroading that would put more stress on it.

Hi Guys, thanks again for your feedback. I have also had a look at various items on the net and it looks as though the early models had some serious teething problems with both suspension and electrical issues as well as problems wih draws and general finishing. So I think I may move on from this idea.
Cheers again.