Five ways in
Who this is for. People working with tight means—after a financial disaster, on a constrained income, or priced out of traditional housing. The defaults and price ranges target serviceable second-hand gear, not premium builds; a new motorhome can be a better home, but it isn't what this tool is for. If you already have a rig—of any standard—plug it in; the checks work the same.
There is no single right answer—it depends on what you already have, who is travelling, and how much room you need. Each path has a different entry price and a different failure mode worth checking before money changes hands.
| Setup | Entry price (second-hand) | Space & living | The thing that breaks the plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Camper van | from ~$10,000–15,000 | Sleeps 1–2; everything in one vehicle, nothing to tow. | Payload. Fit-out, water and people eat the GVM margin fast—overloading is illegal and unsafe. |
| Bus / coach | from ~$25,000 | Room to stand, big payload, real storage. | Licence class & running costs. Heavy-vehicle licence may apply; fuel and rego are sized for a truck. |
| Motorhome | from ~$30,000 | Purpose-built living space, usually sleeps 2–4. | Payload & licence. Bigger rigs sit close to their GVM; some need a light-rigid licence. |
| Vehicle + camper trailer | ~$6,500 vehicle + ~$4,000 trailer | Sleeps 2–4; light, simple, packs up small. | Tow capacity. Many cars top out near 750–1,600 kg braked—a family-sized trailer can exceed the car's legal limit. |
| Vehicle + caravan | ~$15,000 vehicle (usually a 4WD) + ~$10,000 caravan | Sleeps 2–6; real living space, storage and cooking. | Ball weight & ATM. Needs a ute or 4WD with serious tow and towball ratings—not just a big engine. |
These are planning ranges for serviceable second-hand setups, not market quotes. An independent pre-purchase inspection matters more than the sticker price.
The fit-out & budget planner
Work through the six steps. Choosing a setup type fills in typical figures—adjust any of them to match an actual vehicle or van you are considering. Everything updates live and nothing is stored or sent anywhere.
Two futures — today vs Community Grounds
The steps below model the world as it is. This block holds the assumptions for the supported world: a community ground offering a powered site at a set charge — likely below commercial site fees — where a digital concession card proves eligibility for the concession rate. The rig and its equipment are still bought and financed by the owner — a powered ground simply means less of that equipment may be needed at all (tick what). And the set charge can sit below commercial fees because a ground's income isn't only camping fees — power, connectivity, hosted services and site amenity all contribute (see community grounds).
Stays work differently too: where powered sites and council or showground camping commonly cap stays at 7, 14 or 28 days, a ground's default stay cap is ~90 days — an order of magnitude longer — supporting a nomadic rhythm of moving between grounds while pitching in on projects or short-term work at each place. The cap flexes with circumstance: a seasonal worker might stay ~6 months near a job, and someone recently separated may need to stay put for years near their children — special consideration, and reasonable too, since their situation depends on them being there. The results compare both futures side by side.
With a powered site at the ground, the rig may not need:
Step 1 — Choose the setup
Many of the cheapest—and most remarkable—camps sit in state forests, farm stays and station country that a 2WD or low-clearance rig can't reach: river crossings, dirt tracks, muddy paddocks, corrugated or sandy roads, and routes cut by flood events. A 4WD-capable rig widens those options considerably. But capability has real costs—purchase price, tyres and suspension, more fuel on rough tracks, more wear—which can offset what you save on per-night camping fees at accessible places. And "4WD" isn't one thing: clearance, tyres, suspension, underbody protection, low-range gearing and water-crossing prep all set different limits, so match the rig to the tracks you actually intend to drive.
Weight check — does it fit the payload?
Everything you add—people, water, solar, gear—comes out of the vehicle's payload. Allow ~80 kg per person.
Weight check — can the vehicle tow it?
From the compliance plates and handbook: the trailer's ATM must not exceed the vehicle's rated tow capacity, and the ball weight must not exceed the towball rating. The trailer's payload (ATM − tare) must hold your gear and water.
