Planning a Big Lap: Camps, Fuel, Weights and a Budget
What to line up before a lap of Australia: camps, fuel prices, rig weights, a logbook and a budget. The Lap Club is free during beta.
Planning a Big Lap without a shoebox of notes
A lap of Australia is a long list of small decisions: where you will sleep, where the next servo is, whether the rig is still legal once the water tanks are full, and what the week is actually costing. This note is about those jobs. An older version of this page ranked other travel products. That ranking is gone.
Camps
You want to know the type of place (free camp, low-cost, caravan park, national park, station stay), whether it takes your rig, and what people saw there recently. The Lap Club Explore map lists camps across the country and has Camp Pulse, a short note from someone on the ground about whether a site is quiet, busy, or full. Pulses are only as fresh as the last person who sent one.
Fuel
Live fuel prices in The Lap Club cover NSW, QLD, WA and SA. Victoria has about 10 stations on the feed, the ACT about 8, and the Northern Territory and Tasmania have no live prices yet. Plan those gaps the old way: a full tank and a paper backup, not a promise that every town has a live price.
Weights
GVM, ATM, GCM and tow ball mass are the numbers that decide whether you are legal, not a nice-to-have. The Weight Manager at https://lapclub.com.au/weights stores the plate figures you have and what you are carrying. You can save a partial setup. It does not weigh the van for you. A weighbridge still does that.
Logbook and budget
A stay-based logbook is enough for most people: camp name, nights, kilometres, and a note. The budget tracker is for fuel, food, camps and the rest, so the “how much is this week costing?” question has an answer that is yours, not a national average.
What The Lap Club is, today
The Lap Club (https://lapclub.com.au) is free during beta. No credit card. It works on iPhone and in the browser. The map needs a connection. It is not an offline maps product.
Create an account if you want to save a trip, a weight setup, or a logbook. Browsing the map does not require one.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Is The Lap Club free?
Yes, during beta. There is no subscription to cancel and no credit card at signup.
Do I need an invite?
No. Create an account at https://lapclub.com.au. The app is open during beta.
Where do live fuel prices work?
NSW, QLD, WA and SA. Coverage is thin in Victoria and the ACT, and there are no live prices for the NT or Tasmania yet.
Can I use it with no phone signal?
Not as an offline maps app. Saved notes may sit on the phone, but camps, fuel prices and the map need a connection.