Our first caravan off the production line has just completed 50,000 kilometres. 18,000km have been on tar road and the balance of 32,000 km off-road.
The maintenance so far (serviced at 10,000km intervals) has been bearing end play adjustment, brake pads and brake rod adjustment, coupler service and grease. The shock absorbers and wheel bearings are still original and will be checked again at the 60,000km service.
Gecko No. 1 is our personal caravan and is used not only for our camping excursions, but also on outdoor exhibitions and shows. This allows potential customers the opportunity to view and inspect a well used unit (what you see is what you get approach). A comment made regularly at shows “but this looks like a new caravan”.
It’s all about QUALITY, QUALITY, QUALITY.
Since inception our clients have travelled with their Gecko to cross border destinations such as Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Congo, Malawi and the Serengeti in Tanzania and Kenya.
Client satisfaction is our top priority. Towing stability, dust-proofing and ease of use are but a few of the important criteria to make a trip enjoyable.
The towing experience with any caravan is key, and packing a caravan correctly can have a huge impact on this. We advise not travelling with full jerry cans or water tanks unless absolutely necessary. Packing inside the caravan is just as important – in fact, the less you pack inside, the better. . .
About packing capacity (i.e. GVM less Tare) which has been in the spotlight recently, we have had the Gecko re-homologated by SANS increasing the gross vehicle mass to 1900 kg which is still within the engineering and structural integrity of the design criteria of the Gecko. This equates to a loading capacity of 580kg as the tare of the Gecko is 1320kg. The object of the exercise is not to use all of this but to travel as light as possible so that should you be pulled off at a weighbridge you will be well within the caravans GVM specification. This also taking into consideration that the tare capacities of most tow vehicles in this category are 1920 kg and above.
The Gecko is fully equipped for luxury camping in the bush with a King-Sized bed (which is always made up), extra large, spacious, pop-up roof providing more ventilation and light, hot and cold shower and separate toilet. The power management system allows for the use of 3 power options – 220 volts, 12 volts or solar. Setting up is done in a jiffy – open the door, pop up the roof and open your camp chairs.
