The 3-3-3 Rule, the 10-Year Rule and the 85% Rule: Caravan 'Rules' Decoded
Spend a week reading caravan forums or chatting at a campsite and you will hear about "the rules." The 3-3-3 rule. The 10-year rule. The 85% rule. They get repeated with such confidence that newcomers assume they are law, quietly panic that they are breaking one, and make decisions based on half-remembered numbers.
Here is the calm version. Three of the most-quoted "rules" in Australian caravanning, what each actually means, and — the part that matters most — which are genuine legal limits and which are just friendly guidelines you are free to weigh up for yourself.
The 85% rule: a guideline, not the law
What people say: your loaded caravan should weigh no more than 85% of your tow vehicle's weight.
What it means: it is a rule of thumb for towing stability. The idea is that when the van is a lot lighter than the vehicle pulling it, the car stays firmly in charge — the combination is more settled in crosswinds, when trucks pass, and under braking. As the van's weight creeps up toward and past the vehicle's, the tail starts to have more say in what the dog does, and towing becomes less forgiving. Eighty-five per cent is the commonly quoted comfort line, especially for people new to towing.
Is it law? No. This is the single most important thing to understand. The 85% figure appears in no road rule. You will not be fined for exceeding it. It is advice — sensible advice, particularly while you are learning — but advice all the same. Plenty of experienced tourers run well-matched rigs above 85% safely, and plenty of cautious first-timers are happier well below it.
So what is the law? The legal limits are the numbers set by your vehicle and van makers: the vehicle's rated towing capacity, its tow ball download limit, and the combined weight limits (GVM for the vehicle, GCM for the whole combination, and the van's ATM). Those you must not exceed — they are legal, and they are what keep you safe. The 85% guideline sits inside those legal limits as an extra margin of comfort, not as a replacement for them.
The honest takeaway: obey the legal weight ratings without exception, and treat 85% as a helpful target — most useful when you are new, and worth understanding rather than fearing.
Not sure how your car and van stack up? Start with the legal numbers, not the rule of thumb. Learn how the weights work in Understanding ATM, GTM and Tare Weight, and when you're shopping, you can compare vans by weight on VANTURE.
The 10-year rule: a park policy, not a law
What people say: caravan parks will not let you in if your van is more than 10 years old.
What it means: some caravan parks apply an age limit — often 10 or 15 years — to vans staying on permanent or long-term annual sites. The reasoning is about appearance and condition: parks want their long-stay areas looking tidy and their vans structurally sound, and an age limit is a blunt way of managing that.
Is it law? No. There is no law setting a maximum age for a caravan. It is entirely a park's own policy, and it varies from park to park. Crucially, it is usually aimed at permanent and long-term sites, not the overnight and short-stay touring bookings most travellers make. If you are touring around Australia stopping a few nights here and there, you will very rarely run into it.
And even where it applies, it is often flexible. Many parks that quote a 10-year rule will happily make an exception for a well-kept older van — some simply ask for a few photos to confirm the condition before they say yes. So if you own or are eyeing a good-condition older van, do not let this "rule" scare you off. If you are planning to settle onto a permanent site somewhere specific, just ring that park and ask about their policy directly.
The takeaway: a tidy, well-maintained older van is welcome almost everywhere you would actually want to stay. The 10-year rule is a policy to check with individual parks for long stays, not a barrier to the caravanning life.
The 3-3-3 rule: pure travel wisdom
What people say: drive no more than 300 km a day, stop by 3pm, and stay at least 3 nights.
What it means: this one is not about weights or laws at all — it is about not wrecking your holiday by rushing it. Break it down:
300 km a day keeps driving days short enough that you arrive fresh rather than frazzled, and leaves time to actually see things.
Off the road by 3pm means you set up camp in daylight, with your pick of sites and no stress — reversing a van into a tight spot at dusk after a long drive is how tempers fray and mirrors get clipped.
At least 3 nights in one place stops the trip becoming an endless cycle of packing and unpacking, and lets you settle in and enjoy where you are.
Is it law? Not remotely. It is a rhythm, a piece of hard-won wisdom passed around by people who learned the hard way that treating a caravan holiday like a road-tripping race is exhausting. You will also hear variations — some people swear by "2-2-2" for an even gentler pace. Adapt it to how you like to travel; the numbers are a starting point, not a commandment.
The takeaway: the 3-3-3 rule is the one "rule" here you can break freely without consequence — but the people who follow it tend to be the ones still smiling at the end of a long trip.
Why these "rules" stick around
It is worth understanding why numbers like these get passed along as gospel in the first place, because it tells you how to treat them. Caravanning is full of hard-won knowledge shared between strangers — at happy hour in a park, in a forum thread, at the servo when someone admires your rig. A tidy number like "85%" or "3-3-3" is easy to remember and easy to pass on, so it spreads. That is a good thing: most of this folklore exists because it genuinely helped someone avoid a sway scare or a miserable, over-driven holiday.
The trap is only when a helpful guideline hardens into an imagined law and starts making people anxious or stopping them buying a perfectly good van. So keep the instinct to listen — the community knows a lot — but pair it with one question every time you hear a "rule": is this the law, a policy someone sets, or just good advice? Answer that, and you can take the wisdom without the worry.
What a first-timer should actually do
If you take nothing else from this: get your legal weights right (that is the real, non-negotiable one), treat 85% as a comfort target while you build towing confidence, ring ahead to any park you plan to settle at long-term if your van has a few years on it, and pace your trips so the holiday stays a holiday. Everything else you hear at happy hour is worth a polite nod and your own judgement.
The one-line summary
Of the three, only the weight and towing limits sitting behind the 85% guideline are actually law — and those you must respect every single time. The 85% rule itself is a stability guideline, most valuable while you are learning. The 10-year rule is a caravan park's own policy for long stays, easily checked and often flexible. And the 3-3-3 rule is simply good travel advice for enjoying the journey.
Know which is which, and you can stop worrying about breaking rules that were never rules — and put your attention where it belongs: on staying within your legal weights, and on the road ahead.
And that is really the theme running through all three. Australian caravanning has a wonderful habit of handing its knowledge down, camp to camp — but somewhere in the retelling, "here is what works for me" turns into "here is the rule." Take the wisdom gratefully, hold the numbers lightly, and keep the one genuine line in the sand clear in your mind: the legal weight limits are law, and everything else is advice you get to weigh for yourself.
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