Golf Bush Challenger

We Love it. Goes where we want and so easy up and down. Electric lift on ours – Great towing hardly know it's there. Feels like home and so nice when on beach as it does not obstruct views or breeze. Ours has aircon and also a great bonus when we have needed it Show details

Golf Challenger 4 Everything we need and more! – We bought our Bush Challenger 4 secondhand and after catching up on some maintenance items we love it. We have just returned from a trip to Fraser Island and the Golf handled everything Fraser could throw at it. Show details

customer service is nonexistent in Bomaderry – We bought a Bush challenger 3 from the Eastern Creek show, the deal was accepted with a 2 week delivery.??? The presentation on delivery was not acceptable, iron filings from drilling was rusting on roof, cupboards still had dust etc inside. Tow hitch was fitted upside down, cupboard doors needed attention, the list goes on.we completed the work ourselves to avoid frustration dealing the manger.

Not perfect but suits us fine – Bought our Golf Bush Challenger LE at a show in 2013. Have had a couple of minor issues but nothing that cant be overcome. Have travelled to Cooktown in the north and south to Tasmania, plus numerous short trips. Planning a Darwin trip next year. Recently had it weighed and have just upgraded the axle and springs from 1450kg to 1600kg as we were… Read more

over the atm with water tanks full. Would suggest that they do this in the factory as the extra cost would be minimal then compared to later to make it legal.

3 star for product zero for sales management – We purchased a Bush Challenger 3 in Feb 2018 from River City RVs which is now GOLF Super Centre Burpengary QLD. Same site, same product, same management and reception. 3 stars for the product purchased. Zero stars for the management. They do not follow through on things promised at time of purchase. Once they have your money they are elusive.… Read more

After several early issues and no follow through from them we are very disappointed. Our advice is- find another vendor.

There are other centres, not too far away who sell comparable campers.

We love our Golf Bush Challenger 1 – Purchased a Golf Bush Challenger 1 camper trailer. Very happy and great customer service. My family love this camper. We just had some heavy rain and not one leak. Amazing value and good quality workmanship. The auto pop up works a treat. Fridge gets very cold on gas. Water heater works well too :). Towing is easy and rides very well. Would… Read more

recommend to anyone. For the price they use to be this is a bargain. Better then those camper trailers coming out of China and ours is Aussie made :)

Good customer service, solid well constructed camper – Our Golf Bush Challenger 1 was purchased at the Sydney show in 2014 with all the bells and whistles. We recently experienced issues with the automatic roof lifting mechanism and were directed to Brendan, the Customer Service manager in Melbourne. He was incredibly helpful and arranged complete replacement of the roof lifting mechanism with the… Read more

upgraded Challenger 3 lifting system free of charge. This was all performed outside their 12 month warranty period. It now works better than ever and are very happy with the workmanship. Other than that the camper construction is neat, accurate and solid with all the features you 'need' to rough it. One aspect which we found really surpassed our previous Jayco Hawk was the exceptionally performance on and off road. The trailing arm suspension and hyland coupler eliminates any hint of sway like we use to experience. Very satisfied.

Not a problem – Me my wife and two kids are out in our van every 2 nd week we go bush, up the beach and have not had one problem for $30k we look at it as a tent on wheels that takes 20 min to put up and 20 min to pull down , we did change the beds both ends cost $240.00 for both and had the best nights sleep . if you read the manual you will not have a problem , you are crazy if you do not put the support poles in after you have put it up ,  Show details

About the roof mainly - June 2011 Bush Challenger – We were deploying the Van on the south coast before Christmas 2016 when at about 2/3rds up with a loud crack and bang the roof came crashing down. Very inconvenient. We managed to lift, push and jack it up and support the roof with the four corner posts until being able to diagnose the problem next day. The main wire rope from the winch to each… Read more

of the four corner ropes had snapped. A visit to the hardware store for wire rope clamps got us out of trouble and home whereupon I subsequently replaced the wire rope with 8mm Dynamica synthetic rope - which is so far so good. I understand the synthetic rope is about 1.5 x stronger than the wire rope and has less stretch - so should be fine. Time will tell. Made a few other improvements along the way. Happy to share some info and a few things I'd do differently next time. You can leave an SMS only on 0412 155801.