Step 2 — Travel plans
Add the stops you're planning, then click the map to drop each pin. The planner prices the fuel for the legs between them—using the towing/highway rate from Step 1—and rates the sun at each stop for the months you're there, which feeds the energy system below.
Monthly mean daily solar exposure (BOM AWAP grids) ÷ 3.6 ≈ peak sun hours. Summer = Dec–Feb, winter = Jun–Aug; per-stop lines use the months of each stay. The map needs a connection—the fields stay editable.
Step 3 — Energy system
Energy flows in three stages: generation (solar panels, or plug-in power with a day rate) → storage (battery banks, charge controllers) → use (12V, USB and—via an inverter—240V devices). Every description, spec, cost and weight is editable—match the gear you're actually considering, and add your own rows.
Generation — solar panels (one row per panel type, so you can mix wattages—e.g. 2 × 300W + 1 × 200W):
Generation — plug-in power (powered sites, mains hookup; day rate × days per week feeds the weekly budget):
Storage — battery banks. Pick a topology to load typical rows (still fully editable): a 24V solar bank runs MPPT charging more efficiently, but most camp gear is 12V — so either pair it with a 12V house bank via DC-DC, or step down to 12V. A 24V bank can also be built from 12V batteries—enter them as 12V with an even quantity (series pairs):
Storage — monitoring (one shunt per bank you want measured; Bluetooth units expose state of charge to apps and services—e.g. metering power use into remote AI costs or power-sharing arrangements):
Storage & conversion — charge gear (one row per unit; several can be combined): MPPT takes the array into the bank, DC-DC + MPPT units also take a 12V alternator input or charge a 12V bank from a 24V one, AC→DC covers powered sites, and the inverter makes 240V. Rating is amps for chargers, watts for inverters:
Use — connected devices (watts × hours/day per row; connection type matters for the checks):
Step 4 — Other fit-out & gear
The rest of the fit-out—dollars and kilograms both count:
Step 5 — Connectivity & tech
Working remotely needs both service and power: the $/wk figures feed the weekly budget; watts, hours and connection type feed the energy system in Step 3. A workstation splits into monitor + computer—each can be AC or DC (12V monitors exist, and a Mac mini-class machine sips power).
Step 6 — The weekly budget
* Water tanks are listed dry—every litre of water you carry adds another kilogram of payload.
Reading the numbers
The weight terms
- Tare: what the trailer or van weighs empty, from the compliance plate.
- ATM: the most a trailer may weigh fully loaded—people and gear included.
- Ball weight: the downward force on the towball, usually 8–12% of loaded weight, capped by the vehicle's towball rating.
- Tow capacity: the maximum braked trailer mass the vehicle may legally tow.
- Payload: GVM minus kerb weight—everything the vehicle itself may carry.
With or without a ground
The planner compares your chosen accommodation scenario against the alternative benchmark: a community ground at the $15/night concession tariff versus commercial caravan-park rates. On a $600/week concession income the difference is roughly $245/week—the gap between a budget that holds and one that doesn't. Free camping is cheaper still but carries no amenities, no security of tenure and frequent moves, which is precisely the instability the grounds are designed to relieve.
Estimates, not approvals. This planner checks arithmetic, not legality. Before buying, verify the actual compliance-plate figures (tare, ATM, GVM, tow and ball ratings), get a weighbridge ticket, and confirm your licence class and insurance cover the combination.
Beyond the budget
Money and weight are the easy checks. The harder questions are whether mobile living suits the people involved—health, medications, schooling, pets, accessibility, and how far you'll be from support networks—and whether a particular second-hand vehicle is sound enough to trust. That's why the Walkabout Strategy puts suitability and independent inspection before purchase, and why a community ground matters: somewhere legal, connected and affordable to actually live while you stabilise. Proving eligibility for the concession tariff without a fixed address is where the concession credentials component comes in.
No product is being sold here. No financing product, lender, dealer or park arrangement is established or endorsed by this page. It's a planning aid to help people arrive at real conversations with better numbers.