Free Spirit caravans get 25-year warranty

That's why the Queensland caravan company has introduced the industry's first 25-year warranty.

Director Elaine Foster says the warranty smashes the industry standard of five years and follows their introduction of new chassis, wall and floor manufacturing processes at their Sunshine Coast factory.

"We want to show how confident we are in the strength of our product," she says. Free Spirit has developed a tougher and lighter chassis and floor as well as new walls which feature an aluminium frame within the fibreglass moulding.

"For 50 years caravan manufacturers have used a corrugated aluminium sandwich with polystyrene inside for the walls," Foster explains. "The problem is that moisture and ants can get inside.

"We inlay the aluminium frame within the fibreglass so that will never happen with our walls. The wall is compressed so there is no room for anything to get in there.

"Other advantages are the light weight, strength and the insulation is superior. "You can hit this with a hammer now and you won't dent it."

Another improvement is in the floors. "We don't have a wooden floor. We use a honeycomb composite that gives very good insulation and strength," says Foster.

It's also half the weight of a wooden floor and waterproof. Free Spirit has added three new models to their custom-built range that goes from 4.8m-6.7m. The new models are the 5.2m off-road Nomad II, and the 5.5m Aussie Adventurer and Outback Legend.

Foster says they had to add about $10,000 to the cost of the caravans for the new chassis, floors and walls. "We had nine people signed up and asked them if they wanted the old design and eight out of the nine decided on the new design," she says.

"The other couple went for the cheaper old design but they now wish they'd gone with the aluminium. It costs more, but it's different to anything else on the market. "It should last a long time and won't rust. I think the longevity should make up for the extra price."

Foster says they now have a waiting list of a year and had to move to bigger premises at Caloundra to accommodate the doubling of their workforce to 14.

"Now it looks as though we might need to employ even more to meet the growth," she says. "We don't build in the hundreds like Jayco, but we are constantly taking orders."

Free Spirit is riding a wave of popularity in caravanning. Last year, Australians accounted for $5.4 billion of the $7 billion spent by tourists on caravanning and camping, and made up 91 per cent of all camping nights.

Caravanning Queensland boss Ron Chapman says a new caravan is built every nine minutes in Australia. There are about 430,000 caravans, motorhomes and camper trailers registered across the nation with 112,000 in Queensland.