OUR HOME: BOROMA TOURISTA GRAND GRANDINATA 760ST 25' X 7'9"
Finally, after numerous unforeseen delays at the Boroma factory we took delivery at 4:00PM on Friday 14 December. Originally we were scheduled for 16 November and that was changed to 4 December after the welder cut his hand and the whole factory backed up three weeks; then the flu went through the factory and that resulted in 4 becoming 10 becoming 14.
In the meantime, the new owners of our ex-Bushtracker had arrived from Western Australia and were chomping at the bit to take possession and hit the road.
We had planned to take a week transferring everything from the Bushtracker to the Boroma, and to avoid boxing everything for a 10 meter move. The best laid plans of mice and men simply went by the wayside as the days crept forward and one problem after another reared its head and delayed our delivery.
To make sure that we gave possession to the new owners on the 15th, we boxed everything and stored it in the annexe of the Bushtracker. At 5:00pm on Friday we started moving everything, and at 1:45AM on the 15th we crashed - everything was now either in the Boroma or under the awning.
At this point I am not going to detail all of the problems that resulted from the factory doing everything possible in a rush to deliver the van on the 14th. Suffice it to say that there are significant corrections that need to be accomplished before our home is in the condition we expected to receive it on the 14th. We are already booked into Boroma for 10 days in February for service and warranty corrections.
Interestingly, as you look at the following pictures and descriptions there will be nothing apparent to you that requires correction. Our Boroma is beautiful and provides us with a home/box on wheels - a motel - that we will happily live in for the next seven years. Why seven? Jackie turns 60 in seven years so we are using that milestone as our goal for this phase of our wonderful life together.
The picture above shows our 20' annexe - it is huge!! The awing rolls out and the walls are attached. The front wall is actually three layers: netting covered by Perspex covered by canvass. In the picture the middle canvass is rolled up as is the end window and door.
The front of our van: behind the door under the window are the gas bottles and the air bag panel. On the draw bar under the gray cover is a 3kva Honda generator which, when uncovered, can be started and stopped remotely inside the caravan.
Below: The side opposite the side with the annexe is called the "off-side". Our Boroma is appropriately named LUVNTRAVLN and we have provided the url to this web site.
Starting from the front, in the lower right corner is tube the width of the van for fishing poles.
Next, the large door provides access to storage the width of the van and that is where all of the annexe walls are stored along with all of the various poles.
We opted to cover all of the windows to provide shade rather than utilize individual window awnings or a long awning in a sail track.
Of course, Jackie again has her clothes line which installs against the wall when not in use.
Continuing aft, there is access for tools storage, batteries, water heater, and vacuum toilet.
The rear of our home, in addition to indicating that we are Travln Bares - Seeing Australia Naturally contains our Mitsubishi air conditioner compressor and a dual water filter system.
Entering the annexe on the left side there is room for our bicycles, a clip-on table that lives in a storage area in the bottom of the front storage, and in the back on the right is a queen size Li-Lo..............--->
Jak's daughter Lyndsey is visiting for the holidays.
Entering, you walk into the living area (if you recall in the BT you walked into the en suite!)
<-- The rear of our home: our wonderfull quiet Mitsubishi purrs away putting our cool or warm air as the temperature changes.
I gotta tell ya it is the only way to go - no more noisy caravan units in the roof!!
The roof hatch in front of the air conditioner is a Fantastic Hatch; it has a sensor so that if it is open when it rains it automatically closes.
The rear corner to the right of the door contains the washing machine, TV, and a DVD recorder with a built-in hard disk drive and SD tuner.
The OHCs (overhead cabinets) in the Boroma are humongous!
The electrical panel is very professionally
and neatly
installed.
There was a discussion on the Caravaners' Forum about whether to "generator" or not to "generator". From the little you have seen: washing machine, two computers on the table (they are both used constantly), air conditioner, coffee maker (Jak makes the very best coffees), we definitely are in the "have and use a generator" group.
Oh yeah, we have 4 batteries, 4 solar panels, and a 45 amp Bee Hive battery charger.
Heading towards the bedroom the kitchen is very spacious for cooking and has substantial drawer and OHC storage;
the kitchen wall and the blinds are silver and looks great against the black marble counter top. We opted for a three burner stove and a combination grill oven - a much smaller unit and resulted in a very large drawer under the unit.
On the right across from the kitchen is the en suite containing - one of the reasons we sold our BT - a separate shower!! On the first day I spoiled myself with three showers - giggle!
The wall of the en suite and the door are blocked as we plan to hang 2' x 3' photographs on the wall and the door.
In the Bushtracker my clothes were under the bed - a real pain!
In our new home we each have a floor to ceiling wardrobe.
The open cabinet next to the wardrobe was designed
to hold 4 x 2l Click Clacks on each shelf.