Very good so far – We have used the Golf Bush Challenger 3 times, and all good so far, its not a Jaguar, so for the $30 K, we paid, we are satisfied with the unit so far, the dealer from Morrisett has been less than perfect to deal with, but there are plenty of service places for camper trailers and places to buy them  Show details

Over rated – Brought our wildtrak new in 2015 after looking at their web site, and talking to the Brisbane sales person. As it turned out it was the worst decision we made. Wheel bering seized due to over tightening and there was no grease in the hub. Golf did replace the whole side suspension. On the Birdsville track the shockies collapsed, the shockie… Read more

hangers fell off the chassis,as they are only rivited on, the underneath plumbing was distroyed by rocks. We limped into Alice Springs for repairs, and golf said we would be reimbursed for out of pocket expenses. The shockie hangers had to be welded back in place by an engineer. A trip to bunnings for some plumbing fittings, to somewhat fix the the problem. We tried to contact golf for our reimbursement, and were given the cold shoulder every time. Where still waiting. When you read their web site, and read where they state that the wild trak is built for the rugged Australian conditions, and has under floor protection, it makes one wonder how golf can falsely claim the capabilities of this camper. They have now added a foot note to their web site stating, extra care must be taken on unsealed roads as damage caused by potholes or corrugations is not covered by warranty. This in itself proves it is not made for the rugged Australian conditions. Buyer beware,

Disappointed – We bought this Avan Golf Bush Challenger second hand, it's only 15 months old. Looks brand new, But! Looks nice, electric roof works great, awning quite a nice little unit, but needs to come down in a big storm. Beds work fine but the mattresses are rock hard, may as well sleep on a cold concrete floor. The tap was a cold water only little… Read more

flick mixer, the handle was stuck in the up position, wouldn't pump water, so had to get replaced. Ours had an air conditioner. There is no connection fitting to the outlet for the grey water hose nothing I tried would fit the hose on so still sorting that one out.

There is no connection so that I can connect the water hose for direct water inlet save using the pump and the tank.

Stabilisers don't work well as they're too big for the van and can only go down on an angle. Also the legs face the front instead of the rear, not a good safety feature. Customer service from AVAN is atrocius, cannot contact the manufacturers direct, took three weeks to get a replacement tap, then they sent a Jayco tap which was a plastic piece of rubbish and didn't even fit in the sink hole. It had no fittings and no retaining screw nothing. Ended up buying a tap ourselves and sent the bill to the caravan yard that sold us this van. Airconditioning doesn't seem to work too well. The front boot is poorly designed and hard to get to once the bed has extended. Storage inside is a mixed bag, I find the wardrobe can only take clothing etc as you have to lay it down when travelling. Would have been good to have access hatches under the U shale seating one in the middle doesn't cut it and access to the sides mean you have to lift up the rock hard foam cushions. And yes you need to move at least two to be able to get to the stuff. Overall it's a nice van but the quality of the fittings is poor, the door handle was seized and took ages to fix, the tap was broken, the latch that connect the split doors broke off, the latch pins around the door all rusted shut. I know it's second hand, but it's 15 months old and for all intents and purposes the first owners didn't us it much. Setting the van up in not hard, need to put in the retaining poles. The van is theoretically still under warranty, but Avan / Golf will not transfer the warranty to a new owner. Would I buy it again? I'll answer that in a few weeks, towing is easy. Design is good,

Golf Challengers warning before you buy – My family and I purchased a Golf challenger in 2012 and to this day have travelled over 16,0000 km. The camper design has met our expectations, however it has been the opposite for the manufacture side of the camper. Like all owners we also have had issues with door latches breaking and other minor issues. The major issues we have had and can be… Read more

supported through forums is concerning the roof, and thus needs to be highlighted for anyone considering buying a AVAN golf challenger. The reason is because it is dangerous and from our experience operating the roof needs to have a recall on all vans. The setup for the up and down of the roof is poorly design in the following areas; does not go up, or shutters/shakes whilst in this doing this operation, also the roof free falls or collapsed unexpected, so these three issues alone shows that a bad accident is waitng to happen. Also as a family camper I ensure my kids are no where near the camper as it is setup. Furthermore many of our concerns over the first 12months of having our camper have been warranty issues and continued phone calls to both AVAN and re-seller to not understand what customer service and consumer rights mean. It has now been 3 years and still avoiding issues on our camper that was to do with manufacture of their product. My husband and I will continue fighting their motto of 'taillight warranty' but would like to warn dealing with AVAN or buying their porducts please be carefull.

New 2016 Bush Callenger Wildtrack – Initial issues with the supplied Thule annex. The van did not have the sail track fitted to the van body (under the awning frame) so impossible to erect - we had to advise the dealer who did not know this was required and it was then installed. Annex now takes around 15 minutes to erect which is OK. Watch out for very sharp edges on the door… Read more

entrance and bed roller frames - most of the family has been cut by the aluminium profiles which were left raw and jagged at the cut ends. Need to be filed and smoothed off - but should have plastic profiled protectors on the cut ends. The three way fridge struggles to get cold - and when you switch to 12 V for travelling it's almost warm when you arrive and switch back to gas (and we have heaps of 12v power going in so it's not a power supply issue). We will probably replace with a compressor fridge and run it from the van's twin batteries /solar and car charging system. The hot water did not work to the outside shower - this was fixed by the dealer quickly (setting issue).

