All-electric Zone Summit delivers non-stop power

Queensland carpet retailer Brendon Dickinson and his wife Sarah love remote area caravan living, but after cancelling overseas travel plans, the quoted 14-month waiting time for a new ZoneRV Summit (or similar for the SLR that Brendon really wanted) was just too long, and the grandkids that they hoped to show Australia to were growing up fast.

So after selling their previous Queensland-built 21ft 6in ZoneRV Summit because their family had outgrown it, they did what many others have done in these COVID times and searched caravancampingsales for an as-new alternative.

Another factor for the Dickinsons was that they really wanted to be self-sufficient off-grid – not just long enough to make a few coffees and run the washing machine for one cycle, but enough to power a range of high-end domestic appliances regularly for days on end away from mains power.

So when they saw a 2020-build 20ft 6in ZoneRV Summit Family with twin bunks, airbag tandem independent suspension and the optional carbon fibre body pack advertised for $240,000 ONO, they were interested.

But what ultimately led them to buy the 'van was its comprehensive all-electric fit out with a state-of-the-art 48-volt Safiery power upgrade that allowed them to enjoy a few more of their favourite domestic appliances far aware from the ‘madding crowd’ in the Outback.

Getting the ZoneRV to such places wasn’t a problem, as they already had a fully tricked-up HSV Silverado 2500 ute, so they passed on the 2020 Ford F250 that was also offered for sale with the caravan, but appreciated that the Summit with its 2920kg Tare weight already came with a factory four-tonne ATM upgrade.

What they ended up with was a Summit whose 800aH bank of 48-volt lithium batteries, 1100 Watts of rooftop solar panels and a 6000 Watt inverter, combined with an uprated alternator on the Silverado to recharge it all, could run the caravan’s Truma rooftop air conditioner and Evakool 215 litre compressor fridge 24 hours a day, including when being towed, without draining its stored power.

But the all-electric spec of this ZoneRV didn’t end there. In addition to the Summit’s standard front-loading washing machine, the similarly-minded first owners also had equipped it with a dual hob (1800W + 1500W) internal induction cooktop, an instantaneous electric hot water service, a 20-litre airfryer convection oven and an ice maker/chilled water dispenser.

Meanwhile, outside there’s a slide-out induction cooktop, with an adjoining slide-out electric BBQ, while on the other side of the A-frame-mounted toolbox, you’ll find an electric dishwasher.

The only area where the new Summit fell short of the Dickinsons’ needs was its water capacity, so they are adding another 140-litre freshwater tank to the van’s existing 280 litres, plus its separate 100 litre grey water tank.

At present the extra-special Zone Summit is being given a full health check at Safiery Australia’s head office in Coomera, Southeast Queensland.

The Safiery power system is well matched to the Dickinsons’ ambitions, with technicians at the company’s capital city offices able to log directly into it to diagnose any issues, upload new firmware and so on, via the van’s satellite phone and internet system wherever they travel.

But where are they going?

”To be honest, this pandemic has turned us off overseas travel on both health and safety grounds, so we’re planning on making exploring Australia a long-term aim,” said Brendon.

”The idea is to travel for around two months at a time with the grandkids before they get too involved with their schooling– the Cape, the Gibb River Road, the Dampier Peninsula, the West, Central Australia – there’s so much to enjoy!”

From what we’ve heard from others exploring caravancampingsales, they won’t be alone out there!