I have included this picture of the bedroom corner
specifically to highlight the fan.
It is a Caframo Bora 12V DC Fan made in Canada and, while quite expensive, is the quietest fan I have every purchased. When I lived on a sailboat for 15 years, we had - if I recall - 9 fans - in every nook and cranny to circulate the air below deck. They were quiet; yet compared to this fan they were noisy!
I am so impressed with the fan, especially the lowest speed which allows the fan to be directed directly at your head and it provides just enough air movement to change the temperature from - for me - uncomfortable to comfortable. An excellent supplement when in the bush.
The fans can be purchased from
Springers Low Voltage Specialists
We also purchased our interior and exterior lights from Springers.
The ensuite: funny how something as simple as a
separate shower can become so important.
Looking to the rear from the bedroom: the microwave is above the refrigerator.
That's all there is folks - that's our box on wheels and in spite of the unfortunate mishaps during construction - we love it!
These photos are taken during some rather unseasonable weather; the first chance we get we will shoot some outdoor sunny photos too!
For those interested in purchasing a Boroma - and "yes" we do recommend them highly - we have left our construction pictures on the site for your assistance.
That's it for the exterior/interior pictures; you are invited to tour the Boroma factory whenever you have the urge!
Just tell them - LUVNTRAVLN sent you!!
CONSTRUCTION:
We have completed the planning stages; construction has commenced! The experience is so exciting, in part because the owners and employees of Boroma are such a pleasure to work with that we are almost wetting ourselves in anticipation of our new home.
One of the many benefits of building a Boroma is that they build their chassis on site AFTER you have completed the planning stage and they know the layout and where the heavy items are located. This allows for placement of water tanks and axles so as to obtain an appropriate ball weight.
Of course once the van is completed "stuff" we add will be shifted back and forth to optimize ball weight; however, a custom chassis the Boroma Way is much superior to an off-the-shelf chassis where the layout has to conform to the chassis instead of the chassis conforming to the layout.
In our case provision is also made for airbags and shocks with additional bracing to strengthen the chassis/van and permit significant off-road usage.
The chassis is heading for the shop and a Duragal paint job to prevent rust. We decided to use Duragal rather than hot dip galvanized as it is 70kg lighter.
The pics right and below show the water tanks (3 non potable/1 potable) and the air bags and shock attachments. Boroma provides extra bracing when air bags and shocks are used because of the increased stress and loads.
The stud pattern is for our F250; we have stock F250 tires and wheels.
While I was in the dental chair in Cairns, Jak went floor hunting and found this fabulous parquet floor.
Our first long distance peek from the office window at our new home ..........>
This view looking through the rear is primarily of the seating area. There is a long seat against the rear; to the left is the space for the washing machine, and above the washing machine is a space for a harddrive DVD recorder and set top box.
In the center of the Overhead Cabinet (OHC) is a rectangular space for the inside air conditioner unit - Mitsubishi MSZ-FA-25.
The rear seat has two large/deep storage drawers; to the right of the drawers will be the vacuum toilet cassette and the Webasto heater.
We are looking from the rear to the front ending with the bed platform. On the left is the kitchen cabinet and then the frig; on the right is the short seat, a work area and then the en suite The floor was specially picked by Jackie and gives a real parquet feeling.
Below is the kitchen cabinet. The narrow space at the end will contain the water manifold to choose between the three non potable tanks and the suction line on the drawbar. Additionally, because there are so many different keys utilized with a caravan, above the manifold we will install cup hooks to hang all of the keys.
Additionally, the various pump switches will be located inside this cabinet.
The space under the short seat will contain the inverter, battery charger, one of the batteries, and other electrical devices.
Peter, Boroma owner and General Manager,
and Jak discuss the placement of the clothes dryer.
The en suite - a lot of work still to be done - and a specially designed cabinet for our Click-clack storage boxes. No design request was too difficult for Boroma. Jay's wardrobe is backed to the en suite
The storage under the bed is partitioned with slots for our two folding chairs, and deep drawers for linens, handing files for all our paper, and dirty clothes.
Jak's wardrobe backs to the space for the frig and microwave on top of the frig. A door will be provided at the bottom for access from the outside so that I can store a tool box.
Our roof is prepared with space for the two en suite exhaust hatches, two Fantastic hatches, and a Four Seasons hatch.
The wardrobe,
Click Clack pantry,
and ensuite start to take shape,
while Jak lays on the bed and determines where the fan should be located and Jay tests the toilet seat so that there is sufficient (barely) leg room to "do your thing" when the door is closed. Actually we designed the ensuite to be used with the door open - the ensuite door locks against the refrigerator gable to make a private bedroom/ensuite
Everything is coming together and our home is headed
for its..............
skin!
LINKS:
Home - Diary - Naturist Life Style - Itinerary - Big Red - Technical Information