It has not leaked in some very strong weather (30 knot wind and rain) which is a good thing.

Towing is easy and it tracks OK.

We can get it erected in around 15 minutes - can be done by one person after a couple of times.

So a few teething problems but probably no more than others. Going on outback trip at X-Mas so it will get tested off road.

Good but – We found that the unit was easy to tow and back onto tight sites. It was generally well set out and served two seniors perfectly on a recent five week trip around Queensland on all manner of roads. Negatives. 1. No manual. 2. Poor hand over. - We were told that the roof supports only needed to be used in windy conditions.3. We found the water… Read more

tank gauge to be foolishly sited near the floor under the table. For want of a few metres of wire it could be sensibly located in plain sight. On a recent camp, the roof collapsed just as my wife was about to enter the trailer. To be fair, our repairer told us that the roof problem was not limited to the Golf range, all trailers of this type use the same basic raising system. Preventative maintenance by the owner is next to impossible as the system is inaccessible.

Lessons learned. Demand a user manual. Always use the roof supports. Never attempt to enter the trailer before the supports are in place. Have the roof raising system checked yearly by a reputable repairer.

My personal opinion is that the roof system is an injury waiting to happen. Avan / Golf need to re-engineer the system with stronger cable and larger pulleys.

Golf Bush Challenger Extreme – We purchased our Golf Bush Challenger Extreme new in 2013, and had many teething problems. Fridge would not ignite on gas, hot water system kept cutting out, apparently due to hot weather and the door, when kept open reduces air flow to the unit. Pump had to be replaced twice, stoppers on the pull out beds all broke, cupboard door closers broke on… Read more

about half the cupboards and the knobs on the cooker all broke, even the one we had never used! The hinges on the door where it swings down sheared off and had to be re welded. The golf dealer in Brisbane helped fix most of these problems with a bit of urging while it was under warranty.

We purchased the extreme model with the intention of going to Cape York and were advised by the golf dealer that it was suitable for this trip as long as we stayed on the main roads. We constantly checked the car and camper for anything amiss during the trip and all was fine until halfway through our 6 weeks when the whole independent suspension sheared off from the chassis and the camper crashed down onto the road. Needless to say it was a write off. Golf were advised on our return to Brisbane and have at least changed their website to say that these campers are not suitable for dirt roads. They are great for bitumen, very easy to tow and erect but please be careful if you go off road.

2015 Golf Wildtrack – We have this camper since new in June 2015 and we have done about 7000 Klm. There has been some issues like cable breaking just recently and the wheel bearing ceasing on first trip in which golf replaced the whole suspension without any hassle. Yes we have had a few issues with the camper but to golfs credit everything has been fixed without any… Read more

questions. With all the extras we got with the van it's perfect for we were after and tows like a dream. After reading all the negative comments on this site about the golfs, I also say to anyone getting put of by these negative comments I urge you to read the Jayco's page they are certainly not the be all to end all.

Golf Challenger Bush – I brought a Golf Challenger Bush despite what I have read on this site. The reason I brought the Golf Challenger Bush is that it comes with all the extras I need, Solar panel, gas and electric hot water system 60 to 70 degrees , water tank , Rola Roof Racks, Battery charging system, 12 volt water pump, independent suspension, two tv sockets, 5… Read more

double power sockets, electric roof lifter, microwave oven, three way fridge which we haven't had any problems with, in fact it works great, my wife makes ice cubes, the stove top has three gas and one electric elements and a grill, radio/ cd player, water level indicator, storm covers, wind out awning, external hot and cold water shower, electric brakes, roof vents and much more. As to date we have used the van twice in six weeks. It is a dream to tow and we haven't had any problems with anything . We are planing our next trip in three weeks time and can't wait to head up the coast again. Hope this helps if you are thinking of getting one.

Terrible! Cheaply and badly built, unreliable – We had a 1981 viscount van and saved up hard to buy a newer, off road van. We settled for a 2011 golf bush challenger, planning wonderful relaxing family trips away. How wrong we were. The van was great as far as space and light/airy feel. However it was COMPLETELY unreliable. Not once, but TWICE the wind up cable snapped in less than 12 months… Read more

costing a small fortune each time to get fixed. You can't open the door to get inside when this happens, leaving important medication trapped inside within the fridge. We were left stranded and had to get a motel for the night and called NRMA to get our medication out. It got to the point with this van that every time we used it, something would go wrong. Drawer fronts falling off. Cupboard hinges breaking off. Fridge not working. Door frame snapping due to being cheaply made. Roof vent leaking (onto my unfortunately placed laptop which subsequently died as a result). Water pipes popping off. After investing a mini fortune into repairs we sorrily regretted selling our old Viscount as it was heaps more reliable than the Golf heap of crap and sold it to the next sorry sucker. This van was SUCH a disappointment. Considering its an off-road van you would have expected durability but instead it's obvious Golf have tried to save a few bucks and used cheap crap which fails continuously.

