Aura heads on-road

After strutting out the first two $93,990 Earth series caravans in eye-watering bright blue and red aluminium composite cladding respectively, Australia’s newest caravan manufacturer, Aura, has released two new bitumen models and ‘doubled’ its dealer network.

Joining the tough Earth series ‘toff-roader’ are the entry-level on-road Strada and the travelling home-office Studio; the latter specifically equipped for those who want to work on the move, or as Aura puts it ‘think outside the box’.

Both come in a range of single and dual-axle versions with a range of layouts, but all share a sturdy 150mm x 50mm A-frame and main chassis rails, walls built to 33mm centres (lower than the general industry average), Al-Ko ESC and dual 80-litre water tanks.

Stock suspension is conventional leaf spring roller-rocker, but Aura will fit the customers’ choice of independent trailing arm systems as an option.

All Aura caravans come with an impressive three-year warranty, which extends off-road with the Earth series, designed to build confidence under Australia’s newest caravan nameplate.

The Strada will be available in sizes from 17ft to 23ft and priced from around a competitive $53,000, including a wall-mounted front-loading washing machine.

The more comprehensively-equipped Studio, which is available in sizes from 19ft to 23ft, is priced from $67,990 and comes with huge bench space and a dedicated desk incorporating built-in file and document storage. Other standard features include RV Wi-Fi, a 150W roof-mounted solar panel and a reversing camera.

While both the Strada and Studio are fairly conventional vans in their fittings and layouts, they allow Aura to offer dealers a broad range of models and will ‘double’ their national network to two, with Cameron Caravans in Albany, Western Australia joining Brisbane’s Kratzmann from January 2016.

Camerons will certainly turn heads in WA’s whale capital when it displays a new fire engine red 22ft 6in Earth off-roader in the New Year. By then four Earth series models will have been built by Aura – three red and one bright blue.

With the addition of the new models, Campbellfield, Victoria-based Aura is now on track to ramp up to its planned two caravans per week during the first half of 2016, with the appointment of dealers in Victoria and NSW imminent.