Must have been built by the apprentices – Bought brand new with electric roof and independent suspension. Sold it after first majot trip, prepared to wear the loss. The fridge installation was terrible. The fridge worked it's way out of the cabinet, the retaining screws were stripped into the timber, the assembler must have known this but it was still sold like that. The shelf above… Read more

the fridge was very hot indicating nil or poor insulation. Any temperature above 30 deg and the fridge could not cope, a couple of computer fans helped but not much.

The draw latches did not hold the draws shut and many broke.

The electric roof was OK, did not have it long enough to test it properly. The camper was not supplied with the fitting to allow mechanical operation of the roof, dealer promised to post one out but did not, nor did they return any calls.

The roof struts are, in my view, not robust enough. In any windy weather the roof rocks and rolls something terrible.

The main door lock broke.

The retainers for the beds (when slid out) broke.

Galvanising was peeling off the chassis.

Water leaks to inside the van onto the dinette, the water was entering between the canvas and the side of the camper.

The side clearance light all filled up with water.

When advised camper was ready to pick up, and after a 3hour drive to the dealer, there were no bed end flys as ordered. Took 3 months and many phone calls before they were delivered.

All in all, poorly made camper, very cheap materials/components used, and NIL after sale service. Would not buy anything fron an avan dealer ever. Having said that a Golf Dealer in QLD offered excellent service when we called in with a problem.

So far so good. Tomorrow will tell – Have just taken delivery of Bush Challenger 1. Have made some mods. Removed gas cylinder from A frame and replaced with lockable box housing 2kva gender on one side and gas cylinder on other, extended rear bar to house 2 Gerry cans and have included 2 pole holders, one for camp room and bed poles and one on rear for hose, cut into 1.8 metre… Read more ·  3

lengths which can be joined with connectors. Feel this is better than dealing with hose winders and dirty hoses in boot. Speaking of which the size of the boot is not as large as others we have had, but this may be a good thing. This is our 9th van and second camper trailer, so are looking at getting off the beaten track again. Will miss shower and toilet though, but will work something out. First test run tomorrow. Overnight to Naracoorte.

Badd – Should get a jayco so much better Don't hold there price inside just falls apart The doors dont shut Don't buy one

Golf Bush Challenger an absolute beauty! – Absolutely love it! No problems at all. Made a few extra creature comfort improvements but it is a ripper. Better value than others out there! Most service depts for any thing are a bit ho hum...so was not surprised when Golf was the same. Anyway other than that an awesome camper! Easy set up and well built Service a bit slack

Golf Bush Challenger 3 – Purchased new in 2011. Good value with awning walls enabling it to be a full annexe. Couple of teething problems, the bed stops needed replacement, quite simple, the drawer and door catches kept on catching, not so simple but replaced. Other than that we have had a great time in the Bush Challenger, takes 15-20 minutes to set up and same time… Read more

to pull down. Have travelled around 10,000kms on a couple of trips. No real off road stuff but over 1,000kms on the dirt didn't loosen anything and there was very little dust inside.

Serviced recently with repacking the bearings and checking the brakes, nothing unforeseen or concerns.

The van tracks well and towing with a diesel Santa Fe is easy. Fuel runs from a best of 9 litres per 100kms to a worst against head winds and windy roads of 14 litres.

A good tourer proven reliable and compared to the much dearer alternatives ot represents great value for money. Low, easy to tow, looks great, comfortable, good value. Initial teething problems door/drawer catches but now overcome.

absolutely dangerous – after many broken items on my 2011 andpoor service or none water pump brakes dry bearing door broken problems with water tank replaced all cupboard and drawer locks as the plastic ones either broke or dont lock this last one i wound up the camper got it ready to put in the supports and bang and crash the roof smashed down the main pulley cabble… Read more

snapped my wife was just going inside when it happened knocked her off the steps another 1 or 2 seconds and she would be dead or seriously hurt. just not upto standard should have a fail safe system in it

chinese junk is what i call it terrible warranty service

Support from golf – The electric winch system is not up to scratch had to get an auto electrician to rewire it, as it would not lift properly even though it was under warranty, as for dealing with golf it leads more to be desired, would not offer any help at all, refused to answer any e mails would not have anything to do with them again, if it was not for the… Read more

dealership, who helped as much as possible we would have has a camper that was next to useless and golf at factory in melbourne could not have cared less, would not touch one again. good to tow bad warranty service from golf at factory in Melbourne